What do you think about our current state of Agile? 

Socrates says an unexamined mind is not worth living. 

The current state of Agile is struggling to go beyond some core values and principles. There are practically dozens of frameworks but very less agility than we see in practice. One of the reasons might be there is no sound theoretical underpinning for the body of knowledge around Agility.  Most of the Agile literature seldom passes the norms of the scientific method. It mainly employs casual and sometimes self-serving empirical evidence; it is rarely grounded on well-established theoretical tradition. Lacks intellectual rigour.

Why we should look at philosophy to address the current state of Agile?

May be the current scientific methods are not suitable for developing a solid basis for Agility. May we may have to start from the fundamentals, the first principles. 

In the session, a very brief introduction to Philosophy (as relevant to the agile community) will be shared. Philosophy is the love for Wisdom (Philo - love, Sophi - wisdom). 

What is ethics?  (moral philosophy) 

Where do our ideas of right and wrong come from? 

For example - our notion of freedom  (or free speech) is not the same across the globe. 

Another example. " Is it okay to provide a critical and negative review comment on a public/social media platform"?"

The notion of right and wrong - comes from our preferences.  A group of people debate, and critique an assertion and that group agrees that the assertion is good for the community that becomes a law. As the preferences of the community undergo change the laws get amended or changed or replaced by a new one. 

The scientific method is based on pure rationality maybe there is a need to re-look at this aspect. 

The world of Ethics is not black and white like the world of rationality. 

Some of the challenges in creating a framework for "Ethics in Agile" can be understood better if we have clear idea of ethics. 

three main types of ethical theory: deontology, consequentialism, and virtue ethics. 

Deontology : This is an ethical theory that uses rules to determine whether an action is right or wrong. It’s a way of thinking about ethics that emphasizes our duty to follow universal moral rules that apply equally to everyone.

You can observe this in religious doctrines. Example: You don't lie always tell the truth no matter what. 

consequentialism: it’s the theory that determines whether an action is right or wrong by looking to its consequences. It’s what people are talking about when they say that the ends justify the means.

It is based on context and consequence. If a gunman has attacked the school and asks where the children are hiding you lie (you don't tell the truth) to the gunman to save the children. 

virtue ethics: takes an entirely different approach. Here, the focus is not on doing moral actions, but on developing a moral character. 

For example, instead of getting hung up on the idea that everything you say has to be true, instead just focus on generally being a more honest person. 

Aristotle believed that humans have the latent potential to develop social virtues that benefit society, like honesty, courage, and patience – but these virtues don’t just arise naturally or spontaneously. We all know that we also have a latent potential to be lazy and selfish! So, virtue ethics proposes that we cultivate social virtues through education and practice.

Now, what do you think are the challenges in "Ethics in Agile"? Why do we need to think of "Ethics in Agile" or we should all practice ethical Agile? 

What makes champions perform better than others?

Champions like Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Michele Jordon, Usian Bolt, Stefi Graph, Michel Jordan, Serena Williams. Pele, Muhammad Ali, Sachin Tendulkar, Ayrton Senna and many more accomplished people in other fields have some things in common. One of them is it is not just they become champions once they achieve results, they are much before, it is a function of who they are being.

It is not just their skills (doing) and experience (knowing) that determine how they perform but it is also a function of how the situation 'occurs' to them and who they are 'being 'at that moment. This workshop is based on the Ontological/phenomenological models. Ontology is a branch of philosophy interested in studying the nature of 'being' itself. It is also underpinned by the works of  Tim Galloway's - Inner Game of Tennis and Steve Zafforon's Three Laws of Performance. 

In this workshop, we will explore the mechanism to access the being and experience how we can significantly elevate the performance by shifting our ways of being. 

The inner game is based on our two selves, the first one (teller), which instructs, directs,  and judges continuously and the other 'self' obeys the first self, which is part of the un/subconscious mind. 

The Three Laws of Performance are:  

The First Law states: “How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them”. 

The Second Law states: “How a situation occurs, arises in language.”

The Third Law states: “Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people.”

Through language, we can influence our being.

Refernces: 

Though these concepts might look theoretical they are backed by extensive research and application of these practices (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1681682) 

The Handbook for Teaching Leadership. Knowing, Doing, and Being. First Edition. Edited by: Scott Snook - Harvard Business School, USA

Snook, Scott, Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana, eds. The Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2012

In this workshop, using ontological and phenomenological models the participants can first-hand experience the concepts and figure out actions for breakthrough results inside their current situation.

Just as human DNA captures our essential nature, so too Essence captures the essential nature of software engineering.

Essence is a language for defining methods and practices common to all software engineering. Essence was created by Software Engineering Method and Theory (SEMAT) and approved by The Object Management Group as a standard in 2014.

SEMAT

It stands for Software Engineering Method and Theory, the initiative was launched in December 2009 by Ivar Jacobson, Bertrand Meyer, and Richard Soley with a call for action statement and a vision statement.

The purpose of SEMAT is to bring the rigor of engineering discipline back into software development. If the project involves developing a driverless car or a health monitoring systems based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) it is important that failure modes are considered as part of the design, the boundary conditions, reliability and critical to quality (CTQ) parameters.

SEMAT can help in bridging the gap between current methods and theory.

Essence

The most interesting part that caught my attention while studying SEMAT was "Essance" - it is the kernel or a foundation on top which any method or framework can be expressed. It is based on three principles. it is actionable; it is extensible, and it is practical.

The kernel provides a simple language to express methods and practice, in line with the three principles.

"being" and Agile

This is the topic close to my heart, exploring the world of being. I'm exploring the "being" part of "being Agile"

This takes me back to study of Ontology (I have written blogs and spoken at Global Scrum Gathering and in Capability Counts conference on this topic), It is a branch of philosophy(in particular meta-physics) focusing on study and nature of ‘being’, this term is also widely used in social science, computer science /artificial intelligence, information science and in many other fields.

The term is derived from Greek words, “Onto” for existence and “logia” for study, science. The Latin derivative ontologia means science of being.

In general, ontology focuses on nature of 'being'. For example, let’s consider an apple. The existence of apple can be experienced by sight, touch, smell, and taste. In an apple juice, though the form is changed the existence can be experienced in the form of smell and taste. The “essence” or the being of an apple can be experienced.

In the case of living beings the concept of “being” is different, especially for human beings. Human beings have a wide range of 'beings' in which they express themselves. Normally they are expressed as emotions like “being happy”, “being sad”, “being angry”, “being enthusiastic” and so on. The being is not just the emotional state but it is much more than that. It is a combination of mental state (attitude and state of mind), emotional state (feelings and emotions), bodily state (body sensation), thoughts and thought process (logic and memory) in a given moment of time or in a given situation.

This also includes mind-set (frame of reference) and worldview (model of reality).

In fact, one can’t write/read about “being” then it becomes “knowing”.

Endnote

There is a work to be done to express all these ideas as well to study the existing methods and theory. The concept of common ground and Kernel is fundamental and fascinating, it helps to connect the dots with so many interesting topics.

Steve is very shy and withdrawn, invariably helpful but with little interest in people or in the world of reality. A meek and tidy soul, he has a need for order and structure, and a passion for detail.

Is Steve more likely to be a librarian or a farmer? (Place Washington DC, USA)

Before you proceed, pause for a moment and make your choice - A for librarian and B for the farmer and also make a mental note for your reasoning. The point is not about finding the right answer but to develop an awareness about your own decision-making process. Your decisions must be based on economics (SAFe principle #1, FLOW - Principles of Product Development Flow).

This is very important especially if you are a product designer, manager or owner. These roles have a very important role to play in making decisions for the product.

If your choice is A, Librarian then it is wrong.

In this talk, we will explore some concepts of cognitive bias and Nudge from behavioural economics in the context of product development. Some of these aspects were considered as part of the during my work with Jaguar Land Rover (electrified power train project i-PACE project)

Now why the choice A (Librarian) is wrong, This is an interesting example of a heuristic bias. While making the decision we forget to consider the overall population of farmers and librarians. The description “a meek and tidy soul, he has a need for order and structure” flips the decision towards librarian for most people.

This depends on occupational stereotypes while ignoring “equally relevant statistical considerations.” The question is supposed to illustrate the shallowness of our intuitions about probability. “Did it occur to you that there are more than 20 male farmers for each male librarian in the United States? Because there are so many more farmers, it is almost certain that more ‘meek and tidy’ souls will be found on tractors than at library information desks.”

The related topic on this is NUDGE, which consists of design of choice architecture.

It is based on

INCENTIVES -

Understanding Mappings

Defaults

Give feedback

Expect error

Structure Complex choices

A properly (ethically) designed system can benefit society. (Like auto-enrolment for pension funds in UK)

Footnote:

1.
This topic is the outcome of pioneering work done two Nobel laureates - Daniel Kahneman (2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. for his work on the psychology of judgment and decision-making,) and Richard Thaler (2017 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to behavioural economics.).

2.

These concepts are extensively used by many digital / social media companies. There are also ethical consideration in applying these concepts.

Steve is very shy and withdrawn, invariably helpful but with little interest in people or in the world of reality. A meek and tidy soul, he has a need for order and structure, and a passion for detail.

Is Steve more likely to be a librarian or a farmer?

Before you proceed, pause for a moment and make your choice – A for librarian and B for farmer and also make a mental note for your reasoning.

The description “a meek and tidy soul, he has a need for order and structure” flips the decision towards librarian for most people. If you have chosen A as the answer then it is wrong but the main point is to understand why it is wrong?

In similar way, any large architecture or design involves making lot of decision, though the current Lean Product Development suggests Assume variability; preserve options. It is good develop an ability to make good choices.

This session talks about cognitive bias and it's effect and how this can be addressed by using a Choice Architecture.

This session is inspired by the work done by nobel laureates Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler and design guru, the person behind human centred design Don Norman.

Dan Brown says the most important part of “Design Thinking” is not “Design” but “thinking”, in a similar way we can say that the most important part of “Being Agile” is to understand more about “being”than about agile.

“Being Agile”is one of the key elements of any Agile Transformation. There are many opinions, views and perspectives about – “doing” Agile vs “being” Agile. In this session on Power of Being, Ontological perspective about being Agile will be shared through practical hands on exercises. This presentation is based on the work done by Harvard Professor Michael C. Jensen and Werner Erhard on being a leader based on Ontological / Phenomenological model.

The concepts are based on Ontology, a branch of philosophy(in particular meta-physics) focusing on study and nature of ‘being’, The term is derived from Greek words, “Onto” for existence and “logia” for study, science. The session will be based on activities and learning is through participation and experience (transformative learning).

This session - Power of Being is based on Ontological/phenomological model.

In general ontology focuses on the nature being. For example, let’s consider an apple. The existence of apple can be experienced by sight, touch, smell and taste. In an apple juice, though the form is changed the existence can be experienced in the form of smell and taste. The “essence” or the being of an apple can be experienced.

In the case of living beings the concept of “being” is different, especially for human beings. Human beings have wide range of beings in which they express themselves. Normally they are expressed as emotions like “being happy”, “being sad”, “being angry”, “being enthusiastic” and so on. The being is not just the emotional state but it is much more than that. It is a combination of mental state (attitude and state of mind), emotional state (feelings and emotions), bodily state (body sensation), thoughts and thought process (logic and memory) in a given moment of time or in a given situation. This also includes mind-set (frame of reference) and world view (model of reality).

In fact, one can’t write/read about “being” then it becomes “knowing”.

From an Ontological perspective, being agile explores the “being” as the ways of being for people and teams. For an effective transition to being Agile all aspects are important.

The session will be activity based with concepts, activity, reflection and reinforcement based model.

The key element for successful agile adoption is “being” agile and not just “doing” agile. If you are using Scrum then it is not just about standups, sprints, demo and retrospectives.  Then what is this “being” agile?

Ontology is a branch of philosophy, dealing with study of the nature of being. Currently ontology based concepts are used in professional coaching and leadership development work.  (Harvard Professor Dr. Michael C. Jensen (his initiative EJI) , Prof Dave Logan of UCS author of Three Laws of Performance, have done significant research and contribution to this field).

The intention of the workshop is to give the participants a glimpse of “being” as an experience.  It is important to understand and know the difference between “doing” and “being”, since in any agile implementation “being agile” is more important than doing agile. If this distinction is not made very clear then all the agile practices will face the risk of ending up like rituals without significant outcomes.

During the sessions one key exercise is to identify the subtle differences in actions taken (doing), results obtained (having) and the experience (being). The importance that the language plays in differentiating the experience is also discussed.  After the session you will start discovering (by observation) the world of being and the world of doing and their overlap.