I or WE? What should we use?

During an official discussion with a senior manager, when I used "WE" to describe achievements of an agile team of which I was the Manager or Leader, s/he told me to use "I" and told me to use "I did that, I did this", even if it was team effort.

It did not sink in well with me. This started a string of thoughts and doubts in my mind about my outlook and concept of Agile and Lean. Every decision the team made, everything we did, were collective and discussed.

So, the following questions came into my mind and tried answering it, sometimes with help of Yahoo!!! (McAfee Secure Search)

Is there something as "I" in Agile?

No, Agile should be a team effort. Agile manifesto states Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools. When a group of individuals interact, it becomes a team. It should be about people involved in the team, but not an individual person in the team. Everyone should work and help others in the team to do something better than yesterday. Every individual in the team should keep their ego and selfishness in check (It is difficult to eliminate both). This will help to improve trust and togetherness in the team.

When an Agile Team achieves a goal, who should claim the responsibility for success? The Team in public and The Manager in private?

This was the second question that came into my mind after the discussion. Should I be claiming the success individually in private and blame the shortcomings on my team, as I was the Manager or Leader of the team? I should not. Because, whatever I do as Manager or Leader, it is the team who do the work and the success and failure should be equally shared, both in private and public. Again, ego and selfishness comes into perspective here, as due to both, one could feel that the success of the team was because of you.

Should there be continuity and team spirit in Agile teams?

A long answer typed out for this question, but on a day when the so called “Tinkerman” helped his team achieve the most important success of their life yet, with the least tinkering, I erased that answer and put this in. Leicester City Football Club were crowned champions of the English Premier League. A team, with no stars, made up of rejects and minimal budget, has rose to the top in 9 months. What should be noted is that the “Tinkerman” did not tinker much with the team which performed “The Great Escape” last season, winning 7 out of 9 matches to avoid relegation, unlike other "Tinkerers". This helped the team to keep the spirit up and rest is history and self explanatory.
NOTE: I believe in and support YNWA

Should we celebrate every success, even if we deliver late?

This question came up as part of discussion. I still do not have a concrete answer to this question. My answer would be No, because the team should not celebrate failure. Late Delivery is No Delivery. I remember my eldest maternal uncle saying, “Newspaper delivered after 6.30 A.M. is a waste paper”. Even though it contains news, if you do not get it before you start your day, it is of no use. Over and unnecessary celebrations give a false sense of attainment which could affect future projects. What the team should understand are the factors behind delivering late and how to negate them in future. There should certainly be a high level of satisfaction within the team that the delivery was completed. We should definitely celebrate the true successes.

Did I get the whole concept of Agile wrong?

I am sure I did not, but I may be wrong. It is the group of individual people who matters in Agile, not an individual person, even if he is the Manager or Leader of the team. Success and failure in a team effort is always achieved as a team, not as individuals.

Final Thoughts

I read somewhere that an agile team could be like a failed communist state which made me remember my question to Pete Deemer in my Scrum Master certification class – “Is Scrum on the basis of Communist Ideology?”(where in every role contributes and collective decisions are made) and I got a No and a big smile from him. Agile Methodology is good and failure of agile will make a team look like a failed communist state, but that would surely be due to a Individualistic, egoistic and selfish person in the team.

I may be wrong as my thoughts could have been influenced by my bringing up. Growing up in a joint family, the values we (my elder brother and me) were taught were to adjust, share, enjoy everything with everyone. Never say “I” or “Mine”, unless it was a mistake or a misdeed, which you surely have to take responsibility for. If we did something good, sometimes we would just get a “good” and if we (especially my elder brother) made a mistake, all hell would break loose.

I believe these values helped me in my career as a software developer and a team player to keep myself self-motivated.