The next phase: Formation and Validation
My thoughts and ideas for the new team, organized into topics/objectives.
Author: Jurgen Appelo
Next week, my work life will be pretty different from what it was before. After working on unFIX patterns, blog posts, and workshops all by myself for nearly a year, I am switching to team mode: Seven people will be turning the unFIX model into the unFIX company. All seven will be working remotely, and each has other work-life activities keeping them busy. (I don't like the term "part-time". It means nothing when you care only about outcomes.)
In unFIX lifecycle language, I am moving from the Initiation and Expedition stages to the Formation and Validation stages. On Monday and Tuesday, we have our first meetings. But where do we begin?
Well, I did prepare by collecting my own ideas and organizing them into topics and objectives on a Trello board. But we should probably begin discussing purpose and values, problems and opportunities, team structure and processes, and a bit of our personal and professional lives. Maybe there will be a team agreement. Perhaps we will do team building exercises. Is there a correct order for all this? Is there a best place to start for a highly motivated team that has never worked together? I have some thoughts, but I'm improvising as I go.
I am confident the seven team members will offer good suggestions for getting started. I am planning to turn the first meetings into Lean Coffees and have them add topics, make a ranking, and start talking. With the people I picked, I have good hopes. The best way forward will emerge from self-organization.
How do we turn unFIX into a viable business that helps people make their own methods? How do we help organizations to scale out rather than scale up? I plan to write about the ideas we develop, the progress we make, and the things we learn. At least once per week, maybe more.
Starting next week, our core team will be eight people instead of one. You will see many more things happening in the second year of the unFIX model.
Exciting!
