Agile is Love

 

Have a good day dears agilers! 

At this point of my learning trip, I started to connect two cables that make sense to share here. 

In the beginning of my Agile experience (around 2007), some people expressed their interpretations about agility saying "agile is love". In that moment they were target of jokes and mockery. 

 

I also heard some famous speakers bluffing about this in conferences... saying something like "this is about business", "agile is about money". 

In that moment, I believed it. It make sense, at the end we are inside business processes.

 

 Humberto Maturana - Biologist - (1928 - 2021)

Today, after learning so many different perspectives, and moreover after learning the Cultural-Biology from Humberto Maturana... I'm in the position to say with fundaments:

Agile Is Love 

Maybe I will suffer mockery because of this. But its ok, someone's mockery, is a sign of its maturity and neuro-plasticity. 

Humberto Maturana, defined our species as Homo-sapiens amans-amans, what means basically that we are loving creatures. That sounds really romantic, but its more deep than a cultural thing: its inside our isntincts level.

Love vs Fear 

Taking more into biological phenomenons, we will find emotions. Inside the emotional world, there is two main hemispheres: Love or Fear. 

In the sense that:

• If you are loving you are not fearing
• if you are fearing, you cannot love. 

We are abandoning and demanteling an old FEAR-BASED leadership and management paradigm.

if we are abandoning a fear-based relation system, where are we going?

Bingo: to a love-based one. 

We are going into a paradigm of respect.

Also into more care and empathy. (love?) 

(yes, love) 

We move more and more into self-organized, self-managed and self-developed teams. Teams that release all their passion (love?) to what they are doing. 

Yes, love. 

but then... 

 

What is Love?

"...baby don't heart me, don't heart me... no more..."

 Sorry, could not resist... 

 Regarding neuro-science, love is one instinct, that helps us to survive, reproduce, asociate and cooperate. In our human society, love manifest in many forms, like romance, solidarity, charity, passion, volunteer, commitment, generosity, education, coaching, mentoring, politics, democracy... and a big etcetera. 

So you don't want to see in your organization, collaboration, commitment, solidarity, generosity, assitance, openess, passion, sharing, caring and supporting? 

Well, my friend, all that is composed by love. 

You don't want your customers to "love your product"? 

You don't want your employees and partners to "love their job"? 

Let's understand Love as a phenomenon... So, Maturana comes to our rescue. 

 

"to love, is to let others appears" 

Humberto Maturana

 

If you let others appears, then all together are going to transform in the coexistance. 

 

• How do I implement Love in my organization? 

To "let others appears", is simple. 

 

Add more of these: 

• listen
  
• Let them be their self, their way. 
• let others contribute and co-create decisions and strategies
  
• Accept them as they are, without wanting to change them. 
• Give them space to express their self. 
• Recognize their achievements
  
• Thank them for what they are contributing, for their effort and time. 
• really and honestly CARE about them. 
• Accept diversity as part of the echosystem
  

 Avoid these: 

• Competition 
• Secrets 
• Expectations 
• Perfectionism 
• Judgements 
  
• Gossip 
  
• Standardization  

 

 

What about you? 

Do you allow your colleagues to appear? 

Your environment allows you to appear and to "be your self"? 

How is your Feedback methodology?  You allow each other to appears?

To close this article... I would like to drop a very arrogant assumption. 

I'm pretty sure, that you, my dear reader... as a Human Being:

...you want to be loved. 

Good night and sweet dreams. I wish you can "appears" in your working environment, and to be "your self". 

Thanks for reading.