How many agile engagements have I been a part of and satisfied with in the end? Zero. This isn’t because I seek perfection. No. I’ve been at this long enough to manage my expectations way lower than that. Regardless, I still get frustrated and disappointed when I try and fail to implement a decent framework. Very recently, however, I have trained myself to be thankful for my failures and to take the wins where I get them, even if it’s just a tiny win.
Perception is the Key
My wife’s name is Nichole. Nichole and I have had countless conversations exploring this very thing, because while I try not to take my work home, I got into this career because I care. I want to help people get out of their own way and discover a better way to work, because if their work life is awesome, I believe their lives are substantially improved. When I aim for that and fall short, I feel a sense of personal failure, but I also feel like I failed the people I was working with. So, yeah, I have sat on my couch and hung my head before thinking about what I could have done differently.
When this happens, I usually focus on my failures. Imposter syndrome is a big thing in my field precisely because of our standards, our perspectives, and how difficult it is to effect change. This feeling is even more prevalent for women and people of color. It has so much to do with our perception. Our clients think we only see their flaws and failures. In reality, we see potential. I have long lamented my inability to show them what it looks like when it starts working. We have a unique experience most of them lack. So, when we see a 45 minute daily huddle that does very little to propel the execution of their teams, we don’t see the waste. More precisely, we see the waste, but what shines out more is what a short, sweet, effective daily scrum could do. While this ability to see what could be is our bread and butter, it blinds us to the fact that they can’t see what we see. This is why telling stories is such an effective means of convincing our clients.
You Are Not in Control
However, some people like their 45 minute huddle. They will never give up their huddle, no matter how hard you try or what you do. So, we concede. We let them keep their huddle and we drop it. When we do, we feel like we betrayed them and ourselves. This creates an impossible standard to try to live up to. There’s always going to be a sacred cow weighing down a team or organization. There’s nothing you can do but your very best and hope they figure it out in the long run. A perfect implementation is vanishingly rare. I’ve heard rumors, but I’ve never seen one. I could do an entire series on biases, roadblocks, and the reasons we fail. I may do that someday, but suffice to say that most of the time, these are variables that lie outside of our control and are the primary contributors to failed implementations. I’m not pushing for a nihilistic perspective. This doesn’t mean we should not be introspective and seek out opportunities in failure or experiment with new approaches. Just don’t take it too hard.
What Can You Do
It also doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can do. I’ve started to think differently about the fight I’m in when I’m with a client. I’m not trying to create this monolithic machine of efficiency and joy. If that happens, no one will be as happy as me, but that goal is unattainable. I’m not even looking to revamp their morning huddle into a 15 minute display of collaboration and efficiency that would make Ken Schwaber tear up. Instead, I’m just going to try to get them to table long discussions until after the call. I’m going to focus so micro that success is nearly a certainty. And when I get it right, I’m celebrating. I’m doing it publicly, too.
This has really helped out my own mental health, but it has also helped out in a few unexpected ways. Just like the detractors and their negative energy, positive energy is contagious. People start to get excited. It’s nice when someone appreciates the things you do, even if they are as small as saying, “I’ll talk with you after the call about it.” You can then reinvest these positive experiences and the practical value they bring to get more done. It reminds me of what I tell teams when they look at being more T-shaped in their skills or starting on test automation, “Start now. Take small steps. Don’t concern yourself with the end goal. You’ll be surprised how fast you get there.”
Let Your Successes Guide You
Another big benefit is that it gives a more natural shape to larger transformations. Often, I have found myself trying to fit a round peg into a square hole when it comes to agile transformations. Scrum isn’t magic. It doesn’t always make sense. User stories are great, but what about when your user looks more like a data center? The truth is, there is no silver bullet. Not every problem is a werewolf. This stuff gets pretty nuanced, and our clients deserve a careful approach.
I have become more fond of applying loose frameworks at a larger scale, like maybe some basic Scrum and flavors of bits of SAFe shoehorned into a LeSS model, whatever initially makes sense, but done at a high level. Then, I spend time with the client on the micro things. Like, very micro. We’re talking implementing round-robin in the Daily Scrum. Generating and critiquing personas with the business folks. I let what I find inform my steps forward, and I stay honest, communicative, and timely about potential necessary changes as I go. The shape of the solution ends up more tailored to the client and a lot of time and effort is saved in implementation avoiding friction and gaining buy-in along the way.
In Summary
70% of people struggle with imposter syndrome at some point in their lives. For us agile practitioners, I suggest focusing less on the big failures and more on the little wins. Let those successes guide and inform your work, and when you look back at past projects, hopefully you see all the good you have done. I’ll leave you with my one overarching goal in life. It is obtainable, and has served me well. Leave every place better than you found it. How many agile implementations have I been satisfied with? Zero. How many have I left better than I found? Every single one.