In the work of an agile team, the leader’s coordination and collaboration among people are replaced by a spirit of cooperation that turns the interest of the whole team and those leading it toward a shared purpose.
The topic of this article is cooperation, which is the 12th foundation of the agile factory
This is an issue that I have personally experienced with agile product development teams, with whom I have had the opportunity to work.
Related to teamwork, I encountered three interrelated concepts:
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- Collaboration
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- Coordination
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- Cooperation
I always hear repeatedly that the condition for a team to function is for there to be a spirit of cooperation among the people on the team.
At the same time when it talks about leading a team, one of the most common questions asked of the team leader is: which and how many people do you coordinate and in what way do you coordinate team activities?
I have investigated these concepts in depth, and there are important distinctions to be made, and in this the etymology of words helps us.
Collaboration in the team
Collaborate comes from the Latin con + labōrare or work and means to work together.
Collaboration within a team is based on building human relationships based on mutual respect, feelings and good interpersonal relationships.
There is no reference to the result, and in fact, in seeking agreement, people tend to reduce mutual demands in order to prevent possible conflicts. All this comes at the detriment of performance.
Team coordination
Coordination in its meaning means arranging actions, decisions, resources in the most suitable order in order to achieve a result.
This is the typical attitude of a supervisor or team leader.
This assumes that there is an order of sequencing of things to be done, so the coordinator makes sure that this order is followed.This assumes that there is an order of sequencing of things to be done, so the coordinator makes sure that this order is followed.
This might be fine in a simple or complicated context, where things are predictable, and therefore programmable, but it is not good in a complex context.
Agility operates mainly in complex contexts where one proceeds in small steps and corrects direction based on what emerges.
Under these conditions, the order to be enforced fails, and at the same time cooperating is no longer enough. Indeed, decisions must also be made that were previously avoided because they might disturb the team.
Cooperation essence of agile teams
Cooperation, on the other hand, derives from co + opera and that is, sharing a work for which we need to work together.
In achieving this goal, each person puts himself or herself on the line by overcoming excessive limitations and caution that characterize the first two models, in order to achieve the result.
I recently had the opportunity to join a team in the agile development of a construction project and realized what cooperation between professionals and entrepreneurs can mean.
The architect part of the team, describing to a stakeholder what it means to work in an agile way, reveals that he has decided to give up some of his own turnover, to the benefit of other professionals. This resulted in better quality of work and less time.
Excellent quality and results require each person on the team to cooperate by honestly evaluating the best solution.
The team’s interest also becomes self-interest.
A right level of tension toward the result, with the related “positive” stress is highly motivating, and leads each person to look toward the result, always with respect for each person.
When I work alongside development teams with stakeholders directly involved in advocacy I ask them to be able to talk about teamwork.
In a deliberately provocative way, I tell them that I wish there was no collaboration among the people involved, and I tell the PO that I am not asking him/her to coordinate the team.
They all look at me astonished, and once I get their full attention, I ask them to cooperate after clarifying what this means. And that works.
