Freedom

On the 4th of July, or around then, I always like to write about freedom.

Freedom is annoying! Speaking for myself and my dog, going to a noisy parade is not so much fun. The fireworks get my dog upset. Bah. Humbug. (Yes, I partly jest. But I have never been one who particularly liked almost any hoopla. An introvert perhaps.)

Well, I was really indicating what we all think from time to time. Freedom is really good for me, but not so much for you, opps, I mean those people over there.

Yes, freedom of speech is annoying. Freedom of religion (you know how crazy people can get with their "religious" notions). Freedom of assembly. Freedom of association.

Here is the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

And most of the other amendments in the Bill of Rights were about freedom as well (one could argue all of them were).

No speech is forbidden (and of course all our institutions support these, particularly those who understand scientific debate and learning). And no speech is compelled. Whether or not we live in 1984. Or a Brave New World.

There have been so many denials lately of these freedoms. It is quite upsetting.

Why?

I wish it were completely clear why. It depends which set of violations of freedom you refer to.

Let us mention two reasons. Arrogance, the sense that I am right, and can command you to do the right things, say the right things, etc. The next is to defend power (although seldom will they even say to themselves that they are defending their own power). The mandarins must defend their power. It is an ancient story, still enacted daily unto this very day. We must expect it. Nature tells the beehive to defend itself against threats. In humans, though, that does not make it right.

No man's freedom is advanced by denying the freedom of another. Let's put the truth the other way. Freedom, wonderful bounteous freedom, is expanded for all as it is extended further for each person.

We must also say, I guess, that freedom extends until one is intruding on the freedom of another. A bit thorny, that one.

Let us say further: We do not lose these rights when we join a corporation. Ever. Ok, I suppose if you are on a football team, probably best not to say bad things about that Team.

And while corporations may fire people at will, they are morally wrong to fire people for exercising free speech. Speech that has no effect on the business. (Yes, again, maybe some tricky boundaries.) Yes, we must mention the "fire in a crowded theatre" exception also -- but that is not what has been happening.

I am sad to say that in America, it takes courage to tell the truth. And our freedoms have been abridged wrongly, and often.

And on almost any issue, no one person knows the truth. No, nor one group, either.

Even in Science, statements are almost always opinions based on only a limited set of the possible evidence. (By possible I mean there are commonly some existing RCTs that do not support the statement, or RCTs that we should have done, and will do, ...so future RCTs that will likely not support the statement. Newton and Einstein have already been proven partly wrong. RCT = Randomized Controlled Trial.)

It is of course true that Freedom is far more important than Scrum. But let us also address freedom in the context of Scrum.

Scrum supports freedom. (To be fair, people can and do say the word "Scrum" and do almost anything they damn well please. So, I mean Scrum, not "Scrum".)

Scrum does not say, in the Scrum Guide, that each person is allowed to choose whether to join a Team. I say that is implied.

Scrum does ask that you speak the truth. In these days that is clearly a demand that you have the freedom to do so. And also the courage.

Scrum says the Developers get to choose to commit to the right amount of work for the upcoming Sprint. A freedom. A reasonable amount of work that they can accomplish at a sustainable pace.

Scrum says the Team should be self-organizing and self-managing. (The Scrum Guide is rather unclear on the limits of self-organizing and self-managing. Let us use common sense.)

In Scrum you are allowed to, in fact you must, be yourself. Perhaps to a small degree, your better self. This too is a kind of freedom. We want to move too fast to pretend at things. We must be honest.

Note: I am not saying that people then are given endless time to discuss their eccentricities.

I think these understandings about freedom must be embedded in any successful Scrum team. (God knows, with human creativity, there are so many ways to do Scrum wrongly.)

Here's to the wonderful magic that almost always happens when we are free.

Here's to the wonderful creativity of people in a good Scrum team.

Happy 4th of July to you and yours! Let freedom ring.