I think a lot about why we do the things we do, the journey we’re each on and how to ensure I’m working with good people on good products. Mainly because our identity is intrinsically linked to what we do, but also I want to have a valid reason for getting up in the morning!
A long long time ago I read Das Kapital by Marx. At the time Thatcherism was in full swing and a number of people were making lots and lots of money. Conversely a number of areas had been devastated, particularly in the North. I guess I was aware of the disparity and being a teenager found an ideology that I felt addressed that. I didn’t stick with Marxism, but it certainly opened up my mind to concepts, themes and thoughts that continue to resonate.
One of which probably influenced why I became a fan of agile. It moves a lot of the decision making and control toward the doers.
Yeah you need a product vision, and someone has to sign off a budget, neither of which are easy…… but the old ways of diktat and uninformed deadlines are recipes for failure, and agile addresses the reasons why. There are extremes like developer anarchy, (which incidentally I am a BIG FAN OF… watch the video I’ve linked to)
So IMO agile can be an accessible vehicle for delivering value to an organisation. However that value is not just about money. As a way of building software it’s great, but it can provide something more.
This is where it becomes a little deep. Many of us can relate to the Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. A popular quote from him regarding his time playing football is really interesting:
“After many years during which I saw many things, what I know most surely about morality and the duty of man I owe to sport and learned it in the RUA*.”
*RUA = Racing Universitaire Algerios
(multi sports club formed in 1927 in Algiers)
I know there are lots of interpretations as to the context of this quote, or what he was trying to convey. The consensus is that in sport there is an objective, and it’s usually a team of individuals with a variety of skills working towards that objective.
On the pitch there maybe a designated captain, but that is a formality. In reality leaders emerge in successful teams as and when they are needed. People contribute more in areas where they are strongest, and the team structure supports that. Like sports teams, you can still have superstars, but they need the rest of the team. That’s not just on the field of play, but even sports where it’s an individual. Tennis maybe…. Andy Murray is the guy on court, but there is a team supporting him, physio, coach, pr person etc etc. Each will lead in the area that they are an expert in, but together they unite to get Murray into the right condition, mentally and physically with the right tactics so that he can then apply his talents.
For me, that’s what an agile team can do. It provides the best way (that we currently know) for a bunch of experts to work together to meet a goal. This is particularly true in high performing teams, where leaders emerge and participants collaborate in a culture of mutual respect.
I also like the straight talking it supports, whereby you can call people out for not contributing or if they disrupt team harmony……but that’s another story.
