Improving Organizations with Agility

Mike Griffiths is an experienced project manager, author and consultant who works for PMI as a subject matter expert. Before joining PMI, Mike consulted and managed innovation and technology projects throughout Europe, North and South America for 30+ years. He was co-lead for the PMBOK Guide—Seventh Edition, lead for the Agile Practice Guide, and contributor to the PMI-ACP and PMP exam content outlines. Outside of PMI, Mike maintains the websites www.LeadingAnswers.com about leading teams and www.PMillustrated.com, which teaches project management for visual learners.

  Agile   Estimating   Organizational Project Management  

The difference between effective, successful organizations and those that struggle is often not their product, financing or even how smart their people are. It comes down to culture and their ability to work together cohesively. Agile teams that use empowered teams can teach organizations many useful lessons to help overcome common dysfunctions.

In Patrick Lencioni’s classic leadership fable The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, he outlines a series of failures that start small and seemingly innocuously, but build incrementally to create major failures few organizations can overcome. It starts with an “1) Absence of Trust,” an unwillingness to be vulnerable within the group and admit when you do not know something or have made a mistake. People must be open about mistakes and weaknesses to build a foundation of trust. As my first, crotchety PM used to say: “We have two hands to work with, if you are using one hand to cover your rear, we can only go at half speed.” In other words, we need a trusting environment to truly commit and try our best at work. Fear of failure or ridicule will severely hamper progress.

When there is this absence of trust, it is all too easy for the next dysfunction, “2) Fear of Conflict,” to occur. When teams lack trust, they cannot engage in unfiltered debate; instead, they resort to veiled discussions and …

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