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Trojan Horse in Team Dynamics: A Lesson in Boundaries and Collaboration

Yamini Hundare
Mastering Agility
Published in
4 min readJan 17, 2025

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In every team, the balance between creativity, autonomy, and collaboration is delicate. Occasionally, we encounter scenarios where the agreed-upon boundaries are subtly overstepped — not with malicious intent, but in ways that create ripple effects throughout the team. Let me share a concept that illustrates this: the Trojan Horse in team dynamics.

The Trojan Horse Analogy

Imagine a scenario where a developer is assigned to fix a bug — a task agreed upon by all stakeholders. On the surface, it seems straightforward: identify the issue, resolve it, and push the fix. But hidden within the bug fix comes something unexpected — unnecessary code improvements, structural changes, or stylistic alterations that were not part of the agreement. While these changes might be well-intentioned, they act as a Trojan Horse, introducing disruptions disguised as enhancements.

The Impact of Overstepping Boundaries

What seems like a minor deviation can lead to significant consequences:

  • Negative Impacts on Others: Unsolicited changes may cause conflicts with ongoing work, create additional testing overhead, or require others to adjust their workflows unnecessarily.
  • Illusion of Contribution: While the changes may…

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Mastering Agility
Mastering Agility

Published in Mastering Agility

The only constant in life is change. Organizations are dealing with constantly changing competition, new insights, innovation, and even culture. Mastering Agility aims to be THE content platform driven by the community to inspire and connect other agile practitioners.

Yamini Hundare
Yamini Hundare

Written by Yamini Hundare

I am an aspiring writer who loves to write about agile mindset, my own experiences and children's stories. I am a published author.

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