Being on a Team over Applying a Framework

For some this will sound like Chaos.

For others you will feel free, and confirmed in thoughts and actions you may have already experienced.?

The truth is simple - in a truly agile mindset it is better to be on a team then to apply a framework. Now you may have read that and said: “Wouldn’t it be both?”?

In theory, yes. However in practice it feels like no. To really unpack this value we need to define what we mean by the left side of the phrase “Being on a team” and what typically happens on the right side of the phrase: “Applying a Framework.” As always agilists, “while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.”?

So what does it mean to be on a team? I feel we take this phrase for granted too often. In fact I wonder if we say “being on a team” when we may often mean being WITH a team. So the Scrum Master or Agile Coach that is with the team is there helping the team get to know each other better, maybe being vulnerable in order to promote vulnerability, expecting people to change the way they work on the team but at the end of the day when it comes to agile and more specifically the framework being applied - it can’t be touched. It is the way.?

This feels like a huge anti-pattern. As you read “Being on a Team over Applying a Framework” doesn’t your agile heart want to finish it to say “over following a plan”? The truth is that a framework is a great plan on how to adopt agile - but it takes actually being on the team and letting the team make decisions to change how agile is applied to actually bring about agile adoption. It's about making decisions with the team, not for them that put you on the team.

As our team grows - which is the Agilist's focus - they change. If we are truly agile we will respond to that change over following a plan. This means we should be free to change and grow with the team - allowing them to experiment and push against the organization's natural temptation to command and control how agile gets adopted.?

It is this process of letting the team experiment - cancel a retro, demo, DSU, try Kanban, etc. that actually helps them to integrate their current understanding with the “mindset” we often promote.?

As we've all said, if Agile is a mindset, then it goes beyond frameworks. I personally believe that though there have been many great ideas put out toward new ways of working; we have too many frameworks. It’s interesting because as a community we often say we should simplify and iterate on a product to make it better, yet go on to build framework after framework - yes iterating on agile thoughts but also creating silos in a way.

We actually can go on to create silos in organizations by applying a framework as a source of truth - overriding the agile principle of decentralizing decision making.?

If we are going to actually help our teams integrate the agile mindset they need to be free to make decisions, respond to the change in their own way and feel a little like pioneers - like the wild west of agile. We shouldn’t necessarily point back to the “best practices” of a framework all the time. We should always point to the values of an agile mindset, break some rules and have some real experience together as a team finding out what agile means to us.

Being on the team means taking this journey with them and not always being in control of the outcome (you never really were anyway). Letting it be organic and learning with your team - not just coaching them. To boldly go where none of you have gone before.

When we take this approach, we build our own framework and find true agility as a team.

I'm not the most seasoned Agilist but I have been having some thoughts and would love to hear yours too!