There is a fine line between being convinced of agile/lean concepts and principles and using them as a framework and using them religiously and as prescription. I think we must be aware of this when we try to bring in new people into teams or build up completely new agile teams. If we do not make it perfectly clear that what we are talking about is a set of principles (versus "rules") and a framework (versus "process") we risk to loose people before they can even grasp the beauty of the whole thing.
This, partly, is one of the reasons why I think that every team and organization must find their own style of agile rather than following a recipe like SCRUM. It is good to use practices like SCRUM or kanban, but they have to evolve into something that the team (or organization) owns and adapts over time. (I am speaking specifically from a perspective of someone using agile/lean principles in a setting outside software development, but I think it is probably also true for software development itself).
It is normal, perhaps, to have new people on teams say things like "agile is like communism - it works perfectly in theory" (actually I heard that one last week), and then it is crucial that we DO have a conversation (or, more likely, several conversations or an ongoing conversation) about why agile is not a theory stuffed with useless belief points abd dogma , but a system that everyone can navigate and use together to create amazing things like great customer value, team satisfaction and performance. The word conversation gives a hint that over time, the team will reach a common set of principles and maybe even "rules" that they feel comfortable with, but that THEY established and own, which again means that they will feel free to inspect and adapt when they see that rules are no longer helpful.
As with every framework, theory, principle and system, it is always just as good as the people who use it. And therefore, conversations with people on how to use the principles and to make them their own instead of following rules made by others is absolutely crucial, as is the fact that starting to work like this is coupled with scepticism, fear and failure, but if a team overcomes this it can truly start using the power of agile and will probably not want to work in any other way anymore.
This, partly, is one of the reasons why I think that every team and organization must find their own style of agile rather than following a recipe like SCRUM. It is good to use practices like SCRUM or kanban, but they have to evolve into something that the team (or organization) owns and adapts over time. (I am speaking specifically from a perspective of someone using agile/lean principles in a setting outside software development, but I think it is probably also true for software development itself).
It is normal, perhaps, to have new people on teams say things like "agile is like communism - it works perfectly in theory" (actually I heard that one last week), and then it is crucial that we DO have a conversation (or, more likely, several conversations or an ongoing conversation) about why agile is not a theory stuffed with useless belief points abd dogma , but a system that everyone can navigate and use together to create amazing things like great customer value, team satisfaction and performance. The word conversation gives a hint that over time, the team will reach a common set of principles and maybe even "rules" that they feel comfortable with, but that THEY established and own, which again means that they will feel free to inspect and adapt when they see that rules are no longer helpful.
As with every framework, theory, principle and system, it is always just as good as the people who use it. And therefore, conversations with people on how to use the principles and to make them their own instead of following rules made by others is absolutely crucial, as is the fact that starting to work like this is coupled with scepticism, fear and failure, but if a team overcomes this it can truly start using the power of agile and will probably not want to work in any other way anymore.
