Articles & Perspectives
A Collection of Reflections and Practical Insights - Where Knowledge Meets Real-World Practice
by Berrin Akvardar
Breaking Down Innovation Barriers with BEANs
In the fast-paced world of business, fostering innovation is crucial for staying ahead. However, institutional inertia and ingrained habits often stand in the way. And if you think innovation is just another buzzword, think again. It's not just a trendy term; it's a vital ingredient for the success of our scrum teams.
Innovation isn't about flashy ideas or empty promises—it's about finding practical solutions to real problems, improving processes, and continuously adapting to change.
In the world of scrum, innovation means empowering our teams to think creatively and experiment with new approaches. It's about fostering an environment where every team member feels confident to share their ideas, take calculated risks, and learn from failures. Innovation drives us to be better, more efficient, and more responsive to the needs of our customers.
So let's come to this BEANs concept. What is this actually and how can this new trendy "terminology" help us with innovative ideas?
What are BEANs?
BEANs - Behavior Enablers, Artifacts, and Nudges - are interventions that help people change their behavior and reinforce new habits. They are practical tools, processes, and reminders that make it easier to adopt and sustain innovative ways of working. They help teams overcome the barriers and cultivate innovative behaviors. BEANs can hack habits, fight institutional inertia, and encourage new, productive behaviors.
Characteristics of Successful BEANs
- Simple: Easy-to-adopt behaviors gain traction quickly.
- Traceable: Monitoring performance and comparing it against others is a powerful motivator.
- Practical: BEANs should integrate smoothly into existing processes without requiring major changes.
- Reinforced: Physical and digital reminders help maintain new habits.
- Fun: Engaging and social activities are intrinsically rewarding, making people more likely to participate.
- Consistent: BEANs should align with the organization's goals.
A Retrospective Approach
It is always good and energetic using new approaches to teams' issues and blockers. Despite their best efforts, institutional inertia and ingrained habits often stifled their creative potential. It is crucial to determine how to break these barriers through dedicated retrospective sessions. This is a journey which the whole team walks together, so we need to give them the microphone and let them define such barriers and decide on the actions.
So I am gonna explain, what I have done during a retrospective with one of my teams!
Step 1: Identifying Desired Innovation Behaviors
The team gathered in a remote retrospective session, ready to brainstorm. They started by identifying the innovative behaviors they wanted to see more of.
Ideas flowed freely: "We need more growth mindset, learn more and get more responsibility," and "We have to start limiting WIP," and I added on top "We need to focus more on time boxing during the Daily Stand-ups". We listed behaviors like proactive problem-solving, sharing new ideas, and continuous learning as well.
Step 3: Creating BEANs
With a clear understanding of our goals and challenges, the team moved on to creating BEANs. They brainstormed practical, engaging, and simple interventions to overcome the blockers.
Behavior Enablers: We have defined more than one behavioral enablers.
- To encourage cross-departmental collaboration, they introduced "Effective Collaboration", where my team volunteered to check with the other teams for any solution they use for the other processes, to not to reinvent the wheel. And the collaboration between these teams during the ongoing knowledge exchange session is decided to be revisited to see if there is any gap in the knowledge exchange process. This not only fostered collaboration but also made innovation a regular part of their schedule.
- To gain more effectiveness during meetings, they introduced "Effective Attendance in Meetings", where they decided to focus more on the topic during the meetings and for to make this happen, planning the meetings either in the beginning or in the end of the business day. And if not existing then asking for an agenda of the meetings to understand if the attendance is needed.
Artifacts: To keep innovation top of mind, they created a "Learning Goals", which is defined for each Program Increment (PI). This artifact served as a constant reminder of their commitment to innovation. Team members could post their ideas, big or small, and learning goals for each PI and see them evolve over time.
Nudges: To address the fear of asking, they implemented a "Team Rule", which is also reminded the whole team by me, their Scrum Master, during each Daily Stand-up Call. Briefly the rule indicates "If we struggle on a topic for more than 1 hour, then it is time to ask this to the team". This rule actually gave the whole team more encouragement and showed them that it is ok to ask before struggling too much.
Step 2: Recognizing Blockers
Next, we turned our attention to the obstacles that could hinder these behaviors. "We often get bogged down by routine tasks and cannot spare some time for innovative ideas," noted one team member. "And we have too many meetings, which most do not require our attendance," added another team member.
Another one was really interesting, given that we thought we are doing perfectly fine, which was "We need to reexamine our communication style with the other teams.". They identified blockers such as time constraints, fear of failure, and lack of visibility for innovative efforts.
The Transformation
As the weeks passed, the impact of the BEANs became evident. The team implemented several Behavior Enablers, Artifacts, and Nudges that significantly transformed their work environment. The transformation was remarkable.
The "Effective Collaboration" BEAN has helped to improved cross-departmental collaboration significantly. Team members found that sharing insights and solutions not only saved time but also sparked new ideas and approaches.
With the help of "Effective Attendance in Meetings" BEAN, the team saw a noticeable improvement in productivity. Scheduling meetings at optimal times and ensuring agendas were clear helped keep discussions on track and relevant. This change reduced unnecessary meetings and made the necessary ones more impactful.
The introduction of "Learning Goals" for each PI kept innovation at the forefront of everyone's mind. Team members actively contributed ideas and tracked their progress, which fostered a culture of continuous learning and improvement. This artifact served as a constant reminder of their commitment to innovation.
The "Team Rule" about asking for help after struggling for more than an hour created a supportive environment. Team members felt more comfortable seeking assistance, which reduced frustration and accelerated problem-solving. This rule reinforced the idea that collaboration and communication are key to overcoming challenges.
Conclusion
By integrating these BEANs into their daily routines, our team successfully broke down barriers to innovation. They transformed their work environment into one where creativity thrived, and blockers were systematically addressed. BEANs proved to be a powerful tool in fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation.
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