Presented at Agile India 2015 Building a Self-Sustaining Agile Organization: A Leadership-Driven Approach

1. `
B U I L D I N G A S E L F - S U S T A I N I N G
A G I L E O R G A N I Z A T I O N
A L E A D E R S H I P - D R I V E N
A P P R O A C H
SEAN DUNN, C D, PEng, C SP, PMP
sean.dunn@ihs.com

2. HOW DO WE
ENSURE OUR
VALUES AND
PRINCIPLES
PERSIST
FOR GENERATIONS?

3. C O N S I D E R
1 0 Y E A R S F R O M N O W,
YO U R E T U R N TO YO U R
O R G A N I Z AT I O N
WHAT WILL YOU FIND?

4. TECHNICAL
EXCELLENCE
TRANSFORMATIONAL
LEADERSHIP
LEAN PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
• CODING SKILLS
• DESIGNING SOFTWARE
TO ACCOMMODATE CHANGE
• DEVELOPMENT ECOSYSTEM
• INCREMENTAL VALUE
DELIVERY
• SHORT-FEEDBACK CYCLES
• WHOLE-SYSTEM
OPTIMIZATION
• INSPIRING OTHERS
• DEVELOPING
LEADERS
• BUILDING TEAMS
• LEAD BY EXAMPLE

5. What did I learn
from thirteen
years in the
Army?

6. Q: Where do Generals come from?
A: They are made.

7. LESSONS
FROM THE
ARMY
 Leadership is consciously
developed early in career
 Training others is a critical skill
that must be taught and
practiced
 Personnel development is a
top priority

8. Hack (noun): A solution that solves
the immediate problem while
sacrificing long-term consequences.
Scrum – A collection of
“organizational hacks”?

9. SCRUMMASTERS SHOULD
NOT BE MANAGERS
conventional scrum wisdom:
ORGANIZATIONAL HACK?
WHAT IF:
MANAGERS == LEADERS == SCRUMMASTERS

10. Now consider:
Where do come from?leaders
CEOs
product owners
managers
directors
vice-presidents
A: They are made.

11. If your leaders can’t teach it,
How well do you really know it?

12. C O N S I D E R
1 0 Y E A R S F R O M N O W,
YO U R E T U R N TO YO U R
O R G A N I Z AT I O N A N D
D I S CO V E R A P R AC T I C E
T H AT R E S E M B L E S
N E I T H E R
S C R U M N O R K A N BA N
HOW DO YOU REACT?

13. A B I L I T Y T O D E V E L O P T H E
N E X T G E N E R A T I O N ?
L E A D E R S H I P ?
T H E P A S S I O N F O R
D I S C O V E R Y ?
T H E P R I N C I P L E S ?
THE METHODOLOGY?
W H AT W I L L S E L F - S U S TA I N ?
maturity

14. To confidently walk away from
an organization, knowing that
they will continue to discover
new and better ways of
developing software
my success criteria:

15. SOME PATTERNS
• Focus on behaviours – let delivery be a
consequence
• Develop leaders – at all levels – to be
Agile coaches
• Create training and development plan,
courses & materials
• Developing others is a value – rewards
and promotion are based
• Be deliberate about your hiring strategy

16. IN CONCLUSION
• Building a self-sustaining organization
requires deliberate thought, effort, and
investment
• Sustain the values and the principles –
not the practices
• Agile values are organizational values
• Culture is leadership driven
• Lead by example – model the desired
behaviour