Individuals and interactions make the difference 👥

more than processes and tools

(2 minutes reading)

🇮🇹 👉 Italian version [LINK HERE]

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools [...]
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more…

👉 This is an abstract from the Agile Manifesto, which I would like to talk about today, by telling you about some practical implications.

❗️ It is important to clarify that no one doubts the importance of processes or tools, which are fundamental to make things work, but with this statement we want to give more emphasis and importance to people and the interactions between them, because they can really make a difference in the success of an end goal.

👀 I’ll give you two examples.
The first one is when I was stuck for 10 minutes in an absurd conversation with the operator of my water company.
Operator: “I can't help you, the procedure is that you have to send an email”
Me: “Look, the problem was originally caused by an email I sent you and you didn't handle it, can you connect me with someone to talk to who possibly already knows my case?” (this was not the first time I called)
O: “That's not the procedure, you have to send us an email”
So it went on and on for quite a while, until I unlocked the situation with a different sentence:
“OK, I'll send you the email, can I know who I'm talking with, so I'll write it down in the email that this is the indication and in case it will remain unanswered, do we know whose responsibility it is?”
O: “Hold on, I'll put you through to the manager”

We solved everything in 3 minutes.

In this case, the procedure was not respected anyway and we both wasted 10 minutes of unnecessary discussion that upset us both.

👀 In the second example, on the other hand, it happened to me to be in a situation where we all felt responsible for achieving the goal, because it was clear the importance of what we were doing, but with a very rigid process and well-defined timelines that we would definitely not be able to meet.

In this second case, the team spirit, the collaboration between the people and the clear objective allowed us to go beyond the process and its timeframe and achieve the common goal.The additional result: although we all did a bit more than we should have done, we were happy and proud to have succeeded in our goal, in the impossible time frame we had.

📌 The key point is: procedures are needed, but if we make an effort to interact with people, to understand them, to clarify the importance of what we do, we can optimise time and we can be more effective and efficient, but above all, happier with the result.

📜 👉 Have you ever found yourself in similar situations?
Where processes and tools block you and people and interactions could have unlocked the situation?
Let me know in the comments!
As always, I'm happy to help you learn more. If you'd like to have a sparring partner or have a chat about this or other topics, feel free to leave a comment and I'll be in touch.

📖 I leave you as a reference other articles on the topics I mentioned here:
The Agile Approach [LINK HERE]
Smart Objectives [LINK HERE]
The importance of context [LINK HERE]

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And share it with someone you think might be interested!
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#BeCurious #BeFocus

Giuseppe