Hey there, fellow agile enthusiasts!
As Promised in my earlier article here's a deep dive on Misalignment of company values and leadership actions, remember that article I wrote a couple of weeks back, "Creating Value in Agile: First Let's Get the Essentials Right"? No worries if you missed it - we've all been there, scrolling past articles to get to those cute cat videos. But if you're curious, the link's right here for you.
I've written before about how a blurry company vision can derail projects; check out this site to see how unclear strategies mess with agile projects.
Now, let's chat about Problem 2: Misalignment of company values and leadership actions
The Problem: Micromanagement Mayhem, Company values don't align with Leadership actions
Picture this: A mid-sized company with about 200 employees and two product teams of 20 people each. Sounds pretty normal, right? Well, not quite. The dev teams at TechXYZ were living in a pressure cooker. Their CTO, Mark (not his real name, obviously), was the king of "drive-by management."
At the start of quarter he would commit to a strategy aligning the overall priority. Later He'd crash standups uninvited, second-guess everything, and flip priorities faster than a short-order cook. It was chaos central, with no real system for prioritising work.
Everything was micromanaged to death. No proper handling of change request. Ring any bells for anyone out there?
The result? A total mess.
Devs teams were pulling their hair out, product managers were ready to scream, and everyone had a bad case of "why even bother?" The teams felt like caged animals on a never-ending treadmill.
Work in progress kept piling up, nothing was getting finished, and motivation hit rock bottom.
As for innovation? Forget about it. People were too busy watching their backs to think outside the box.
Enter the Hero: New Hire ,Mia's Mission
Just when things looked bleakest, in walks Mia, the new Head of Engineering. She took one look at the situation and thought, "Nope, this ain't gonna fly."
After chatting with the product teams and seeing how all this nonsense was killing their mojo, she decided it was time for a shakeup.
First thing's first: Mia sat Mark down for a heart-to-heart about trust and empowerment. I'm betting that wasn't the most comfortable chat, but sometimes you gotta rip off the band-aid, right?
The Transformation: 9 Game-Changing Moves
Here's where it gets good. Mia rolled out some seriously smart changes:
- Set Clear boundaries and rules from the get-go
- Building a culture of accountability (no more passing the buck!)
- No-interrupt Wednesdays - a whole day for the teams to actually get stuff done without leadership breathing down their necks
- Team-defined safe environments - letting the teams set their own boundaries
- Fail-Forward Fridays - a monthly session to share oopsies and learnings without fear of getting chewed out.
- Decentralized decision-making - pushing power down to the team level
- A real governance model - figuring out when the big guns needed to weigh in and when teams could call the shots
- The Idea Incubator - giving teams time and money to work on their own cool projects, building innovative mindset.
- Encouraging the culture to say NO emphasis on work life balance.
The Results: From Frustration to Innovation
Now, this wasn't an overnight miracle. But after about six months, the place was practically unrecognizable. For some firms it might take longer depending on the company size. Teams were fired up, getting more done, and even shipping features ahead of schedule. Can you believe it?
One dev, Ronnie, summed it up perfectly:
"It's like we went from being micromanaged toddlers to trusted adults overnight. Suddenly, we remembered why we got into this field in the first place – to build innovative stuff and solve problems."
And get this - even Mark, Mr. Micromanager himself, came around. Turns out, when you stop trying to control every little thing, you actually have time to focus on the big picture. Who knew?
The Lesson: Empowerment is the Secret Sauce
So, what's the moral of this tech fairy tale? Empowering your teams isn't just a nice little bonus - it's absolutely crucial if you want real agility and high performance. It takes trust, the ability to let go a bit, and creating an environment where people feel safe to take risks and be creative.
When you get it right, though, it's like magic. Your teams will blow you away with what they can do when you give them room to spread their wings.
Remember, folks: Agile isn't just some buzzword or a set of rules to follow. It's a mindset, and it has to start at the top.
So, to all you leaders out there, ask yourselves this:
Are you really empowering your teams? Or are you accidentally clipping their wings without even realizing it?
Thanks for checking out the article. I really hope it gave you some useful insights into the problem and some solid ideas for how to tackle it.
You know, I'd love to hear your thoughts too! If you've got any other approaches that you think product teams should consider, don't be shy – drop a comment on the article and share your ideas. We're all in this together, and your perspective could be super valuable.
Oh, and before I forget – stay tuned for the next installment! I'll be diving into Problem 3: The whole conflict between Product Discovery and Yearly Roadmaps. It's gonna be a good one, so keep an eye out for it.
Catch you in the next article!