Engagement Benchmark

This curve describes the level of motivation in your organization based on your prevailing culture. Many organization use negative reinforcement in the form of schedule pressure to get results. People try to meet objectives because they fear being called out by project managers for missing deliverables. This is negative reinforcement. You get a "compliant" culture where people do the minimum to get by. It also results in friction and increased turnover.

The right-hand side of the curve represents organizations that can  motivate self-directed Agile teams through effective positive reinforcement. People apply discretionary effort to achieve results. Getting to this level requires more than just the occasional "good job." Agile teams must be empowered and supported to consistently set and achieve goals that generate natural peer positive reinforcement. Discretionary effort is the mysterious "employee engagement" sought by organizations today.

Don't be in the middle of the curve. These are "nice" organizations with no strong negative or positive consequences for achieving goals. These are the lowest performing organizations. Unfortunately, most large software organizations fall into this category. They have not been able to establish the motivated self-directed teams necessary for Agile development, yet they  have dismantled the individual accountability and consequences of traditional software project management. 

Only about 30% of people are motivated in most large software organizations. The rest are waiting to be told what to do. How does your organization compare? We can provide a benchmark survey that shows you where you are on the curve,

The survey also measures the extent to which effective Agile self-directed teams have been implemented and identifies current impediments in your organization. The summary chart to the right provides scores on factors critical for effective Agile teams:

Scrum Planning - Agile teams are provided with insight into customer value in terms of problems to solve.

Sprint Execution - Teams are able to set their own Sprint goals  without frequent priority changes and work added during Sprint development.

Positive Reinforcement - The Agile development cycle promotes peer recognition for contributions to team successes.

Management Support - Management has adopted the servant leader model of self-directed teams and contributes to team success. 

Self-directed team motivation lays the foundation for innovation. Practices that encourage behaviors that lead to motivation can be embedded within the development process. Your ability to innovate is summarized in four dimensions:

Opportunities - Teams are involved in the planning process and can gain insight into customer value.

Ideas - New ideas are frequently reinforced by peers.

Demonstrations - There is frequent positive reinforcement for building prototypes and presenting business value to management.

Support - Management provides the support and resources to implement innovative solutions.