How to Coach Yourself and Others Essential Knowledge For Coaching | Page 37

Dis-Unity
Dis-unity is one of the most subtle and common forms of
obstacle. Competition, legal and cultural assumption of the
goodness of "opposition" and habits of interaction including
gossip and backbiting all combine to make united action and
thought very difficult.
This is an extremely deep topic. There are many tools and
techniques available to assist with team building. If you are
interested in this topic, I highly recommend reading "The
Prosperity of Humankind".
Eliminate Waste
Waste is the result of activities or environmental conditions that
prevent a team from reaching its goal. The opposite of waste is
something that adds value (more, faster or higher quality) to the
desired result.
The whole notion of eliminating waste comes from lean
manufacturing. More recently, Mary and Tom Poppendieck
applied this idea to software in their book "Lean Software
Development: An Agile Toolkit for Software Development
Managers". In this (excellent) book, the authors list the wastes of
manufacturing and the wastes of software.
As wastes are eliminated or reduced, a team will function faster
and with higher quality. However, not all waste can be
eliminated. Sometimes waste is legislated, sometimes waste is an
unavoidable by-product of work, sometimes mistakes are made,
and sometimes it takes a great deal of effort to eliminate a waste.

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