On the first day of hurricane Katrina, I posted a blog on "Prepared for an emergency?". As I was writing that blog, I truly believed that our software industry was going to be taught a lesson on how to effectively deploy and manage self-organizing teams. Boy was I wrong!

What we have witnessed is a command and control catastrophe! Not only did our emergency response leaders not provide an infrastructure for self-organizing teams to successfully aid in the rescue, they actually blocked self-organizing teams from aiding those stranded. They stopped well-intentioned groups, companies and individuals from providing aid in the immediate days following the hurricane. At the same time they claimed that they had control of the situation - which prevented hundreds of other would be self-organized teams to aid in the rescue.

Once FEMA formally raised the white flag in admitting they had no command structure to provide immediate assistance, there has been overwhelming support from every organization and individual to help the victims. FEMA must recognize the only way to quickly respond to a disaster of this magnitude is to provide infrastructure support for the thousands of groups and individuals that can provide direct help.

While the costs of failure in Katrina's response were at a magnitude that resulted in a relatively quick turn around - in days, we have seen examples of this in the software industry for decades where the hidden costs allow projects to wain for years without progress. Management in command-control over a project that had no chance of success.

Two key leadership traits that FEMA, and most software development leaders, can learn from agile methods are: 1) empower the front-line workers and 2) remove impediments to their progress. Provide the ones closest to the problem resources they need to effectively respond to it and remove the roadblocks that get in the way of their progress. Otherwise, get out of the way!

I am proud to say that my wife Jana has been leading a self-organizing team here in Boulder, CO - assisting about 5 families and students to find housing, furnishings, jobs, schools, doctors, etc. to get their life in some order. She has found the response of our community to be overwhelming, everyone is asking to help in someway. There are hundreds more in Denver, and millions scattered around the country that can use our help. I encourage each of you to look at your own community to find out how you can help those displaced by the disaster. A personal touch can be more valuable than all the money.