Anatomy of Modern Agile's First Principle

Make People Awesome is Modern Agile's first principle. What does this phrase mean and what does it not mean?

Make means you're involved in creating something. Maybe it's a product or service. Maybe it's an experience. It could even be an environment, like your workplace. We use the term "make" because the Modern Agile principles are targeted at makers, people who create or participate in creating things for or with others. Perhaps you'd like to make your workplace better for yourself and your colleagues? In that case, you have customers for your work and you yourself are a customer of your work. What could you do to help people in your workplace have an awesome experience at work? "Make" is not in any way intended to be about coercion. We don't "force" anyone to do or be anything. Makers make things in the hopes they will be loved by people and help those people.

People means everyone in the ecosystem that is connected to what you're making. Your colleagues, your customers, the people who fund your work, the people who buy your work, the people who may administer your work (like setting up eLearning accounts for students), the people who must live with the consequences of your product/service/experience/environment. Modern Agile makers focus on people and their needs. You could focus on one set of people, like employees or users. However, you'd only do that in order to help people across your entire ecosystem. How can you help everyone in that ecosystem have an awesome experience? It may be that by helping make employee/contractor staff have an awesome experience at work, they in turn will help the organization's customers and others have a similarly awesome experience. There's no one right formula for making this work well.

Awesome means awe-inspiring. If you've ever visited a World Heritage site, you've likely experienced awe-inspiring views or architecture. I love the sheer rock walls, gorgeous waterfalls and giant redwood trees of Yosemite. Awesome is also a word you'll hear frequently if you live in California. It's an awesome place to live, a home to Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Google, Pixar and many amazing people and organizations. Our use of the word Awesome acknowledges the awesome people, places and organizations in California. It also acknowledges the use of this word by a Californian named Kathy Sierra and her brilliant book: Badass: Making Users Awesome. Awesome, as a word, doesn't even translate well into other languages. We are okay with that and accept the nearest definition in other languages. Awesome, as a word, may be used inappropriately to describe something that is good or great, like a bagel. In some countries, the word "awesome" may even be used with irony to mean not very good at all. Modern Agile's use of the word is focused on the awe-inspiring notion, something that isn't easy to achieve. Think BHAG: Big Hairy Audacious Goal, like a flight from San Francisco to Tokyo that takes less than an hour or a workplace that genuinely promotes and practices psychological safety. This is not easy. There's often a great deal of risk in even going after something that is awesome (Make Safety A Prerequisite, Modern Agile's 2nd principle, exists to help safely manage risk).

So that's what Make People Awesome means. We acknowledge that not everyone will immediately grasp the meaning simply by looking at the three words. We also understand that some people may assume the phrase is coercive and means "force people to be or do something" when nothing could be further from the truth. Several suggested alternative phrasings (like "Enable Excellence" or "Empower People") simply haven't lived up to the intention of Make People Awesome. Tim Ottinger, a veteran lean/agile coach and a colleague of mine at Industrial Logic, explains Make People Awesome as "doing all of your work with the intention of increasing the ability of others to do epic, story-worthy, amazing, astounding, benevolent work."

Make People Awesome is Modern Agile's first principle, a goal-setting direction, supported by the remaining three principles. I hope this explanation helped and I welcome any questions or feedback.