Last week we officially kicked off my current project. (Even though I've been working on it for about three months. It certainly is not agile. The developers are a far off mirage hovering over the muda desert. ). We had to draw a coat of arms that introduced ourselves. One of the others said that instead of a coat of arms he would share his philosophy with us. He produced a statement from a Zen Buddhist that expressed his philosophy. I will get a copy from him but to paraphrase. The whole person should not separate work and home life but to carry themselves as one through both.
This got me thinking about myself and my work. I see my role as an agile business coach being that of a learner and coach. I do not see the distinction between what I enjoy doing at work (learning and coaching) and what I do for pleasure (learning and coaching). At home I learn from my children and coach them in basic skills like walking or crawling up stairs. I learn lots about learning by watching my mother in law with my children. She has a genuine joy in teaching the boys some new trick, and the joy is infectious. They love learning from her and learn more because of it.
Unfortunately at work there is less joy. The people I am working with are less open to learning anything new and want to rigidly follow a (waterfall) process. It is hard to get my colleagues to try out Agile Analysis (i.e. business coach) practices. They focus on the documentation rather than the communication or coaching. I'm continuing to follow my own practices but it would be more rewarding if I could coach the others in the ways of the business coach. Perhaps over time it will happen. Like drops of water falling on a stone the business coach practices will eventually break through.
David Meier's excellent book
The Accelerated Learning Handbook says that the first stage of learning is to get people into a happy state which will mean that they are more receptive to learning. How right he is. Its something I'm learning from my children and their grandmother.