Episode 34 – Team LIfe III – Creating Compelling Cultures

In environments where we can’t control how the team is composed, how can we control the team’s attitude, commitment and performance?   The culture you create has a lot to do with it.

• We think incorrectly about teams.  The way the team functions is perhaps more important than any other component of agile.  If the team is not bonded, aligned and committed, they’re not going to accept agile principles or scrum techniques, and it probably wouldn’t help much if they did.
• Although teams are made of primarily non-leadership people, organizational leadership alone determines the health of the team
• The leaders create the culture that allows the team to function well, or to condemn it to failure
• Teams need the same things all individuals need – to be Safe, Free, and Supported
• As an agile leader, you can help promote this by creating a Team Creed
• Team Creed can include the teams purpose, but also our code of conduct or behaviours
• The creed should be advanced by the agile leader as a template and baseline, but evolved by the team to help buy-in