This document provides an introduction to organizational culture and how strengthening culture can drive business agility. It discusses various models of organizational culture, including those by Schneider, Schein, Shook, and Sahota. The presentation then examines how to assess organizational culture using a survey based on Schneider's model. Different approaches are proposed for strengthening business agility based on the existing organizational culture, such as improving collaboration and cultivation cultures or shifting control and competence cultures towards adjacent cultures. The role of agile mindsets, practices like Scrum and Lean Thinking in shaping culture are also explored.

1. Strengthen Culture to
drive Business agility
A gentle introduction, by Nuno Rafael Gomes
Tuga IT 2017 Conference
May 18-20, 2017

2. TUGA IT 2017
LISBON, PORTUGAL

3. THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
PLATINUM
GOLD SILVER

4. PARTICIPATING COMMUNITIES
CLOUD
PRO
PT

5. About me
Twitter: @nrgomes
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/nrgomes
Blog: medium.com/@nrgomes
#lean #leanthinking #leanstartup #agile
#scrum #kaizen #kata #lego #seriousplay
#learning #seriouslearning #coaching
Lean Agile Coach
Agile Connect® Founder
Serious LearningTM
Founder

6. Agenda
➔ Organizational Culture.
➔ Culture models.
➔ Assess Organizational Culture… why?
➔ Assess Organizational Culture… how?
➔ Lean Thinking.
➔ Lean as Culture?
➔ Agile Mindset.
➔ Agile as Culture?
➔ Scrum.
➔ Scrum as Culture?
➔ How about other Agile practices?

7. Agenda
➔ Business agility.
➔ Strengthen Business agility… how?
➔ Change Culture?
➔ A special word to all Scrum Masters :-)
➔ Takeways
➔ Q&A
➔ Thank you!

8. Organizational
Culture

9. “Culture can be defined as the
way things get done around here.”
Deal and Kennedy

10. “Culture is a system of values
and norms that are shared
among a group of people
and that when taken together
constitute a design for living.”
Hofstede, Namenwirth and Weber

11. “Culture is the collective
programming of the mind
which distinguishes the members
of one group from another.”
Geert Hofstede

12. “Is culture the
software of the mind?”
Nuno Rafael Gomes

13. Culture models

14. “Essentially, all models are wrong,
but some are useful.”
George E. P. Box

15. William E.
Schneider

16. Collaboration Control
Cultivation Competence
People
Reality
Possibility
Organization

17. Schneider’s Culture model
Control Culture:
- Organization (or impersonal) oriented.
- Reality (aka, “the present”) oriented.
- “We succeed by getting and keeping control.”
Competence Culture:
- Organization (or impersonal) oriented.
- Possibility (aka, “the future”) oriented.
- “We succeed by being the best.”

18. Schneider’s Culture model
Collaboration Culture:
- People (personal) oriented.
- Reality (aka, “the present”) oriented.
- “We succeed by working together.”
Cultivation Culture:
- People (or personal) oriented.
- Possibility (aka, “the future”) oriented.
- “We succeed by growing people who fulfil our vision.”

19. Participative
Adaptive
Collaboration
Teamwork
Full use of everyone’s strengths
Authoritative/directive
Prescriptive
Control
Get and keep control
Catalyst/purposeful
Empowering
Cultivation
Grow and develop people
as we pursue a high purpose
Standard-setting
Task driven
Competence
Pursue excellence
and be the best
People
Reality
Possibility
Organization

21. Edgar H. Schein

23. Schein’s Culture model
Artefacts are visible organisational structure, processes, and behaviour. They are
what you see and hear.
Espoused values are the official statements, documents, presentations, etc. that
supposedly communicate the values, principles, ethics, and vision of the
organisation.
Underlying, shared, tacit assumptions are the actual essence of culture. These are
the jointly learned values and beliefs that are taken for granted.

24. John Y. Shook

26. Shook’s Change Culture model
From a conceptual point of view, Shook’s model is roughly similar to Schein’s:
- What We Do (Shook) ≈ Artifacts (Schein).
- Values and Attitudes (Shook) ≈ Espoused Values (Shein).
- Culture (Shook) ≈ Shared, Tacit Assumptions (Shein).
But Shook’s model is fundamentally a Change Culture model, based on NUMMI’s
story, a joint venture experiment by Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Co.

27. Michael Sahota

29. Sahota’s Culture model (Laloux based)
Organizational Culture as the Core of the Organization, “the wibbly, wobbly thing
that connects everything.”
2 Dimensions:
- Structure: the ways that we organize our outer world: leadership “style”,
management practices, organizational structure, defined roles and policies
(rules), processes in place, systems (hiring, work, evaluation, careers, pay), how
we decide, how we give feedback, etc...
- Consciousness: the intangible way of being that reflects how we are as human
beings, that is, our inner world: organization purpose, unwritten rules and
norms, identity, values, beliefs, behaviours, etc..

30. Assess
Organizational
Culture… why?

32. “Culture eats strategy for
breakfast… and for lunch and
dinner.”
Nuno Rafael Gomes and Torben Rick,
adapted from Peter F. Drucker

33. Assess
Organizational
Culture… how?

34. Assess Organizational Culture… how?
A possible solution:
- We can use one of the previous culture models...
- … and build some powerful questions around it.
- … let’s use Schneider’s culture model and do a survey… with you!
So, your challenge for the next 10 minutes is:
- Answer the following survey on your smartphone.
- 20 questions in 10 minutes = 30 secs per question.
- You are going to assess your own current organization’s culture!
- Write your answers on a post-it :-)

35. Culture Survey

36. A few considerations before start
- There aren't good or bad organizational cultures. They just are :-)
- To improve a culture the first step is to understand it, hence the survey :-)
- Results can vary from person to person within the same organization:
understanding is always a matter of (personal) perception.
- Results can also vary from team/department to team/department in
medium/large organizations: although sharing the same “substrate” different
teams/departments can have different “ways of getting things done”.
- Also results can vary from country to country on multinational organizations :-)
- Usually, the final result is a predominant culture + elements from the other 3.
- The current predominant culture will be the average of all employees’ results.

37. Collective results:
Collaboration
7%
Control
53%
Cultivation
20%
Competence
20%
People
Reality
Possibility
Organization

38. Control culture
Leadership focus Authoritarian/directive, maintain power
Management style Conservative, policy and procedure oriented
Organizational form Hierarchy
Role of employee Compliance, adherence to role requirements
Task focus Individuals stay within a function
Nature of power/authority Role/position titular (= impressive title)
Decision making Very thorough, push for certainty
Approach to managing change Mandate it, resistance to change
Key norms Order, certainty, systematism
Climate Serious, restrained

39. Collaboration culture
Leadership focus Team builder, coach
Management style Collegial, democratic
Organizational form Group cluster
Role of employee Collaborate, be a team player, utilise others as resources
Task focus Generalist
Nature of power/authority Relationship
Decision making Experimental, lots of brainstorming, trusting
Approach to managing change Team calls for change, open to change
Key norms Synergy, egalitarianism
Climate Esprit de corps/camaraderie

40. Cultivation culture
Leadership focus Catalyst, empower/enable people
Management style People driven, nurturant
Organizational form Wheel-like circular lattice
Role of employee Express yourself, be willing to change, develop, grow
Task focus Functionalist, generalist & specialist
Nature of power/authority Charisma
Decision making Participative, organic/evolutionary
Approach to managing change Embrace/assume change, change is automatic
Key norms Humanistic, growth & development, freedom to make mistakes
Climate Likely/magnetic, caring

41. Competence culture
Leadership focus Standard setter, taskmaster
Management style Task driven, rational/analytical
Organizational form Matrix adhocracy
Role of employee Be an expert, function independently
Task focus Specialist
Nature of power/authority Expertise
Decision making Very analytical, formal logic
Approach to managing change Achievement goals drive change, open to change
Key norms Professionalism, meritocracy
Climate Competitive, intense pace

42. Lean Thinking

43. The Lean Thinking Way
Throughout decades of experimentation on how
to deliver value to demand and build sustainable
human systems, many organizations from around
the world have come to value:

44. The Lean Thinking Way
People over everything else
Interactions over individuals
Learning over knowledge
Value over products and services
Intent over strategy and operations
That is, while there is value in the items on the right,
we value the items on the left more.

45. Lean as Culture?

46. Lean Values (my view today)
Collaboration
Interactions
Intent
Control
Cultivation
People
Learning
Value
Competence
People
Reality
Possibility
Organization

47. Lean as Culture
Lean Thinking is all about People First!
Lean aligns well with Collaboration & Cultivation cultures!

48. Agile Mindset

49. “Agile is a mindset driven by 4
Values and 12 Principles."
Nuno Rafael and many others :-)

51. Agile Manifesto
We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

52. Agile Values
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right,
we value the items on the left more.

53. Agile Principles
Satisfy the customer
Welcome change
Deliver frequently
Work together
Trust & support everyone
Face-to-face interactions
Working products
Sustainable pace
Technical excellence
Simplicity
Emergent design
Reflect & adjust regularly

54. Agile Practices
Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Crystal Clear methods,
Kanban, Dynamic systems development method (DSDM),
Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD), Adaptive software
development (ASD), Xtreme Decoupled Engineering (XDE),
LeSS, Nexus, Scrum @ Scale, and many others...

56. Agile as
Culture?

59. Agile Values (my view today)
Collaboration
Individuals & interactions
Customer collaboration
Control
Cultivation
Responding to change
Competence
Working software
People
Reality
Possibility
Organization

60. Agile Principles (my view today)
Collaboration
Deliver frequently
Work together
Face-to-face interactions
Emergent design
Reflect & adjust regularly
Control
Cultivation
Satisfy the customer
Welcome change
Trust & support everyone
Sustainable pace
Simplicity
Competence
Working products
Technical excellence
People
Reality
Possibility
Organization

61. Agile as Culture
Agile is all about People First!
Agile aligns well with Collaboration & Cultivation cultures!
Validated in 2010 by Michael Spayd!

62. Scrum

63. From Scrum Guide:
Scrum is a framework for developing
and sustaining complex products.
Scrum is a framework within which people can address
complex adaptive problems, while productively and
creatively delivering products of the highest possible value.
Scrum is also a “way of getting things done”, thus, Culture.

64. Scrum Values
Commitment
Focus
Openness
Respect
Courage

65. Scrum as
Culture?

66. Agile Principles (my view today)
Collaboration
Focus
Openness
Control
Cultivation
Commitment
Respect
Courage
Competence
People
Reality
Possibility
Organization

67. Scrum as Culture
Scrum is all about People First!
Scrum aligns well with Collaboration & Cultivation cultures!

68. How about other
Agile practices?

69. Culture and other Agile Practices
What do you think?

70. Business agility

71. “The ability of a business system
to rapidly respond to change
by adapting its initial stable
configuration.”
Wikipedia
Evan Leybourn, A. Wieland and C.M. Wallenburg

72. Business agility (my view today)
Collaboration
Responding to change
(present challenges)
Control
Cultivation
Responding to change
(future possibilities)
Competence
People
Reality
Possibility
Organization

73. Business agility as Culture
Business agility is all about responding to change!
In other words, is all about how fast can we learn?
Business agility aligns well with a Collaboration culture!
… if looking into the present challenges.
Business agility aligns well with a Cultivation culture!
... if looking into the future possibilities.

74. Strengthen
Business agility…
how?

76. Top 3 Agile barriers
Ability to change organizational culture (52%)
General resistance to change (41%)
Try to fit agile elements into a non-agile framework (35%)

77. Strengthen Business agility… how?
It depends :-)
… of your starting point, that is, your organizational culture!
You need to understand your culture first!
Pick a culture model and do a survey as we did!
Then explore your culture compatibility w/ Agile practices.
And remember… this is only a gentle introduction :-)

79. Culture compatibility (my view today)
Collaboration
Lean Thinking
Agile Mindset
Scrum
LeSS, Scrum @ Scale, Nexus
Control
Kanban
Kaizen philosophy
Cultivation
Lean Thinking
Agile Mindset
Scrum
Lean Startup
Competence
Extreme Programming (XP)
Extreme Manufacturing (XM)
Software Craftsmanship
People
Reality
Possibility
Organization

80. Change Culture?

81. Change Culture… is it possible?
From Cultural change that sticks (HBR 2012):
1. Match strategy and culture.
2. Focus on a few critical shifts in behavior.
3. Honor the strengths of your existing culture.
4. Integrate formal and informal interventions.
5. Measure and monitor cultural evolution: business performance, critical
behaviors, milestones, underlying beliefs, feelings, and mindsets.

82. If Collaboration
or Cultivation...

83. If Collaboration or Cultivation… - 1/2
Goal: Improve it and build a learning organization!
1. First of all, nurture it!
2. If too extreme, add a few elements from other cultures to bring balance into
the equation. Some examples:
- Competence: professionalism, technical excellence, ...
- Control: systematism, kanban, data-driven decisions, ...
3. Improve the cross-functionality of Teams: from talking to customers, build
stuff, sell stuff, to keep “things” running!
4. Regularly coach People (team members, managers, executives) and Teams
about the chosen Agile practices & thinking.

84. If Collaboration or Cultivation… - 2/2
5. Measure and monitor cultural evolution: business performance, teams’
performance, underlying beliefs, feelings, mindsets, culture…
6. Improve, improve, improve… kaizen!
7. Celebrate together the little victories often :-)

85. If Control or
Competence...

86. If Control or Competence ...
2 possible paths:
“Open & reinforce it with Teams”, “easier” but limited.
“Shift to adjacent Culture”, harder but more powerful.

87. “Open & reinforce it with Teams” - 1/2
Goal: Strengthen current Organizational Culture with Teams.
1. Get buy-in from top-management (non-negotiable).
2. Run the above culture survey to understand the current organizational
culture, that is, where you are today.
3. Choose an Agile practice that “matches it”: kanban, kaizen, extreme
programming (XP), craftsmanship, …
4. Build Teams as cross-functional as possible, from talking to customers, build
stuff, sell stuff, to keep “things” running. If limited cross-functionality, start
anyway… as you have to start from somewhere :-)

88. “Open & reinforce it with Teams” - 2/2
5. Make everything visible (the open part, that is, transparency) using information
radiators: work in progress and done, decisions, decision making processes,
team members & identities…
6. Regularly coach People (team members, managers, executives) and Teams
about the chosen Agile practices & thinking.
7. Measure and monitor cultural evolution: business performance, teams’
performance, underlying beliefs, feelings, mindsets, culture…
8. Improve, improve, improve… kaizen!
9. Celebrate together the little victories often :-)

89. “Shift to adjacent Culture” - 1/3
Goal: Shift from one core culture to another, that is, shift to an lean/agile mindset,
that is, transform culture.
1. Get buy-in from top-management (non-negotiable).
2. Run the above culture survey to understand the current organizational
culture, that is, where you are today.
3. Start small (1 cross-functional team is fine) and change practice (to Scrum,
Lean software development or Lean startup) to change people’s behaviours, in
order to change the underlying thinking later (Shook’s model).
4. Build a “culture bubble” with clear communication/translation “interfaces” to
the “outside world”, to protect the “bubble”.

90. “Shift to adjacent Culture” - 2/3
5. Expand the “bubble” to other cross-functional teams. Seize these
opportunities to improve the cross-functionality of the Teams in the “bubble”!
6. Change structure (processes, systems, policies, and any other “thing” that
influences people’s behaviours) as needed (and you will!) when scaling out the
“bubble”. Always remember: culture always follows structure!
7. Expand the “bubble” to other departments.
8. Move to the adjacent culture (Schneider’s model) to reduce the
transformation scope to People only (ignore the possibility/reality duality):
- From Control to Collaboration.
- From Competence to Cultivation.

91. “Shift to adjacent Culture” - 3/3
9. Regularly coach People (team members, managers, executives) and Teams
about the organizational changes and chosen Agile practices & thinking.
10. Measure and monitor cultural evolution: business performance, teams’
performance, underlying beliefs, feelings, mindsets, culture…
11. Improve, improve, improve… kaizen!
12. Celebrate together the little victories often :-)

92. A special word
to all Scrum
Masters :-)

93. From Scrum Guide:
The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring Scrum is understood and enacted.
Scrum Masters do this by ensuring that the Scrum Team adheres to Scrum theory,
practices, and rules.
The Scrum Master is a servant-leader for the Scrum Team. The Scrum Master
helps those outside the Scrum Team understand which of their interactions with
the Scrum Team are helpful and which aren’t. The Scrum Master helps everyone
change these interactions to maximize the value created by the Scrum Team.
… The Scrum Master serves the Product Owner in several ways, including…
… The Scrum Master serves the Development Team in several ways, including...

94. From Scrum Guide:
… The Scrum Master serves the organization in several ways, including:
- Leading and coaching the organization in its Scrum adoption;
- Planning Scrum implementations within the organization;
- Helping employees and stakeholders understand and enact Scrum and
empirical product development;
- Causing change that increases the productivity of the Scrum Team; and,
- Working with other Scrum Masters to increase the effectiveness of the
application of Scrum in the organization.
In short: We need you!

95. Takeways

96. Some conclusions :-)
Inspired to be a Change Agent?

97. Q&A

98. PLEASE FILL IN EVALUATION FORMS
FRIDAY, MAY
19th
SATURDAY, MAY
20th
https://survs.com/survey/cprwce7pi
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YOUR OPINION IS IMPORTANT!

99. THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
PLATINU
M
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SILVE
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100. Thank You!
Tweet: @nrgomes #tugait #culture #agility

101. Special thanks
Special thanks for the amazing images from:
➔ Jason Yip
➔ Barry O’ Reilly
➔ Michael Sahota
➔ Torben Rick
➔ Ahmed Sidky
➔ VersionOne (State of Agile Report)