Lateral Communication | Glossary

Definition: 

Lateral communication is defined as an exchange or sharing information, ideas between people within a community, groups or units of organisation – anyone in one city can speak with anyone in another city. This is not only allowed, but encouraged in Agile ways of working. A couch should help the team remember the value of intensive communication even when distribution makes this harder. Communities communicate and store collective knowledge through lateral communication and is an essential ingredient in making hierarchies work

One significant benefit of lateral communication is that it helps counter the “mum effect”. The mum effect occurs when project participants fails to share bad news with others. Lateral communication is especially important on projects involving team members whose cultures and individual personalities make them less will to share bad news or more intimidated by those in leadership roles. Lateral communication involves not only the movement of information from the upper levels to the lower levels of the organisational hierarchy but also is defined primarily as the quality of information sharing among peers at similar levels.

Further Reading:
Book: SUCCEEDING WITH AGILE Software Development Using Scrum by Mike Cohn

Sprint | Book Series

Overview:

The book “Sprint: Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days” is written by the author Jake Knapp, and his co-authors John Zeratsky and Braden Kowitz. The book offers a unique transformative formula for testing ideas that works whether you’re running a startup or a large organization. It gives you a confidence to move from your current prototype to a decision, saving you and your team’s countless hours and dollars.

The authors of this book are the three partners at Google Ventures, highlighting a five-day process to solve tough problems, proven to be successful at more than 100 companies. Nowadays the Entrepreneurs face a big question: What is more important to focus, and how to start? How an idea works in real-life? How many meetings and discussions it takes before you binges upon the right solutions?

This book has a surefire way to answer these important questions. The author Jake Knapp, who is also the designer created the five-day process at Google, where sprints were used on everything from Google Search to Google X. Lateron Braden Kowitz and John Zeratsky joined Jake at Google Ventures, and together they have completed more than one hundred sprints with companies in mobile, e-commerce, healthcare, finance, and more.

Sprint is a practical guide, which answers all the critical business questions, recommended for teams of any size, from small Startups to Fortune 100s, from teachers to nonprofits. It’s for anyone with a big opportunity, problem, or idea who needs to get answers today.

Authors:

Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Braden Kowitz

Published In:

2016