What Can an Agile Leader Learn from “Band of Brothers”?

Reading Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers cemented my belief that team theory is due for an update. Tuckman’s “forming–storming–norming–performing” assumes teams need long, linear stages before they perform.

But Easy Company showed something different. Time and again, soldiers thrown into complex and confusing situations (lost in the woods, cut off in combat) quickly organized into temporary teams. Why? Because skills were solid, mindset was unified, and trust was established. Teams can spin up far faster than theory suggests when these conditions exist.

Another striking detail: cliques aren’t always dysfunctions. Three or four bonded soldiers became natural entities within squads. Here’s how one soldier described them: “The three of us became an entity. There were many such entities in our close-knit organisations. Groups of threes and fours, usually from the same squads or sections, core elements within the families that were the small units, were readily recognized as entities. […] Often three such entities would make up a squad, with incredible results in combat. They would literally insist on going hungry for one another, freezing for one another, dying for one another.” So, these micro-units made the whole stronger, protecting one another fiercely and, in turn, reinforcing the resilience of the larger team. The comradeship formed in training and cemented under fire often lasted a lifetime.

Of course, Agile Teams don’t face life-and-death stakes. But the dynamic is recognizable. With the right skills, shared mindset, and trust forged in delivery, Agile teams can form quickly, bond deeply, and become more than the sum of their parts.

Maybe it’s time to ask: what if we focused less on Tuckman-phases and more on conditions and mindsets?

PS: You can read the basics of my theory here.