Succeeding with Agile

Energize the System

Teams and organizations rely on energy. Unless energy is pumped in, the team or organization will suffer from entropy. Managers and leaders provide the energy that sustains self-organization and evolution by inspiring and challenging employees. Challenges create gaps between a product’s current state and one that is envisioned, or between a group’s current and desired levels of performance. When a group is inspired to accept a challenge, it self-organizes around how to achieve it.

In their book Teamwork, Larson and LaFasto focus on the power of presenting a team with a “clear, elevating goal” (1989, 27). In Hot Spots, Lynda Gratton came to a similar conclusion, saying that high-performing teams need an “igniting purpose” ...