Thoughts from Day 4 of Agile 2022
CAVU’s CEO Chris Sims is attending Agile 2022 this week and we’re sharing his thoughts on what he’s learning while there. Stay tuned to for a special edition of CAVU’s 16th Minute podcast next month where Chris and our host Rebecca Dobrinski will chat further about Agile 2022.
What is the “big hairy problem” that is worth solving and ending in our lifetime? Ending Global Inequality. And, according to Scrum Inc.’s VP Education Business Noah Sarucia and Counsultora BK Cofounder Paula Kvedaras, Jeff Sutherland and his team believe this is the one to focus on.
We all know this problem won’t be solved overnight, but we need to look at this as something not only much bigger than ourselves, but we need to nurture these seeds for the future. Everyone should help with this, but it helps everyone in the long run too. If we can make strides towards and ultimately fix inequality, it will make companies healthier and make a more equitable world for all of us.
Combining distributed work, diverse global teams, and inclusive collaboration is our moment that will change the course of history.
Distributed Work. Remote work is a discipline for the individual worker, but distributed work is a discipline for the entire organization. For distributed companies, the social contract for employment is not about showing up physically but showing up mentally and engaging fully from wherever you are. Gartner forecasted 51% of global knowledge workers would be remote by the end of 2021. Plus, the ability to be remote makes people happy. Thanks to the pandemic, we’ve learned that distributed work is possible. With global access to reliable broadband, people can work from wherever they want.
While we’ve made positive strides in remote work, gender equity took a hit during the pandemic. Pre-pandemic the estimate in years to eliminate the gender gap was just under a century (99.5). Post-pandemic? it increased to 135.6 years! We have taken HUGE steps backwards in gender equity over the past two years. This stemmed from reduced options for childcare causing many women to leave or reduce their participation in the workforce, which then means they’re no longer in mind for promotions.
Diverse Global Teams. Diversity is a satisfying mix of ideas, cultures, races, genders, economic statuses, and other characteristics necessary for growth and learning among a group. Who we hire can no longer be bound by location. Diverse Global Teams are necessary for any company’s survival. Innovation revenue means better financial performance. In highly diverse companies 45% of revenue is from innovation. In average diverse companies, 26% of revenue is from innovation. More diversity results in more innovation. (Forbes, Diversity Confirmed to Boost Innovation and Financial Results).
Collaborate Inclusively. You must take time to understand intent, not just language. In different cultures, words and phrases can sound the same and translate the same but mean very different things to the individual. Organizations must build cultural empathy and seek to understand each other as human.
Here, the Scrum Values are our ally – when each team member truly embodies the five Scrum values then the team becomes an unstoppable equitable force.
Read Chris’s thoughts from Day 1: Agile is an Infinite Game, Day 2: Agile – The Secret is in the Sauce, & Day 3: The Agile Search for ET.
