Viewing entries tagged
truthful trust

What Comes First: The Chicken, the Egg, or Trust?

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What Comes First: The Chicken, the Egg, or Trust?

It’s sort of a chicken and egg problem in many agile teams—that is the notion of trust.

  • Do you give the team your trust as an organization? Or do they have to earn it over time?
  • And if they make a mistake or miss a commitment, do they immediately lose your trust? And then have to start earning it again?
  • And is trust reciprocal, i.e., does the organization need to gain the trust of the team? And if so, how does that work?

I want to explore trust in this article. I’ve done it before, but an interview by Jeff Nielsen inspired me to revisit it.

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The Agile Project Manager—Do You TRUST Your Team?

As an agile coach, one of my favorite expressions in response to nearly any situation I encounter in an agile team is—“trust the team” or “trust the process”. So here are a few examples of what I mean:

If you think the team has underestimated their work and are leaving velocity on the table, “trust the team”…

- If they have underestimated they can always pull in more work. And you know, you could be wrong, so allow the team to sort through how they understand, size, and execute their work. They’ll appreciate the trust you’ve given them and will invest in doing good work.

- If you do see poor estimation or poor execution & adjustment, then bring this to the attention of the team within their retrospective. Give them examples, but allow them to explore the most effective way(s) to improve.