Before we begin constructing our doggie-park, its important to have a foundation on which to build. The foundation of our doggie-park is OpenAgile and ROWE. Together, these two approaches to management will create an open, agile, and learning environment in which your team can survive, thrive, and excel. To begin, let's talk about OpenAgile.
OpenAgile provides a construct in which integrity, learning, and reactions to change are laid in place. The other day, I was talking to my neighbor about an issue he was having with a friend he hired as a contractor. My neighbor needed someone to train a new employee on a CAD (Computer Assisted Drawing) application. His buddy was a computer programmer, so he asked his buddy if he could give the training. His buddy said yes, and did a very bad job. My neighbor paid his buddy anyway, but needed to hire someone else to provide the training again.
We started talking about OpenAgile, and about the concept of "truthfulness". Truthfulness is about knowing your own limitations, and accepting that everyone you deal with has value. If my neighbor's buddy had been truthful, he never would have taken the job, because he would have known and accepted his limitation that he didn't know how to train CAD. As we talked, my neighbor exclaimed: "Integrity is a very valuable thing." It dawned on me, OpenAgile is really integrity codified!
As we build our doggie-park, integrity is extremely important. Team-members must be able to accept thier personal limitations, and accept that other team-members have advantages that can help the group. Teams that have members who are unable to do this may not fail, but the member will hinder the productivity of the team. One bad-dog and turn a doggie-park bad.
In addition to its focus on personal integrity another aspect of OpenAgile, and the primary aspect that drew me to it is its focus on creating a team that is a learning organization. In 1990 Peter Senge wrote a book called "The Fifth Discipline". In this book he outlined the characteristics of organizations that last a long time. He determined that the only thing seperating companies that last and companies that don't is thier ability to react to change.
He further found that in order to react to change, organizations need to create an environment where team-members are encouraged to learn. Change comes as a result of discovery, invention, and innovation. Team-members who learn will be able to understand changes before and as they arise, adapt to the changes, and quickly react to changes in a smart manner.
As we build our doggie-park, we need to create an environment where a high degree of integrity and learning are present. By using OpenAgile as one of our core philosophies we are providing our employees with an environment where their learning is encouraged, and where positive behaviours like truthfulness and integrity are paramount.
My next post will be about ROWE (results oriented work environment), and is the second part of my doggie-park foundation. After that, we'll start building our doggie-park.
OpenAgile provides a construct in which integrity, learning, and reactions to change are laid in place. The other day, I was talking to my neighbor about an issue he was having with a friend he hired as a contractor. My neighbor needed someone to train a new employee on a CAD (Computer Assisted Drawing) application. His buddy was a computer programmer, so he asked his buddy if he could give the training. His buddy said yes, and did a very bad job. My neighbor paid his buddy anyway, but needed to hire someone else to provide the training again.
We started talking about OpenAgile, and about the concept of "truthfulness". Truthfulness is about knowing your own limitations, and accepting that everyone you deal with has value. If my neighbor's buddy had been truthful, he never would have taken the job, because he would have known and accepted his limitation that he didn't know how to train CAD. As we talked, my neighbor exclaimed: "Integrity is a very valuable thing." It dawned on me, OpenAgile is really integrity codified!
As we build our doggie-park, integrity is extremely important. Team-members must be able to accept thier personal limitations, and accept that other team-members have advantages that can help the group. Teams that have members who are unable to do this may not fail, but the member will hinder the productivity of the team. One bad-dog and turn a doggie-park bad.
In addition to its focus on personal integrity another aspect of OpenAgile, and the primary aspect that drew me to it is its focus on creating a team that is a learning organization. In 1990 Peter Senge wrote a book called "The Fifth Discipline". In this book he outlined the characteristics of organizations that last a long time. He determined that the only thing seperating companies that last and companies that don't is thier ability to react to change.
He further found that in order to react to change, organizations need to create an environment where team-members are encouraged to learn. Change comes as a result of discovery, invention, and innovation. Team-members who learn will be able to understand changes before and as they arise, adapt to the changes, and quickly react to changes in a smart manner.
As we build our doggie-park, we need to create an environment where a high degree of integrity and learning are present. By using OpenAgile as one of our core philosophies we are providing our employees with an environment where their learning is encouraged, and where positive behaviours like truthfulness and integrity are paramount.
My next post will be about ROWE (results oriented work environment), and is the second part of my doggie-park foundation. After that, we'll start building our doggie-park.
