Top 3 takeaways:
- Agile environments in large organisations are unique and require effective leadership from management
- Management operates on transactional leadership; creates conflicts with Agile principles of empowerment
- It is possible for Agile teams to influence upwards; it is possible for management to adopt Agile successfully
Slide 1 – Leadership is everything that comes to mind when you say the word; people, principles, inspiration and more
Slide 2 – Agile and leadership go well together; empowering self-organising teams in the workplace is effective leadership
Slide 3 – However, large organisations have structures called management to control large groups which operate on “transactional leadership”
Slide 4 – Progressive Agile practitioners and traditional line managers in large organisations work together but operate on different principles
Slide 5 – We don’t know enough about the “coder behind the code”, but Agile values individuals over processes; we need more social thinking in IT
Slide 6 – Live in the grey! Large corporates are confusing and shifting worlds; be flexible, negotiate and try not to take a strong position
Slide 7 – An agile sprint (and scrum) is a simple sporting analogy for business people to understand – don’t lose the power of ruthless simplicity
Slide 8 – Beware the innovator’s dilemma; don’t treat Agile as requiring protection like Saturn at General Motors – integrate it in the host quickly
Slide 9 – Past New York mayor Rudy Giuliani led the city with a daily stand up meeting – he attributes post 9/11 success to this practice
Slide 10 – More Leadership Insights for IT professionals at my blog – People and Technology have changed; have you?
Picture credits: Shutterstock, Bigstock
I think it’s important that an organisation and the leadership of that organisation understands the principles of Agile and realise what the benefits are. The true advantage of following the Agile methodology is to support the principle of being Agile in business and being competitive in the market.
Very true! The challenge for Agile teams is how to educate the leadership and demonstrate the benefits to achieve that buy-in
That is the benefit of being Agile, you would be able to give business the benefit after the first release rather than waiting till the end of the project!