Life lessons influence your agile coaching.

Little things remind me of my mortality.  This week I received an invitation to my high school homecoming and a fiftieth birthday party for the class of 1986 afterward.  This reminder of my demise made me do some reflection.  There is nothing like the specter of death to force you to take stock of your life.  This week I wanted to share my revelations.

Demographically, I belong to the Generation X cohort of American history.  Born in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, we were raised in the Reagan 1980s.  We witnessed the birth of Apple and the fall of the Berlin Wall.  We experienced “Morning in America” and two ugly recessions.  The revolution was televised on MTV, and the counter-revolution came from the White House.  The anxiety of terrorism was nothing compared to the possibility of human extinction caused by mistake in the Cold War—plenty of cultural forces mixed to create emulsion, which is still relevant today.

As a nerdy Dungeons & Dragons-playing child, there was no place to find solace during this period.  I was a striver and wanted to succeed.  There was no internet culture, so I relied on my small circle of friends in theater, JROTC, and scouts to muddle through.  It was a lonely way to grow up.  It also prepared me for my future career because nothing is more solitary than leading change.

Like many people in the early 1990s, I was adrift.  The job market was lousy, and the prospects for a college graduate were not good.  I worked odd jobs and spent most of my time attempting to be self-sufficient. After working in a casino for a few years, I decided to change and become a technology professional.  It was In 1998, I was thirty years old, and I began my first entry-level job as a Visual Basic developer.  I had found a career.

My career would have numerous ups and downs.  I would suffer long-term unemployment in the aftermath of the Dot.com bubble.  I would be a consultant and work full-time for plenty of companies.  It would take me ten years to learn how to become a competent web developer.  During this period, I was exposed to Agile and Scrum.  Since that moment in 2009, I feel like I have gone through a second educational period.  I completed a master’s degree in management.  I became a certified scrum master and then later certified as a scrum professional.  I began spreading my experience and knowledge around.  It has been rewarding and fun.

Lately, I have noticed the cultural opposition within the business community to Agile.  It is hard to break old habits and upset personal relationships when trying to improve the business.  Personal loyalty often takes precedence over doing the right thing for the firm.  There is a lot of understandable fear in the cubicles of America about change and what that means.

Using quantitive measures to judge performance, holding people accountable for delivering a quality product, and expecting everyone to contribute is controversial among white-collar workers.

“It is unfair to measure me to everyone else,” someone I was coaching said.

It is unfair for someone in the office not to do their job to the best of their ability and cause customer service to suffer.  It is also unfair that you are not improving as your career progresses.  Technology professionals understand this, and it is about time other people in the business community do as well.

So as 2017 drifts lazily into its third quarter, I am looking forward to the class of 1986 reunion.  My life struggles are a legacy for others to gain experience.  It explains why I enjoy training new developers and helping others avoid the mistakes I made in my career.  Growing old is not as terrible as I suspected.  My life experience has given me the tools to help others, meaning I have much wisdom to share.  My life prepared me to be the scrum master and the agile coach I am today.  It's not a sad thought when you are confronting your mortality.

Until next time.