week 4 discussion reply

Person 1 post: Sameer Trust, Transparency, Conflict, and Agility Trust and transparency are often seen as crucial elements in many organizations’ mission statements, and in today’s world, corporates play a crucial role in setting moral examples by doing the right things in societies. Also, on the other side, employees of organizations feel obligated to make a good change and be a part of an organization that they believe does the right thing. Trust and transparency are related to each other. Transparency helps build trust, and when employees trust their leaders and the organizations they work for, there will be more engagement and better performance (Boiser, 2019). However, transparency does not mean telling everything to everyone. It is a value incorporated in the organization’s culture and directs how leaders manage their teams. When the information is openly shared and provided with the proper context, employees can contribute better ideas for the organization’s success (Boise, 2019). In contrast, a lack of transparency can be demonstrated simply by being ambiguous, overly discreet, working in isolation, intentional secrecy, misrepresentation, or a cover-up (Kingdon, 2020). There are several reasons why organizations and teams need to be transparent, including but not limited to: One of the primary benefits of being transparent is that it helps organizations and teams to win trust and build better relationships. According to research, 25% of employees do not trust their employers, and only about half believe that their employers are open and upfront with them (Boiser, 2019). When employees trust their leaders, they will support their causes and goals (Boiser, 2019). They will act in good faith and make decisions in the best interest of the company. Similarly, when people in society trust organizations and their leaders, they will support the causes and goals of those organizations. Also, when there is transparency in terms of information, employees can make informed decisions faster. It can reduce unnecessary risks that could have been met with closed systems and ways of working (Boiser, 2019). Transparency in organizations also enables sharing and collaboration between employees and improves productivity and innovation. It also heightens accountability and pushes everyone to put their best foot forward (Boiser, 2019). Productive conflict is an open exchange of conflicting or differing ideas in which parties feel equally heard, respected, and unafraid to voice dissenting opinions to reach a mutually comfortable resolution (Jennifer Maxson & Associates, 2021). It provides an opportunity for the team members to share their ideas, opinions, and expertise. All the ideas may not work or may not be accepted, but team members feel comfortable sharing them during the meetings or ceremonies and contribute to helping the team make the best decision possible. As a matter of fact, it helps teams become more mature and practical. Also, it creates a more enriched work environment that encourages everyone to listen and march teams forward in a positive direction. References: Person 2 post: Bhandari Agile approaches are based on an empirical control method — a process of making decisions based on the realities observed in the project (Layton et al., 2020). To observe the realities, the team needs to know the fact and the accurate status of the project and/or the organization. Making each relevant member and stakeholder aware of the facts, statistics, and realities of the project is what transparency in an organization means. Maintaining transparency in an organization is not hard if the organization’s culture is deeply rooted and values about maintaining transparency. Transparency is considered a core value of agile and is referred to as the foundation of most of the agile frameworks like scrum. Frequent meetings like scrum meetings, retrospective meetings in an agile approach help teams communicate frequently which helps in increasing transparency in a team. Transparency in Agile Development cannot be overstated (Brizard & KnowledgeHut, 2017). Based on the organization’s culture, it may be hard to maintain transparency like if the company is built with secrecy in its core, transparency is not only hard but almost impossible. So, to maintain transparency, it should also be engrained in the organization’s core values. For an agile organization, lack of transparency certainly hurts in long run, not only to the team or the project but to the whole organization. We can help the essential trust to emerge and shatter the deep-seated cycle of distrust in many organizations by simply paying attention to membership, interactions, credibility, respect, and behaviors, team leaders can both stimulate and accelerate trustworthiness and the resulting trust that is essential among team members and between the team and its stakeholders (Larsen, 2007). With a lack of transparency in an organization, there will be a lack of trust. The team may not be able to trust the product owner and the team frequently gets tangled in politics. As agile core value is to let teamwork directly on the product without losing focus on other activities, these issues can cause great damage to not only teams and organization development speed, but also to the morale of every member of the team. Without transparency, it will be hard to measure progress, resulting in failure to know the speed of the progress. So with all these points in consideration, it is hard to adopt agile without transparency in an organization and the team. But with transparency, the team will be able to build trust as each team member has to be open and honest about their daily activities, impact, and status with respect to the project and the organization. In fact, transparency is not what you forcibly do, it is the culture and a mindset. Since agile emphasizes self-organizing and cross-functional teams, trust is the foundation of an agile team. A trusting team can communicate quickly and freely, less formally, and can move forward with little to no ambiguity. Lacking trust in an agile team means wasted effort in collecting information, correction of wrong development, involvement in office politics, blaming each other, and covering up the mistakes that should be fixed. A climate of trust provides the foundation for effective team processes, adaptability, and high performance (Larsen, 2007). In a project, conflict is inevitable, and the quick resolution of the conflict can benefit a lot. Productive conflict is defined as an open exchange of conflicting or differing ideas in which parties feel equally heard, respected, and unafraid to voice dissenting opinions for the purpose of reaching a mutually comfortable resolution (Maxson, 2021). Productive conflict can be achieved in an agile context by being transparent and open to new ideas and enriching the work environments. Encouraging the team to be a better listener and to move forward is another key to develop constructive/productive conflict. With productive conflict, it lets everyone’s voice be considered and heard and provides flexibility resulting in an overall increase in productivity. Though productive conflict is important for everyone in the team, it is crucial to the leadership and the management. Also, the leaders, managers, and higher up in an organization should coach the team about what and how productive conflict is applied in the project. It should be part of the organizational culture in an agile organization. References: Brizard, T., & KnowledgeHut. (2017, September 28). What is the Importance of the Transparency Value in Agile? Knowledgehut. https://www.knowledgehut.com/blog/agile/the-importance-of-the-transparency-value-in-agile. Larsen, D. (2007). The First Thing To Build: Trust on Agile Teams. StickyMinds. https://www.stickyminds.com/presentation/first-thing-build-trust-agile-teams. Layton, M., Ostermiller, S. J., & Kynaston, D. J. (2020). Agile project management for dummies. For Dummies. Maxson, J. (2021, May 3). Productive Conflict: How Can You Empower Yourself and Others to Embrace Conflict? https://jennifermaxsonassociates.com/productive-co… Requirements: 400-500 words each reply Building trust and improving relationships (Kingdon, 2020) Helping teams to make better decisions and promoting better feedback (Kingdon, 2020) Ensuring everyone in the team is more aligned with each other and fostering a culture of higher engagement (Kingdon, 2020) Reducing risks and surprises (Kingdon, 2020) Increasing accountability (Kingdon, 2020) Boiser, L. (2019, December 03). Transparency in Organizations: How Transparent Should You Be as a Leader. Retrieved July 10, 2021, from https://kanbanzone.com/2019/transparency-in-organi… Jennifer Maxson & Associates. (2021, April 08). Productive Conflict: How Can You Empower Yourself and Others to Embrace Conflict? Retrieved July 10, 2021, from https://jennifermaxsonassociates.com/productive-co… Kingdon, D. (2020, January 14). Clear as Mud – Attaining Real Transparency in Agile. Retrieved July 10, 2021, from https://www.agilealliance.org/clear-as-mud-attaini… Building trust and improving relationships (Kingdon, 2020)
Helping teams to make better decisions and promoting better feedback (Kingdon, 2020)
Ensuring everyone in the team is more aligned with each other and fostering a culture of higher engagement (Kingdon, 2020)
Reducing risks and surprises (Kingdon, 2020)
Increasing accountability (Kingdon, 2020)

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