TEAM
BUT THE
INDIVIDUAL
MATTERS
TOO

"WE LIVE IN A DOMINANT CULTURE THAT IS DESIGNED TO DESTROY OUR SENSE OF SELF AND OUR BELIEF IN OURSELF"

Agile 2 Principle:
INDIVIDUALS MATTER JUST AS THE TEAM MATTERS.

The most effective and efficient team, is the one that can act and react with minimal supervision.

The importance of the individual and excellence has been lost, by the culture of celebrating teams and discouraging any recognition of an individual.

That leads to the idea that no one is ever recognized individually, only a team is recognized.

The focus on teams became an extreme, whereby only teams matter but individuals do not exist:

This is nothing short of a devaluation of the individual: Individuals matter.

People are not the team they belong to. People have different talents, skills, concerns, goals, and challenges. They are not cogs in a team wheel. Teams matter, but so do individuals. A healthy company philosophy needs to acknowledge that loud and clear.

LINUS TORVALDS , THE LONE CREATOR OF THE LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM. HE LEADS LINUX DEVELOPMENT, BUT HE STILL WORKS ALONE. HIS OFFICE IS IN HIS HOME - ALWAYS HAS BEEN - AND HE COMMUNICATES ENTIRELY THROUGH ONLINE MECHANISMS. HE NEVER MEETS IN PERSON. HE LIKES IT THAT WAY.

These people are ‘LONE WOLVES’ and dismissing them is a big mistake.

“I HAD A CHOICE: HIRE 10 TO 25 AVERAGE ENGINEERS, OR HIRE ONE ‘ROCK-STAR’ AND PAY SIGNIFICANTLY MORE THAN WHAT I'D PAY THE OTHERS, IF NECESSARY.
OVER THE YEARS, I'VE COME TO SEE THAT THE BEST PROGRAMMER DOESN'T ADD 10 TIMES THE VALUE. ONE ‘ROCK-STAR’ ADDS MORE LIKE 100 TIMES.”

Reed Hastings - founder and CEO of Netflix

This means that if you reject someone who is a “lone wolf” because they do not work well on a team, then you might miss out on someone who can create amazing things.

Teams are important, but so are individuals. The lesson is to not force everyone into the same mold. Some people are team players, and some are not—and that is not a bad thing! It is just how they are.

If you look at lone wolves as “un-Agile,” you are shunning an important category of people: PEOPLE WHO WORK BEST ON THEIR OWN.

Perhaps the thing to do is to leverage their talents in a way that is most effective for them, giving them special projects or prototypes to create.

Experts are a good thing, not a bad thing. Generalists are a good thing too.

Not All People Work or Communicate the Same. Focus Is as Important as Collaboration. The ability to focus and think deeply needs to be restored as a necessary core element of work. How that is achieved is open to creative ideas, but it needs to happen.