From Turkeys to Agile Eagles

Michael Aucoin, D. Engr., PE, PMP is president of Leading Edge Management, LLC in College Station, Texas and author of Right-Brain Project Management: A Complementary Approach. He can be reached at [email protected].

  Agile   Communications Management   Diversity   Organizational Culture  

A recent study by the University of Phoenix found that 76 percent of those surveyed would rather work alone than in teams, even though 95 percent said that teams serve an important role in the workplace.

Let those numbers sink in for a moment. While there is almost unanimous agreement on the importance of teams, the vast majority of people don’t like to belong to them. There is a mismatch between the ideal of a team and the reality of a team. This study raises a loud warning for you and your agile team, one you must address proactively, because an agile project succeeds or fails on the health of the team.

To explain their position, the 76 percent may recall the line, “It’s hard to soar like an eagle when you work with turkeys.” It is unfortunate that the proverb is meant to be condescending because it conveys an important truth. To convert turkeys to eagles, we must surgically remove detrimental ballast and sculpt powerful wings. The key element in this process is a powerful tool called the Group Communication and Conflict Resolution (GCCR) Plan.

Why do people find team work distasteful? I think three reasons predominate in the mind of the self-styled eagle that believes there are turkeys all around:

• “I do most of the work, while others do too little.”
• “We spin our wheels and not much gets done.”
• …

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