Cynthia Kracmer: Early Adopters and Change Champions: Identifying Key Players for Agile Transformation

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In this episode, Cynthia emphasizes that her work is about change and coaching teams. When trying to change people, she warns that it is important to be careful and to tell a relevant story that answers the question of "what's in it for me?" She shares a story that highlights the need to consider different approaches for different contexts, and she advises paying attention to early adopters and change champions while avoiding the anti-pattern of not invented here syndrome (NIH). Instead, one should make the change “native” by finding someone who is already convinced on Agile adoption to help with the change by explaining why they think Agile is important for them.

Cynthia also reminds us that change takes time, and there is a cost to change in terms of time. Therefore, department leads need to be aware of that cost. She advises listening to those who ask a lot of questions since they might become the best change supporters. She recommends the Dragon Dreaming methodology as a resource. Finally, she suggests learning from the people who resist change by listening to what they say and ask about.

[IMAGE HERE] As Scrum Master we work with change continuously! Do you have your own change framework that provides the guidance, and queues you need when working with change? The Lean Change Management framework is a fully defined, lean-startup inspired change framework that can be used as the backbone of any change process! You can buy Lean Change Management the book at Amazon. Also available in French, Spanish, German and Portuguese.

 

About Cynthia Kracmer

Cynthia Kracmer is a Business Transformation & Human Capital Managing Consultant passionate about creating innovative, stimulating and ‘healthy’ organizations for people. She is Agile agnostic, and has worked as a Scrum master, agile coach and agile transformation lead in the Life Sciences area. She loves singing, traveling (she's been to 63 countries), cycling and running.