On Prejudice...
A few weeks ago, my youngest daughter came home and was completely agitated. Even before I could ask what had happened at school, she started talking really fast.
"Baba, you know what H. did today?"
Even before I could ask "what" she continued...
"He went to T. - one of the house captains - and told her she is trash because she is black."
Wow... now I could understand why my daughter was so agitated. A nine-year old boy demonstrates racism in an international school.
I experienced a lot of racism when I was a kid... from class mates, from teachers, and from society.
I heard comments like: "Hey... you with the dark hair... no need to come closer, we won't let you in anyway."
Or comments like: "Sorry mate... you are wearing the wrong shoes." While a group of white guys with blond hair wearing the same shoes was let in.
I thought or I had wished that this was over... that my kids and their friends would not experience the same as I did - at least not in Germany, and not in an international school where we have kids and families from all over the world.
Fast forward to today... this morning I saw this post:
It triggered me immediately as I consider myself first and foremost an agile coach. And I have a great track record of building products and supporting others to do so and also helping organizations through transformations.
What triggered me most is how people - in this case "Agile Coaches" and "Management Consultants" - are put in a category and then oneself is put a category above them.
This is exactly the same behavior where racism originates from. One group of people putting themselves above another group of people.
We all know - and I have written about this in the past - that many people claim they are "Agile Coaches" without knowing anything about agile nor coaching.
领英推荐
Many of the so called "Agile Coaches" have actually never supported any serious product development. And yes... they would not be good fit for any organization that wants to do any type of transformation - especially one to the Product Model as described by Marty Cagan .
But you know what... the same applies for "Product Coaches" as anyone can claim they are a "Product Coach". Just go to your LinkedIn and change your title... it is as simple as that.
Neither "Agile Coaching", nor "Product Coaching", nor "Management Consulting" are a protected profession like Medical Doctor. Anybody can claim they are one of these without getting into trouble.
Based on this it is ridiculous to put all Agile Coaches, or all Management Consultants, or all Product Coaches into one camp and then discredit them.
It is utterly wrong and we should be better than this.
Personally, I strongly believe in meritocracy... Meritocracy has the power to crush all prejudice.
But meritocracy is hard... because now we need to make the time and effort to understand what is behind that label. We need to become curious about the person on the other side of a conversation.
And only if we engage in that conversation or take a look at that person's skills we can evaluate whether they know a thing or two about a certain area or whether they are full of **** and just pretend to be something or someone they have no clue about.
Having worked at Bain (one of the top three management consulting firms), having been a founder of multiple startups, having been an agile coach and knowing many others who have done one or all of the above, I have met a ton of people that are really good and very well suited to support organizational transformations.
This is why my friend Karim Harbott and I founded a new organization called The Business Agility Academy to evaluate people based on their merit. And so far we have accredited a ton of coaches... the ones that received the highest accreditation I have personally interviewed - sometimes more than once ;-)
Professionalizing the space of Agile Coaching, Product Coaching, or Management Consulting is a task that neither of us can do alone... but I and others try to contribute as much as we can.
So next time when you hear "Agile Coaches" do this or "Product Coaches" can't do that don't buy into that. There is no one type of "Agile Coach" or "Product Coach". People are multifaceted and sadly there are too many that pretend they are something or someone they are not.
But there are a ton of great people too... in either of these camps ;-)
#FromNothingComesNothing
Agile expert in the IT environment with a focus on digital products
1 年Unfortunately ?agile Coach“ is a hype. I prefer Quality (Education and Experience) over Marketing. My advice: Do not claim to be someone who you are not. The proof will be very simple.
Transformation | Digitalisierung | Leadership Coach
1 年We should also not discredit everybody, who lacks experience and is still learning (I hope we all are life-long learners!). Often, it‘s not about finding the best / perfect coach. There are some pretty amazing coaches, but not every team can afford them and they can’t work with hundreds of teams simultaneously. So often it‘s simply about finding someone, who can help. And if that‘s your self-taught or two-days-trained Scrum Master - so be it. Start where you are, inspect & adapt, seek help, stay open and humble about your own knowledge, continue your learning journey. Most likely, you won‘t become one of the few amazing coaches. But you can do a lot of good along the way and help many people. Isn‘t that amazing in itself?
Head of Business Process Optimization* Business Psychologist* Change is inevitable. Progress is a choice.
1 年This is about the skill, bu how often we take decisions based on the label. This it is good to be aware of the fact that our brains love categories which give direction. So it is always good to double check, if behind the label is the quality you expect.
Managing Director & Co-founder LeadSoc GmbH; CEO ausculto GmbH; Advisor
1 年I am missing the logic behind comparing racism and prejudice among "agile coaching/ product coaching/ management consulting." One can not choose the skin or hair color.