Blog
More than ever, companies are under pressure to be more productive and effective.
Yet it seems inevitable: as your company grows, so does complexity, leading to inefficiencies.
All this complexity—is it truly inevitable?
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Simply put, Agile is dead. Then again—is it?
It all began with a group of independent-minded software professionals who got together to “talk, ski, relax, and try to find common ground.” They agreed on a common set of values in the pursuit of better ways of developing software, published them on a website, and so the “manifesto for agile software development” was born.
This was 2001.
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Want Agile? No two ways about it, there are only two ways to go: Native or Industrial. Go another way and, sure enough, your quest for “agility” will yield . . . anything but.
Of the two ways, the Native way is the best place to start. After all, it’s what Agile has been all about—until now.
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That nagging feeling that you should be doing something else right now.
It’s time to slow down, my friends.
If your meetings are back to back, let’s face it, you have too many meetings.
If your first instinct is to check your email, don’t.
If you scrum, unscrum.
Take a deep breath and think about it:
There’s never enough time to do something right, but there’s always enough time to do it over.”
—Melvin Conway, How Do Committees Invent?
So unwind and wander.
Wandering is an essential counter-balance to efficiency. You need to employ both. The outsized discoveries—the ‘non-linear’ ones—are highly likely to require wandering.”
—Jeff Bezos, 2018 Letter to Shareholders
And when you’re ready, come waste your time with me.
It’s clear what King Arthur Baking stands for:
“We are bakers, committed now as always to spreading the joy of baking. The joy of being part of a tradition and contributing to a craft. And of course, the joy your cookies, cakes, breads and pies bring to your life and the lives of others. That’s the power of baking.”
Now, replace “bakers/baking” with “makers/making,” and “cookies and pies” with “products,” and you’ll get the gist of Agile.
Indeed, Agile is for makers, not managers.
And the joy of Agile is the power of Agile, not process and tools, nor metrics.
Agile is about the mushy stuff of values and culture.”
—Jim Highsmith, About the Manifesto
So think of yourself as a King Arthur baker. Be a King Agile maker.
If you are a manager: be an enabler, not an enforcer.
And no matter what, do your part, and let good things rise.
