It is just like starting over

Listen, Listen, Listen.

The New Year is always busy.  The sloth of the holidays gives way to new resolutions and a means to wipe the slate clean.  I am no different.  I began a new role as a coach and scrum master at a new firm.  Today on the blog, I would like to talk about starting over and beginning a new agile practice.

A scrum master or agile coach lives an intenerate lifestyle moving from client to client.  More than many professionals they are starting over in new environments.  It means a coach needs to embrace responding to change over following a plan. It requires a certain humility and empathy for others.  Some organizations use Azure DevOps to manage the software development lifecycle, and others use tools like Jira.  Any good scrum master should be able to adapt to these different systems.  It might also be helpful to ditch a system entirely to learn the basics of agile. 

I find listening to others is helpful.  To drown out office noise, I often wore noise-canceling headphones and enjoyed a playlist of “New Wave” and “Post-Punk” music.  It made the day go faster, but it created a barrier between myself and others.  I did not understand how big a barrier until I decided to try something different and leave the headphones at home.  I began to hear QA people gossiping about bugs.  I learned about the favorite T.V shows of developers.  It was informative which people took calls via speaker phone and which ones were more discrete.  The office completed work in a particular way, and I gained insight into that process.  The insight is going to help me better coach others. 

Last year, I wrote a despairing article about my failure as a coach.  What came out of that experience was the realization before anyone can coach or guide others you need to empathize with them.  You cannot bully people into improvement.  People need to be shown the way and encourage to make better choices.  Experience and success will create a positive feedback loop of continuous improvement.  Leave the rough justice to managers who can discipline those who will not buy into the agile mindset. 

When starting over, shut-up and listen to others.  Cultivate empathic relations before learning.  Find out how your customers do things before proposing changes.  Finally, have some humility and respond to change.  Ever since Lee Iaccoa took over Chrysler in the early 1980s, professionals have worshiped the cult of leadership.  It is time to take a step back and realize that before you can lead: listen. 

Until next time.