How to Coach Yourself and Others Essential Knowledge For Coaching | Page 36

lot of pressure to be productive and that can often be at the
expense of a solid foundation of learning.
Other times, knowledge-related barriers can be more immediate.
If a critical piece of information is delayed or lost this can have a
large impact on an Agile team that is working in short cycles. The
team may be temporarily halted while they wait for information.
Building effective information flow is critical to a team's
performance.
Organizational
Bureaucratic
procedures,
organizational
mis-alignment,
conflicting goals, and inefficient organizational structures can all
be significant obstacles.
One of the best sources of information about this is the two
books by Jim Collins: "Good to Great" (Review) and "Built to
Last"
Cultural
Sometimes the beliefs we have about how to work can become
obstacles to working more effectively. These beliefs are often in
place because they have been part of what we think makes us
successful. Cultural assumptions can come from our families, our
communities, our religious affiliation and our national identity.
In organizational culture, one thing I constantly see is a public
espoused value of teamwork, but a conflicting behavior of
individual performance reviews and ranking. This is cultural. It is
also a barrier to the effective functioning of an Agile team. For
corporate environments I highly recommend the Corporate
Culture Survival Guide by Edgar Schein.

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