Comments on: More on the Social Contract http://theagileexecutive.com/2009/10/27/more-on-the-social-contract/ Making Agile Work Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:09:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Ryan Martens http://theagileexecutive.com/2009/10/27/more-on-the-social-contract/#comment-687 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:43:47 +0000 http://theagileexecutive.com/?p=3971#comment-687 Israel,

A number of our core values (http://www.rallydev.com/agileblog/2009/01/back-to-core-values-first/) came from past companies that Tim and I did. (create your own reality, make-and-meet commitments, work life balance) A few came as I started Rally (Give Back, Theory-based decision making). And a few were proposed by employees and made into the culture through story-telling (respect).

Many of these align very well with agile principles and beliefs. We make these stronger by appreciating people for these behaviors at company meetings, tell stories about them, evaluating new hires on them and evaluating year over year performance based on them.

As Lou Gerstner said, “It took me more than 53 years to understand that culture isn’t just important, it is everything.” It issues from persistent, unrelenting, imaginative effort and constant maintenance.

I do not know any other way to do it.

Ryan

]]> By: israel Gat http://theagileexecutive.com/2009/10/27/more-on-the-social-contract/#comment-686 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:10:06 +0000 http://theagileexecutive.com/?p=3971#comment-686 Yes, but…

How did the culture (that led to the organic creation of the social contract) get formed?

Thanks!

Israel

]]> By: Ryan Martens http://theagileexecutive.com/2009/10/27/more-on-the-social-contract/#comment-685 Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:06:39 +0000 http://theagileexecutive.com/?p=3971#comment-685 Israel,
Thank you for the set-up. Your point is well made. At Rally, we have a very strong culture that hires and fires based on core values. As a result, we have a very explicit social contract with our employees. In large organizations, this can get lost or miss the needs of a specific portion of the organization.

What you did with the social contract at BMC was masterful. As I have continued to work with even larger organizations where the move to agile is a transformation, this component has become paramount in dealing with dicey issues. Issues that include and not limited to: offshoring, outsourcing, aligning for value delivery, moving to more servant leadership models, emergent architecture, lean portfolio management and developer testing.

At Rally, we built an organization aligned with these models and thus increasing agility at Rally does not require a contract with our employees. It is part of the entrepreneurial culture.

Does that answer the question?

Ryan

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