Best Practices for Change Management with Andrea Floyd and Adam Ulery

This week, Dan Neumann is joined by two of his Agile Coach’s colleagues, Andrea Floyd and Adam Ulery.   In this episode, Dan, Andrea, and Adam are answering a listener’s question who is just entering the role of a Scrum Master in the organization he works for and realized that it’s going through the consequences of a lack of the application of the ADKAR model. This listener asks for help in order to prevent his team from completely crashing and burning with the adoption of the SAFe methodology tasked by the leadership.   Key Takeaways A safe Scaled Agile framework. When looking for a safe way to scale, visit Scaled Agile Framework where you can find lots of information and an implementation road map for different organizations to implement. Change will affect everyone on the Team. Training is necessary for all individuals to understand how change is going to impact them. SAFe is a framework; there are other tools to complement it. Look for opportunities to create organic learning groups. What is the tiebreaker between the roles of a Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Engineering? Engage the community to have a collaborative conversation about what will make the best impact for the desired outcome. Who has the tiebreaker? That depends on the topic of the change involved, it could be the Scrum Master or the Product Owner. The Scrum Master needs to help in guiding the practices and the processes around Scrum. It is crucial to have working agreements and an explicit understanding of who is responsible for what domain and area. To script the opening move is one strategy to making changes. Understanding accountabilities for each role is key for a successful change. Is there a change management plan template or some best practices to show the “why” for the process? How do you make people want to change? Create excitement by helping people understand how the change benefits them and why change is happening. The implementation roadmap at Scaled Agile Framework is a very useful resource, all needed modifications can be done to fit your organization’s needs. Visit LACE to learn how to create a Lean-Agile Center of Excellence. Tips for change agents to help them build some transparency: Always come from a place of humbleness and curiosity in the way you are approaching change. Empathy is a needed skill when confronting change. When you first start something it always feels a little chaotic and the human normal reaction is to go back to what is familiar; use empathy to understand this feeling; just be human.   Mentioned in this Episode: Scaled Agile Framework LACE Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential and How You Can Achieve Yours, by Shirzad Chamine Scrum Guide Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business (aka “blue book”) A Simpler Intro to Kanban Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to [email protected] or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!