Agile Amplified: The New Operating System For The Top 15% Of Teams

Few leaders really geek out on engineering their team behaviors and cultures of their companies. But those who do are typically engineers like Arvind Krishna, the CEO at IBM, who have turned their attention to not only the meticulous engineering of their products but their processes and ways of working. These are the rare 15%. And every time, it reaps huge rewards for them. Their work shows that Agile is no longer a methodology for software development and IT teams; it’s the operating system all teams need to thrive in today’s volatile world. Why? We can’t keep approaching strategic change and transformation programs with the slow, hierarchical, command and control style management of the past. But research shows that two out of three Fortune 500 companies have been forced to drop major strategic change programs. Yet despite so many companies having deep agile practices in their technology and engineering groups, relatively few leaders have used the agile principles at the team level. Change is overdue. It's time for what I what I call Teamship powered by Agile.

The Agile Imperative

In our volatile, decentralized business landscape, even the most brilliant leaders can't win on their own. The highest-performing organizations unleash the full might of teamwork through a model I describe as Teamship. Teamship is the ultimate competitive advantage driven by the combination of two forces:

1. Shifting from traditional hierarchies to teammates co-leading teams and elevating each other to achieve world-class performance.

2. Shifting from standard working habits to inclusive 21st-century collaboration practices, processes and tools to achieve bolder innovation and faster decision-making.

At the heart of Teamship are "Co-Elevation Behaviors" - the agreement among teammates to push each other higher in aligned pursuit of the mission. Co-Elevation is the set of behavioral commitments to the mission and to each other, an unwavering belief in winning together.

My research, spanning two decades and over 3,000 teams, has shown Agile methodologies to be the most potent way to operationalize Teamship. Agile has already revolutionized how software gets made, with its laser focus on adaptability, iteration, and self-organizing teams. Now, world-class organizations are harnessing Agile as the operating system for teams across every function.

Harnessing Agile Practices

At its core, Agile is a set of practices that enable teams to move fast, iterate, and continuously improve. Here are some of the most impactful:

1. Customer-Centric Agile Brief

• Crystallizes the definition of success through the end user's lens at the start of each sprint
• Aligns the team around clear outcomes by asking: What problem are we solving? How will we know we've nailed it?
• Acts as the North Star, keeping the team laser-focused on delivering value

2. Daily Standups

• Quick 15-minute huddles held at the same time each day
• Each team member shares: What did I deliver yesterday? What will I deliver today? Where am I stuck?
• Surfaces obstacles early, keeps everyone synced, and reinforces accountability

3. Sprint Stress Testing

• Rigorous pressure-testing of the team's work at the end of each sprint
• Proactively identifies gaps, risks, and areas for improvement
• Generates candid feedback to fuel the next innovation cycle

I described in detail how to practice Stress Testing in this article.

4. Foresight Five Minutes

• Weekly practice where each team member scans for signals of change from a specific vantage point (customers, competitors, technology, etc.)
• Insights are shared in a rapid-fire round-robin
• Hones the team's ability to proactively spot opportunities and threats

5. Decision Governance

• Explicit agreement on decision rights: Who drives the process? Who has input? Who makes the final call?
• Enables fast, inclusive decision-making by clarifying roles upfront
• Prevents decision paralysis and drives accountability

Agile Leadership and Teamship

For Agile to take root, leaders must champion new ways of team working:

1. Embody Agile values: Radical transparency, bias for action, psychological safety, continuous learning. Leaders' behavior sets the tone.
2. Empower teams: Rather than being the sage on the stage, Agile leaders set guardrails and create conditions for teams to tackle tough challenges.
3. Ask catalytic questions: What did we learn last sprint? Where were our headwinds? What's changed in our environment? How will we measure success? Posing the right questions ignites insights.

When the 15% get Agile right, magic happens. Silos dissolve as cross-functional teams rally around to delivering customer priorities. Victories are cheered, hard-won lessons are proliferated, and a new breed of teamwork takes hold.

Scaling Agile Transformation

Make no mistake, the journey to Agile is arduous, especially for organizations marinated in command-and-control. It requires unflinching commitment to Co-Elevation behaviors and rigorous new habits. And while Agile has engineering roots, its mindsets and ceremonies can be tailored to turbocharge any team, from sales to HR to the C-suite.

In our age of head-snapping change, business-as-usual won't cut it. Agile is the ultimate competitive weapon, mobilizing teams to move at the speed of opportunity. Where will you ignite your Agile revolution?

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