When embarking on technology transformation - it is tempting to think of changing the way everyone works in an organization. But there is no chance of changing everyone. Everyone might be a lot of people. Everyone might be too diverse, and possibly too unconcerned for you to have a chance at changing them.

So let us say you want to create a culture where software delivery is done by cross-functional teams that have all competencies needed to accomplish the work without depending on others not part of the team. Why? Because cross-functional teams have proven to be central to high software delivery performance. And high software delivery performance has proven to correlate to high organizational performance.

So how could you go about making this change? Trying to change every software delivery team would likely prove to be futile. Very few people want to change their pattern of how they work, who they work with. They may not want to deal with the hassle of doing something that is filled with unknown obstacles, something might not work in their worldview.

But perhaps you could influence a person, or a group. But who? Who would you choose to be part of this group you want to influence the change you seek to make? How would you influence them?

1. Pick people based on knowledge of what they want : Who is suffering from the status quo? Who has criticized it? Whose performance, morale, growth and relationships are directly affected by low software delivery performance?
2. Create a worldview of the people you pick. What are the problems they have related to what needs to change? Make assumptions about how someone will react to aspects of the problem and its solution based on their worldview. Developer Alec who is tired of constantly changing functional requirements while Marketer Jen who is frustrated with an interface that is clunky to use. Identify different personas you might encounter. What is their narrative of “better”?
3. Design a solution to address their problems based on the worldview of the personas.
4. Find the early adopters, those who get a thrill from the new, those who are lenient of missteps of execution. Those who have a high desire for the “better”.
5. Iterate on the solution till the early adopters find the new way of working with their cross-functional team better than their past ways of working. If the new way is not truly “better”, it gets rejected till a better strategy comes along.
6. Typically, early adopters like to share their discoveries. If the new way of working is more powerful if others adopt it too, then the adopters have a strong motivation to tell others and gain their enrollment.
7. As more people enroll in the new way of working, it excludes others who feel missed out, creating tension and possibly motivating their enrollment in the change as well.

That’s enough to make a difference. Try this with focus. Once it works, find another area to change.