Recapturing our Youth!

This has been an interesting period in my life. My wife and I recently moved our youngest son out of the house into his dorm, so that he could begin his college experience. It was a really incredible day, seeing his excitement and watching him and all the other kids in the dorm move in. Yes, we were busy setting up the room and getting all of his stuff tucked away. Yet, while all this was occurring kids were wandering the halls beginning to meet each other. The excitement was visible, everywhere!

Over the last couple of weeks, he has made it a mission to visit each of the floors in his dorm, using a Frisbee to start up conversations and get to know the people he now lives with. He has wandered into other dorms in an effort to get introduced to more people and build his social network. He and his friends have introduced themselves to people tailgating the football games and expanded their social circles. He seems to be on a mission to get to know as many people as he possibly can – yes, he thrives on social experiences.

Looking back at my own experience as I made the transition from home to college, I remember the fear, the excitement and the fun of leaving home, meeting new people and having new experiences. It got me thinking about how change is viewed in the office, let’s just say it is not necessarily a positive within our teams.

Let me walk thru a recent experience – over the last year we have been introducing the use of Kanbans as a tool to visualize enterprise project activity across the organization and within my teams using team stand-ups to talk thru the tactical daily promises. Our daily stand-up meetings are focused on simple communication – what did you promise yesterday/did you deliver, what roadblocks are you encountering and who needs to jump in to help remove the roadblocks and what are you promising for tomorrow. Can we move the card on the Kanban? Yes, we are crawling before we walk, walking before we run and running before we try and leap. These are things that many folks within the organization and within my teams have advocated over the last several years.

We are not fully Agile, not sure if we will ever get there, but we are trying to use some of the tactics within projects where it makes sense for us.

What I find interesting is the pushback we have received along the way. I was expecting some of this, but was surprised when some of the very people promoting Agile techniques began to resist the actual implementation of some of these techniques. Some of it came down to – well if you aren’t going to implement and adhere to the entire Agile principles, than how do you expect me to get onboard. Other times it came down to, well I’m not really comfortable trying this in-front of other people.

I get it, we hate change. But when did that shift occur? Again, I look back to my sons as they grew up. They constantly were experiencing change, each year asking to take on new responsibilities. Tackling new topics at school, meeting new teachers, being a part of school sports, taking on roles within the student council. Outside of school, trying various sports when they were younger and then adjusting to changes as they progressed with their athletic talents. Sometimes taking on leadership roles, other times acting in support roles. They grasped for these opportunities, not expecting failure and looking for the next challenge.

Yet, somewhere in our path to adulthood, we start to resist change. We like the stability of knowing what it is we are doing, what comes next and who does what. The funny thing is we talk about change, until it happens to us.

Ultimately, we need to be agents of change for the companies we work for today. In the past, there were periods where businesses did not need to worry about rapid change. That dynamic is no longer true, businesses must continually evaluate the products and services that they are providing, the competitive pressure of local and international competitors. If you’re not constantly ensuring that you are serving your customers, your customers will walk away.

I encourage you to recapture that spirit of youth where you wanted change. Where you weren’t afraid to accept change. If our businesses are going to succeed, we need to continually change to adjust to the needs of our customers.

If you'd like more information on my background: LinkedIn Profile