Peter Saddington of Agile Scout visited Valpak for a Tampa Bay Agile meetup recently.  He spoke on the topic of high performing teams: “The New Role of Management in Building and Sustaining High-Performance Teams”

He talked about how self-organizing teams are more theory than reality.  In reality, teams self-organize for survival but not necessarily for high-performance.  He put forth that it is management’s job to be “high touch” with our teams and emotionally invested in them to get and sustain high-performance.  So, Agile is not about getting out of the way of your teams but rather staying involved as servant leaders.

What this means to me? …  I no longer have to feel guilty about being a high-touch manager!  In fact, I didn’t even know there was a term for it … high-touch manager … I like the sound of that.  I do hereby declare that I am not going to just shut up and get out of the way.  I am going to stay involved and serve my teams towards high-performing.