5 Ways to Help Your Team Become More Agile
Adopting Agile fully is a big step, one that requires buy-in from all members of an Organization or Team for it to be truly successful. We understand that’s not an easy or quick process. That’s why we can help you implement some small but impactful changes right now that don’t require certifications, extensive education, or Leadership approval.
Set priorities and goals for the year
If your Team hasn’t already done so, now is the time to get together (either in person or virtually) and define what we are doing and why we are doing it. Agile focuses on setting a larger Vision, then breaking that Vision down and outlining details with incremental development. Then throughout the year, you need to ask, “Are we focused on adding business value back to our Organization? Will what we are doing really make a difference? Is it the right thing to do?”
Be more transparent with tasks
For any Team, honesty really is the best policy. When you build transparency into your Team, you are fostering open discussions about what the goal is for the Team at large, what the ideas are for getting there, and how the Team as a whole will be reaching these goals. Here’s a blog post all about building transparency within your Organization.
Do a Retrospective
If this is a new term for you, a Retrospective is when a Team reflects on how they worked together, focusing on what worked well and what needs to change to improve the Team. At the conclusion of the retro, the Team leaves the room with specific, actionable next steps that, when implemented, will improve their performance as a Team. While this is a Scrum term, Retrospectives are beneficial for any group of people who work closely together. You can watch a webinar for beginners on how to conduct a Retrospective here.
Set working agreements
Working agreements are a set of guidelines created by the Team that set expectations for the shared working environment. It’s a collaborative exercise that’s meant to create open communication. Examples of working agreements are camera usage on Zoom calls, best methods of communication during the workday. If you have a list of working agreements, pull it out and go through item by item to see what can stay and what needs to be revisited. If you don’t have one, here’s a blog post that explains more about them!
Hold better meetings
A badly-run meeting is not only annoying and unproductive, but it can also contribute to the stress of the Team. Good meetings have strong facilitators who create an agenda so people can come prepared, have a segue question to get everyone involved in the meeting, have a clear objective to explain why everyone is there, invites the decision-makers, sticks to the timebox, and creates action items for everyone to leave with. You can read more tips in our blog post on how to facilitate meetings.
]]>
