This is the second revision of one of my favorite talk about how to improve people's motivation during agile adaptation. I presented it in the April'13 event of Google Developers Group (GDG) Istanbul.

1. motivation
Tips to ımprove motivation
Lemİ Orhan ERGİN
Principal software engineer @Sony
The elephant in the room
throughout agile transformation
Founder& Author@ agilistanbul.com
gdg
İstanbul
April 2013

2. Lemi Orhan Ergin
Principal Software Engineer at Sony Europe
Has worked in eBay & Sony as developer,
scrum master, team leader and technical
coordinator in tens of projects since 2001
CSM since 2009 (Trained by James Coplien)
Played Scrum Master for more than 1 year
Participated 56 sprints in 4 years
Experienced in agile transformation
Expertise in building agile culture in software
development teams and organizations

3. Motivation is a common problem
in all organizations
(not only ın agile or non-agile organizations)

4. For
me
too!

5. I cannot improve myself!
Always doıng the same job, workıng on same stuff, nothing new
You cannot ımprove yourself ın daıly job
Hard to establish motivation, hard to focus on work
Fixing bugs for years, no innovation at all
Stuck on same technologies, same way of working
Not allowed to ınnovate
Damn it! Tons of documentation to prepare before doıng the job
Every work is personal, no teamwork required
Warned in case of a failure, not rewarded on success
Unwilling to ımprove & ınnovate

6. I feel unhappy!
I am unhappy and my manager does not know it
There is a negative athmosphere in the office
No one is asking my ideas on anything, ı just do my job
People are arguing via emails and nothing is resolved
no one is listening me
Even if ı tell my problems to my manager, nothing will change
People do not trust each other
Not feeling as part of the company
I am not a resource or a headcount

7. What we really want is to...

8. Be successful and build well-crafted software
Have a voice & more responsibilities & participate discussions
Be recognized for hard work & appreciated
Build Software without an Act of Congress
Be focused and not interrupted frequently
HavE a manager who listens and cares you
Learnnew things & sharE our knowledge
HavE challenges & solvE problems
HavE chanceS to use creativity
Build something that matters
Get feedback frequently
Be a part of a team

9. agile understands you

10. Agile cares people & cooperation
Build projects around motivated individuals
Give them the environment and support they need,
and trust them to get the job done.
The most efficient and effective method of
conveying information to and within a development
team is face-to-face conversation.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs
emerge from self-organizing teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how
tobecome more effective, then tunes and adjusts
its behavior accordingly.
http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html
Principles behind the agile manifesto

11. Agile is human centric
Teamwork
trust
self-organization
empowered teams
continuous improvement
retrospectives
fail fast
short feedback loops
sustainable pace
proxy to interRuptions
face-to-face communication

12. agile is the mindset

13. doing agile
makes you motivated
being

14. What you've done is not important,
instead how you've done is the key
doing agile
being agile

15. Agile transformation is Cultural change is
cultural change Tough & Not easy

16. Agile transformation
scarespeople
This is a new way of working
Status quo makes people feel safe

17. What are the symptoms
Of the motivation challenge?

18. Daily stand-up
are the windows
showing the level
of motivation
meetings

19. Daily stand-up
15 mins sync meeting
meetings
All team members standing
Answering 3 questions:
- what I did yesterday
- what I plan to do today
- what impediments I have

20. noisy
Motivated teams unMotivated teams
complex
chaotic
humor
curious
Information rich
helpful
Desire to success
On time
bored
Impatient to end
Individuals reporting
Do not listen others
Waiting to be assigned
No questions
Less details about issues
Less desire to success
Usually late

21. I don't like agile or scrum
Writing down every task has no meaning
Planning poker is a waste of time
Feeling not commited to the sprinT goal
I Work on the stories that I like
I am more productive when I work alone
scrum is the new waterfall
It's impossible to do scrum in our team
Agile is being focused on processes
I don't want to lose my title
I don't like Scrum at all
It's quite common to resist agile

22. How can we break the resistance
And improve the motivation?

23. Answer is simple:
By building an agile culture
but
how?

24. Agile is not only about
Project planning

25. Agile is about
Project planning
development practices
Customer satisfaction
Teamwork
motivation This is what we are
interested in now

26. 1Train everyone

27. Have a good
servant
being as charismatic as
Russel Crowe is not a must ;)
leader

28. servant
Not a technical lead
leader
Not a team lead
Not a manager
Not a project manager
Master of agile
Well trained
Has the agile mindset
Could be, but normaly

29. Servant leader is the key
Knows agile better than anyone else
Observes and guides the team
Keeps the team disciplined
Creates environment safe to fail
Is a full time job
Builds trust in the team
Resolves impediments

30. Build a culture of
2
collaboration

31. Brown bag sessions
39 weeks
internal trainings
34 internal speakers
1 external speaker
19 Reserved topics
The way we buıld collaboration culture in sony

32. collaboration is the key
Encourageteamwork and pair work
Let the people share their knowledge
Brown Bag Sessions
Continuous improvement and kaizen
Efficient retrospectives

33. raise3 CRAFTSMEN

34. Mediocrity is a trap
Don't fall into it

35. The worst outcome is not failure — it’s mediocrity
Failurelets you moveon, mediocritystallsyou and keepsyou from
reaching your potential.Pursue something soimportantthateven
if you fail, the worldis better off with you havingtried
Drew Houston (founder/CEO of Dropbox)

36. craftsmanship is the key
Improve crafts of people by practiCing
teach new technologies
Push people to let them learn new stuff
Have seniors as MODELS FOR JUNıORS
PoC Projects
kata's, dojo's

37. use Feedback loops 4

38. Feedback loop is the key
Efficient retrospectives
Servant leader works close to team members
Use all ways of Communication
Performance appraIsals lose importance

39. provide autonomy5

40. Stop command & control
You cannot control everything
It's an illusion!

41. It's impossible to manage "people"
it's only possible to manage individuals

42. The opinions of individuals
ask

43. Be part of the team
Get them see you servant rather than controller

44. Autonomy is the key
Let the team be Self organized
Shift layers of management responsibility to team
Change the traditional Management mindset
Regular 1 to 1 meetings with managers

45. Have a clear purpose
6

46. Agile frameworks like scrum
are not just about
rıtuAls

47. It is not just about
standing up and burning down

48. purpose is the key
What is the purpose of agile
tell the values of what they're building
Define a clear sprint goal
Define the vision of the product
Explain the reasons of agile practices

49. Have
7
Fun!

50. Having fun is the key
Team specific rituals for fun
Do not dedicate to work, Have hobbies and crafts
Socialize in the organization
Have funny punishments
to the ones who break the builds
or be late to daily standups
Extreme feedback machines

51. Inspect & adapt
8Agile adoptation

52. Agile frameworks like Scrum are simple
Don't blame them
as simple as few patterns in
organizations

53. If you have issues
Inspect & adapt
there is no adapting scrum
there is doing scrum-but and scrum

54. retrospecting is the key
agile reveals hidden problems. That's not bad!
Failing is normal, be prepare to inspect & adapt
Too much dedication to tasks exhaust people
have lantern day or extra sprint to cool down
Don't use tools too much. Face to face is better

55. What is the best measurement for success ?
Photo of houston after the return ofapollo 13

56. happi
Happiness metric
Scrumming the scrum
Retrospective pattern
Pop the happy bubble
Happiness index
ness
Photographed by “Karsten Thormaehlen”
from book "Mit Hundert Hat Man Noch Traume"
http://www.visualnews.com/2012/01/11/happy-at-one-hundred-portraits-of-centenarians/

57. youyou
teamteam
organizationorganization
Happiness Impact
happy employees lead to happy customers and better business

58. Train everyone
Build a culture of collaboration
Raise craftsmEn
Use feecback loops
Provide autonomy
Have a clear purpose
1
2
3
4
5
6
Have fun!7
Inspect & adapt agile adoptation8

59. unMotivated teams
When an employee resists,
an effective leader looks at the employee
not as a problem to be solved
but as a person to be understood.
Nigel Nicolson

60. references
“How to motivate your teamduring Scrum?” by Dimitri Honlet
http://www.slideshare.net/dimitrihonlet/motivate-team-scrumdef2
“What’s the best measurement for success? Happiness” by Richard Branson
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20121109141247-204068115-what-s-the-best-measurement-for-success-happiness
“Happiness Metric - The Wave of the Future” by JeffSutherland
http://scrum.jeffsutherland.com/2010/11/happiness-metric-wave-of-future.html
“World's Simplest Management Secret” by GeoffreyJames
http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/worlds-simplest-management-secret.html

61. Lemİ orhan ergİn
lemiorhan@agilistanbul.com
@lemiorhan
@lemiorhan
agilistanbul.com
@lemiorhan
LINKEDINTWITTERSLIDESHAREBLOGGER
Principal Software Engineer @ Sony
Founder & Author @ Agilistanbul.com