Quadrants
Quadrants permit us to see a more complete view of our reality, revealing our biases and hidden obstacles, while giving us a tool to craft complete solutions. Explore how we build a Team Working Agreement using a 4 Quadrant perspective.
TAKING A FOUR QUADRANT PERSPECTIVE ENABLES US TO SEE REALITY IN ITS TOTALITY.
EACH QUADRANT REVEALS A DISTINCT INSIGHT.
THE FOUR VALUES OF THE AGILE MANIFESTO MAP TO THE FOUR QUADRANTS IN INTEGRAL THEORY. THIS HELPS EXPLAIN AGILE’S LONGEVITY.
- Values & Goals
- Individuals & Interactions
- over processes & tools
- Product & Impact
- Working software
- over comprehensive documentation
- Leadership & Culture
- Customer collaboration
- over contract negotiation
- Markets & Environment
- Responding to change
- over following a plan
AN EXAMPLE OF A WORKING AGREEMENT ADDRESSING THE FOUR QUADRANTS
Creating your working documents using a Four Quadrant perspective enables you to create a more complete solution, addressing a fuller range of the needs and issues that can impact the team. Use a Four Quadrant perspective as a cheat sheet to guard against biases and blind spots.
- Values & Goals
- People’s individual needs must be met to get the most from the team
- Each person’s requests should be met with positivity in order to meet their needs
- Each person’s requests should be met with positivity in order to meet their needs
- Each person’s feelings and points of view, whether in a retrospective or in an open forum are valid for them and we should approach them as such.
- Product & Impact
- We agree to respect our agreement and update it when it needs to evolve
- We individually agree to abide by the broader group’s decisions
- We recognize that individual values must align with the team, but we will not ask team members to contradict their personal values.
- Leadership & Culture
- Everyone has a right to an opinion
- We make decisions collectively using ‘Decider Protocol’
- We practice non-violent communication
- We will endeavor to resolve conflicts internally within our team, where this is not possible we will engage with an independent moderator
- Our priority while at work is to our team
- We live our values (separate ‘Values Doc’)
- We practice log-in and log-out for each
- group working session
- Markets & Environment
- We prefer physical space and artifacts to collaborate wherever possible
- While we use defined ‘frameworks’ we recognize we will use whatever is needed for us at that point in time
- Tools should adapt to our way of working not the other way around
- We default all our comms and docs to “open” only restricting access where necessary
- Our most important meeting is our daily collaboration meeting, this should be missed in only the most extreme cases
- We subscribe to a practice of continuous improvement above all else
More "lenses" from Integral Theory to help your agility
Holons
Deliver the right people with the information at the right time, and align the entire organization to a sense of shared purpose.
Levels
See how we can align a diverse group of people and teams with various priorities, toward the same goals.
Lines
Understanding our strengths and use our differences to achieve agility.
Types
Understanding your unique typology and find the unique value you offer.