Introduction

There have been countless books on the subject of human behavior and communication. Psychologists, sociologists, organizational behavior experts, and others have conducted studies, published journal articles, taught courses, and granted degrees in this subject area.

So why another book on this well-covered topic? This book is the first of its kind—the first to address individuals and interactions on an agile software project. The illustrations, examples, and exercises are all specifically tailored to address the needs of an agile team. The Agile Manifesto begins with valuing individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Despite that, most that has been written, taught, and implemented for the agile community focuses on processes and tools. This book offers a refreshing change—the entire book is dedicated to individuals and their interactions on an agile project.

A Brief History of Organizational Behavior

The sociology of a company is a fascinating thing to observe. Over the past 100 years, organizational behavior has been researched (often empirically and sometimes scientifically), written about, studied, learned, transformed, applauded, and criticized. Courses on organizational behavior are required in most (if not all) college business degree programs, so most college educated managers have at least a cursory understanding of the evolution of corporate societies.

It may seem odd to attach the term sociology with an organization, yet it’s fitting. Organizations contain societal elements such as culture, laws (policies), class (pecking order), structure, language, and so on. Although countless books have been written about this subject, there are just a few key notable milestones in the evolution of organizational behavior. This field of study is broad and deep, and to better understand it, it could be sliced and diced a variety of ways. As you begin to explore the dynamics of a team through individuals and their interactions with one another, look at the following four pivotal evolutionary stages of the maturity of organizational behavior.

Stage 1: People Are Machines (Late 1800s–Mid 1900s)

In the early 1900s Frederick Taylor became one of the first efficiency experts. He developed an approach to optimizing efficiency in organizations that was later referred to as Scientific Management. Taylor’s principles of management were based on the premise that workers can’t be trusted to be productive on their own. Taylor felt that workers limit their productivity due to the fear that if they maximize productivity, they will run out of work and lose their jobs. Taylor’s solution was to study their work methods carefully and to develop highly prescriptive optimized processes that must be followed by all workers.

Franklin and Lillian Gilbreth were also efficiency experts whose expertise was time and motion studies of individuals. The Gilbreths would study the movements of individuals in a factory and relocate people and machines to strike an optimal balance between energy exerted to output delivered. The Gilbreths later gained some notoriety when some of their children wrote two books about life at home. The most popular of these books was titled Cheaper by the Dozen. The Gilbreths had twelve children, and they operated their household in the same efficient manner as the factories where they worked.

Franklin Gilbreth put language records in the bathroom so that otherwise inefficient time could be spent in a productive activity. Probably the most outrageous story referred to the time when one of the children got a case of tonsillitis. When consulting with the doctor and discovering how much time would be required to deal with removal of this one child’s tonsils, Gilbreth extrapolated how much time would be later required if he had to repeat this exercise eleven more times. Instead, he brought the doctor to the house and removed the tonsils from all twelve kids at once!

The approach used by Taylor and the Gilbreths defined an era that overlooked the humanness of human beings. Humans were just cogs in a machine. This may have looked good on the balance sheet, but it was not a sustainable way to treat people in the workplace.

Stage 2: People Are Emotional Beings (1940s–1970s)

In 1955, a factory in Illinois called Hawthorne Works became the location where a pivotal change was made in how organizational behavior was perceived. Brightness of lighting at the factory was adjusted upward and downward to determine the effect on worker productivity. The study demonstrated that productivity increased not as a result of brighter or dimmer light, but as a result of change. This was reinforced as other superficial changes to the workplace were made, also increasing productivity. The Hawthorne study showed that workers increase productivity when interest is shown in them. The Hawthorne study led to a new field of interest in business—addressing the emotional needs of workers.

During this period, Douglas McGregor described the contrast between Theory X and Theory Y managers. Theory X managers presume that employees will not work unless they are motivated to work. They often believe that money is the only way to motivate an employee and that employees must be ruled with an iron fist. Theory Y managers, on the other hand, believe that employees want to perform well at work and that in the right setting, employees will be self-motivated and productive workers.

McGregor’s work was based on another important theory introduced in the same timeframe, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow explains how behavior is a function of our physiological needs and our need for safety, love, and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Later in this book, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is offered with guidance on how to address common needs conflicts that often arise on agile project teams.

Another important contribution during this period was the psychological inventory. A popular inventory mechanism was called DISC, which analyzed and described an individual’s behavior in a specific setting. DISC is used throughout the book to aid in explaining why people behave the way they do.

Stage 3: Organization Is a Machine (1980s–2000s)

In the late 1980s, many companies were inspired to raise their competitive edge. The expression “We must beat the 800-pound gorilla” was used liberally, referring to the huge companies that seemed to be successful despite themselves. Smaller companies saw an opportunity to operate leaner, faster, smarter, and with more agility than the huge companies.

MIT computer science professor Michael Hammer introduced the world to Business Process Reengineering (BPR) in 1990. BPR initiatives were rampant in many companies in the early 1990s as they strove to drive waste out of everything they did. Every procedure, job function, and task was analyzed to the nth degree to assess which added no value and could be removed. The BPR wave lost favor with many because the original intent was lost with the BPR process itself. BPR was properly focused on improvement and increased efficiency, but the way BPR initiatives were executed was highly inefficient and costly. These huge analyses efforts dragged on with reams of published findings but little action. Many unqualified BPR consulting firms attached themselves to the popular label but failed to deliver the desired results. As a result, BPR became a distasteful topic to executives at many companies.

Another MIT professor, Peter Senge, introduced the concept of the learning organization during this period. Senge presented a framework for a company to continuously improve by never resting on its laurels and to learn and adapt with every move it makes. Senge’s model was far more abstract than Hammer’s, making it more challenging for unqualified consulting firms to appropriately emulate. The learning organization required a cultural shift from the bottom up and from the top down.

The work of Hammer, Senge, and many others during this 20–30 year period framed a significant transformation period for businesses. The business itself was treated as an organism that could sustain order of magnitude improvement. Much like an overweight, out-of-shape person can improve health through diet and exercise, an organization could do the same thing. Staying with that analogy, the unhealthy person may have gotten that way through years of ignorance and neglect. Employing a personal trainer and dietician to coach and guide may be necessary for positive change to occur. An unhealthy company cannot tweak a few things here and there and expect significant improvement. The works of this period caused organizations to recognize this.

Stage 4: Empowered Teams Transform the Organization (Current Trend)

With a foundation of understanding that people provide the muscle and intelligence of an organization and that an organization cannot exist without people, the current trends in organizational behavior emphasize the power of the people. People are not in an organization, people are the organization. Therefore, people ought to avoid doing silly, wasteful things. Taking away all constraints and restraints, people with the proper environment, knowledge, and skills will likely approach a project pragmatically and sensibly.

Empowering skilled people to enable their own capabilities and work together productively requires an environment of trust. This trusting environment is rare, yet it is a mandatory prerequisite to successful employment of agility. This book offers some motivation for moving to an agile environment, but it places far more emphasis on the knowledge and skills needed to employ agility with ease and success.

Birds of a Feather...

What causes a flock of birds to move in a coordinated orchestrated fashion? How is the leader selected, and how does the huge flock navigate changes in direction so swiftly and smoothly that it appears to happen instantaneously? This is one of the great mysteries of nature.

Depending on the circumstances, some humans are inclined to lead and others to follow. Some may lead in some situations and follow in others. Some strive to always lead, whereas others may strive to always follow. Through the years, scientists and scholars have tried to explain individual and group behavior. Some of these theories have tried to explain what is, whereas others have tried to define what could be.

Regardless of what some author chooses to write about, humans are what they have always been. Some will lead, some will follow, some will conform, and some will resist. The complexities of putting more than one person together can be the source of friction, while at the same time it can be the spark that inspires great advancements. This book explores the dynamics of the singular individual and the dynamics of groups of individuals.