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Hello everyone, welcome to this motivational lightning talk on dropping command on control. I really thought we had something like 5 minutes to present, so don’t expect huge discussion. On the brighter side, if you don’t like the talk don’t worry, it will be over soon.

My name is Angel Medinilla,, remember that as you’ll be using it in a minute, and I’ve been on the ICT market for more than 14 years. I ran into Agile six years ago and I’ve been an Agile consultant for the last four years, helping companies like Vodafone, Ericsson, Electronic Arts or Infojobs on their Agile adoption path.

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I’m also a nicotine addict. I smoked one packet a day for more than fifteen years, and I’ve been living absolutely clean for the last six years

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C’mon guys, you know how this story work… I say “Hello, my name is Angel and I’m a addict” and you go… --- Ahhh, that’s it, so you’ve already been in this kind of meetings, do you? I mean XP conferences, of course…

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I’m also addicted to Command and Control. Although I’ve been an Agile consultant for four years now, I’ve only been living clean from this monster for a couple of years. OK, waving back is optional this time…

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Addictions have a very specific mechanism – Every single time you get a dose, a positive reinforcement takes place. It’s like every time you press a lever, you get some food. In command and control, every time you give orders, things get done, and that’s satisfying for you.

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According to B.F. Skinner, one of the most influential psychologist of the 20th century and one of the fathers of behavioral science, positive reinforcement is superior to punishment in altering behavior.

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So the managers head gets wired on a Command and Control fashion, constantly reinforcing themselves on this behavior through positive reinforcement cycles

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So as you see, it’s not only that most managers have only learned command & control as a way to manage their environments (because of the fateful heritage of Taylorism and industrial knowledge on how to rule a business) – there’s also an addiction mechanism taking place

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There’s also a vicious cycle taking place: you don’t trust people to do thing right, so you tell them how to do it and you control how they do it. They do what you’ve told them to do, no what was needed or what you actually meant, and they do nothing but what you tell them to do. So you do things yourself, don’t trust them and keep the C&C cycle going on.

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What we’ve found from an Agile perspective is that Command&Control kills self-organization and motivation of knowledge workers. Behavioral science has shown how motivation of knowledge workers is deeply tied to autonomy, the desire of being self directed.

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Here I’d like to point out that motivation is not only about being “a magical manager, from Happy Land, who lives in a gumdrop house on Lolly Pop Lane!!” It’s something so important that no demotivated team has ever made a great product, anywhere, at any moment in history. Just never.

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When I make this kind of statement, sometimes someone says “Pyramids! Pyramids where built by a bunch of highly demotivated guys”. But of course they weren’t. They were built by a highly motivated team of architects, engineers, priests and kings. People moving stones around where no more than machinery, brute force. You have to decide if you are managing brute force or engineers.

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Ok, so we have an addict in control. What should we do? For some managers, being in part a psychological problem, I’m sure it would be tempting to give electrotherapy a try… But believe me, most people are good ultimately… Sometimes very, very ultimately, I reckon…

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Here’s when the 12 steps program come handy. Original from the AA groups, it have been successfully carried to many other addiction groups including workaholic anonymous, gamblers anonymous or, despite I can’t understand why, Love and Sex Addicteds Anonymous. I have adapted the steps to our Agile environment, working with the principles and trying to provide a useful framework for C&C Rehab.

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There’s no use to work with someone in state of denial. Agile coaches have to work with this guys so they accept they are being bossy and they are powerless to change their behavior, that the situation is becoming unmanageable on an Agile way. AA have the “interventions” as a tool to try addicts accept they have a problem and are hurting people they care about.

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Then, the patient must understand that there’s a better state, a better way, Something greater that the sum of the parts. Intensive Agile training has to be set up for the patient. If the C&C manager still believes that the best way to run a business is to be bossy, there’s not much we can do to help him.

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Once you admit you have a problem, you have to commit yourself with a purpose to change and set specific goals to measure your self development.

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AA call this “a Fearless moral inventory of ourselves”. 360º interviews, were your employees, colleagues and bosses can give an anonymous view of your management style can help, as no one is a good critic of himself.

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Admit your wrongs to other human beings. Not necessary the whole team, but someone you trust. This could be a mentor, a friend, your wife, an Agile coach…

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Changing your behavior you will change your character, as what you do becomes what you think and vice versa. Things like “That’s the way I am” are self-fulfilling prophecies, as you will definitely be as you say you are. You have to change your language patterns as well as your acting patterns.

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There’s lots of help out there: Mentors, coaches, Agile groups, literature… Just be sure there’s someone helping you on a regular basis. Can you name it?

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Making an physical inventory of the times you behaved on a way you dislike helps you being honest with yourself and assesing the true dimension of the problem. Again, 360º review may help a lot.

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Despite your efforts to communicate your new will of managing on a more Agile way, drop C&C and being less bossy, you have to be aware that there’s a motivational debt on your side. It’s time to repay debt, so stop demotivating it’s not enough: you have to start motivating.

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AA call this “Continue to take personal inventory and, when we are wrong, promptly admit it”. As you already know, we Agilists call this an empirical approach based on inspect & adapt cycles, or on short “Deming’s Cycle”.

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I’m a devoted follower of Lyssa Adkins’ work on coaching Agile teams, and I do believe that every coach have to find a daily practice that helps him or her find his own balance. You can’t help others to find their balance if you lose your own.

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Of course, as you start your journey, you should be willing to invest your time helping others to build something greater. Peer review, peer pressure, self organization and emergent behavior are concepts deeply rooted in Agile. The message here is “You can’t do it on your own”, and also “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”. You are also an important part of the Agile system and you have to give back as you receive.

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I wish I’ve given you some ideas on how to deal with your own tendence to command an control and, hopefully, help other out of it. Thank you!