I get it. You have some Agile teams and things worked out not too bad. But now you have some big projects that must be done, you know, an enterprise project. Some Chief Whatever Officer decided that it was a good idea to stake the entire company on the successful implementation of a gigantic software solution. The Agile leaders (you’re probably one of them) decide it’s now a good idea (hint: it’s not) to “scale” Agile.
Read MoreThe importance of team retrospectives
One of the core components of team adaptation theory is that for teams to increase their adaptability (read: agility), they must reflect on past activities. If you look at any high performing team you will notice they all have one thing in common. All high performing teams take time to reflect on past activities so they can find ways to improve. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. All high performing teams do it. If you look at high performing teams in sports, business, law enforcement, the military, etc., then you will find teams that perform some type of retrospective. Those teams may not call it a retrospective, but they still reflect to answer the same basic questions: What did we do? What have we learned? What should we do differently? Where can we improve? Sadly, many teams view retrospectives with disdain. People are rarely motivated to do the hard work that retrospectives demand. The result is a meeting that produces very little in the way of learning let alone strengthening a team’s adaptability.
Read MoreWhere does innovation come from?
Where does organizational change come from?
Organizations find change in one of two areas: ideas and needs. Ideas grow out of employees who are familiar with business processes usually because they understand how or what the company does on a daily basis. These employees can see how changes can impact the organization and make things better. Needs typically stem from managers who recognize a gap between how the company is operating and where it should be operating.
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