Scrum, XP, Management and the Ethics of Agile Software Development

Closed Circle

I just watched “The Heart of the Game“, a documentary about the Roosevelt Roughrider’s girl’s basketball team (my old high school).

At key moments, the coach called a closed circle meeting where the players went off by themselves coming back with resolution or a group decision.

In the first example, the team worked through tension between players resulting in dramatically better play — going from tight games to blowing out opponents.

In the second example, the team rallied around a player at the risk of forfeiting their season.

As reward for their camaraderie and commitment, the coach made sure every player received game time during the close-fought final championship game. What’s more, the starters rallied around his decision. The younger players not only held their own but played above themselves.

There’s a lot of hype about teamwork in business and self-directed teams in agile practice. A lot of managers look to sports as an example. Rarely do we pull it off.

At the end of the day, it’s about actions that value the group as much as the individuals and actions that source from trust to earn trust.

 

Comments

Comment from >Chris HolmesNo Gravatar
Time: December 3, 2007, 1:17 pm

Wow – what a coincidence. I just saw the same documentary this week. It is an amazing doc. What I thought was interesting about the “circle” – pay attention to the moment when they are in the locker room at halftime. Who is coaching the team on adjustments? The players are; they are so busy talking amongst themselves about who to guard, how to guard them, where the openings in their opponents defenses are that the real coach doesn’t have much more to add. It was a great example of a self-organizing group.

When I watched that doc all I could think was: I would want my daughter to play for that guy.

Write a comment





ken h. judyI am an executive manager, software developer, father and husband trying to do more good than harm.
Working to spend each day doing a little less crap and a little more not crap than the day before.
Aspiring to pride in my accomplishments and pride in who I become as I attain them.
IEEE CSDP
CSP

Papers

Presentations

 

Site menu:


Meta

Creative Commons License

Post text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Unless otherwise indicated, Images in posts are not cleared for redistribution under creative commons.

Copyright © 2006-2012
Ken H. Judy.

This is a personal weblog. Views expressed are my own and not those of my employer.