Even Mike Might Be Wrong

It's not often I see Paul Goddard starstruck but in a recent episode of The Agile Pubcast we caught up with agile legend and good friend of ours Mike Cohn of Mountain Goat Software. Paul and I are reaching out for an informal chat with some of our heroes and inspirations from our time in the agile world and Mike stands out as a big one.

Here is a screenshot of Paul clutching a copy of Mike's Agile Estimating and Planning book telling him how much he has used it before Mike humbly tells him that it's one of the things he would love to change if only it was easier for him to do so.

It's not that he thinks the content is now wrong, it's more that he would now be slightly less balanced in his comparison of story points and ideal days than he was when he originally wrote it.

I Might Be Wrong

If I was to pick just one piece of inspiration from all of Mike's work over the years it would be something from years ago that he repeated in this chat. The humble assumption that he might be wrong. For someone so revered in the agile space when I was finding my way, this was a huge learning point for me.

I can remember a time when I never considered Mike to possibly be wrong. From a distance Mike seemed so confident and experienced that it never occurred to me that he was as introverted, questioning and curious as I was.

Remaining humble can be a challenge as we grow in experience and I have seen many people struggle with this as their status in the community has grown. I'm sure you've seen people built up to be treated as celebrities (and some have even deliberately built themselves up that way).

I think there are a couple of normal reasons that underpin that loss of humility.

• We like to be respected

When given huge amounts of respect it's a nice feeling but as with all nice feelings it can become simultaneously addictive while wearing off. Some of this respect is arguably deserved because of some contribution or talent but a lot of it stems from the insecurity of those giving out the respect. Their Impostor Syndrome tells them that this person is a superhero compared to them. The problem is that they are not; they are equally human but people can start to "believe the hype". They want more of that respect and can begin to feel they are entitled to it.

• We feel our reputation is at stake

The more we are treated as an expert, a celebrity, a semi-deity even, the harder it can be to admit vulnerability. We don't want to risk popping that balloon and so try to reinforce that celebrity status deserving of respect.

Strong Words Softly Spoken

As well as learning a lot of agile theory and practical experience from Mike, he inspired me to both have confidence in my views and have a healthy level of doubt in myself. In our chat, Mike openly stated that he believes the agile manifesto would have been weaker had he been in the room and he was actively against including retrospectives in the Scrum framework because of opinions he had then, but turned out from his current perspective to be wrong.

A phrase I have taken to heart from knowing Mike is that it's OK to state your views assertively and it's possible to do that while being open to alternative viewpoints and even admitted you could be - and even have been proven to be - wrong.

In fact, in my opinion, this strengthens the respect that people have for you. But of course I might be wrong.