Build Adaptable Teams: The Marine Corps Way

Shrinking budgets, increased workloads, and ever-changing demands challenge today’s product teams to adapt and learn to do more with less. Since its birth in 1775, the United States Marine Corps has faced similar trials. The key to the Corps’ survival—not unlike that of a product team—has been its ability to adapt to change. Anne Steiner uses the Corps’ leadership philosophy and its training techniques and her experience as a Marine Corps non-commissioned officer as a framework for understanding how Marines adapt, decentralize decision making, and build leaders at all levels. Through stories and examples, Anne draws parallels between Marine Corps techniques and how we work in the software industry. Learn to apply Marine Corps concepts like commander’s intent to enhance our traditional idea of product ownership and small unit leadership in lieu of centralized management. Whether your team is agile or not, you’ll leave with a new perspective on planning, empowerment, and team dynamics—a perspective that can help people at all levels lead and excel through change.