Thread by @jessitron

We have known how to build software for a while now, and the question is,
Why don’t we?
@bethcodes #Agile2022

I look at SAFe and I see us reinventing Taylorism from first principles.
@bethcodes
#Agile2022

The alternative typically presented is structurelessness.
Let every team do exactly what it wants, whoever keeps doing it longer without getting fired wins the argument.

People don’t feel safe without structure.
@bethcodes

WE can build cultures.
MANAGEMENT can’t.

It is impossible to use hierarchy to impose autonomy.
@bethcodes #agile2022

Instead of asking people to be better, ask them to strategize on how to do better.
@bethcodes
#Agile2022

“A radical culture of culture building is the only way I’ve seen us approach the promise of agile.”
@bethcodes #agile2022

Learned helplessness means
small setbacks have
outsized impacts.
@bethcodes #agile2022

This leads to resistance to change.

Look for companies that make more money when their software is better.

Otherwise the incentives don’t align (on making quality software)

@bethcodes #agile2022

Hierarchy is terrible at solving quality problems.

Authority can’t _make_ anyone do things.
They can only stop people from doing things.

They especially can’t make anyone do things they don’t have time or resources to do.
@bethcodes #agile2022

Beware “accountability, at the cost of our collective success.”
@bethcodes #Agile2022

To develop norms of professionalism (in making good software, in building relationships, in conflict resolution),
we need sufficiency. Enough resources.

such as: “We never had a deadline that wasn’t imposed from outside the company.”
@bethcodes #agile2022

How to scale planning and coordination:
avoid planning.

@bethcodes #agile2022

(Planning for several teams for six months is a crapton of overhead. Talking about this week is not.)

Informal information flows that subvert the hierarchy are a lot more efficient.

@bethcodes

Norms (the expectations by which a culture guides behavior of its members) are intrinsically motivated standardization.

but it takes new skills to resolve conflict this way (rather than appealing to authority)

@bethcodes

Consensus doesn’t mean “everybody agrees.”
It means “Nobody objects.”

@bethcodes

It means you keep working until you find a solution that works for everybody.
It means that when somebody says “No!” you look deeper, dig into the reasons why.

If somebody wants to game the system and use their veto power to “win,” ya gotta ask…

Why are we trying to win
instead of make software?

@bethcodes

Cultural norms influence decisions in ways that are much more efficient than hierarchical coordination.

from @bethcodes #agile2022

When the world feels out of control, humans reach for authoritarian hierarchies.

The choice we see is Chaos or Coercion.
but these are not the only options.
A suitable Culture can provide structure that’s more effective for everyone.

@bethcodes #agile2022

No one can tell you _what_ culture you need. We can only share a process of building culture, constantly building it, so that it always suits the people and the situation.

These are interactive techniques best learned through experience.

from @bethcodes

Successful culture:
“If we document it, people will do the things we did, instead of using the process and values that helped us find what to do in our situation”

@bethcodes

People must have a choice
whether to participate in a culture
for the culture to work.

@bethcodes
#Agile2022

@bethcodes learned this stuff from meetings organized by anarchists.