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Agile doesn't make teams better, people do.
Fair warning - Coach Dan is feisty today! Wherever I get in front of a group of people who are newer to the concept of agile and agility, I like to ask them what they think agile is all about. The responses I get are pretty predictable... "Agile is about going faster." "Agile makes teams more efficient." "Agile is about speed." Agile is about sprints." "Agile is about being flexible." "Agile is about Metrics." I very rarely, if ever hear someone suggest, "agile is a way of reorganizing our teams around delivering customer value, rather than around artificial organizational boundaries." I hardly ever hear someone say, "Agile means empowering teams to self-organize around the work that they are doing to drive value, rather than organizing around job title." And I never hear people say, "Agile means teams can decide to improve the way they work together, becoming more effective, eff...
Leadership: Is Authority in Your Way?
As I created that quote, I wasn’t sure that I really liked it all that much. Felt kind of judgy… maybe a little controversial… I actually “focus grouped” it out to a couple of coaches and other folks to get their opinion and the ensuing discussions were actually pretty interesting and valuable – so I’ll run with it – and maybe expand a bit – so here it goes. If you, as a leader, have to exercise direct authority (tell someone to do something) you've either: not created a clear vision of where your organization needs to go, not developed your people’s skills to the point where they can execute, or not created an environment where your people are empowered to get there. Our agile values and principles are pretty clear about what we believe in, and how we view leadership. Leaders are there to lead. They are there to put in place a vision for how the organization needs to be. They are there to continually grow and challenge their organization to be as effective, eff...
