Lessons and insights gained from the transistion from apartheid to democracy in South Africa - and it's applicability to agile software development. This was presented at the Agile Africa conference in August 2013.
“Though I’ve tried to find the answer to all the questions they ask,
Though I know it’s impossible to go living through the past –
Don’t tell no lie.” -- Bob Marley, Natural Mystic
Apartheid and Democracy
@aslamkhn
Beyond
^
stillpoint.
political affiliation, religion
ge n d e r, e c o n o m i c s t a t u s ,
opportunity bias, right of
passage, stigmas, stereotypes,
p o w e r, p o l i t i c s , c a u c u s ,
authority, de-authority, values,
p u n c t u a l i t y , r e p o r t i n g
structures, clothing, hair styles,
parking space, experience, tribe,
where you ate lunch, smokers,
car that you drove, staff,
consultant, rank, parking space
Was there a way out?
2!082!06
Revenge cuts both ways - forever
Amnesty amnesia results in re-victimisation
Justice one winner, pack up and go
Leave those that were hurt still hurt
Though I’ve tried to find the answer to all
the questions they ask,
Though I know it’s impossible to go living
through the past –
Don’t tell no lie.
-- Bob Marley, Natural Mystic
'94 2013
reality check
2!06 - 2!08
truth and reconciliation
'96
(yet we still wonder about retrospectives at scale)
“Ubuntu does not mean that people should
not address themselves. The question
therefore is: Are you going to do so in
order to enable the community around you
to be able to improve?"
"It becomes more necessary to see the
truth as it is if you realize that the only
vehicle for change are these people who
have lost their personality"
It's not about giving your team a name
that's tribalism
"Give" your team an identity
that's collaboration
it's not about following a common process
that's ritualism
regardless of what each believes
it's about sharing our ideology
that's what we believe
regardless of the rituals that each follows
it's not about team based decisions
that's just controlling production
it's about accountability for decisions
that's challenging our shared values
it's not about pivoting fast
that's just reacting to market demands
rather pivot to test your beliefs
or your can just pivot on a whim
it's not about democracy in teams
that can create an "us and them"
it's about diminishing of class differences
about equal appreciation
of the value of specialized skills
To grow identities
we must allow value systems to clash
and
shared beliefs to take a foothold
"Many more will have to suffer
Many more will have to die
Don't ask me why"
-- Bob Marley, Natural Mystic
I wonder ...
why agile transformations are difficult.
Perhaps
the worker centric, socialist elements
of agile software development
clashes with
capitalist, free market organisations
What does it mean to be
an agile software team
in Africa?
2013...
restoration & creation of African identity
2!!016!0
eradication of identities
17!0 18!0 19!0
apartheid and (neo)colonialism
"We face neither East nor
West;
we face forward"
-- Kwame Nkrumah
@aslamkhn
f3yourmind.net
stillpoint.