Collaboration Mindset
The complexity of collaboration is one of the fundamental reasons teams in an agile organisation are kept small. O(n2) (read: order n squared) to be precise[1]. 7±2 is a commonly accepted size. Decision making is localised to reduce the lines of communication and subsequent delays incurred. However, don’t let the goal of collaboration impact your ability to be productive. Sitting in meetings and talking is not collaboration whereas sitting quietly in a room by yourself can be.
Critical to effective collaboration is transparency of information, decisions, and relationships by default to provide a solid grounding for trust & respect between customers, peers and leaders. All individuals have the ability to know what is going on so that they can make appropriate decisions. This doesn't mean that everyone knows everything but that individuals have the choice of knowing anything. And, of course, the ability to be opaque to the competition while being transparent internally is the real art of a Collaboration Mindset.
There are many tools and practices that you can adopt to improve how your teams collaborate. For example, social contracts, pair programming (or pair work outside IT), and visualisation tools (like Kanban Boards, Burndown Charts or Cumulative Flow Diagrams).
Collaboration with External Organisations[edit | edit source]
Collaboration is complex enough inside an organisation. Once you include external organisations with a completely separate culture it becomes significantly harder. Collaboration techniques like Agile Contracts can significantly help with this.=Insights=
Case Studies[edit source]
- Pair Trading - Collaboration in Finance
- Changing the World of Work
- Sustaining Happiness Once You Have It
- Forming Self-Selected Teams - How to Create Happy, Empowered, and Effective Teams
- Working with Purpose and Agile Mindset in Municipalities
- [email protected]: our journey to be more than a bank
- The Yin and Yang of Speed and Control
- Project Management to Save the Planet
- Open Salaries - From employees to managing partners by Alexey Voronin
- Giving Hope - For Stakeholders, Employees and Clients by Rob Roe
Further Reading[edit source]
- Evan's Theory of Agile Constraints
- Fabiola Eyholzer - TalentSumerization The Employee Experience in Agile Enterprises
- Pia-Maria Thorén - There is only intrinsic motivation
- Marsha Z Shenk - Curiosity is Your Silver Bullet
- What is Business Agility?
- The Hidden Variable
- Agile Contracts
- Agile Mindset by Yves Hanoulle
- Certain Uncertainty by Evan Leybourn
- Business Agility Tastes Like Chocolate by Marsha Shenk
- Diamonds on the Soles of Your Shoes by Gracie Koester
- Everyone Is A Designer by Liam Hutchinson
- Leading with and in tension by Olaf Lewitz
Books & Book Reviews[edit source]
- Reinventing Organisations
- Directing the Agile Organisation
- The Confidence Code
- Company-wide Agility with Beyond Budgeting, Open Space & Sociocracy
- To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others
Interviews[edit source]
Supporting Frameworks[edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
Join the Mindset & Culture Community[edit | edit source]
If you'd like to continue the conversation with like minded individuals around Business Agility Culture, join the Business Agility slack community. Specifically the #culture-and-mindset channel.
Library Steward[edit | edit source]
This section is currently un-stewarded. If you have a passion for this space and would like to take ownership for the guidance and insights within, please contact Evan Leybourn. The stewards of the Business Agility Library are leaders in their field and we quite literally couldn't create such amazing content without their support. These people & organisations are leaders in the community and, through their actions and insights, continue to expand the horizon of business agility for us all.
