Adam Gonnerman

"Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything" ― George Bernard Shaw "All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward." — Ellen Glasgow It happens when I kick off a project that will alter existing processes. It also happens when I introduce Agile to teams. Whatever the scenario, human beings are creatures of habit, and so when change is brought up, dread, anxiety, and resistance are usually the immediate reaction. The good aspect of this is that not all change should be accepted. Establishing a rule that all office photocopies have to be documented on a shared document, including number of pages and purpose, is likely to get a lot of pushback. It represents a lack of trust in employees, and creates additional work for them as well. Anyone would be right to argue against such a rule, perhaps advocating for a guidelines quantifying what would be considered excessive use, and asking people to be respo...

"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results." — Andrew Carnegie Every time I hear a vendor say "we're going to do this as an Agile project," I shudder. This has happened twice, so perhaps my sample size is too small, but the fruit of such an endeavor are predictable from the attitude going in. You see, there's really no such thing as an Agile project, as I see it. There are only Agile teams. If the team isn't Agile, the work they do will only hold the form of Scrum, Kanban, or some other methodology, but the mindset will be absent. The result is a subpar project that convinces everyone involved that Agile is a bad idea. Being Agile is a way of thinking about work, a philosophy that is embraced, internalized, and translated into action. The team is at the center, and their work demonst...