What Happens to a Team without a Clear Purpose?

Photo by Christian Guthier

Have you ever seen what happens to a development team when they lose their Product Owner?  That person who tells them the direction of the product and inspires them with a vision of the future?  When he/she is replaced by someone new who doesn’t understand the product deeply and have a vision for it?

We know that organizations that fall apart can almost always trace their demise to a deterioration of their core – People or Purpose

Like a plant that is lacking sunlight, the team’s behavior starts wilting—they’re falling into bad habits or complacency.  The team struggles.  Conflicts happen.  A mature development team needs a Product Owner to feed them goals through communication and collaboration.  Without a Product Owner, the team is lacking purpose or its purpose is unclear. 

Purpose: one of the three intrinsic motivators.

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What is your development team’s purpose?  Is it to deliver a product that fulfills its vision?  Does the team have its own motto or mission statement?  Where does it come from?

Allison Pollard

Allison Pollard is a coach, consultant, and trainer who brings the power of relationship systems intelligence to go beyond tasks, roles, and frameworks to create energy for change. She engages with people and teams in a down-to-earth way to build trust and listen for signals to help them learn more and improve. Allison focuses on creating alignment and connection for people to solve business problems together. Her experience includes working with teams and leaders in energy, retail, financial, real estate, and transportation industries to help improve their project/product delivery and culture. Allison currently volunteers as program director for Women in Agile’s mentorship program. Her agile community focus is championing new voices and amplifying women as mentors and sponsors for the next generation of leaders. Allison earned her bachelor’s degrees in computer science, mathematics, and English from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. She is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), a foodie, and proud glasses wearer. Allison is a prolific speaker at professional groups and international conferences, including Scrum Gatherings and the Agile Alliance Agile20xx conferences. Allison is co-owner of Helping Improve LLC.

http://www.allisonpollard.com
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