Most organisations cite culture as their biggest challenge with Agile transformation and even mature teams, but what does that mean? Top of the list is usually the ability to self-organise, followed by cross-skilling and then it’s getting behind organisational goals. That’s before we even talk about demonstrating ROI on the work they do.
There’s so much more to Agile than meets the eye – working with Agile frameworks and transitioning to a higher degree of business agility isn’t easy. Identifying impediments and challenging our working practices can be painful. We just don’t want to go there. As a result, most organisations don’t get the benefits they expect.
Here’s the thing - high-performing teams aren’t created within the confines of a training room, nor from applying even the best of textbook theories. When the training ends, the real work begins. We need to create a growth culture to enable and inspire teams to use their new skills and practices.
First let's tackle a “biggie”: self-organising teams. Command & control style management is so passé: it works in simple situations where procedural work means people mustn’t deviate from the known process but fails in the context of today’s increasingly complex environments. Modern leaders are actually more concerned about managing their culture than their people.
Research tells us they need high levels of autonomy; the ability to self-organise, collaborate and develop a greater sense of shared commitment. But that doesn’t happen overnight. Teams need support and guidance, with tangible feedback.
Teams are on a journey and they need help to get there.
Leaders need to understand where they are and the stance to take at that stage.
Here’s where Performalise really adds value. The Ceremonies are guide rails, Confidence Ratings and Polls means you can see exactly how people are feeling and growing. And even better, it shows in the Dashboards!
We’ll talk about Skills management and motivation in other posts. But before then ask yourself: do you have the environment and support tools in place to enable guided self-organisation and learning? It's crucial if you really want high performance.
Performalise – your teams deserve it!