How PI can improve the Agile team

13 May How PI can improve the Agile team

Have your Agile teams reached a point where they did the initial training, and two weeks later realized that no one really understands each other, nothing is getting done, and everything seems to just fizzle out?

What if you had thought to stack the deck with people who are naturally wired to work well with one another before the Agile training?

When Agile was first created in 2001, it was initially intended to help software development teams. Since then, it’s evolved to the point where the Agile methodologies can help any kind of team or organization – from sales to research and development.

The Harvard Business Review reported in 2018 that around 80% of all companies had adopted some form of Agile, but they’re still not truly Agile. This presents a problem as there is still room for significant improvement if a team isn’t truly Agile.

Enter in Predictive Index (PI).

PI can help alleviate several recurring pain points in Agile implementation. It can prevent teams from reaching that 2-week juncture where they start to realize something isn’t working right.

What is PI?

PI is an objective and scientific assessment that you can use to assess an individual, their talents, and how well they will perform if hired. This proven methodology can find the right people that will:

• Work successfully with other team members.
• Quickly learn job requirements.
• Fit into their new role.

In short, PI is complementary to Agile and can not only help find the right talent for your team but ensure that team members will work together cohesively.

How does PI tie into Agile?

The Agile manifesto prescribes that teams can perform better if they value certain methodologies over others. For example, the items on the left-hand side of the below list should be valued over the right-hand side:

PI specifically ties into 3 of the above items that are valued higher than those in the right-hand column:

Individuals and Interactions: The primary thing that PI does is put the right people in the right seat – it will help you design a dream team where each person on that team has wiring that is not only a fit to their role BUT also complements other members — so that as a whole, the overall team is much greater than the sum of its parts.

Customer Collaboration: Collaboration is another crucial area that PI measures.  In fact, there is a reference profile in PI specifically called “Collaborator”.  Having this information allows a company to structure an Agile team with people who can be pre-built “centers of influence” to ensure that the chemistry of the team as a whole is collaborative.

Responding to Change:  PI also measures whether a person is wired to be in an environment where change is a constant or whether they are better suited for roles that have more consistency.

Stack the Agile Deck with PI

Considering the values that are heavily weighted in the Agile Manifesto, it is essential to “stack the deck” in favor of your team. This will ensure that the team is balanced with members who are naturally wired and driven to collaborate. It will help people over processes and ensure that they can respond easily to change.

It’s important to note that you don’t want ALL members of this team motivated to do these things because you also need some stabilizers on the team.

That is where a psychometric adds tremendous value in assimilating the MOST PRODUCTIVE Agile team. Ideally, you want a balance of members who are motivated to drive the team versus those who are motivated to collaborate.

You also want a few members motivated to stabilize versus constantly change, and still a few more members wired to be heads down in the task.

The “winning” Agile team whose members have gone through PI will be strategically designed to have enough members that will stack the deck in such a way so that the team as a whole consistently and organically hit its goals.

Conclusion

PI is a complementary methodology that helps select the right individuals that will ensure your Agile team functions as intended.

It drives them to follow the manifesto, helps build self-awareness in leaders, and creates communication that is transparent, authentic, and customized to the needs of the team members — which is one of the most CRITICAL steps in successfully implementing agile.