It isn't set in stone


#1

My team is reforming. Our product which has always been 2 parts, is moving into two products teams to take care of the two halves of the product. They need to talk, but we are acknowledging their differences and their focuses. Each part will have loving care and maintenance.

My office lead and I were discussing some of the small changes I would like to see. They weren’t super large, things like changing start/end days for the sprint, movement of our huddle and things like sprint reviews. We talked about what would happen if it wasn’t right. I uttered the words, “then we change it, this isn’t set in stone.” Tension left, the unknown was acknowledged and we moved on. Something sank home for me.

Part of the beauty of this thing we’ve decided to call “agile” is the simple recognisation of something that the world is permanently mutable and things change. The benefit is simple. We aren’t stuck, we don’t have to do it the same old way, we can choose to change too.

I was listening to the latest episode of Agile Uprising Podcast: Undercover Agile and the thought that kept hitting me was that we get to “up the good.” It also echoes what Mike Chat (the original Blue Power Ranger and founder of XMA) was saying in a workshop I recently attended, “If you don’t like something, change it! Don’t accept it, change it!”

It isn’t always simple, and it isn’t easy, but we can take control of the things we can control and change things. It doesn’t need to be huge, it can be something as small as our attitude or practices. If you don’t like defects in your code and you aren’t writing unit/integration tests, start today. If your work place is missing education, run a knowledge share or get excited about some tech and pass on the enthusiasm.

There will be always things outside our control. Get stressed about that doesn’t help you. Start changing the things you can and you might be surprised at the changes around you that begin to occur. Don’t worry, it really isn’t set in stone, you can up the good in your world. Things change and so can you.


#2

This reminds me of something I have read recently by Woody Zull. He has been coaching teams to “turn up the good.” He has found that teams focus too much on what is wrong and therefore do not approve what they are good at. He has found that if you improve more on the things you do well the “bad” is consumed by the "good."Makes sense! Different approach that I been meaning to try. Thanks for reminding me!