What to tell the Executives – Part 2

Last week I discussed this issue with the Agile-Carolinas group.  Wonderful conversation.  Many great comments.

One thing I was struck by was that there are many many different types of situations.  And that we need to address, possibly, many different things, depending on the situation (including the people).

In the session, I focused on the “3 Asks”.  It is one thing to talk at the Executives (I tease myself for this).  But you make it more real for them if you ask them to DO something.

So, in my discussions, I have asked them to act on 3 ideas:

1. Much less WIP (work in process)
2. Support real teams
3. Help remove impediments

Oddly, but also rather appropriately, I was asked what a ‘real team’ is.  And that indeed is the problem.  Lots of people use the word ‘team’ for about any collection of people.  They use the word loosely, with no real definition.  But in fact a real team is a special situation.  So, I gave a quick definition.  I think I will do a later post here and give Katzenbach and Smith’s definition of a real team.

Again, the deck I used is available here:  http://www.slideshare.net/jhlittle

 

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