The Agile Truth: Episode I
The first tenet in the Agile Manifesto is an emphasis on the value of individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
With more than 18 years corporate experience, more than 30 successful business transformations in a dozen countries and on three continents, I think it’s time to share some of the lessons I’ve learned by breaking down the Agile Manifesto to unleash its real essence to the world.
Let’s start!
Individuals
We value individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Genuinely prioritizing individuals as our highest value is common sense.
People bring experience, education, wisdom, enthusiasm, ingenuity. I notice the choice of wording is “individuals” not simply ‘people.’ As Gandhi put it, action expresses priorities:
To value individuals is to value distinction and independence in a person.
In your career, other than monetarily, in what ways have you been truly valued as an individual? Valued for your distinction, not your same-ness. For your singularity, not tacitly rewarded for herd behavior. Valued for your originality, your rarity, valued for your particularity?
Or have you been valued just for your Rank and File?
In my experience across many different organizations large and small, seeing people valued as individuals has been quite rare. I’ve observed many organizations that value sameness: in credentials, in profiles, in thought and expression. In action.
The same applies for teams. Traditional organizations value teams' sameness, robotization:
When individuals get together, we call them teams, but they are often simply groups of consensus. Or concession. A kind of levelled acceptance of the status quo. Individuality can be hard to “manage” in a traditional way.
This is part of the beauty of Agile– it is not the traditional way.
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