Having recently come back from #AgileAus, I have been thinking about what I learnt and what actions I can take. It was a great conference, held in June at the Sydney Hilton with over 1,200 Agilists attending. A nice surprise to see a large presence from some big banks and insurance companies who are newly implementing Agile. It was wonderful to have access to so many international speakers over a pretty intensive two day programme. I’ve been reviewing my notes in preparation for this blog, and there are some clear themes emerging: behaviour change, agile leadership and continuous learning.

Behaviour change

Barry O’Reilly was one of the keynote speakers on day one; he shared some of his experiences on how to explore, experiment and improve at an enterprise level.

The technique that I liked the most was “tiny habits” for changing behaviour.

As stated by BJ Fogg: “forget big change, start with a tiny habit”. Start with something small that will become a new habit that ripples across your organisation for others to pick up on.

Barry left the audience with some great advice: “transformations start with ourselves”

Tatyana Mamut (GM and Head of Product, AWS) talked about the Cultures of Innovation.

What resonated with me was the four S’s to help shift habits and behaviour:

• Story – create a compelling vision for the future
• Structure – be clear who holds the power
• Systems – formal and informal work processes and tools
• Skills – the talent lifecycle

Thinking about our teams: how can we incentivise, reward and motivate them?

Groupishness…what a great word! Katie Rowett (Thoughtworks) discussed why people (groups, in particular) behave in a certain way. If something odd is happening in your team, she suggested ways to look below the surface to see what might be happening. I particularly liked her description of scapegoating and how this can be avoided with regular feedback. It’s important though to ensure feedback moves from ruinous empathy to direct candor. Feedback is hard and sometimes we opt for the easy way out, but with practice we can get better at giving direct feedback with positive outcomes.

In 2015, Google published a list of traits that its most effective teams shared, with the key one being “psychological safety”. We all want our teams to collaborate well, so if psychological safety is a key ingredient to this, what does safety look and feel like? Andrea Blundell and Pru Gell (Agile Coaches and Facilitators) discussed the Lewis Method of Deep Democracy – an approach to decision making and conflict resolution.

One point I really liked was around making decisions – this can be easier if you draw on the wisdom of the group. A simple technique to help you get good outcomes from meetings is to check in at the beginning of a meeting and check out at the end. Building good habits of sharing and listening, making meetings a safe place to talk and make decisions as a group.

Behaviour change takeaways:

• Tiny habits have a ripple effect.
• Start with one small thing, learn, do something bigger, repeat.
• Use direct candor: constructive feedback with a positive outcome.
• Create a safe space to talk, share and learn in your teams.