Whoops! I saved this draft last weekend during Northeast PHP but forgot to click publish….
Hypothesis: Teams we admire need innovation, leverage a trusted process, master teamwork, and enjoy what they do.
Douglas Ross, @getonvelocity
Think of a team you admire, and think about what the characteristics are that make that team successful.
Agile manifesto allows us to share values and principles…
shared values/principles
motivated individuals
sustainable processes
self-organizing teams
(and a few more I didn’t get)
Do more, faster, with less stuff. 
An example – wikispeed
They had innovation
They relied on trusted procs
They mastered teamwork
They have fun working
Secret 1: Innovate
Necessity is the mother of invention innovation.
Lean – Entrepeneurs are everywhere
Be more innovative
Stop wasting people’s time [start saving people time]
Be more successful
Innovate means “to make change, hopefully to improve” not to come up with something ingenious.
How to innovate?
Enable creativity – share the experience, remove communication barriers, “have at it”, JUST SAY YES
Foster participation – Move CEO out of his office for the project room, Enable more ppl to see what’s going on, well-designed space helps team stay focused
Deliver innovation – Innovation is the creation and delivery of new ideas.
About Trusted Process –
Trusted Process is to Team as lighthouse is to ship
Don’t innovate on the trusted process (e.g. don’t nix the daily standup), but innovate how you use that process (e.g. split it up if >10 people).
About Teamwork –
Teamwork is an individual Skill (book recommendation)
Turn dead meetings into productive ones
Treat all team members as leaders. He linked to Virtual Team Productivity – looks interesting.
Teamwork = Leadership. Leading + Following = Teamwork “teach to learn”
Bhutan measures gross national happiness (GNH) – to be more productive!
About having fun working
Talks about Brian Marick’s Ease and Joy – What the Agile Manifesto Left Out
Love, Energy, Audacity, Proof (LEAP) Leadership – Steve Farber
Happiness Metric – Jeff Sutherland (a founder of SCRUM) – www.happinessmetrics.com
and http://scrum.jeffsutherland.com/2010/11/happiness-metric-wave-of-future.html
HBR article just published, happy employees are more productive
http://youtu.be/GXy__kBVq1M – The happiness advantage
positive minded ppl are more productive – Shawn Anchor
Having fun doing work is different from having fun *at* work. e.g. make your demo like an “expo hall” – simultaneous demos, etc. Opportunity to have fun DURING work.
5 routines to add to your workday for max productivity – rediculouslyefficient.com:
batch process email
focus periods
weekly automation audit
(2 more)
“If it isn’t fun, it isn’t working.”
(going to a brainstorming, do an empathy map….must look up what that is)
We expect more from teams:
Harvard Business review:
– Getting more out of your team
– Lean Knowledge Work
Forbes
– Agility: the ingredient defines the next generation
– Wikispeed’s secret sauce: agile
InformationWeek
– time to do more with less
Teams maximize potential by….
– Innovating how they work and what they make
– Leverage a trusted process to guide them
– Master teamwork for team’s benefit
– Enjoy successes and failures along the way
QED.
Celebrate your failures too (by getting excited about what you learned).
High performance of a team cannot happen without you!
That’s it!