Supportive environments

I had an intense yoga teacher training session all weekend during which we talked about core feelings, fears, and insights, etc. This opening experience in a supportive environment led to extensive personal and team growth and as a result, we each became stronger teachers and more empowered individuals. We gave each other honest feedback throughout this process, and each took ownership to help ourselves and help each other.

This got me thinking this morning about a previous software project during which I had the opposite experience:

Core feelings when I thought about the project
* Anger
* Fear
* Disappointment
* Humbled

Actions during the project
Personal:
* I diminished my own role
* I stopped speaking the truth
* I stopped listening to my own intuition
* I second guessed all of my actions
* I took it personally
* I did not grow

Team:
* We created a inefficient, cuthroat environment
* We did not take ownership over our actions
* We did not hold each other accountable
* We did not give each other honest feedback
* We took things personally
* We made decisions based on "me, me, me" instead of what made sense for the communal good (i.e. producing working software)

Software projects can be incredibly challenging since we bring together individuals with different backgrounds and experiences and have to quickly establish a team dynamic. Unfortunately, for this particular project, the inefficient environment of a sister project carried over because some of the same individuals carried over.

The agile principles and manifesto are a great tool for trying to change an environment, but ultimately people need to be open to the principles and accept that "these will result in a better product." In agile, we talk a lot about team reflection, but there's a degree of self awareness and self awareness required of the team. Everyone has accountability. I can't emphasize that enough - everyone from a tester to the project lead..and it's ultimately on every individual on the team to take responsibility and work to improve the environment so that they can truly have an agile project. We are so used to pinning things in software on leadership, but that is the wrong approach and it's putting an unfair burden on one person. Everyone has to step up.