agile - Articles - PMLink.com2024-03-28T13:26:40Zhttps://pmlink.com/articles/feed/tag/agileAccountability to enable your teams to get out of the Agile limbo…https://pmlink.com/articles/accountability-to-enable-your-teams-to-get-out-of-the-agile-limbo2020-08-04T18:58:46.000Z2020-08-04T18:58:46.000ZEduardo Martins, PMP, DALSMhttps://pmlink.com/members/EduardoMartinsPMPDALSM<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/7223150457?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><div class="reader-article-content" dir="ltr">
<p>For those who have been following me, it is time to talk about the second most important Agile value that is liberating to get your teams out of the Agile Limbo —ACCOUNTABILITY! If you still do not know what I am talking about here, this means you might be inside it! So, I recommend you to check my original article in this series, <a href="https://pmlink.com/articles/are-you-agile-limbo">Are you in an Agile Limbo</a>, that gives you a first clue on diagnosing why your teams are not performing.</p>
<p>OK, getting back to today’s topic, all starts with the answers to the questions we ask our teams here, right? — Do you know what you are accountable for? If the answer points you to a routine, any routine like I am accountable for my tickets inside my sprint… This means you need to work hard to get out of it! And WHY it is important for everyone in your team to feel accountable? Because in Agile, Accountability means OWNERSHIP, means that giving something for someone to own is the only way to make them outperform, to make them think out of the box, to make them want that so badly, that they care, and when they start caring for things that are tied to a company goal via MOTIVATION, then magic happens! </p>
<p>Some would say OK Eduardo, again nice words, magic clicks… But feels a little abstract to me. How I can give something for these guys to own if they do not know what I am talking about. Here we go, pointing in the right direction... Start from the top, do you know what are YOU accountable for in the company? You as an Agile leader, really know what you OWN inside the company? You do not own just a team, just a process, just a formal structure, you need to own WHAT transform your company VISION into achievable goals. Remember the links we talked about in the <a href="https://pmlink.com/articles/the-power-of-motivation-to-get-you-out-of-the-agile-limbo">MOTIVATION article</a>? So start with that… STOP saying I am responsible for a team of 24 people that runs bi-weekly sprints, and START saying I OWN my company app/service/whatever that enables my customers to REALIZE my company vision! When you and your leadership start to understand that, and they give you the necessary AUTHORITY and FREEDOM to really own it, you are in the right track… You need to OWN what makes your customers happy, and makes them realize the COMPANY vision. And in Agility, this is called the VALUE stream.</p>
<p>Oh, nice! I know I am accountable for the company app/service, and not just a bunch of people, so what? How can I translate that to my teams? I would say that, if you really sorted that out, you are lucky, as the majority of the Agile leaders I saw out there lacked this... You know why? Because this requires TRUST, as trust and AUTHORITY couples together, you can only OWN something if your leadership trusts you to do so, and this is also true for your teams. So, if you think you do not trust your team for getting that far, work on that! Maybe you need better people, maybe you need to train your people to be able to trust them, maybe you just need to let it go! But do it, because only with TRUST you can give people real ownership, and true accountability happens.</p>
<p>If you got here, 80% percent of the work is done! Because just in that state, you are ready to translate that down to your teams. Now start decomposing your teams, give them AUTHORITY to own little parts of the value stream to your customer. In DEV teams, this would mean creating squads/people accountable for parts of the app, but in other areas could be I own customer service, or I own orders delivery. You do not even need to have a decoupled architecture/process for that. Give people power, make clear to the teams exactly what they own! You will see that automatically people will start to improve it, willing to make that happen so badly, they will start to really own it. And not just that little part of it. They will start to understand that they own the results. They own all the parts of the value stream, including the iteration between the teams, what happens with that when this goes live, what happens when a customer complains, and so on… And when you have teams after teams, really owning their things, yes man, I will say it again, magic happens!</p>
<p>So, are you ready to use Accountability to enable your teams, and get them out of the Agile Limbo? — Let me know in the comments below.</p>
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</div></div>Are you in an Agile Limbo?https://pmlink.com/articles/are-you-agile-limbo2020-07-15T15:33:24.000Z2020-07-15T15:33:24.000ZEduardo Martins, PMP, DALSMhttps://pmlink.com/members/EduardoMartinsPMPDALSM<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/6907186494?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Are you using an established Agile framework in your company, but you feel things got stuck and you cannot improve your teams? Sprint by sprint you think things got mechanic, and no real WOW? — Here are the questions to ask to check to diagnose if you are in an Agile Limbo, and how to avoid it. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;">First of all, let me introduce myself, my name is Eduardo Martins and I am a project manager with more than 15 years of consulting experience delivering projects/programs to all kinds of companies worldwide. I am also an Agilist by heart, passionate about empowering and improving teams. This is the first, of hopefully a series of articles, I intend to write. This comes from the desire to share and enhance knowledge, and like everything in life, comes from my experience of many years living these situations, and may not be your case. Regardless many years of the Agile manifesto, I still see awkward situations in the corporate environment, from startups to big companies, regardless what method they use: SCRUM, KANBAN, SCRUMBAN, etc. — all seem to be compelled to reproduce a single repeatable process, with a lot of set timeboxes and ceremonies, and from there… nothing! So no more delays, here are the questions you need to ask your teams...</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Do you know WHY we are doing this? — If the answer starts with… Because I was told Because you are boss or Because this is what I am here for, you are on the wrong path. Any of these combinations tell your team really does not know the reason they are doing something, so imagine improving it… NEVER underestimate the power of WHY, it is in the root of everything we do, we always are motivated BECAUSE of something, so if you or someone in your team is motivated JUST by money, something is wrong here… Make sure the motivation is CLEAR for everyone, and that everyone can be motivated by this company goal. Sometimes, it is better to have a smaller team of motivated people than a big team, what can I say… in a Limbo…</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Do you know what you are accountable for? — If the answer starts with… I just do my JIRA tickets or I just code/test my stuff, you are in the wrong path again… ACCOUNTABILITY is one of the elements to unleash the power of your teams, and if people do not know what they are accountable for, you are in trouble. The majority of the issues I encountered in companies came from the fact that everyone thought they were just accountable for that part of the process… True, someone would say, but accountability on an Agile perspective is much more than that, for Agile this means OWNERSHIP. Own some part of the product, the feature, the improvement, whatever you are delivering here. To improve something, people need to be given the power to do so. Start with something simple, as you guys are accountable for this little part of XYZ and will not just build, test, and deploy. Everything happening with XYZ is your responsibility, this is transforming for the teams!</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Do you think you are safe to FAIL here? — If the answer starts with Yes, but I avoid it, or No, we always do it right, not the correct answer again… Teams need to be able to fail safely, otherwise, they will never improve… How we can improve something if you are afraid of doing it wrong? Enhance and Celebrate FAILURES, this is the only way to make sure your team is learning. And focus on the LEARNING part of it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Do you think you have the necessary AUTONOMY to do your job? — If the answer starts with Yes, sure, I have everything I need to keep things right here, or Yes, followed normally with a long pause, you are in trouble again… If you get any No with an explanation, you might be on the right path… Again this comes from the source of Agility. Agile is a PDCA cycle, right? And the CHECK act can only happen if people are allowed to try different things. If you contain your team in a series of steps and mandatory processes, frameworks and code standards they will NEVER try something different, and paraphrasing a popular saying, you cannot expect different results doing the exact same thing, right? Someone would say… Come on, these guys do not even know how to set up the DEV environment, how I can give them freedom? Well, I just have to say, if this is your situation… One of two, either you need to invest in training for your team, or you need to invest in a lot of training for yourself! Good leaders are the ones that let go, that TRUST and GUIDE the teams, and DO NOT confine them into a box. Of course, there are different levels of maturity and learning curves here, but at all levels, you can build this kind of trust and give autonomy.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Well, I think this covers the basics and can give you an understanding of why your teams are not improving, and you are not being able to deliver the Agility promise, get better, and better over time. In the next articles, I will dive deep into each of the Agile values, and how to make them happen for your teams.So, are you on in Agile Limbo? — Share your thoughts and comments below.</span></p>
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