A Rubix Cube: a tool of story foreshadowing, to a random miscellaneous children’s toy for the children’s bedroom on a TV set. A staple toy for many kids, for multiple generations, the Rubix Cube is a tool that helps children engage with logical thought, through the medium of shapes and colours.
In visual media, a Rubix Cube can be more than just a random toy; when you see a solved Rubix Cube, even in a child’s bedroom on TV, it often gets overlooked due to being solid colour, however, it is more appealing to see the mishmash of colours, and, may catch a viewer’s attention. Having a child play with a Rubix Cube is a great way of symbolising the fallout of events, colours aligning and foreshadowing imminent peril or progress.
In an ideal world you’d want your teams to be uniform like the solved cube, sat aside, pristine, and for many corporations, they want the team glossed over. Credit is a fickle thing, and some corporations still thrive under the guise that one should get the credit for everything. How many people’s names do you remember from Apollo 11? Just Buzz Aldren and Niel Armstrong? Not even the third spaceman, who never got to leave the rocket? His name was Michael Collins. How many members of the crew on earth do you remember? It’s the same principle, a select few get their efforts remembered, and unfortunately, without a collective responsibility over workload, progress etc., that is unlikely to change.
In reality, what a company wants, is a team like an unsolved Rubix Cube; colours so disorganised that you’d think someone moved the stickers around. But why? Well, in a cinematic instance, they are more complimentary, they stand out, even in the background. As Chris White said: Companies no longer want compliance; they want engagement. Therefore, you want, a company that has the capacity to improve upon itself internally, because the teams care about what they’re doing and who they’re working with. Although they may not know it, many employees around the world daydream about being part of an agile team.
In SAFe Distilled 5.0: Achieving Business Agility With Scaled Agile Framework by Richard Knaster and Dean Leffingwell, agile teams are described as “a cross-functional group of 5 to 11 individuals who can define, build, test, and deliver an increment of value in a short time box. These teams have the authority and accountability to manage their own work, which increases productivity and reduces time to market.”
This means that Agile teams are cross functional. The members of these teams have the skills needed to deliver value in short iterations, avoiding handoffs and delays Furthermore, when selecting members for these teams, one individual has to be to a single team, and one team only. This reduces the likelihood of this member of staff being burnt out and being pulled from pillar to post due to their unique skillset and experiences. It also means that they can strive to have a single-minded purpose to achieve the team’s goals, which is, clearly, ideal.
Based in London, U.K., and founded in 2016 by Arvind Mishra The Agile Works (www.TheAgileWorks.com), is an up-and-coming recruitment and Agile consulting company. Arvind is a Certified SAFe SPC and regularly delivers both private and public SAFe certification workshops.
He is a design thinking expert, Sr. enterprise, portfolio Agile Coach with over a decade of experience working as an Agile coach in diverse industries such as banking, pharma, retail, auto, oil, gas, consulting and government.
The Agile Works; a small team of three strive to help shape the leadership's mind-set and values in readiness for their business transformation journey challenges. With Arvind at the helm, we strive to provide you with the agility tools to make your company that can thrive, and not just survive.
To book a consultation, or for any enquiries, you can contact Arvind via the following email address: arvind@theagileworks.com
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