Runs on PeopleThe model
Two things to hold. Nine places to hold them.
Excellent teams hold two things at once: high standards and real care. The model shows you which you're short of, and where in the work it's showing up.
1. Standards and care
How you lead.
Standards
The bar you hold: quality, delivery, honesty about where things really are. What makes a team excellent.
Care
How you treat the people clearing that bar: air cover, growth, trust, a pace they can sustain. What makes a team worth staying in.
2. Three layers, nine dimensions
Where it shows up. Each layer only runs as well as the one beneath it.
Product and Operations · What you deliver
Outcomes
Do we know what matters to the people we serve, and why?
WeakBusy delivering, but nobody can say what changed for the customer.
StrongThe team can name the outcome behind every piece of work, and stops work that has none.
Playbooks →Reliability
Does the work run without rescue?
WeakFirefighting, repeat incidents, and the same heroes called every time.
StrongBoring weeks. Problems are caught early and fixed in the system, not by a person.
Playbooks →Measures
Do the numbers change what we decide?
WeakDashboards everywhere, and decisions still come down to the loudest opinion.
StrongA few measures, chosen for decisions, with the people behind them in the room.
Playbooks →Process · How work flows
Clarity
Does everyone know the priorities, and what we're not doing?
WeakEverything is a priority, so nothing is. The plan exists, but nobody can explain it.
StrongThe newest person can explain why their work matters and what got dropped to make room.
Playbooks →Cadence
Do our regular rhythms help more than they cost?
WeakStatus-meeting 1:1s, silent retros, and planning sessions that turn into fights.
StrongA few short rhythms everyone values, and the courage to cancel the rest.
Playbooks →Agreements
Is our process owned by the people who use it?
WeakRules written elsewhere, quietly worked around, and handovers that drop things.
StrongProcess is people's agreements, written down, reviewed and cut when it stops helping.
Playbooks →People · The foundation
Trust
Do people tell the truth, early?
WeakQuiet meetings, late surprises, and the real conversation happening after the meeting.
StrongBad news travels fast, mistakes are discussed openly, and the manager hears it first.
Playbooks →Capability
Could we cope if anyone left tomorrow?
WeakSingle points of failure, nobody growing, and the same people doing the same work for years.
StrongKnowledge is shared by default, everyone is stretching, and nobody is irreplaceable.
Playbooks →Energy
Can people sustain the pace?
WeakChange fatigue, quiet burnout, and good people going flat before they hand in notice.
StrongA pace people can sustain, recognition that's specific, and change that's staged, not stacked.
Playbooks →3. The method
Diagnose from the top down. Fix from the bottom up.
- 01
Scan
Nine questions, ten minutes. Score your team on every dimension, honestly.
- 02
Trace
Follow the weakest score down. Product and process problems usually start in the people layer.
- 03
Fix
Pick one dimension. Run its playbook for 30 days. One thing, done properly.
- 04
Re-scan
Score again at 90 days. Keep what moved the number, drop what didn't.
4. Multiply, don't diminish
Liz Wiseman's lens on the four types.
Multipliers
Make everyone around them smarter: they attract talent, make room to think, stretch people, debate before deciding and hand over real ownership. That's the Coach.
Diminishers
Shrink the people around them, usually by accident: the know-it-all, the micromanager, the rescuer. Drivers diminish by control, Friends by protection, Passengers by absence. Read the playbook →
5. It works with your framework
SAFe, Scrum, Shape Up or none at all: every framework runs on people.
See how they map →SAFeDisciplined AgileShape UpScrumKanbanLean and the Toyota WayTeam TopologiesOKRsDORA
Frameworks give you the structure: the ceremonies, the cadence, the roles. This model covers what the frameworks assume and rarely teach: the standards you hold and the care you show while you run them. Each framework's own core values say the same thing. SAFe's include respect for people. Scrum's include openness and courage. The Toyota Way rests on respect for people as one of its two pillars.
6. The plan and the compass
The plan
What you can measure
The nine dimensions, the team scan and the manager scorecard. Every playbook ends with how you'll know it's working.
The compass
What you can't
In certain times you follow the plan. In uncertain times there is no plan, only the people you've built and the trust between you. The Toast Test is how you check it.