As Agilists, we preach “We want empowered teams!” But we turn right around and tell the teams to use the Scrum (or Kanban) framework. Why? Because we require corporate-wide Agile approach consistency, and we want to make it easier for when people transfer into a new team.
Stop for a moment and realize how utterly stifling this position is to team empowerment. In many ways, it is the antithesis of Agile. Putting process before people is distinctly an unAgile value as per the Agile Manifesto.
We have lost our way, forcing teams into a specific way of working (Scrum, Kanban) while sacrificing agility innovation at the altar of “corporate consistency”.
A Better Alternative
As leaders, it is our job to create an environment where innovation and productivity flourishes. One way to help create this environment is to develop a short list of high-level team expectations. This list of expectations is outcome-oriented, conveying what we as leaders hope to see our teams achieve via their hard work.
Then, TRUST each team to design their own Agile approach, specific to their context, to achieve the desired expectations. Whether we will admit it or not, each team is unique with their own people, situations, and work context.
Just imagine the innovative Agile practices that will emerge! These discoveries can then be shared to other teams and potentially leveraged for the greater good of the company.
An Example
Here is one example of a set of outcome-oriented leadership expectations for a team:
- Maintain a close relationship with the customer
- Improve business outcomes by delivering value early and often
- Adapt quickly to feedback received
- Reduce operating costs by always building with high quality
- Make your work visible, supportive of easily viewing current status
- Be able to roughly predict when new functionality will be ready
- Grow internal knowledge and understanding
- Experiment, fail fast, and learn as you go
Wrap
If leaders will provide a short list of outcome-oriented expectations, our teams will be empowered to design their own Agile approach. Allowing teams to design their own Agile approach leads to higher levels of team empowerment, greater agility innovation within the company, and better business outcomes.
So much better than a corporate-wide Agile approach consistency where “every team must follow the same Agile framework”.
Read more here. Read more about the Agile Manifesto here.
References
- Agile Manifesto, “We value individuals and interactions over processes and tools”
- Agile Software Development Ecosystems, Jim Highsmith, chapter 25 “Designing Your Agile Methodology”
- Agile for Non-Software Teams, Gil Broza, chapter 8 “Design Your Initial Way of Working”
- Creating Great Teams, Sandy Mamoli and David Mole, chapter 5 “After Self-Selection: Now What?”