When the team self-organizes, the manager needs to step back, but not too far back; she needs to step in, but not to quickly.My article on the manager’s role in self-organizing teams is on the cover of Better Software Magazine and available on-line here. (link...
Jim Sowers asked for more information on team renewal.Here are some reasons teams need renewal.Over time, work that was initially a challenging learning experience becomes routine. Life circumstances change and some team members need to focus their energy in a...
George Dinwiddie has posted his notes from one of my AYE 2008 sessions, Magic Chemistry of Teams.During the session, I asked people to draw a time line that represented their experiences working on teams, then, working in small groups, identify the factors that were...
Many organizations have a model that feedback rolls down hill. The VPs give feedback to the Directors that report to them. Directors give feedback to the Managers. Managers give feedback to developers. It all cascades downward.A manager’s job is to create an...
I know it’s not sexy to pay attention to making meetings run better. It’s more fun to dig into tools and technology. But the truth is that an teams and companies waste an enormous amount of time in poorly run meetings. But, we need to pay attention to the...
I attended an Organizational Change BoF last evening at the AYE conference. Among other things, we talked about why it is that some managers fail to act when there are many signs of big problems. I see three conditions that are prequisites for change (at any level):...
A friend forwarded this email to me:I just wanted to share a tip that has made a world of difference for our scrum. I read through this book about 4 months ago And have implemented some of the practices in it. This has taken our retrospectives from being a 1 hour...
I still hear about managers taking teams on ropes courses and splat ball courses for “trust building.”It doesn’t work. Trust always exists within a context and relates to a specific sphere of action and expertise.So if you want to build trust on a...
Most of the time I hear people talking about trust, they are talking about trust between team members. It’s equally important to have trust between managers and team members. In fact, the relationship between an employee and his/her manager consistently shows up...
It’s a truism that trust is the foundation of teamwork.But trust is a big word. What do we really mean when we talk about trust?First, trust exists within a context. The sort of trust that you need for a productive working relationship is different from the trust you...
