Several months ago I asked Sanjiv Augustine, author of the delightful and useful book “Managing Agile Projects” if he’d mind me sharing the section in his book where talked about Fernando Flores’s work and (what we at VISION) call Commitment Based Management. It’s a great primer on the subject. During the next year I hope to share an example or two of how we use the Conversation for Action (below) for diagnosing co-ordination breakdowns and thier waste. It’s one of those things that’s obvious in retrospect …
But, in the mean time, here’s Sanjiv’s excerpt:
Activity: Link Language with Action
From a business value perspective, transforming exchanges are useful only if they result in business outcome-oriented commitment, action and accomplishment. The language/action perspective stresses that most of the actual work in organizations happens through the making, keeping and coordination of individual commitments. People make commitments and deliver on them through performance or action. Transforming exchanges and concomitant business value can only materialize if the networks of these commitments that exist in organizations are coordinated effectively. A large part of Agile Manager’s work thus involves engaging in conversations that create and coordinate team member’s commitments, and orient these commitments towards transforming exchanges of information. There are three important types of conversations that enable action-oriented transforming exchanges: conversations for action, conversations for possibilities and conversations for disclosure4.
Conversations for Action
A conversation for action is a series of speech acts – meaningful acts of speech – that generate explicit coordinated action,5 as illustrated in Figure 7-4.
Figure 7-4. Basic Conversation for Action
An effective conversation for action begins with a customer making an offer or request that has clear conditions of satisfaction. This is followed by a performer’s promise with a clear completion date and time, and subsequent performance – action to deliver on the promise. When the job is complete, the performer makes a declaration of completion. Finally, a declaration of satisfaction by the customer completes the cycle, and it begins again with another offer or request. The cycle emphasizes what people do while communicating, how work is accomplished through language and how effective communication can result in effective coordination of the work.
On agile teams, a clear example of a conversation for action takes place in every iteration:
· User stories are estimated and prioritized in the Iteration Planning meeting. Customers identify user stories for an iteration in order of priority. Working with the team the project manager creates an iteration plan with a backlog of user stories to be completed. The backlog represents outstanding “requests” of user stories to be completed;
· Team members accept responsibility or “promise” to implement user stories from the iteration plan and perform work to complete them during the iteration;
· Team members follow their “promise” with the “performance” of user story implementation; and
· At the next Iteration Planning meeting, team members “declare completion” of the user stories. Customers then “declare satisfaction” by accepting the user stories they requested.
How can this knowledge help the Agile Manager? It can help because, by understanding the structure of effective conversations for action, Agile Managers can enable transforming exchanges of information during the iteration. For instance, they can help ensure that customer requests are clear to the development team by requesting clear conditions of satisfaction in the form of acceptance tests. They can help manage customer expectations by ensuring that promises made by the development team are grounded in experience. They can coordinate the performance of team members to ensure that they are delivering on the right commitments. Finally, Agile Managers can ensure that customers make explicit declarations of completion to eliminate any confusion on the part of the development team.
Conversation for Action Example
Agile Manager: David, could you please implement this loan performance user story completely by close of business tomorrow? [request with clear condition of satisfaction]
David: Well, I need to finish another story I’m working on before I can begin this one. I’ll complete the loan performance one by noon the day-after-tomorrow [promise].
David: I’ve completed the loan performance user story as you requested. [declaration of completion]
Agile Manager: (after verifying it) Yes, it looks good. Thanks for completing it [declaration of satisfaction].
Agile Managers can also apply the knowledge of conversations for action to their own requests of team members: specify clear conditions of satisfaction when requesting work, and clear declarations of completion when accepting completed work.
Conversations for Possibility
Collective action on project teams creates results that are beyond the capability of any single team member. Conversations for possibility are transforming exchanges of information that create the background and opportunities for action to be taken collectively. They are team conversations that reinterpret current and past events as a basis for future possibilities. A common example of a conversation for possibility is scenario planning (to be covered in Chapter 9). Scenario planning involves brainstorming potential future scenarios based on current and past realities.
Agile Managers can help spark creative dialogue and transforming exchanges on project teams by initiating conversations for possibility. All activities connected to the Guiding Vision, including Release and Iteration Planning, are opportunities to engage in creative conversations about future possibilities of the product or application being developed. Project reflections, where process pros and cons are evaluated, are also another good forum for these conversations.
Conversations for Disclosure
Conversations for disclosures reveal our interpretation of events and realities to each other. Truly transforming exchanges of information cannot take place unless team members understand each others’ interpretations of reality. One of the most important effects of collocation is that team members in close proximity of each other are pushed to understand each other and disclose much more than they would otherwise. This deeper understanding of each others’ interpretation of events and realities is needed before team members can align and coordinate effortlessly with each other. The close personal interactions on agile teams create several opportunities for disclosing and synchronizing team members’ views with each other. Disclosure is aided not just by speaking, but also by effective listening.
The Agile Manager can enable transforming exchanges through conversations for disclosure known as assessments. Fernando Flores provides the script for delivering assessments shown in the sidebar6.
Script for Delivering Assessments
Assessor: [Name], [negative assessment]; [positive assessment].
Person assessed: [Name], thank you for your assessment. I appreciate your sincerity. I would like to have further conversations with you about the topic.
Assessor: Thank you.
Person assessed: You're welcome.
Source: The Power of Words by Harriet Rubin, Fast Company, January 1999.
Here’s example of a personal assessment that I received in a team meeting:
Deirdre: Sanjiv, You are not doing enough to support business expansion at our largest client; you did a good job managing the last project there.
Sanjiv: Deirdre, thank you for your assessment. I appreciate your sincerity. I would like to have further conversations with you about the topic.
Deirdre: Thank you.
Sanjiv: You're welcome.
As you can imagine, delivering and receiving assessments is not easy for software development professionals who have been trained over a lifetime to be polite to each other. But assessments are sometimes necessary for team members to speak the truth to each other, especially when they share responsibility for the success or failure of a project. They are especially useful when things begin to go wrong, and team members need to speak frankly and honestly with each other. Assessments are great transforming exchanges, because trust builds up very quickly when people are able to speak honestly to each other.
Thank you, Sanjiv, for sharing.
