Changing Software Development: Learning to Become Agile

1.7. Authority and Leadership

One question that inevitably pops up when discussing change is: Do I have the authority to introduce change?

This book will argue that change and learning are merely different sides of the same coin, in which case we could rephrase the original question as follows: Do I have the authority to enhance learning? This is a much less confrontational question and one that it is perhaps easier to answer Yes.

A much more difficult question to answer is: Does having authority make it easier to introduce change and enhance learning? Before you rush to answer, consider two facts. Firstly, as already noted, knowledge workers don't like being told what to do. So even if you can order someone to do something, you might not get the results that you wanted.

Secondly, people tend to work better when they're doing something that they want to do. Individuals who choose to do something voluntarily are more enthusiastic, and consequently more productive, more likely to do it well and happier overall.

Consequently, even if you do have a position in the organizational hierarchy that allows you to tell others to do something, you might be better off finding an alternative.Rather than exercising authority, it is better to exercise leadership and towork with people's own motivations. The subject of leadership is itself vastand isn't one that I intend to deal with in depth here. Suffice to say, a position of authority doesn'tmake you a leader: it does, however, confer on you ...