The document discusses the Agile principle of sustainable pace and how overtime culture can lead to unsustainable pace. It notes that overtime can negatively impact health, gender pay gaps due to family responsibilities, workplace culture, defect rates, and social relationships. It advocates improving sustainable pace by focusing on increasing individual, team, and organizational capabilities rather than just working longer hours. This includes improving skills, automating tasks, encouraging smarter work, creating autonomous teams, and providing slack in the system. The overall message is that Agile promotes pace that can be maintained indefinitely through increasing capacity rather than relying on overtime.

1. Sustainable PaceThe forgotten Agile principle
Bernd Schiffer 05/09/2019 YOW! Perth

2. “Japan'stoxiccultureofoverworkdrovethis31-year-oldwomantodeath—anditlookslikethere'snoendin
sight”byAlexandraMa(08.05.2019,https://www.businessinsider.com/karoshi-how-overwork-in-japan-killed-miwa-
sado-and-hundreds-like-her-2017-10)

3. Photoby QuinoAl on Unsplash

4. http://agilemanifesto.org/

8. The rate at which we
maintain change in a system
over a long time.
v0.4
Sustainable Pacefrom an Agile point of view
individuals
(1st Agile value and 5th Agile principle)
external change caused by the
wants of customers and
internal change caused by the
learnings of individuals
(1st and 12th Agile principle)
indefinitely
(8th Agile principle)
teams within organisations who
collaborate with the customer
(3rd Agile value and 8th Agile principle)

9. 1. Why does Agile promote
sustainable pace?
2. How does Agile promote
sustainable pace?

10. v0.3
Why does Agile promote
sustainable pace?
satisfy
customer
(1st Agile principle)
motivated
individuals
(5th Agile principle)

11. 1. Addressing more work
with overtime
2. Neglecting one own’s
needs
Causes of
unsustainable pacein this session

12. The stupidest answer to the
question of how we can get
more work done.
Overtime

13. “Long work is what the lawyer who bills
14 hours a day filling in forms does.
Hard work is what the insightful litigator
does when she synthesizes four disparate
ideas and comes up with an argument
that wins the case–in less than five
minutes.” — Seth Godin
Long work vs hard work
"Hard work vs. Long work" by Seth Godin (03.05.2011, https://seths.blog/2011/05/hard-work-vs-long-work )

14. impaired sleep, heavy drinking, diabetes, impaired
memory, heart disease, headaches, upset
stomaches, obesity, smoking, impaired vocabulary
and reasoning, and depression
Overtime and Health
Photo by Hugues de BUYER-MIMEURE on Unsplash

15. Overtime and
Gender Pay Gap
“Children and Gender Inequality: Evidence from Denmark” by Henrik Kleven et.al. (01.2018, https://www.nber.org/papers/w24219 )

16. Overtime and
Gender Pay Gap
"Why Men Work So Many Hours" by Joan Williams (29.05.2013, https://hbr.org/2013/05/why-men-work-so-many-hours )
“We can’t get mothers to work more hours. We’ve tried,
and failed, for forty years. Mothers won’t bite for a
simple reason: if they work 55 hours a week, they will
leave home at, say, 8:30 and return at 8:30 every day of
the workweek, assuming an average commute time. Most
moms have this one little hang-up: they want to see their
children awake. Increasingly, many fathers do, too.”

17. Overtime and
Gender Pay Gap
"The Australian company that banned work on Wednesdays" by Celina Ribeiro (20.07.2019, https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190429-the-australian-company-that-banned-work-on-wednesdays )
“[In their early 30s,] that’s really when we’re losing
women [from the workforce] because we’re not giving
them choices to be both mothers and productive
workers.”

18. Overtime and
Macho Culture
“Traditionally, development studios have been male-
dominated, leading to a macho culture in which extended
working hours become a bragging currency.”
“Workplace norms cement felt truths that link long
hours with manliness, moral stature, and elite status.”
"Crunched: has the games industry really stopped exploiting its workforce?" by Ian G Williams inThe Guardian (19.02.2015, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/18/crunched-games-
industry-exploiting-workforce-ea-spouse-software )
"Why Men Work So Many Hours" by Joan Williams (29.05.2013, https://hbr.org/2013/05/why-men-work-so-many-hours )

19. Overtime and Defects“Wounded Wilderness:The ExxonValdez Oil Spill 30Years Later” byTim Lydon in Hakai Magaizine (22.03.2019, https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/wounded-wilderness-the-exxon-valdez-oil-
spill-30-years-later )

20. Overtime and
Social Relationships
“Long hours at work can pull people apart, leave
little time for connection, and create loneliness in the
relationship.” — John Gottman
“…after faithfulness and a good sex life, sharing
household chores was listed as the most important
element of a successful marriage.” — John Gottman
Gottman, John. Eight Dates: Essential Conversations for a Lifetime of Love (pp. 118-119).Workman Publishing Company. Kindle Edition.

21. hours/week
housework 15.5 29.6
work work 46.7 22.2
kids work 11.0 23.3
Overtime and
Social Relationships
“The Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey: Selected Findings from Waves 1 to 16” from the Melbourne Institute Applied Economic & Social Research at the University
of Melbourne (2018, https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/2839919/2018-HILDA-SR-for-web.pdf )
in Australia

22. Overtime and
Social Relationships
“Women find a man’s willingness to do
housework extremely erotic.”
— John Gottman
“4Typical Solvable Relationship Problems” by Kyle Benson (07.04.2017, https://www.gottman.com/blog/4-typical-solvable-problems-relationships )

23. How big is the
Overtime Problem?
“'Epidemic of time theft':Australians work two months' unpaid overtime a year” by Paul Karp (21.11.2018, https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/21/time-theft-australians-work-two-
months-unpaid-overtime-a-year )
‣ 6 h/week: average overtime (2018)
‣ 2 months: equivalent of work time (2018)
‣ 4.6 h/week (2016), 5.1 h/week (2017)
‣ A$106 billion: overall overtime value (2018)
in Australia

24. Neglecting
one own’s needs
Photo by Hal Gatewood on Unsplash

25. “NeedsInventory”fromCNVC(https://www.cnvc.org/training/resource/needs-inventory)—PDFversion
Needs

26. Self-care
Put your needs
before other
people’s wants.
Don’t screw your
future self.

27. Elon Musk
ByDuncan.Hull-Ownwork,CCBY-SA4.0,https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76353307

28. “Work like hell. I mean you just have to
put in the 80 to 100 hours every week.
If other people are putting in 40-hour
workweeks & you are putting in 100-
hour workweeks, you know that you'll
achieve in four months what it takes
them a year to achieve.” — Elon Musk
"Elon Musk:Work twice as hard as others" by Bambi Francisco Roizen onVator (23.12.2010, https://vator.tv/news/2010-12-23-
elon-musk-work-twice-as-hard-as-others )

29. “There were times when I didn’t leave the
factory for three or four days — days when
I didn’t go outside. […] This has really
come at the expense of seeing my kids.
And seeing friends.” — Elon Musk
"Elon Musk:Work twice as hard as others" by Bambi Francisco Roizen onVator (23.12.2010, https://vator.tv/news/2010-12-23-
elon-musk-work-twice-as-hard-as-others )

30. “There are way easier places to work,
but nobody ever changed the world on
40 hours a week. […] If you love what
you do, it (mostly) doesn’t feel like
work” — Elon Musk
"Elon Musk:Work twice as hard as others" by Bambi Francisco Roizen onVator (23.12.2010, https://vator.tv/news/2010-12-23-
elon-musk-work-twice-as-hard-as-others )

31. By DoD photo by Senior Master Sgt.Adrian Cadiz (Released) - https://www.flickr.com/photos/secdef/
26804537356/in/album-72157668014155445/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?
curid=66160210
Jeff Bezoz

32. ”the greatest place I hate to work“
— Amazon manager
"Inside Amazon:Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace" by Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeldaug inThe New
YorkTimes (15.08.2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-
a-bruising-workplace.html — PDF inside_amazon-_wrestling_big_ideas_in_a_bruising_workplace.pdf )
“marathon conference calls on Easter
Sunday and Thanksgiving, criticism from
bosses for spotty Internet access on
vacation, and hours spent working at home
most nights or weekends.”
”where overachievers go to feel bad about
themselves.“
— another Amazon manager

33. ”You can work long, hard or
smart, but at Amazon.com
you can’t choose two out of
three“ — Jeff Bezoz in his
letter to Amazon’s
shareholders in 1997
http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/97/97664/reports/Shareholderletter97.pdf

34. 1. Why does Agile promote
sustainable pace?
2. How does Agile promote
sustainable pace?

35. You are crazy-busy. The deadline approaches.
You are going to be late.
What are your short-term options?
1. Extend the deadline.
2. Reduce the scope.
Those are all your options. Now chose.
v0.2

36. You are often
crazy-busy. You
are often late.
What are your
long-term
options?
capability
people capacity
capacity = capability x people
capability = skills x system

37. Creating Sustainable Pace
ideas to improve capability on personal level
reading and writing
meditating
working out
eating healthy
resting
sleeping
emotional
intelligence
social intelligence
understanding of
personal values
understanding of
needs
practicing focus,
awareness,
compassion
how to deal with
our own feelings
how to deal with
other people’s
feelings

38. Creating Sustainable Pace
ideas to improve capability on personal level
“Peace - It does not mean to be in a place where
there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to
be in the midst of those things and still be calm in
your heart.” — unknown

39. Creating Sustainable Pace
ideas to improve capability on team level
creating good
relationships
having empathy
and compassion
being in conflict
negotiating
communicating
collaborating
automating & simplifying
avoiding dependencies
being independent
creating interdependencies
helping
accepting help
having diversity & inclusion
increasing psychological safety
!!
when
necessary
inviting to a
party & asking
to dance

40. Creating Sustainable Pace
ideas to improve capability on organisational level
understanding of
systems thinking
decrease overtime
encourage working
smarter
create landscape of
autonomous teams
provide slack
eventually down
to zero

41. Creating Sustainable Pace
We don't rise to the level of our expectations,
we fall to the level of our training.
— Archilochos

42. v0.2
and
Thanks for listening
take care