Patterns of change
Camelia Codarcea
Agile Consultant, Trainer, Agile Coach
AgileHub
magazin.agilehub.ro
www.cameliacodarcea.ro
camelia.codarcea@agilehub.ro
@CameliaCodarcea

Patterns of change
Give an overview on the steps
needed to produce change

Patterns of change
• Teams and companies struggle when they try to apply
practices before obtaining the mindset.
• We are agile in our lives and agility should be called
normality. Examples in articles on my blog.
• There are no failed agile transformation.

Patterns of change

Patterns of change
1) Create a state of necessity
2) Form a coordinating team
3) Create the vision and strategy (simple and clear)
4) Communicate it clearly
5) Empowerment
6) Focus on obtaining small wins
7) Keep putting in the effort
8) Consolidating the change

Patterns of change
All the previous steps are there to create the environment
where people feel safe to be pro-active, propose actions and take
responsibility over the results.
“Not strategy, organization or systems are the main
problem. All these elements are very important, but always
the main problem is changing the way people behave, and
this happens, with the most spectacular results, by going
right to the person’s soul”
- John Kotter “The heart of change”.

1) Create a state of necessity
Different events trigger the need for change:
• People that are leaving your company on a regular basis
• A customer that is really unsatisfied with what he gets
• Not enough revenue to stay alive
• Fell really lousy going to work

Although change is identified as necessary, there are
still people that oppose it.
John Kotter talks about four attitudes which block the
change:
• The self contentment (leads to false pride or
arrogance).
• Auto protection (leads to fear or panic).
• Anger (“I don’t want to do this!”)
• Pessimism (leads to continuous hesitation).
1) Create a state of necessity

Knowing WHY change is needed is important for
creating the strategy.
The message with current situation has to be given
without yelling and frustrations. The important aspect is to
change the problems into positive needs.
Biggest transformations cannot be sustained by fear.
There has to exist the optimism that the change can be
done, that they can do it.
1) Create a state of necessity

Example:
“We are in deep trouble, we are not good enough and
we’ve lost almost all our customers which is really bad. If
we loose two more, we are our of business”
vs.
“We have not been going so well lately and have lost some
of our customers. Luckily, we think we know what we need
to turn things around but we need your help and
involvement. Can we count on you?
1) Create a state of necessity

2) Create a coordinating team
No change can be sustained by one person.
There needs to be a team:
• A team that fully understands the purpose of change
and the direction in which you are going.
• A team you trust and that you empower to drive the
change.
Usually this team is made out of middle managers that
will also be affected by the change themselves.

2) Create a coordinating team
What if you empower a team and people in the team:
• Are not ready ?
• Are the ones stopping the change without even realizing
it?
• Are not even a team, but there are just people
unequipped to handle the situations that surfaced?
• Are mostly worried about what they will do once
change will be implemented?

2) Create a coordinating team

2) Create a coordinating team
“One of the most important problems is when the team
that is put in place to coordinate the change doesn’t do
its job.”
– John Kotter “The Heart of Change”.
“The coordinating team with low empowerment/authority
is a joke”
- John Kotter “The Heart of Change”

2) Create a coordinating team
Offer empowerment to those that are prepared,
otherwise set the expectation that they need to become
the leaders of transformation and they need to learn and
become a team to be able to do that.
• Work with them and guide them (if you are the
sponsor)
• Bring in a coach/consultant work with them and guide
them to become that team.
Don’t empower them and then leave them alone because
you think “they SHOULD already know this”!

2) Create a coordinating team
David Marquet talks about:
• Leader – Follower: the one that produces followers.
• Leader – Leader: the one that produces other leaders.
A coordinating team cannot be made of followers.
• Have the necessary skills to communicate.
• Have the ability to lead.
• Have credibility in the organization.
• Have relations in the company that allow them to
actually draw change.
• Be convinced the change needs to happen.

3) Create the vision and strategy
(simple and clear)
• Leaders need to create the vision; otherwise people will
do what they are used to do.
Example:
“Excellence in quality, excellence in costs”
vs.
“Plane doesn’t move until the entire phase is finished.
We’ll focus on quality.”

• “One Team, One Dream!”
• “Innovation is everything”
• “Drive change”
Visions that are too abstract, too high-level.
People cannot use those, they cannot identify with
them, don’t know what to change in their daily activities
3) Create the vision and strategy
(simple and clear)

• Vision backed up by simple and coherent strategy, small
steps that everyone can check their progress against.
3) Create the vision and strategy
(simple and clear)

a) Deliver WOW through Service
“(…) Anything you do has to have an emotional impact on the
receiving party. We are not an ordinary company, our services are not
ordinary, we don’t want our people to be ordinary. We want each
employee to offer WOW. (…)
We want to surprise our customers, our colleagues, our providers,
partners and, on the long term, our investors. (…)
Ask yourself: What are the things you can improve in your work
and in your attitude to offer WOW to those around you? Have you offered
at least one WOW today?”
3) Create the vision and strategy
(simple and clear)

“The philosophy at Zappos is that we are willing to
make short term sacrifices (including loss of revenue and
profit) if we are convinced that it will come with benefits
on long term. Protecting the company’s culture and the
central values are long term benefits.”
- Tony Heish “Delivering Happiness”
3) Create the vision and strategy
(simple and clear)

b) Be Humble
“(…) We think that, regardless what happens, we have to respect
everyone. When we celebrate our success or our team’s success, we are
not arrogant and we treat others the way we want to be treated. We lead
with a silent confidence, because we believe that, on the long term, our
character will prevail.
Ask yourself: are you humble when you talk about your
accomplishments? Are you humble when you talk about the company’s
accomplishments? Do you have the same respect for all our vendors, big or
small?”
More on:
http://cameliacodarcea.ro/baza-10-lucruri-care-l-au-ajutat-pe-tony-sa-
creeze-cultura-zappos/
http://cameliacodarcea.ro/organizatii-cultura-si-destin/
3) Create the vision and strategy
(simple and clear)

On Santa Fe submarine, David Marquet did the same
thing:
Defined with his team the 11 guiding principles: simple and
explained in order “to provide guidance on decision
making”.
All those principles and values actually set the
expectations and guide the employees on the kind of
behavior you want to promote.
3) Create the vision and strategy
(simple and clear)

Initiative: it means we take actions without direction
from above to improve our knowledge as submarines,
prepare the command for it mission and come up with
solutions to the problems. (…) Initiative places an obligation
on the chain of command not to stifle initiative in
subordinates.
Commitment: means we are present when we come
to work. We give it our best. We choose to be here.
3) Create the vision and strategy
(simple and clear)

Teamwork: submarines have traditionally
worked as a team because a mistake from one can
mean a disaster for all. We work as a team, not
undercutting each-other.
The chain of command obligates to implement
mechanisms that encourage and reward teamwork.
We back each-other up in a positive way.
3) Create the vision and strategy
(simple and clear)

Values and behavior at team level can spread
throughout the company;
ex – fast prototyping model at Google
3) Create the vision and strategy
(simple and clear)

4) Communicate the vision and
strategy clearly
• People need to be attracted; they need to be on board
with the strategy. The main purpose is to discourage
gossip and talking behind the corner. To make them feel
that it can be done.
• Anticipate the needs and questions, work within the
team to be able to answer those questions clearly,
plainly.
• When giving a message, make sure you understand and
respect the context the team is in.

5) Empowerment
Most of the times, the manager is the one that inflicts,
through their actions, the feeling of non-empowerment.
When this happens, everyone is focused on avoiding
the mistakes.

5) Empowerment
David Marquet example: when his middle
management didn’t do the right thing he was very close to
going back to the command–and–control management,
but instead he discussed with them, even for eight hours,
to come to a list of actions they would take responsibility
over.
While giving the empowerment, make sure you also
guide. Don’t use the punishment, because that creates a
gap in the self-confidence of the people involved. Give
them the feedback, but involve them in the process to
reach actions for improvement.

5) Empowerment
“Unless you have the conviction that you can make
the change, you won’t actually do anything, even if the
vision is clear in your head. The feelings will keep you from
starting”
- John Kotter. “The Heart of Change”
This is where you can benefit from external help :
• “Have you met this kind of cases before?”
• “Are we hopeless?”
• “What other situations have you encountered?”

6) Focus on small wins
Question: “How do you eat an elephant?”
Answer: “One bite at a time”
• What bothers them most, how they would describe the
situation?
Focus to make small but quick improvements in those
areas.

6) Focus on small wins
Paradox:
The biggest changes in a new environment need to be
made within six months, otherwise you’ll get used to it.

6) Focus on small wins
Choose something that is:
• Easily obtained
• Is visible and is important to those involved
• Is very clear
These short term wins have the power to give more
energy to the changing agents and to leave the critics
without ammunition.

7) Keep putting in the effort
• Small improvements may be taken as sufficient by some
people.
• Important to know and to always remember, what the
final picture looks like.
In organizations I’m specially interested in growing
strong ScrumMasters and also Product Owners because
one is not present all the time.

8) Consolidating the change
• Things have to work even without you
It is nice to be needed, to feel important (serotonin flushes through
your body) but with what long term consequences?
• You are focused into building leaders around you.
• Once a new way of working gives results, that will slowly transform into
a new culture. At this point it is very important what kind of people are
hired and promoted in the company so the lessons learnt and the
behaviors are perpetuated.

“There is a difference between
knowing the path and walking the
path”
Tony Heish
Camelia Codarcea
www.cameliacodarcea.ro
camelia.codarcea@agilehub.ro
@CameliaCodarcea