To build agile teams, these methods are indispensable

I had a client before , His experience is actually quite interesting ： This customer has been trying to improve the efficiency of his project team , But many attempts have been made , Such as performance incentive or internal examination , It's no use saying , Even the effect is not very significant . While chatting , In fact, you will find that his project team has a big drawback ： The members of the group are unstable , That is, the members of the project team will be exchanged at a certain time . There are many problems like this in the team , So we really need to build an agile team , Still have to pay attention to the following methods ：

1. Team building should be cross functional and stable

General teams are divided according to their functional roles , Before each project , Among the various teams, some people are transferred to form the team of the project team . Then the project team members return to their respective teams after the project , This unstable membership change will greatly affect the progress of the project . At the beginning of each project , It also means that some people need to run in with each other 、 Collision , When everyone is running in the same , The project is over again . under these circumstances , High turnover , Natural efficiency is not high . therefore , Agile teams First of all, we need to meet “ Stable ” a , There will be no major changes in the members of the team , This will avoid the increase of communication costs and collaboration costs .

secondly , Agile teams need to be cross functional . actually , Agile teams are made up of many people from different functional areas . The biggest feature of such a team is that the members of the team are not only from multiple functional areas , You can also play multiple roles , When there are personnel changes or uncontrollable events in the team , Someone can take over the vacant function at any time . in other words , The function vacancy can be coordinated and solved within the team 、 Time is tight 、 Slow progress of the project .

2. choose T Type talent

T Type talent refers to a new type of talent distinguished by knowledge structure . “—” This kind of talent has a wide range of knowledge , “|” Indicates the depth of knowledge possessed by talents . simply ,T Type talents are those who can specialize in their own specialties , And be able to dabble in other people's majors . Here we should avoid a misunderstanding ： Not members of a cross functional team have and are proficient in various skills . After all, the cost of learning is huge , Make every member of the team proficient in all skills , Basically impossible task .

3. Get to know the team members

In addition to management process , The more important thing is to manage people . Everyone has advantages and disadvantages , Agile team members are no exception . As a team manager , You need to clearly understand the strengths and weaknesses of team members , To better allocate tasks to promote the successful delivery of the project .

4. Promote effective collaboration 、 communicate

There are many forms of communication between teams ： venting 、 written words / Online communication 、 Face to face communication 、 body language …… How can we cooperate effectively 、 communicate ？ There are several ways ：

• Listen patiently ： Listening is the premise of communication , adopt “ Listen for - understand - feedback ” The form of can better help the communication between members 、 Collaboration ;
• Frequent communication ： For example, you can communicate your work progress through daily meetings ; Shorten communication distance through centralized office ; Reduce communication costs through face-to-face ……
• Collaboration tool ： adopt ZenTao A class of collaborative management tools , Be able to visualize the progress of team members , Promote efficient collaboration .

5. Stay goal oriented

Turn agile teams to goal orientation , This means that the whole team should always pay close attention to their goals . At this time, we should pay attention to the initiative and consciousness of employees , It can be considered to pass OKR To achieve goal orientation ： By setting goals and a series of key results, shift the focus of team members to the goals the team wants to achieve .

6. Embrace open feedback 、 Self managing culture

Encourage members of the team to actively identify 、 Problems in feedback iteration , Establish a positive feedback 、 Awareness of positive improvement . Without management involvement , Agile teams can also organize themselves 、 Self planning to control the overall progress . At the retrospective meeting , Agile teams can collect periodic feedback and constructive opinions in various forms , Adjust the direction and plan of the next iteration in time .

7. Promote learning from mistakes

Encourage team members to grow in failure . Agile team is not a perfect or infallible team , But agile teams encourage people to keep trying and making mistakes , And learn from it . This is not to emphasize trial and error on the basis of no rules , Agile teams need to define some simple rules first , such as ： Set a goal for each iteration , To deliver a certain product increment ; Add daily station meetings to synchronize work progress ; Carry out iteration review meeting, etc . On the basis of this simple rule , Teams can identify and remove obstacles , Improve your way of working faster , Respond more quickly to feedback from work .

Building an agile team is actually a complex process , I hope the above methods can reduce the obstacles you encounter in the process of building an agile team .

Article history ：

• Scrum Master Checklist for
• How the team limits the appropriate WIP （WIP） Number
• Kanban Quick Start Guide