5 Discipline

Deep Dive Leadership & Culture with iCoachAndrew

The bedrock of a successful agile team network is highly disciplined execution. In Orbex, there are five dimensions of discipline that will impact excellent execution.

Time | Be in time, not on time, if you can.

Process | Comply with PCDCA parallel work cycles.

Skill | Whatever you have to do, become the best at doing it.

Balance | Know the boundaries and be sustainable.

Focus | Stay on course at all times.

To become an excellent execution machine, your organisation must create system time by formulating a meeting taxonomy that enforces compulsory attendance. Train and build a cadre of PCDCA Facilitators for your execution machine.

A meeting taxonomy is indispensable to maximise the economic and social value of bringing a team together, regardless of whether they do it in person or online. It is used to classify, define, schedule and hold team meetings. Each of the five types of meetings have a prescribed purpose and duration.

Ideally a daily checkpoint meeting at the start or end of business would take only 15 to 20 min. The team shares what happened the day before, what lies ahead, and the issues at hand. It's a great practice for any function team.

The decision-making meeting mentioned here refers to frequent regular meetings that need to satisfy some legal formality. Board meetings. Committee meetings and the like. Ideally it should not last more than 1 to 2 hours, by design. Deliberations can be kept that short only if participants are properly debriefed offline before each meeting.

Varying only in their frequency, all four types of teams in the network hold review meetings, working meetings and celebration meetings.

A routine review meeting can be completed in an hour, or two at most, only if issues faced by the reviewee are discussed. But it can only happen if participants have access to performance data from an information system. Without it, the reviewee is compelled to become the source of progress information.

A working meeting entails deep dive discussions. They can be scheduled or ad hoc. Relevant data is collected and analysed. The usual output of a working meeting is a set of recommendations for disposition by a higher authority.

Agile teams celebrate their fulfilment of any of the five dictums of a winning team, not just results. Celebration meetings nurture esprit de corps and a sense of belonging that impacts productivity.

The meeting taxonomy is used to prepare a calendar of events. The calendar creates organisational rhythm and system time. The secret of successful activation is the excellent coordination work done by agile team leaders assisted by PCDCA Facilitators, or PCDCAF.

The value contributed by a PCDCAF should grow over time.

At the onset, a PCDCAF is trained to perform the role of arranger/liaison. PCDCAF ensure meeting success, follow through decisions, document the results of meetings, and maintain the calendar of events. The traditional role of a team secretary is carried out here.

Qualified PCDCAF grow to become information provider by supporting fact-finding activities. Qualified PCDCAF manage data decks, anticipate the team's data needs, and secure IT support, as needed.

Professional PCDCAF evolve into full membership in the team's think tank activities. They participate in discussions, help analyse issues, recommend solution options, and fill in temporary team vacancies, as needed.