The virtues of agile - commitment

This is part four of five of our series of articles about the virtues of Agile.  This week, we cover the topic of commitment.

Commitment is one of those things that is earned, just like respect.  Sadly, our contemporary business culture makes it hard to make commitments, which harms the success of organizations and makes it harder for commitments to be made by line employees.  This creates situations where employees are “tuned out” of what is happening in the organization and just go through the motions of serving the customers' needs.  It is depressing and feels like being on a losing sports team.

As a scrum master and business leader, you need to commit to your team members; over time, they may commit back to you.  There is no promise in this situation.  Some employees are just commitment-phobic.  This is because they see work and the rest of the world as transactional.  They want to ensure they have some “What’s in it for me?” moment.  So if they provide a service, they get the compensation they feel they are due.

Commitment is different from this transactional model of viewing the world.  It is giving yourself over to something greater than yourself, for the American armed forces, that this is the “unit” to which you belong.  For clergy, it is to your religious mission; for the entrepreneur, it is to the business they founded.  This means that commitment requires sacrifices of time and behavior.  Many religious orders require vows of celibacy.  For the entrepreneur, it means long days of travel and work with no immediate payoff.

That said, commitment creates fiercely strong bonds between people who have made those commitments.  Military leaders work hard to develop these commitments to their troops because they know they will have to count on those people to shoot back when shots are fired in anger.  Business leaders need to work just as hard because while the decisions they make may not be life or death, they do affect the lives of the people who work for them.  Treating people like disposable tools to be replaced when they wear out will not generate commitment.  Something else has to be done.

Ensuring employees are constantly trained and retrained to do their jobs better is one sign of commitment.  Another is providing them with a game plan for improving their careers.  Nothing is worse for someone than stagnation, and giving people a chance to grow and develop is an example of the organization making a commitment to them.  Business leaders can also get to know the employees and their families.  Asking about a daughter’s soccer game or looking at pictures of a Christmas recital can show employees you care and are committed to them.

There is no guaranteed payoff for this, but when you need people to work overtime or deal with adversity, a little commitment on your part could yield some commitment on theirs.

Have a Happy Christmas.