I value people as people. People are human beings with wants and needs, fears and desires, strengths and weaknesses and skills and abilities. People are not resources. Resources are things that can be used and used up. Resources are things to control, people are not. Resources can be divided up across teams, people should not be. Resources can be interchangeable like the cogs in a machine, people never are. People are the most important element of my practice at work. If you get people right, you win, get them wrong and you lose. It is as simple as that. Referring to people as resources is dehumanizing and insulting. I do not do it. I value each person. Every team member is as important to the team as a whole. It takes every team member to do great work, to delight the customer, to exceed expectations, to build something elegant and strong. Getting every member of the team to bring their whole selves to work is my primary job. Team dynamics usually take care of themselves if you get that right. Connecting with people, engaging with them to enable their self-determination, self-management, self-organization and accountability is more important than giving them suggestions, advice or expectations. I value people as people
I value helping the team. Helping the team to resolve, untangle and remove impediments to getting work done well is important to me. When they are unable to deal with impediments, I take them to those who can; being willing to put myself out there to hold others accountable is crucial to success sometimes. It is dangerous sometimes. Sometimes you are able to see impediments resolved, and sometimes you have with work with or around them because there will be people who are unwilling or unable to help when it is needed. There are dysfunctional people and institutions out there, and one person can only go so far on their own. Judging where to draw the line is challenging sometimes, and sometimes I do not get it right. The struggle for what is right and good for teams is what matters. I value helping the team.
I value presence. Teams are always more effective, efficient, practical and creative when they are in the same room together, when they can fully communicate face to face with each other. I have come to believe that most of communication is non-verbal, and distributed, dispersed or isolated team members do not a team make. There is so much lost when teams are not able or allowed to work together. The heartbeat of a team, the workflow board, is no longer a gathering place for people to interact and imagine and discuss as needs warrant. This is not to say that taking a break from the group and going off on your own to produce something has no value, it most assuredly does have value, but the key is being able to return to the group and get the full feedback needed to make those efforts great. When teams are dispersed and nothing can be done about it, I work hard to ensure the loss of presence is mitigated through tools and processes that encourage as full an interaction as possible. I value presence.
These are just a few of the things that I value about using Scrum. Perhaps I will write more on my Scrum values at a later date.