Create Success by Creating Value
But what is Value?
I attended a classroom training for Managers recently. It was a refresher course about the agile/scrum software development methodology — an open 101 discussion about the process we follow, and the best practices recommended for teams to use.
I learned nothing new but that is besides the point of this post. There was however, one interesting moment that I noted down as something I wanted to reflect on.
During one of his slides, the trainer asked us an open ended question: What value are we creating?
Obviously, the know-it-all audience were quick to respond that Value is what we produce as work products to meet business expectations; the user stories that we deliver to meet end-user needs; and thereby meeting the sales and marketing needs of the organization.
The audience interpretation of “value” translated to “business value”. Their subconscious heard the question as “What business value are we creating?”
I get it. The business stakeholders fund the project so the value we provide as project teams have to align with meeting their expectations. But that is a one-sided and a flawed line of thinking.
No one talked about the value we need to provide to the team, who actually produces the stuff we take credit for. What about the value in ensuring that the team is motivated to do well? What about value in curbing attrition? Mentoring? Coaching? Team morale? There are many more value-ads for us to consider and talk about than meeting business/user expectations.
So, the question of adding value is broader than any justification for the ROI we get from the money we spend. That’s my point.
True success comes from creating value within before we can create value for others.
