ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights that the “self-governed team” agile principle is a valuable but incomplete concept. Applying hard-earned expertise to team configuration and process and exercising the power to mobilize an organization – getting resources, priorities, money, approvals, even forgiveness – matters. Bringing this kind of external support often happens behind the scenes in senior leader-to-leader informal conversations. A technical team of peers within a larger organization can struggle to make decisions and to mobilize the surrounding organization’s capabilities. Having a clear leader can help. One aspect of complex teams is that members are also typically representing companies or departments. Leaders need to accept that fact, and object or adjust if needed. The chapter also advises that there is a balance between letting a team do the work themselves and helping them along.
