When Agile becomes a jerk
I was recently at a book club and someone made a point that got me thinking. The book club was discussing Jim Benson’s amazing book “The Collaboration Equation” read it and rejoice!
I recommend Jim’s work, both he and Tonianne are an inspiration and their work and learning content is up there in terms of value for money and impact on my own behaviors and how I think about the world.
The comment was in reference to how Jim’s book focuses on humane working practices and professionalism. From Jim’s point of view, Lean and Agile just don’t focus enough on humanity.
Someone suggested that agile attempts to cover this in the Agile Manifesto lines:
‘We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and toolsSource: https://agilemanifesto.org/
That got me thinking, yes, we are trying to uncover better ways of ‘working’ by doing it (adapted for non-software), people often misinterpret the topic as ‘Agile is better than Waterfall’.
Why I suspect the over simplified messaging of Agile vs Waterfall wasn’t intended to be so simple and lacking in nuance. I have reflected and see the messaging as learning and adapting in how we work as the ‘better ways of working by doing’.
Thankfully, the Agile Manifesto doesn’t go into specific practices and instead focused on values and principles (a way to remain timeless) but also an opportunity for everyone else to try and fill in the gap with their own interpretations, products, and certifications.
This is typically further amplified by people (falling into the Dunning-Kruger effect trap) of espousing ‘xyz isn’t agile’. Quite often because that person knows just a little (e.g. a 2 day course) and they’ve not had years of practice and learning to understand the breadth of the domains. I really dislike the oversimplification of something being a binary is or isn’t. Life, people, and everything just aren’t that simple (edit: clear in Cynefin).
Next time you hear someone saying something is or isn’t agile, get them to walk through what they really mean. You both might learn something. I am not a fan of the trope of the ‘agile police’ a group of agile practitioners in an organization who correct people not using the words / terms ‘correctly’. If it comes to that, then your organization is missing the larger point about ways of working.
Having observed a significant amount of change and transformation in the past few years around ‘Agile’ (the good, the bad, the ugly), things are usually not what they seem and require additional inspection. Forcing conformance is always dangerous, this is why ‘Agile Transformations’ inflicted onto people rarely stick with long lasting impact.
I will refrain from all the ‘agile is dead’ rhetoric, but I can see the impact the ‘agile industrial complex’ has had on how people see and behave when it comes to these practices. Running around using new terms and correcting others for using different terms is missing the point entirely.
These days I try not to use the ‘agile’ words as much as I can and try to understand the context of the people / teams I’m talking to and meet them where they are, trying to avoid introducing new jargon as much as possible. I see the same happening with other words like autonomy, empowerment, psychological safety, failure, and I’m sure there are many more you would relate to.
In summary
Talk to people, don’t lecture them. Help them with the problems they are facing rather than you trying to inflict new processes because of a company mandate.
Practices are context sensitive; uncertainty and ambiguity are rampant in knowledge work. Focusing on the team and building the team's trust so that they learn the value of regular learning and improving is what gets the outcomes.
Extras
Check out books / videos by
- Rob England (The agile manager etc.)
- Daniel Mezick (The Culture Game etc.)
- Jon Smart (Better Value Sooner Safer Happier)
- Joshua Kerievsky (soon to release: The Joy of Agility)
A few views with Jim Benson that I recommend you watch!
