Habits of Agile. Cue, routine, and reward.

Lately, I am listening to a book called “The Power of Habit.” by Charles Duhingg, a book that discusses the effect of habits one’s life and goes beyond by explaining how habit loops are formed and programmed. There is a wide range of real life stories elaborated within the book, but one of them emerges definite interest in me — the story about Alcoa, the company which has drastically changed its culture.

The story begins when Paul O’Neill takes over Alcoa’s helm and tells the story of how he changed the culture and drove the company to ultimate success. Cultural change is not an easy job, and it is rather massively hard to accomplish. I have been in organizations that tried the cultural change and failed. They fall the natural path of sticking with their current habits, which eventually end up in not changing anything.

Paul O’Neill walks into the main stage for the first time after he accepted the job where the initial shareholders’ meeting was held. He starts as “I want to talk to you about worker safety,” this is not something that the crowd of Wall Street investors was anticipating, and they think that the new CEO is out of his mind. They were expecting a presentation about drivers of profit. Paul O’Neill’s speech that day was not a result of sloppy work that a CEO did to prepare for an investor meeting; instead, it was a calculated move. He plans to change one thing in the organization’s culture that can trigger other things to change in the company. By putting the strict rules, clearly defined goals, and making no exceptions, he drives a massive change. One crucial point is that he stood by his goal of 100%. His dedication and persistence make him even fire a senior executive who did not follow the set procedures. He analyzed data and acted on it carefully, planning and creating direct communication lines that feed massive organizational information to all the employees.

Does this approach look similar? Do you see a pattern that aligns with Agile and Lean methodologies? I do, and this is why I am writing this blog post, but I am not going to go over the any of the methods mentioned earlier, I will write about the habit loop that the Scrum is based. I am not sure whether J.J. Sutherland and his friends planed it on purpose or not, but I am sure the data suggested them, and they acted on it.

Charles Duhingg explains the power of habits and illuminates the science to structure or overwrite the old ones and create new ones. The idea is simple. The first thing to do is to find the cue that triggers a particular routine, and when the routine is completed person receives a reward. As an example, I brush my teeth when I woke up. This action of brushing my teeth happens automatically, which yields a sense of refreshment. I do this without thinking like I almost feel an urge to complete that routine. In this case, my cue is waking up, and routine (which happens automatically) is brushing my teeth, and the reward is the sense of refreshment.

If we apply the same methodology of cue, routine, and reward to Agile practices, we might see a similar routine of events happening. Let’s breakdown meeting in Scrum.

Planning meeting

• Cue: After the sprint finishes
• Routine: Plan the next 1 to 4 weeks
• Reward: A goal that motivates the team

Daily Scrum

• Cue: Start of each workday
• Routine: Plan the day and discuss road blockers
• Reward: Removal of the impediments

Grooming Meeting — Backlog refinement

• Cue: Whenever a new complicated feature is about to be introduced. [ Although the fact grooming is an informal meeting, I prefer to set two days within a two-week sprint because it creates a habit.]
• Routine: Discuss, design, and elaborate a feature, an epic, or a project.
• Reward: Removal of the impediments

Sprint Review

• Cue: End of the sprint
• Routine: Presenting the output and assessing if you reach the sprint goal.
• Reward: Understanding of the current situation by the entire team

Retrospective — The feedback loop

• Cue: After the sprint review
• Routine: Listing the things that make the best and pointing out improvement points to gain excellence.
• Reward: Data that you can rely on and act on.

Out of all these meetings, there is one of them that is highlighted by all experts. Even you do not do any of the gatherings; you must do the retrospective meeting. I think the idea behind this is cristal clear. Retro, in short, is a meeting that the team delivers unfiltered constructive feedback to it members. I believe this is one habit loop that w selected on purpose. Because it merely enables change by creating the initial habit loop for change. Also, what can a better routine than making this a kind of feedback session where the team hears from themselves. Two birds with one stone, perfect for initiating change.

The book not only talks about the routines and how-to from them. It also highlights the change it triggers within an organization. Having these routines change the way that you act within an organization. As an example, having the habit of Daily Scrum might alter the time that you arrive at work. You might start coming a bit early to be ready for the meeting, which might change the sleeping habits. You might start going to bed early, which leads to a night of healthier sleep.

There is one more perspective I would like to discuss before I yield my conclusion. The book also highlights the “will power” as an additional follow up action to the habit loop. The writer presents research on how the substance addicts acted on this habit loop. They find that most of the patients treated with habit-changing therapy go back to their old lives after a few months. What they find out is this change of going back to the old lifestyle happens when the patients hit some rough patches in their lives. Patients that employ some support group to calm them down will booster their power to continue surviving and maintain their healthy lives. The ones that do not use support groups failed and turned back into their old lives.

In conclusion, what they find out from all the studies is that the will power is as important as the habits. So, an organization willing to follow change is crucial. An environment where the management is not committed to change, will end up not changing anything but also damaging the trust to the company and its goals.

In conclusion, my proposal to anyone who is willing to transform their company and create automatic habit loops that foster innovation and creativity can achieve this goal by employing agile methodologies as a start.

The formula to change is simple.

• Committing to making the change and sticking with it like your life depends on it.
• Setting up ONE clear goal that executive management is support, by all means, is a must to have.
• Sticking with the created habits under any circumstances.

The significant points that are listed above can be achieved by Scrum and any of the agile methodologies. You need to be committed to create habit loops and follow the routines to create habits.