| Most of business is nothing more than a cooperative (and competitive!) game of invention and communication. This means that the chapters on the impossibility of communication, quirks and motivators of individuals, and rules of teams all apply directly. Consider doing the following: Reread the Declaration of Interdependence slowly, one phrase at a time. Ask yourself what stops you from incorporating each clause (a few may prove inapplicable). Ask yourself what your core operating principles are; keep the number to three, four, or five. Determine whether those core principles are captured there, and, if not, what you would need to add. Improve the quality of your team by paying close attention to goodwill in the communications and the quality of the community. The speed of the team is limited by the speed at which ideas move (plus, not to forget, the talent present). Anything that slows the movement of ideas slows the progress of the team. Hold a reflection workshop once a month, no matter what business you are in. Discuss your team's operating conventions, what is slowing the team down, and what it might try to do differently. Track ongoing problems, because those may need to be escalated to higher management for resolution. Revisit your vendor contracts. Incorporate the idea "They are also us." As long as you treat your supply chain as them, it slows the rate of critical feedback, the movement of ideas, and your business. Try some friendly competition inside your team, making sure to hand out interesting rewards at the end. You will probably do better if you don't make the competition directly affect the team's output, because people will try to cheat the system. Ideally, when they collude and cheat, they should improve, not hurt, your total output. Revisit the 2D Crystal grid of projects (the one showing team size and criticality) and the sweet spots of agile development. Wherever you can reduce team size, collocate the team, or get faster feedback, you have a chance to reduce communication and coordination overhead. Find opportunities to get "small wins." Even just a few to start with will make the team stronger and more robust, improve morale and community, and give you chances to tune both the direction you are headed and the operating conventions the team is using to get there.
Small wins plus periodic reflection are as close to being a magic sauce as I know. Make them part of your core. |
