The Lunch that changed my Life

I never knew an informal conversation over a lunch buffet can change one’s life.

It was a 2-day conference at TCS Chennai in June 2017. I had a speaking slot in the first half of the day and was quite tensed from the morning. It was not because of the paradoxical topic of ‘agile estimation’ that I had on my plate, but it was about the presence of global leaders in the room. Their eyes were on me, with new pads, pens, and possibilities.

So, obviously, when the session got over on a great note, I was starving for food. The buffet spread was inviting, and in no time, I got busy with a plate full of delicacies.

And that is when it happened. The executive sponsor of the initiative came casually towards me with a plate in her hand, and said, 'Sayantan, your agile estimation session was good. You know what, I think you should dive deeper in ‘agile’ alone now.'  I wasn’t sure how to respond to it. Especially because I was planning to dive into the biriyani on my plate, next.

Subsequently, I got to know about the TCS vision of ‘Enterprise Agile by 2020’. I got to know about Musthafa, who was taking charge to lead the initiative. I also got to know about the members of the team and the immediate backlog. And we had a very tough but exciting run since then. Most importantly, it has given me 3 life-changing lessons in these last 3 years as below.

1.   It is ok to be under-prepared:

At the very onset, no one knew how ‘Enterprise Agile by 2020’ looked like. I still remember those whiteboard jamming’s at Chennai, only to figure out what it meant. At a personal level, I was an agile novice, forget about Enterprise Agile! I felt I was under-prepared for the job. I was coming from a background where I consulted customers on estimation methods, spoke at length on any estimation topic, to any audience of the world. That is what ‘being prepared’ meant to me–having all the answers on a topic. I shared this fear with Musthafa when we were in the back-seat of a cab en route to the hotel from Mumbai airport. We were in the city to help our legal team pick up agile ways of working. He responded, ‘You will never be fully prepared for anything. The secret is in facing it and then learning on the go.’ And I argued, ‘Musthafa, but how do I get a solid foundation in agile? How can I take the stage if I do not have sound knowledge of the topic?’

Musthafa said, ‘You can always get ready before you take the stage. But you’ll lose time. Or you can take the stage and get ready in the process. You will generate time.’

To be honest, it sounded great to me, but I could not believe it fully. I kept it with me as a hypothesis and tested it on multiple occasions in the last 3 years. I took part in the first Ninja Coach batch in 2017, when I wasn’t fully prepared. We had the first Location Independent agile conference in 2019, when we were not fully prepared. I faced a customer delegation, when I was sure I wasn’t fully prepared. But the common result was – the consumers did not have a hint of it, they saw those as worthwhile events, and I felt more confident at the end of each event. It generated time for me right from the early days.  

But why is it a life-changing lesson? Life changes when our views change. I was always of the view that preparation and performance is a sequential set of steps. Now I understand performance and preparation is an iterative set of steps. So, you have a new job for us? Just bring it on, we’ll do and learn it!

2.   Successful teams look back every day:

Tasked with the enormous job of transforming TCS into agile, it was very easy for all of us to imagine the complexity involved and lose hope. That is the problem with looking ahead – where aspirations tend to lock horns with reality. Instead, our approach was to take a small decision, not ponder over its accuracy, go with the flow, and then look back. And when we did that, it gave us enough information and insights to take the next small decision. One example was we decided not to have agile classroom training in TCS. We were not sure if that was right. But we had an alternative called the TCS LivingAgile? project. When we looked back, we could see the difference between ‘trained’ people and LivingAgile participants. So, we made it an integral part of many other things iteratively, and again looked back.

Since 2017, we as a team have never bothered about the complexity at hand, as we did not imagine the future beyond a week. We looked back every day only to discover better ways of doing something.

But why is it a life-changing lesson? I always thought teams need clarity to make a progress. But now I know, teams just need to decide on a path for making progress, and retrospect soon. It is this looking back, which brings clarity. So, you have a complex, ambiguous job for us? Just bring it on, we’ll produce something and create clarity in cycles!

3.  It isn’t enough to have teams. It is mandatory to have networks:

You are a part of an 8-member team. But your team lunches have 15 or more headcount, that too different people each day. How is it possible?

It is possible only when your ‘team’ borders are non-existent. Borderless teams are the first step to spawn a network of people.  Only a network, and not teams, can create waves in an organization. We knew that in theory (through frameworks such as Spotify), but I saw that happening in the last 3 years. Everyone of our 8-member team works with a network of practitioners, known as Agile Neighborhoods. When I see the epics I had volunteered to pick in the last 2 years, 100% of them were accomplished by working with a small team of practitioners from the TCS Agile Network. The power of the network lies in people-to-people connection for a common goal, and less on formal structures and hierarchies. I am so glad that we had invested in this aspect right from day one.

But to be honest, that day one was very awkward for me with a traditional mindset. I still remember, it was the first time when we as a team assembled in Chennai (from various cities of India) in 2017, and Musthafa said, 'Let’s have a team snacks time.' The first time, we were getting together informally as a team. It was in a Subway. But to my surprise, he invited everyone to join us whom we met on the way, and who knew us. I was thinking, ‘Oh no! No me-time as a team’. But when I apply #2 above, that is, look back, I could see the seeds of a powerful network being planted by a borderless team that day.

But why is it a life-changing lesson? We are in the business of people. Who invent, apply, and re-invent technology. We placed teams over individuals in order to accomplish a project. But I learned that we must place networks over teams in order to accomplish a transformation. So, you have a large-scale, multi-layered org change job for us? Just bring it on, we will have the network of practitioners create waves in those layers!