The Agile Pocket Guide: A Quick Start to Making Your Business Agile Using Scrum and Beyond

Chapter 17

Team and Business Cultural Dynamics—Team Science™

Business leaders, executives, and managers must understand that team and business culture affect productivity, sustainability, and employee satisfaction. We are no longer in the manufacturing age where each employee is simply a cog in a big wheel. As a Leader, you hired people for their problem-solving abilities, technical aptitude, and fit; not for their good looks (I hope).

You want to ensure that each team has been enabled, equipped, and designed optimally. You want to ensure that each team member communicates, collaborates, and works well with others. Finally, you want to make sure that all impediments to productivity and cultural dysfunctions are removed.

How is it possible to do all this and create high-performing teams? The best way that I've found is through a cultural and team assessment. As a business transformation coach and manager, I want to know where there are gaps within team collaboration and communication. I want to understand how to engage intentionally with each team member and how to optimize each team member's potential, or strengths. When I say that I want companies to hire the right candidates and have the right levers to pull when building new or augmenting existing teams, I am not talking about resumes and recommendations. I want to definitively know whether candidates are exactly the right cultural fit for my company and team.

I've used several assessments in the past that have fallen flat on ...