2. About me
• Over 15 years experience in the
IT industry
• Worked in a variety of
industries: eCommerce, social
housing and education
• Previously worked as a
Software Developer and Team
Leader
• 6 years as a Scrum Master and
Agile Coach
• Loves travelling, the outdoors
and spending time with my
guitar!
3. Session objectives
• Increase awareness of different cultural types, values and
behaviours
• How Scrum fits in with the different culture types
• Share experiences how Scrum has been adopted in various
parts of the world
• Encourage you to consider cultural types to optimise
organisational relations across national boundaries
4. Agenda
1) Review Scrum values
2) Categorising behaviours
3) The Lewis Model
4) Our ‘Scrum around the world’ study
5) Case studies and findings so far
6) Summary
7) Q&A and group discussion
5. Agenda
1) Review Scrum values
2) Categorising behaviours
3) The Lewis Model
4) Our ‘Scrum around the world’ study
5) Case studies and findings so far
6) Summary
7) Q&A and group discussion
7. Agenda
1) Review Scrum values
2) Categorising behaviours
3) The Lewis Model
4) Our ‘Scrum around the world’ study
5) Case studies and findings so far
6) Summary
7) Q&A and group discussion
8. Which Category of behaviour do the Scrum values best fit into?
Category A Category B Category C
9. Categorising behaviours
• Behavioural and culture differences arise from many factors
• Misunderstandings arise when we have a clash of culture
• The ability for individuals to interact successfully is essential
• Understanding each other culturally is key to this
10. Agenda
1) Review Scrum values
2) Categorising behaviours
3) The Lewis Model
4) Our ‘Scrum around the world’ study
5) Case studies and findings so far
6) Summary
7) Q&A and group discussion
15. Agenda
1) Review Scrum values
2) Categorising behaviours
3) The Lewis Model
4) Our ‘Scrum around the world’ study
5) Case studies and findings so far
6) Summary
7) Q&A and group discussion
18. Our study – Scrum around the world
• We are travelling around the world to find out!
19. Agenda
1) Review Scrum values
2) Categorising behaviours
3) The Lewis Model
4) Our ‘Scrum around the world’ study
5) Case studies and findings so far
6) Summary
7) Q&A and group discussion
21. Linear-actives in Scrum
• Highly structured
• High use of metrics and project reporting
• Common use of project plans for long term planning
• Committed to get things done ‘on time’ – working extra hours
is common
• Quality sometimes suffers to meeting deadlines
• Separation between work and social life
• Hierarchy and ‘command and control’ difficult to give up
22. Linear-active case study – London Web Design Agency
• Works in customer
engagement
• Very competitive
• Impediments removed
quickly
• Working extra hours is
common
• High turnaround of staff
• Strong analysis on ROI
24. Multi-actives in Scrum
• People-Centric
• Open
• Intertwined work and social life
• Experimental
• Unafraid to adapt the ‘rules’
• Questioning
• People and product driven
• Lightweight metrics
• Too much communication / loss of focus
25. Multi-active case study - Scrum and Holocracy
• Software development and
consultancy company
• No Hierarchy, no job titles
• Teams are completely self-
managing
• Decisions made by everyone in
collaboration, eg
- Which contracts to take
- Financial decisions
- Recruitment
26. Multi-active case study - pay rise experiment
• Specialists in building web
and mobile apps
• One team given complete
autonomy on deciding who
gets what share of the pay
rise
• The team devised a three
step process;
- Create transparency
- Create equality
- Devise reward system
27. Similarities in Scrum teams/organisations in all cultures
• Teams buy into quality and are about the products they build
• Most people want to do a good job
• Common difficulties with Product Owner role
- Understanding the role
- Allocating adequate time / resource
• Traditional management thinking is hard to give up
• Adopting Scrum, or any Agile method is hard
28. Agenda
1) Review Scrum values
2) Categorising behaviours
3) The Lewis Model
4) Our ‘Scrum around the world’ study
5) Case studies and findings so far
6) Summary
7) Q&A and group discussion
29. Summary
• Many factors influence behaviour and
culture
• Understanding each other culturally is
key to high performance
• The Lewis Model is one way of
categorising and understanding
cultural behaviours
• Frameworks such as Scrum give us
practices that implement Agile values
• Cultural values and behaviours may
mean that Scrum is adapted differently
in different parts of the world
• More research is needed
Introduction – who we are
We are based in UK – excited to be in Indonesia – ties with our interest in other cultures.
Not a Session on basics of Scrum – assuming working knowledge of Scrum process
Commitment – people personally commit to achieving the goals of the sprint
Focus – everyone focuses on the work of the sprint and the sprint goal
Openness – The scrum team and its stakeholders agree to be Open about all of the work and challenges of performing the work
Respect – Team members respect each other as capable independent people
Courage – Team members have the Courage to do the right thing and work on tough problems
If we look at the Scrum values specifically, what behaviours do we exhibit that demonstrates them?
Interpretation of these values can differ. There are many factors that influences how we behave
Audience participation 3-5 minute group discussion
Behavioural differences arise from factors such as;
religion, generation, gender, class, political beliefs, language, region and nationality
Understanding essential for high performance at both team level and at organisation level
‘When Cultures Collide’ – sold over 1 million copies and published in 15 different languages
He visited 135 countries, working in 20 them
Created the cultural categories based on behaviour
The model has been used all around the world by leaders seeking a strategies to deal with cultural differences
Model maps how strongly people of different nations exhibit characteristics from each category.
Not to stereotype nations, rather indicate which nationalities an individual may have sympathy towards
No one category will dominate, there will be behaviours from the other two, it is a question of much.
Eg of countries,
Indonesia is Reactive with strong Multi-active tendencies
UK Strongly Linear-Active, I do show LA chars
Relations between extremes
- Multi and reactive – time consuming interactions
- Linear and reactive – works well
- Linear and multi active - difficult relationships
Eg Attitude to time.
LinearActive has detailed plans and gets upset if this is broken.
MultiActive thinks dates are flexible because of relationship with partner, more can be done if things are done in parallel
Some reactive sees cyclic time, sun rises and sets, generation follows generation, stocks rise and fall – things will not change, certainly not by rushing - get upset by Americans that leave business meetings to catch a flight when business is not concluded Japanese
How do people in different categories demonstrate adherence to the Scrum values?
Frameworks like Scrum are simply a set of practices that apply a set of values and principles.
Organizations are complex adaptive systems, each unique with its own set of challenges, values, objectives and culture.
There is no framework or set of behaviours and practices that is one size fits all.
Will culture mindset affect how practices used? If so, how much?
Is there a universal ‘Scrum culture’?
Do underlying cultural traits prevail?
How have different cultures adopted Scrum to suit them?
Are some cultures naturally more suited to adopting Scrum than others?
Currently in qualitative research phase where we visit companies and Agile practitioners
3 months in South America (Jan-Apr), 3 months Asia Pacific (Apr-Jul)
Next phase Europe and US (Jul-Oct)
Objectives
Increase awareness of different culture types and impact they will have on how we interact
Understand How Scrum fits in with the different culture types
Share experiences how Scrum has been adopted in various parts of the world
Encourage the global Agile community to share experiences
Encourage leaders to consider cultural types
Customer engagement agency
Data gathering for marketing campaigns / lead generation eg get customers to sign up for newsletters
Metrics eg. Use of story maps instead of project plans
No Hierarchy
- All rules apply to all in the company.
- People are empowered and trusted in their role, no ‘manager’ can overrule or veto decisions of people who have been given accountabilities as part of their role.
Teams are completely self-managing
- No ‘manager’ or Scrum Master. Facilitator roles oversee teams for resourcing needs, the bigger picture, dependencies, strategic directions and things are not missed
Decisions made by everyone in collaboration
Result is highly motivated and engaged staff.
Job market is very competitive but turnaround here is low.
A nice symbol of the company wide trust is that all of the keys to the office hang in the open space, with access freely given to all.
Impact of team member leaving
New team member negotiated a lower starting salary
Closeness of team shown by considering people’s personal needs, eg if a member is having a child or they have an emergency
Lewis mentions that ‘field’ is a strong influence on culture, IT people around the world are going to share many similar behaviours
Company size and culture probably has more of an influence. How much?
Biggest challenges come with distributed teams and multi-national teams
More qualitative and quantitative research is needed