Watching a team form
Over the past weeks I’ve been watching a team form. Its been a joyful experience. They’ve gone from being a set of individuals with no commitment to each other and very little trust to a true team that trusts each other’s expertise and motivations.
I think that a few things have helped this particular team form:
- The team members realising that while they worried about each other the project was getting late.
- The addition of a new team member who shook up the existing relationships enough to allow the team to re-form.
- The acknowledgement and recognition by the team that it was up to them and that they have the freedom to decide how they will do their work. Nobody else was going to do it for them.
- The injection of some agile management principles and ideas (courtesy of Crystal Clear).
The new team member is going on a long holiday in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, this won’t drop the team back into its old habits. I’ll keep you posted.
P.S. Perhaps someone should phone Steve Yegge and ask for his opinion on whether this is good agile or bad agile. I guess it must be bad agile since I don’t work at Google. 