Agile micro-cultures: Fan those flames

Dec-18-2007

Post written by Chris Spagnuolo. Follow Chris on Twitter Add comment

I recently had the opportunity to hear Esther Derby speak about organizational cultures at the Agile Development Practices Conference in Orlando. One of her discussion points was about creating agile micro-cultures within an organization that may not be willing or able to accept agile practices on the whole. Fortunately, our new organization, Data Transfer Solutions, is very much in favor of making a commitment to establishing a corporate culture that will support agile practices. However, our team did have some experience creating our own agile micro-culture at our former organization. Our organization seemed unable to make the cultural changes to really support agile practices. In light of that fact, we took the initiative to create our own little culture of agility.

We didn’t know it at the time, but we were following Esther’s recipe for creating a micro-culture. Essentially, we examined how we were working, how our organizational patterns, systems, and structures enforced the way we were working, and what our beliefs and values were. Then we discussed how we wanted to work and what we needed to change to get there. We decided that, in general, we were acting in ways that were definitely counter to what our entire team believed and valued, which is one of Esther’s indicators that you may need to change the way you are working. We also decided that our organizational patterns and behaviors weren’t working for us as a team. So we began to create a micro-culture within our satellite office.

We may have had an easier time creating this micro-culture because we were an isolated development group. By isolated, I mean both geographically from our corporate headquarters, as well as on projects. We shared no project work with other development groups within our company. We were essentially free to operate under the corporate radar. However, over time, our new micro-culture popped up on the corporate radar and we were asked to speak about agile practices with the rest of our organization. Although it seemed that there was interest amongst the developers, the organization seemed (at least to us) very unlikely to change it’s corporate culture to be truly supportive of agile practices.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you already know that our team decided not to fight the uphill battle of changing our organization and left for greener pastures. However, if you are in an organization that seems even slightly receptive to change, you can work to make a difference in your organization. Esther believes that small teams often have much more control than they think they do. However, to be most effective, she recommends that teams understand what she calls “The Soup”…the stuff you can’t influence. Once a team has that basic understanding, they can focus on the things that they can influence.

So if you’re starting on your own agile journey and it hasn’t received the corporate blessing, look around you and understand how your organization works. Try to find ways to build your own agile micro-culture. Then find ways to help your organization help you move agile practices into your corporate mainstream. It may be that you need to take baby steps at first…little “agile experiments” that can help you show the successes and benefits of agile practices. Take it slow, be patient, and do what Esther Derby says…”fan those tiny flames of agile hope you find in your organization and help then grow into agile bonfires.”