To protect the not-so-innocent, the names in this Agile story are redacted!
A bank manager wanted to use Agile methods to improve how his executive team worked. He set up a board with sticky notes that his team would move as they finished tasks.
However, the sticky notes didn’t move very fast.
The main issue was the bank’s bureaucratic system, which made it impossible for people to be fast and flexible.
Bureaucracy Is The Enemy:
Bureaucracy is best described as a hierarchy of heroes, working best by breaking the process down into repetitive mundane tasks, where the heroes protect the mundane with their political careers.
In these environments, conflict and chaos happen when you break “the way things are done”.
But the world is moving fast for this approach. True agility lies in quick decision-making and adapting quickly through collaboration.
Teraflow’s Agile Approach to Leverage Yourself
Personal growth comes from making more decisions, and the more decisions data points you have, the faster you learn about yourself and what works, building wisdom and insight through understanding.
Our squad approach is designed to create a decentralised decision-making framework. By placing the customer problem at the squad’s heart, each squad is decision-making is guided by the problem you are solving.
Sprint 0 is designed for us to build working agreements on what needs to be done and how to about it. Sprint 0 decisions are “bigger” than delivery decisions, which is where we get into the rhythm of our delivery sprint.
For this to work, we need two things: Trust and Structure.
Let’s start with trust!
We all make bad decisions, but for you to make decisions, you need to know you will be supported when you do make bad ones! You need to trust this process which will give you the confidence to make decisions.
These decisions are easier when you know what you are responsible for, learning from your mistakes and improving next time.
This is why structure is so important.
Squad-Based Structure That Delivers Through FloJo MoJo
To help you make better decisions, we need to put some form of limitations to guide you.
This is why we created Flojo, where:
- Flojo is our process and structure that defines how we do things.
- It provides a consistent approach, which builds momentum.
- And is designed to support you by giving you boundaries and guidance.
As mentioned above, Sprint 0 is the problem qualification framework, where we agree on who needs to do what, making the delivery process easier.
We know what needs to be done and by when. You have clearly defined boundaries around what you need to do, and this helps you make better decisions.
Of course, we won’t always be able to get this working in our ideal way – and this is where we have to be flexible and open to change.
But here is the simple truth: we can make better decisions if we trust each other’s skills, collaborate, and share information.
