Agile is all about Feedback

This is an open letter to all people who are responsible in hiring and developing Agile people.

Dear,

Isn’t FEEDBACK the key ingredient to being Agile?

It is to me and the feedback needs to be regular. It is essential for continuous improvement, for delivering a quality product/service or any other value. Whether it’s on the product/service, on the process or on the way we work together.

Is this feedback only meaningful in digital projects?

Of course not! We all need or like constructive feedback in our line of work. How else are we going to know if we are doing a mediocre job or a good job or a great/awesome job? So, the feedback needs to be valuable too.

Valuable feedback transcends IT or new product development! Valuable feedback is essential for the whole company! Valuable feedback should become part of the company DNA! 

That means that every company should cultivate and nourish a valuable feedback culture within their entire organisation. 

And who should guard and preserve that valuable feedback culture?

Everyone in the company, of course. And Human Resources or whatever name they give themselves now, in the first place.

Don't you think that HR shouldn't be in the driver’s seat of stimulating this valuable feedback culture? Shouldn’t HR drive the Digital & Agile transformation as well? 

Yes, I believe so because HR is hiring Agile people or developing Agile talents. So, they should convince the other executives to cultivate valuable feedback in their company amongst each other (if there is a lack of it, of course). 

HR should lead by example by giving constructive FEEDBACK to others.

• “We have found a better match for this position”
• “We feel that you are overqualified to be a Scrum Master at our company”
• “We are already further down the Agile road and we don’t need SM’s challenging the teams but rather to keep it smooth”
• “We could have used you when we started our Agile transformation a few years ago” 

Is this valuable feedback? Or does it rather feel like an excuse for not giving good feedback? Or are they just very busy? Or am I not worth their time? Maybe I am just very disappointed about their feedback after hearing this more than 10 times the last 3 months. I’m getting frustrated, I guess. 

 “Agile companies” wanting to hire Agile people. Nice! But when the so called Agile companies don’t give valuable feedback to their candidates than they definitely need a person like me, an Agile whisperer that helps nourishing and cultivating valuable feedback. 

The way new hires or future candidates are treated always reflects down on a company, eventually. It becomes part of their company reputation, their company branding. It will determine the loyalty of their people towards their company. 

 My conclusion is that as long as no learnings about mindset like “feedback workshops” or Scrum or other Agile (frameworks) training are not in the official HR learning portfolio, the real Agile mindset is still not part of the company DNA. I’m probably frustrated that my perception and experience with HR hasn’t changed much since I started working 24 years ago. And although Agile will be celebrating its 20th anniversary soon it looks like the real adoption of Agile could still take a bit longer. 

How long does it take to adopt something or someone?

Thank you for listening to my whining. Thank you for your precious time. ??