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InfoQ Homepage Podcasts Diana Larsen on Agile Fluency, Organisational Design and Being an Ally

Diana Larsen on Agile Fluency, Organisational Design and Being an Ally

In this podcast recorded at the Agile 2018 conference Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Diana Larsen about the evolution of the Agile Fluency model, the rate of adoption of new ideas in organisations, organisation design and being an ally. 

Key Takeaways

  • The ideas around agile fluency have evolved through feedback and use in the field
  • New ideas take time to be adopted in organisations and agile is far from prevalent
  • Agile ways of working will become “the way we do things” but it will take time
  • There is a diagnostic instrument which allows teams to undertake self-reflection and explore areas they want to improve
  • The organisation design community have a lot of knowledge about things that the agile community can learn from
  • Diversity and inclusiveness are still issues in the agile and broader IT community, but things are improving 
  • The single most powerful tool to combat racism/sexism and help diversity and inclusion grow is the action of bystanders 

Show Notes

  • 00:24 Diana’s current focus and interests 
  • 01:00 The Agile Fluency Project is a startup that Diana is a founder of
  • 01:45 There is no reason that every organisation can’t have agile done well – but how do we get there
  • 02:10 The updated path to agile fluency article
  • 03:08 When you have published a model it begins to teach you back 
  • 03:38 The learning that is coming from people using the model with teams and organisations
  • 04:02 Tackling the “hasn’t agile achieved its goal” question – how long have the ideas of total quality management and customer focus been around yet we still don’t achieve it consistently? 
  • 04:38 New ideas take time to be adopted in organisations and agile is far from prevalent 
  • 04:57 Agile ways of working will become “the way we do things” but it will take time
  • 05:15 Some of the ideas that using the model has impacted the thinking and exposed where organisation need to invest
  • 06:07 It is a team model that has organisational impact   
  • 06:28 The way the managers’ role needs to shift based around the level of fluency the team needs to achieve 
  • 07:10 Advice on putting the ideas into practice
  • 07:27 There is a diagnostic instrument and supporting tools which allows teams to undertake self-reflection and explore areas they want to improve 
  • 08:15 The most effective users of the model are experienced coaches who have worked with multiple teams and organisations
  • 09:15 Ways in which people are using the model
  • 10:00 Bridging the agile and organisational design communities 
  • 10:30 The resonance between the goals of organisational design and agility 
  • 11:09 The organisation design community have a lot of knowledge about things that the agile community can learn from 
  • 11:48 The Organization Design Forum conference theme for 2018 – Designing for Agility and Innovation
  • 12:25 Showing the organisation design community the Menlo Innovations environment
  • 12:58 Where to find out more about organisational design
  • 14:35 In the agile community we are making progress on diversity and in the broader software community there is greater awareness and lots of resistance 
  • 15:10 The two themes which came out of the coach camp prior to Agile 2018 were diversity and self-care
  • 15:45 The representation of men at the women in agile conference, recognition that diversity is a problem for everyone, not just the disadvantaged community 
  • 16:41 The single most powerful tool to combat racism/sexism and help diversity and inclusion grow is the action of bystanders/allies 
  • 17:32 The willingness to step up as an ally while being uncomfortable 
  • 17:57 Practice is the thing that helps us overcome feelings of awkwardness 
  • 18:20 Concrete practice for someone who wants to be an ally – ask how they can help 
  • 18:34 It’s OK to be uncomfortable – that’s where we learn most.  If we stay in our comfort zone, we never learn anything new 
  • 19:02 Try the experiment and learn from the results

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