What You Read About Agile May Be Different From What You See in the World
Here are some thoughts about the realities you will face in the world, and how to be a part of the change you want to see.
Last updated
Here are some thoughts about the realities you will face in the world, and how to be a part of the change you want to see.
Last updated
In Tech Fleet training, we train service leadership:
how teammates bring themselves to teams to be in service to others. We train psychological safety:
how teammates can provide encouragement for others to be themselves, speak out, and take healthy team risks. We train self-organization:
how teams can be given the authority to collectively decide how to proceed themselves.
We train continuous improvement:
How teams can help each other remove their fear of failure, and look at failure as opportunities to grow and change.
Tech Fleet project training teams mature in Agile philosophies as they were described.
This is not always the reality we find in the world. You may have experienced a completely different way of life on teams.
You may have worked with managers who are authoritarian, or hands-off.
You may have worked with team mates who acted in competition with you, and did not practice service leadership.
You may have operated on teams where you did not feel psychologically safe to speak out, or fail, or bring your personality to the team work.
We deal with these adversities everywhere in the work world.
Teams may call themselves Agile, but do nothing to practice its philosophies. Leaders may operate based on fear, instead of growth, and prevent teams from taking healthy risks or try to control outcomes. Teams may not have foundations of psychological safety, and they may be afraid to speak up about things that can change. They may be agile in name only, and practice Waterfall philosophies.
This is our reality. While you are training, you learn the ideal state. When you proceed in the world you have a choice to lead by example. You have a choice to inspire change in others. You have a choice in how you contribute to team culture. You can only control your behaviors and actions and intentions.
You have the power to be the change that you want to see in the world. It only takes one person's realization that there are better ways of working to inspire change. It may not happen on a timeline that suits your needs, but change can happen.
By practicing the Agile philosophies and the traits of strong Agile team work, you can change the world, one person, one team, at a time.
You have a choice:
You can choose to lead by example.
You can choose to set healthy boundaries and share the perspective of psychological safety.
You can choose to lead in service of others' growth, even in situations where someone's not being a service leader to you or to others.
You can choose to inspire teams and managers to transfer their authority to a collective team voice, and build self-organization.
You won't always have a perfect outcome on teams. But that's not what's important. What is important is your self-care, and your continuous improvement. Learning. Progress. Growth. Lessons in how to approach adversity on teams and in the world.
We are pioneers in Agile.
Tech Fleet members can bring this change to teams in the world to help them mature in Agile practices as they should be. We can help teams reach their potential through more psychological safety, more service leadership, and more self-organization.
We encourage you to live this. Take it seriously. Read this handbook and practice these principles in Tech Fleet training. Learn how to live these words of Agile Manifesto. You will bring so much added value to teams in the world when you can bring a mindset of team growth and learning over the work outcomes. Through this, we will all be the change that the tech world needs.
Go through the Agile Handbook to learn about the different ways that strong Agile teams prioritize growth over work outcomes, and how to live your best Agile life. You, too, can be the change on teams.