Author: Michael Bentein
Using LEGO® to find the unspoken rules of engagement that affect poor performance in your teams
The best friendships are found when people share interests & values, have great communication and have aligned “rules” of engagement with the depth of friendship highly correlated to the match between the secret invisible criteria and drives of people. In professional teams these “rules” of engagement and secret criteria also exist and are often not communicated. Often causing frustration, poor performance, lack of teamwork and...
Fishing for Flow and Peak performance
Does flow exist in teams? Can it lead to peak performances in teams? My first realisation of ‘Flow’ at work was as a developer. I was deeply engrossed in trying to fine tune an optimization method when I started to realise something was ‘wrong’. I felt a prickly feeling in my neck and shoulders that seemed to want to get my attention. Breaking loose from...
Retrospective : Cross-functional team ecocycle
Object of Play Cross functional teams are a basic building block of high performing agile teams. They are essentially a group of people from different areas of expertise working together to achieve a common goal. The main idea is that the assembly of different skills and knowledge will cultivate innovative solutions. But, just because you group a bunch of people together, it doesn’t mean things...
The 5 liberating whys
Object of Play Some teams are struggling with re-enforcing behaviors and can’t seem to find why they can’t find the cause. If teams seem unable to reach the goal for their iteration, it’s good to go hunting for root causes. The 5 why’s technique was formally developed in the 1930s by Sakichi Toyoda, one of the fathers of the Japanese industrial revolution. Here is...
Retro : Reboot Required
Some teams are new in the world of Agile and still have to discover the extent of self-organization and control they have. This retrospective looks at the zones of control of a team and finds ways to increase the things they can control via ALTernate solutions. Purposes : Have people discover their individual and collective power Reveal bottom-up solutions Share actionable ideas and help one...