Building an AI and Agile Culture of Learning

Does your AI and Agile education begin and end with barely a touch of training?  A number of colleagues have told me that in their companies, training ranged from 1 hour to 1 day.  With this limited training, they were expected to implement and master the topic.  AI nor Agile isn’t simply a process or skill that can be memorized and applied. It is a culture shift. Will this suffice for a transformation toward AI and Agile?

Education is an investment in your people.  A shift in culture requires an incremental learning approach that spans time.  What works in one company doesn’t work in another. A learning culture should be an intrinsic part of your transformation that includes skills, roles, process, culture and behavior education with room to experience and experiment.

A transformation requires a shift toward a continuous learning culture which will give you wings to soar!  You need a combination of training, mentoring, coaching, experimenting, reflecting, and giving back. These education elements can help you become a learning enterprise.  Let's take a closer look at each:

Training is applied when an enterprise wants to build employee skills, educate employees in their role, or roll out a process. It is often event driven and a one-way transfer of knowledge. What was learned can be undone when you move back into your existing culture.

Coaching helps a team put the knowledge into action and lays the groundwork for transforming the culture. Coaching provides a two-way communication process so that questions can be asked along the way. A coach can help you course-correct and promote right behaviors for the culture you want.

Mentoring focuses on relationships and building confidence and self-awareness. The mentee invests time by proposing topics to be discussed with the mentor in the relationship. In this two-way communication, deep learning can occur.

Experimenting focuses on trying out the new skills, roles, and mindset in a real world setting.  This allows first-hand knowledge of what you’ve learned and allows for a better understanding of Agile.

Reflecting focuses on taking the time to consider what you learned whether it is a skill, process, role, or culture, and determine what you can do better and what else you need on your learning journey. 

Giving back occurs when the employee has gained enough knowledge, skills, experience, to start giving back to their community to make the learning circle complete. Helping others highlight a feeling of ownership to the transformation and the learning journey.

It takes a repertoire of educational elements to achieve a culture shift and becoming a Learning enterprise. When you have people willing to give back is when the learning enterprise has become full circle and your enterprise can soar.

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For more Agile related Learning and Education articles, consider reading:

• Agile Education Engine - Bringing power to your Agile Transformation - http://cmforagile.blogspot.com/2014/11/agile-education-engine-bringing-power.html
• There is no Success of Fail, only Learn - http://cmforagile.blogspot.com/2015/12/there-is-no-success-or-fail-only-learn.html
• How a Self-organizing Agile Education Vision can help your Agile Transformation - http://cmforagile.blogspot.com/2014/02/how-self-organizing-education-vision.html

Constellation Icebreaker - Getting to know you

How do you get a group of folks to quickly learn about each other’s common interests? Consider the Constellation icebreaker technique.  Constellation is used to identify to what degree people from a group agree or disagree with certain statements (which can be based on a belief, idea, or value). 

This icebreaker technique is an informal way to get people to share a bit about themselves at the beginning of a training session, workshop, or when a new team is forming.  It is a non-confrontation way of learning people's opinion on a topic or statement.  Within seconds of applying this technique, the participants will clearly tell you what they think of the statement. Its also a great way to connect people together since they will visually see who has their common interests and opinions. There are several types of constellation icebreaker techniques and here is how the Constellation Orbital Icebreaker game works:

The set up:  

• Identify a "center" of the room (or constellation).  This is the Sun.  The location of the Sun represents the highest degree of agreement with the statement.
• Optionally, use masking or blue paint tape to create dashed lines around the sun in 3 feet/1 meter increments away from the sun.   

The activity: 

• Ask everyone to stand on/around the Sun (aka., the center) - don't crowd too much
• Speak the statement, e.g., "I love the Red Sox" 
• Ask folks to place themselves either close to or away from the sun according to how much they agree or disagree with this statement (each person becomes the planet)
• Once everyone has placed themselves, ask some/many/all of the folks why they have placed themselves where they are

Its a great way to learn about people fairly quickly.  Have you tried the Constellation icebreaker before?  If so, what do you think?  Do you have another icebreaker that you have found of value to getting folks to learn about each other?    

How a Self-organizing Education Vision can help your Agile Transformation

Does your company education begin and end with training? Will this suffice for a transformation to Agile? Agile requires alignment behind the Agile values and principles that signifies a change toward an Agile culture. It means an investment in educating your people who need to pick up the helm for success.  Because of this, you cannot think that taking a training class will suffice and provide enough knowledge to cause a shift in thinking to be Agile.  Instead education needs to be an intrinsic part of your Agile transformation.  One approach is to consider a team-oriented self-organized education vision aimed toward being Agile.

An Agile Education Vision is an education roadmap that a team iteratively plans and applies.   It is meant to be self-organized by the team focused on their education needs toward being Agile.  Since people are critical to the success of agility, it is only fair to allow the “power of the people” to self organize around their own educational needs.  As a team approaches Agile, they periodically consider various education elements that can be used to help them build their Agile knowledge, skills, and capabilities toward achieving a mindset.  As education gets applied, the team periodically visits the education vision and updates it based on their current level of Agile need. 

A good way to think of this is that the Agile Education Vision is a prioritized product backlog of education elements based on team needs.  Each sprint or timeframe, the team visits the vision, determines what education is needed, and then applies those educational elements throughout that period.  Another approach that engages the power of the people is an Education Led Transformation.  Established by Emergn, this is a work-based approach where learning occurs through action.  Experience is gained over time by the team and they become better equipped to gain the full benefits of agility.   

As an added tip, any time an education item is time consuming (1-day training, reading a book, etc.), consider including it as a story with a story point value.  As the owner works on this item, the story card can get moved across the board to indicate progress of the education. This highlights that education is considered valuable and illustrates the progress made in completing the education work item.

An important consideration is that when I say education, it is more than just training. It takes a repertoire of educational elements. These education elements can help a team develop skills, understand their roles, and navigate a process or practice, and most importantly achieve an Agile mindset.  Training is just one of those educational elements. What are some of the others?  Here is a sampling:

• Simple brochure, flyer, or short presentations.
• In-person training such as Instructor-led and seminars
• Web-based training such as pre-recorded and webinars
• Work-based learning with activities and on-the-job training
• Reading in the form of books, articles, and more being done individually or in a book club 
• Hosting such as agile practices website and wiki
• Coaching providing in-session education to a team or an individual based on domain knowledge and experience.
• Community contributing includes giving back via forums, blog articles, or seminars.

It takes a repertoire of educational elements to achieve an Agile culture. Training is just one educational element that is needed. 

How will your teams be educated? An accumulation of education elements at different points in time will provide the comprehensive focus to help you, your team, and your organization. Consider applying an self-organized education vision or an education-led approach that best serves your goal toward being Agile. Ultimately you want to create a self-organizing educational culture where employees are willing and eager to learn, act, and give back to their community.  How are your teams currently being educated in agility?

PS - to read more about establishing an Agile Education Vision and how education elements can help you be Agile, consider reading Chapter 16 of the new Agile book entitled Being Agile.