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There is no ‘I' in team

By Ivan Bartolo

Agility is dependent on people. Thus what makes an individual Agile? When you form part of a team and are working on team building remember that the word TEAM does not include the letter I.

Therefore the question comes up: Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for the team's sake? Is the team being driven by ‘I' or by what is important for the team? It is all about what you give not what you take.

Henry Ford once said: "Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." That is the secret to building a team.

Another question you should ask yourself is: "Are you a person who embraces a blame culture?" "Are you honest?" "Do you envy others?" "Are you always right?"

If the answer to one of these questions is "yes" then you will never be an Agile person. In other words to be Agile you must be honest; don't be envious of others;, never blame others and remember that you are not always right. To sum it all up it is a question of attitude.

If you had to take the alphabet and apply the formula A=1% and Z=26%:

Honest = 81%

Envy = 66%

Blame = 33%

Right = 62%

Attitude = 100%.

This is what you have to strive to achieve on behalf of the team. And if anyone says they are giving a 103% to the team then they are bluffing their way through.

If you go back to the formula you will find that Bullshit = 103%.

Following are some practical steps you should take when building a team:

·         Once you form a team encourage a storm.

·         Once you find where you fit in a team you norm.

·         Once you norm you perform

·         If the team is dismantled you mourn.

In a team activity is collective. It is important that you secure team stability because this helps you to retain knowledge. And since you form part of a team you must enable and encourage people to use their brain.

This will help you to secure:

·         Motivation

·         Speed

·         Creativity

·         Communication

In other words the attributes of leading a dynamic team are:

·         Attitude = 100%

·         To give 100% you have to make sure that you can trust and be trusted

·         You have to be focused on continuous improvement of yourself and your team

·         You must understand your role and be responsible, you must be honest, multi-skilled, have good communication and writing skills and you must be able to ask questions.

This is the secret of setting up an Agile team and for you to be Agile.