AGILITY IN LEADERS : SWAMI VIVEKANANDA — I | Agile Story 15
Disclaimer: The article is an individual post and do not reflect the company’s opinions
In 2001, a group of 17 masterminds met in Utah and what emerged was AGILE MANIFESTO. Slowly the agile values, principles, scrum values, concept of empiricism became popular, and the awareness spread all over the world. But was that really the birth of the concept of the AGILE & SCRUM & AGILE MINDSET which we speak about, or the essence was already there in the teachings of renowned leaders of the world. To understand if this is really an old wine in a new bottle, we need to explore the preaching of few leaders who had left an immense influence in our society through their thoughts and teachings.
Before explaining anything on famous quote by SWAMI VIVEKANANDA, let’s know a little about the life and teachings this great saint, philosopher and guide. Probably after that we might not need to explain them further. Starting from his birth and throughout his childhood, two aspects of his behavior and thoughts became clearly prominent. One was his devout and COMPASSIONATE nature, and the other was his readiness to perform any act of COURAGE
A very interesting incident happened in Varanasi. After visiting a temple, Vivekananda came out and found himself surrounded by many monkeys. Vivekananda started running and the monkeys started chasing him. On seeing this, an old woman told him to stop and face the monkeys. Following her advice, he stopped and turned around to face the monkeys. And like magic, the monkeys ran away. Many years later Vivekananda said, “If you ever feel afraid of anything, always turn around and face it. Never think of running away.” Face your problem with COURAGE. Never lose your FOCUS from the GOAL.
“What great importance is of the youth years when the foundation is built for life! Difficulties will come but so what;” Swami Ji said, “Struggle, Struggle, Struggle is the Sine Qua Non of life and stagnation is death.” He emphasized again and again that the masses were the real foundations of the Nation. He glorified the strength of common people and entrusted his TRUST & RESPECT on them for fulfilling his vision of a great India.
Aren’t these really the scrum values we follow? Scrum guide clearly says
"The Scrum Team commits to achieving its goals and to supporting each other. Their primary focus is on the work of the Sprint to make the best possible progress toward these goals. The Scrum Team and its stakeholders are open about the work and the challenges. Scrum Team members respect each other to be capable, independent people, and are respected as such by the people with whom they work. The Scrum Team members have the courage to do the right thing, to work on tough problems."
“Do one thing at a time, and while doing it put your whole soul into it to the exclusion of all else.” This was said by Swami Ji well before 1902. Did anyone know about KANBAN at that time or before that. Don’t you think the concept of “LIMIT YOUR WORK IN PROGRESS” that we implement in KANBAN is exactly what Swami Vivekananda referred a hundred years back.
Swami Ji insisted that “Take risks in your life. If you win, you can lead if you lose, you can guide.” & “When I asked God for strength, he gave me difficult situations to face”. We all are familiar with the concept of fail-fast, adapt and retrospect. To fail fast means to have a process of starting work on a project, immediately gathering feedback, and then determining whether to continue working on that task or take a different approach-that is, ADAPT. We keep on RETROSPECTING to ensure what the good things we did are retained and also what can be improved even in case of failures. Fail fast approach ensures quick identification of the failure and RETROSPECTION of the experience for the proper ADAPTATION to quick success. So even a FAILURE can be a guide to SUCCESS. Don’t these concepts carry the same flavor of the concepts in AGILE. Vivekananda said. “Talk to yourself once in a day, otherwise you may miss meeting an intelligent person in this world.” Talking to yourself, which is a lot like checking in with yourself, should be an everyday ritual in your life. Only when you are aware and connected with your being can you do things that will serve you. All the answers you are looking for are within you, but it is you who has to take the initiative. Is there a better way to explain MOTIVATED INDIVIDUALS & SELF-RETROSPECTION?
Let’s end the first part of our discussion here. Please share your experience while reading the blog. In the next part we will conclude the aspects of AGILITY in the leadership of this great leader and saint. Till then happy reading. TO BE CONTINUED ……….
This is the continuation of sharing our Agile Stories/Thoughts Series. I strongly recommend referring to the links below for previous insightful blogs from our #teamagile in IBM
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