You have been given a new, very important assignment . Imminent security threats have been detected. Several security issues, that if not addressed, will penetrate and damage such industries as manufacturing, aerospace, and computer security. You have been assigned a group of security specialists and you have been told to head off the threats.

You will either shine, or the whole country is in trouble. You bring in trusted managers to manage the security specialists. They spend several days to discussing the threats and best approaches.

You ask your managers to pick one or two specialists to manage. This is so important, nothing but the best. You let the managers, working with their specialists, choose one threat to solve. You tell them to get to it, and regather in 30 days to inspect the results.

After 30 days, you gather. Your people sensed the threats coming , but didn’t catch them in time.

Your name is mud

How Could This Be?

The specialists say that you choose a fixed solution which handcuffed everyone. They suggested you try an “Agile” approach. which they have found worked better in the past. But first they want you to use exercise that highlights what just happened:

Top down management approach:

•Form pairs (a manager and a security specialist

•One person is the boss, the other is the worker

•The boss may only say:
Go, Stop, Right, Left, Faster, Slower

•The worker must follow the boss’s commands

•Bosses, your job is to get workers to take 60 steps in 2 minutes

•Do not let the workers leave the defined space (layout a 40 square foot space with duct tape).

•The boss can command, but not touch, the worker. He is busy counting.

•Walking in place is not a step

At the end of 2 minutes, nobody has gone 60 paces. Try this and see what happens.

Then try an Agile Approach

As recommended by the workers, no managers, only use self-management. Everyone is a worker. Nobody is a boss.

1. Teams of One managing themselves, or more if the workers choose. They are responsible for choosing how to proceed .

2. Same rules as before
Stay within boundaries laid out by tape from the prior exercise. No touching, talk as much as you want.

3. Proceed 60 normal paces within two minutes.

4.Stop where you are when you get to 60 paces.

Within 70 seconds, everyone has tone 100 paces. They inform you that they changed the goal before the started to be more challenging. They wish they could find work where they got to manage themselves, grouping and regrouping when they desired.