responsibility

My Agile Life: Only Me

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s LinkedIn, and Steve’s Tumblr)

(My continuing “Agile Life” column, where I use Scrum for a more balanced and productive life continues).

The Blame Game is the bane of good organization, good companies, good productivity, and happiness. Yet, how many times do we blame others for problems automatically? How many times have we been blamed for problems automatically?  How many great projects have failed because people fling blame at each other?

OK we know the answer; a lot.

When I began doing my Agile Life, I had a most interesting experience; I had only myself to blame for anything.  I was the only responsible one when most anything went wrong.

Something was late? My fault. Something not done well? My fault. Very, very few cases of things that wreren’t due to me. To blame anyone else would have required a Herculean effort of self-delusion that I just don’t have the energy or lack of morals for.

This was awesome.

Because I am the major or only cause of failure, I am aware of why things go wrong.

Because I am the major or only cause of failure, I know what to improve.

Because I am the major or only cause of failure, I must acknowledge my flaws.

Because I am the major or only cause of failure, I am the major source of success.

Agile is about a mixture of heavy personal responsibility and team responsibility teaches you a lot about dealing with failure.  This personal Agile experience is an excellent compliment to group Agile because it teaches you that responsibility very, very fast.

I’ve also become much, much more aware of my own flaws and mistakes – what I do wrong, what I do write, and how I screw up. I’m a much better person for doing personal Agile.

Of course it’s also painful. I have work habits that are a bit bizarre seen from the outside (mixing casual, obsessive, distractable, and focused). My Scrum Master abilities focus a bit too much on the rituals with the idea they’ll help fix things “eventually.” My “Product Owner” side can forget my “Scrum Master side’s” recommendations on unfamiliar work and forge ahead on spewing ideas to my “Team Member” side.

But at least I have all these insights. I can’t blame anyone else.

Which is great.  Are you ready to try Agile in your life and learn your flaws?

– Steve

On The Oregon Shooter

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As you probably heard, the shooter apparently was on a campaign to kill sinners according to his diary.  It shocked his church and family, and it seems fairly obvious he was pretty troubled.

The thing is everyone is talking about how they were surprised.

I think by now, we’ve heard so many times that “oh, he shouldn’t have done that” or heard how “how surprising this is” to think that maybe we should stop being surprised.  It’s clear that when people miss someone is on the way to a violent breakdown missing it is no surprise because it happens all the time.

It’s up to us to watch out for each other.  Not keep watch on each other, we don’t need some panopticon police state in our heads (we’ve got enough would-be’s in the world).  We need to make sure we’re there to ensure our friends and family and neighbors don’t fall into the darkness.

It’s up to us to pay attention for when things look like they’ll fall apart.  It may not be a mass shooting (and for all of you I hope it never is), but it’s realizing someone may have a drinking problem, or is losing their way and falling in with radicals, and so on.

It’s up to us to actually care about each other as opposed to expect people to follow some rote behavior that will inevitably cause them to snap or snap worse.

When someone snaps and there’s surprise, that’s no surprise.  That’s a problem.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

The Sixth “R” of Reporting – Responsibility

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Last week I covered the fifth stage of Reporting as a Project Manager; Regret. There’s always the stage where you understand what’s going on and the inevitable reaction that follows; regret. That’s a powerful force, to truly see and know the flaws, and a good detailed study helps you understand the results and what’s wrong (and right).

Sometimes regret feels pretty good. At least you know what’s wrong.

So what happens after going “hey, our reporting system is flawed” or “OH MY GOD I’VE BEEN LIVING A LIE?”

The next stage is Responsibility. Someone has to step up and take responsibility and say “I’ll fix this.”

If you’re the Program Manager or Project Manager who did all this? Guess what you’re the first person to stand up and be responsible for how this gets fixed.

You won’t be alone, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

Here’s why you’ll stand up to fix it:

  • First of all, you’re a Program/Project Manager. You use this report, it reflects your projects, you should lead making it work. You might be the one who cares the most.
  • Secondly, you’re a Program/Project Manager, and you’re an organized bugger. You might as well do it.
  • Third, you know the data, what it means, how it’s transformed, and what it’s supposed to do. You remember how you had to learn all that stuff? Yeah, well now you know it.
  • Fourth, someone’s got to. It might as well be you.
  • Fifth, you kinda publicly showed what’s wrong, people are going to figure you’ll solve it.

Though really, number two is always a big part. People like us naturally try to fix things. You’re going to do it anyway.

I also said you won’t be alone. You won’t.

See a good mapping, a good discussion, a good exposure will lead people to help, to solve problems, to fix things. The people that stand up and try to help? They’re the ones you can count on to help you on this.

Come to think of it you might find people who can help you on other things by seeing who stands up.

Scary? No, I find that people will stand up to help, they will take responsibility. You’ll probably be surprised. I usually am.

So now you’ve taken responsibility, and you’ve found those who will help. We’ll get to the final stage next.

Well the sort of final stage. That takes a little explaining, so be patient . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.