Empower and Let Go

Every professional whether a team member or a team leader wants the same thing, to unleash their full potential, satisfy their customers, and work in a healthy and rewarding environment. Using an Agile principles arms the team with a system that is proven to work in helping a business unit genuinely achieve its goal of becoming more than the sum of its parts.

In Empower and Let Go, O'Connor examines why it is important to align the vision of team members for their respective careers and future with that of the enterprise and the team. O'Connor explains how the system of making team commitments for short iterations of time can enable the team to deliver a consistent stream of value to the business. O'Connor explores how retrospectives can help your team evolve rapidly, enabling the team to discover their own shortcomings and run experiments to resolve them quickly. From a team leaders point of view the ideas of empowerment and servant leadership, which often contrast sharply with the traditional command and control approach to management, are explored.

The agile mamangment school of thought evolved from the extremely complex software engineering domain, however this set of principles can be applied to any domain. O'Connor has experience applying it in the public and private sector, as part of international teams, or small local voluntary groups. This book is primarily aimed at those who are looking at establishing an agile approach to their teams for the first time, after reading the book you will be fully equipped to start your agile journey.

Gerald O’Connor, BA, MA, MSC, PMP, PMI-ACP, is a professional project manager who helps teams devise software solutions for business problems. He is currently employed at the largest software company in the insurance industry.

In the past, O’Connor worked for a world-renowned university and at multinational firms in the public and financial sectors and the publishing industry and telecommunications industries. He is passionate about sharing the many lessons he has learned in project management.