Tag Archives: autonomous teams

Three reasons why agile employers should put emphasis on talent

Working agile has a lot of advantages. For one, it is attractive to the so sought-after newest generation of employees. But one side effect of it seems to be that it gets harder and harder to retain the employees for more than a couple of years. I see this in my everyday practice as a consultant in agile environments. It helps a lot, however, if the employer give room for development of talent instead of expecting people to fit the mold of the job description in all aspects.

Three reasons why agile employers should focus more on unique talents than the job description:

  1. The team results will be better
    • People make the difference when they do what they love, are enthusiastic about and excel in
    • People do not make their most impact while trying to get better at their weak points from the job description
    • Within an Agile working environment, people are working in teams
    • Teams can optimize the workload in such way that each member uses their unique talent as much as possible, while making sure that every bit of the job gets done (cooperational excellence!)
    • Helping employees to discover their unique talents will pay off in a big way – the whole team will perform better!
  2. Employees get more energy and enjoyment from the job
    • Doing what you love to do while making it look easy – everyone would love to work like that every day
    • To achieve this, one must know her/his own talents and how those can be applied within the job
    • Employers should actively stimulate employees to discover their unique talents and help them understand in which aspects of the job those talents will shine
  3. Employees will find the job challenging and exciting for a longer period of time
    • After the first year or so your employees will know their own talent and how to use it in the job
    • The challenge and room for personal growth will then shift towards cooperating with the other team members
    • Acknowledging the talent of others sometimes requires that you accept and recognize that you yourself can’t that at that high level – even if it is part of your job description
    • Cooperation with different talents form your own requires empathy and genuine interest in the people you work with
    • Personal growth comes from daring to be vulnerable in cooperation with others
    • A strong team with lots of room for personal growth will keep your employees longer on board

Recently, I’ve had the privilege to work at an agile-working fintech scale-up. A very inspiring environment, but even here I saw that strong growth had shifted the emphasis somewhat from entrepreneurial ‘hands-on’ and ‘let’s see what works’ to ‘do your job’. Just a slight change in style of management makes all the difference in bringing back the fun of experimenting and giving room for talent. I will share some of my experiences in one of my next blogs.

Agile for sales, Super7 for sales: the change towards lean sales teams

Agile for sales or Super7 for sales – implementing lean teamwork has great potential for sales effectiveness. In a lean team, individuals can spend a larger share of their time on what they excel in. And it is this excellence that delivers results.

A sales team that truly works together will sell more than the same number of efficient sales agents working independently. Great successes have been achieved in financial services with lean-based ways of working. Agile and Super7 Operations are perhaps the most well-known examples of this. And now, within financial services, experiments are starting with lean-based teamwork in sales.

The required change seems quite big, as sales agents were rewarded for their individual success up to now. This resulted in what I like to call a “lone hero culture”, where successful individuals were valued over team players. In a lean team, team members are willing and able to help each other. The culture will become that of a learning organization. And the team continuously improves on their cooperation and effectiveness, striving towards outsourcing everything but excellence.

Recently, I was invited to a brain storm session on how this Dutch bank can transform its sales organization towards lean sales teams. Together with an expert consultant in sales effectiveness, an Agile Coach, Super7 practitioners and sales managers, we designed the outline for lean sales teams on the basis of our Agile and Super7 Operations experiences. I expect that experiments will start soon and I’m looking forward to seeing the results.
Menno R. van Dijk

There is an I in teamwork!

Don’t conform, be an individual – especially when you are part of a team. You are of most value for your team if you perform at your own best. And this won’t happen if you conform to what others think you should do. You will be of value for your team when you use your talents, not your job description. And when you give your drive and energy to your team, not just your time.

More and more companies are becoming team-based nowadays. Health care, for instance, is one sector that is applying autonomous teams at a large scale. And which software isn’t yet being developed by scrum teams in sprints? Super7 teams have replaced the old-fashioned back-office. And now entire traditional companies are changing into Agile Organizations, complete with Squads, Tribes and Chapters.

What does this shift towards teamwork mean for the individual employees – for you, as a team member? As an individual, you are often expected to perform as assigned, just like a robots are expected to. But we are much more than just beings that can perform tasks. We have a huge untapped potential that we can bring to the equation, like creative ideas, positivity, advice, hope, support, etc. In order to be of optimal value in a team, you have to know what value you can bring to the team. This means knowing your talents and personal values. Who you are, who you can become, and what you are potentially especially good at. And knowing how you can deliver on these talents – how you can become productive. It is important to have clear goals for yourself, goals that are in line with the goals of your team. And above all, you should keep improving how you manage yourself, your own development, your own productivity, your time and energy.

When I look at what is demanded of the individual in these teams, I feel that there should be more attention for the individual in team-based organizations. Coaching will become crucial on this matter. Not only coaching at team level (e.g. agile coaches), not only on subject matter (e.g. chapter lead coaching) but even more so coaching to unleash the full potential of an individual. Without the right nurture of the individual, we’re just settling for suboptimal results. With the right coaching, dormant individual potential will empower the realization of our team-goals.

And, did you know that you can find an actual letter “i” within the word “TEAM”? You may have to use your imagination a bit, but look at the negative space within the A – do you see it?

Menno R. van Dijk, with the help of Chi Lung Yung the author of ProductiviChi