I was wondering what would the first blog post be about on this website. And I came down to a very simple title - The First. The First as the first post this year and because we are in the twenty first century for some time now and because 202first just ended. Might not make a lot of logic, but not everything does, right?
Of course, this post has to be about Agile as this is what this place is about. So, Agile - what can potentially be written about 20+ old stuff anyway? Let me reveal a small secret: 20+ is just a number and it has nothing to do with Agile :)
Agile is a way of thinking and being in the first place and as we know very well, mindset things do not change that fast. Twenty years is so little in the timeline of a mankind and its evolution. And we should not look even that broad. Look at how some of us start & run businesses, plan, organize work and people in the start of this century. Crazy. Some use advanced techniques like collaborative visioning & planning, high level automation, test first approaches and coaching, some still decide alone, send emails with attachments, spend their lives in never ending meetings and tell others what to do. Why there's such a difference? There are many factors influencing the above and in the context of Agile it is actually very simple. Being Agile is not black and white, it is not digital (0 and 1). It is rather being somewhere on an analog Agile scale of many values unique to each organization. The question is: Where? The answer could be: Organization is where it deserves to be. However the more important questions are: How is it being there? Should we do something about it? Do we need to?
Last year I did a number of Agile workshops for IT and non-IT folks. These are the kinds of sessions that help people understand Agile, self-assess themselves and think about the potential Agile journey: What, where, how, who? Later I read a book about Agile Coaching and to my surprise more experienced people than me are writing about doing similar things. What these sessions show is that 20+ years later after the publication of the Agile Manifesto for Software Development, it is still relevant, it is still able to challenge realities, ask questions that have no straightforward answers. Still a good Agile coaching tool in a way. And the most interesting thing about this Agile coaching tool is that it invites people to focus less on Agile and more on things that matter. Sounds a bit awkward? Focus more on things that are there daily and familiar or are not there and are unfamiliar. People naturally start thinking about what matters to them if there's a bit of time given, an invitation and engagement. Is this the next step on organization's Agile scale? Maybe.
To wrap up: Agile is universal and time prone. Its understanding and application in one's context is crucial for raising awareness about thinking, being and doing Agile.
Hope you found this one interesting, stay tuned for more posts!