Changing the Mindset of an Organization

I have been working hard to convince people (i.e., management) within my organization that the benefits and values that Agile brings to organizations and projects far outweigh any possible side effects (I guess some warped people could see hyperproductivity and making everything visible as negative side effects).

We have a global agile process group and everyone on the team is in complete agreement that our current RUP process would benefit by adapting some Agile/Scrum techniques. Here's our current game plan:

1. How do we convince the organization of the benefits? How do we convince them that change is good?
   
2. Who do we get to sponsor the initiative at the executive level? We need someone with the courage to act differently, to find out if the environment will support us.
3. How do we incorporate Agile & Scrum best practices into our corporate culture and our projects sooner rather than later?

Any suggestions or experience with these questions would be greatly appreciated (both good and and comments welcome).

Scrum Core Values

I believe these should be posted somewhere for everyone on the team to see. It's very easy for them to lose sight of them otherwise.

Commitment

• Be willing to commit to a goal
• Support & encourage commitment
• The team has the authority to decide how to do the work it has selected

Focus

• Do your job
• Focus all of your efforts and skills on doing the work that you’ve committed to doing
• Don't worry about anything else
• Once you're focused, all of your time is spent looking for and trying solutions to bring order to the problems

Openness

• Keep everything about the project visible to everyone
• Scrum removes the ability to dissemble
• Responsibilities are clear, authority is allocated, and everything is visible
• Scrum counters interference; No one is allowed to add work to a Sprint once it is underway
• It’s better to produce something than it is to pursue many alternatives, please everyone, and produce nothing

Respect

• Individuals are shaped by their background and their experiences
• Respect the different people who comprise a team
• The team adjusts and adapts to meet its commitments for a Sprint:
  (1) Who does what is up to the team
  (2) The team commits as a whole and sinks or swims together
• Do your best, remember everyone else is doing his/her best, and help your teammates

Courage

• Have the courage to commit, to act, to be open, and to expect respect
  
• It requires courage to act differently; Courage to see find out that the environment will support these values; Courage to be willing to find out that relying on one’s own judgment is acceptable – even admirable
  
• Courage is having the guts, the determination, to do the best you can
  
• Courage is the stubbornness not to give up, but to figure out how to meet commitment