It was my first visit to the Unperfekthaus Essen and thus to the Agile Ruhr Camp on April 13 and 14, but certainly not my last. After an extensive welcome round in an incomparable welcoming atmosphere, the first session began with the very thought that symbolized the entire conference: "Agile is brilliant because... ".
With this introduction, all participants in the session had three minutes to formulate their own thoughts and impressions in free associative writing, without thinking too much about it. It was a great start, because looking at the faces of those present, one thing was clear: the thoughts written down only reflected the fact that everyone was in the right place and had found their professional home.
...the common understanding of goals is strengthened.
communicode is convinced of the Agile Ruhr Camp and of agility itself. That is why it is important to us as an agile digital agency to formulate common visions and goals with our colleagues that we can work towards together. The motivation of individual colleagues creates a collective workflow that can make an entire project all the more successful.
Especially in product and software development, awareness of the common goal of individual segments or an entire project is of crucial importance. This creates transparency, which in turn builds trust within the team and leads to increased intrinsic motivation. What should actually be self-evident was confirmed once again at the Agile Ruhr Camp and turned out to be a widespread issue.
...leadership also improves as a result.
In various sessions, the participants repeatedly reached the point where agility fails when a company loses itself in micromanagement, too much disciplinary leadership and a lack of trust. After all, agility thrives on openness, commitment, courage and trust in one's own abilities and those of colleagues. This is a topic that was considered and discussed at various levels during the Agile Ruhr Camp. All those present agreed on the solution to the problem: with a common understanding of goals and, above all, understanding for each other, it is always easier to work successfully than if every small task is controlled from the highest level.
...it drives the development of colleagues and teams.
The Agile Ruhr Camp is an open space format in which all attendees are invited to share their experiences, thoughts and knowledge with others, to enrich the community in its joint growth and to be enriched themselves in the process. Agility thrives on this exchange of knowledge. The generous transfer of knowledge is the top priority here. Growing through knowledge is an attitude that is carried through to the smallest teams in agility. A project can only be successful and a team can only improve from day to day if the further development of colleagues is not slowed down. This is also a well-known insight, which was once again brought home to everyone thanks to the Agile Ruhr Camp and the sessions on the topic.
...it uses conflicts in the team constructively.
If I want to promote and improve cooperation within my team, I can't avoid overt or covert conflicts. Alexander Kylburg from paragraph eins GmbH demonstrated this impressively in his session. With the tolerance poker that he presented to the panel, issues and conflicts can be uncovered that would otherwise probably not have been given any attention at all.
It doesn't always have to be the major points of contention. Even minor issues can slow down project progress and satisfaction with the collaboration. It makes much more sense - whether for project managers, scrum masters, product owners or developers - to draw constructive energy from conflicts, to resolve them in the interests of the team's success and to create a greater understanding for colleagues.
...it works when I make improvements visible.
On Sunday, Berthold Barth put it in a nutshell with this thought. In many companies, agility is perceived as a fad that is not applicable to their own business model or working model and therefore does not work. In principle, however, if you are open to the subject, you can focus on various points and simply prove the effectiveness of agility. Successes registered even with small adjustments must be documented and presented as such so that they can also be attributed to their specific cause.
Whether and when agility is used successfully is, among other things, a question of an open approach, leadership characterized by trust and shared values. The shining lighthouse as a positive example for the company and a suitable metaphor in the session remained in my mind for my demonstration in the team.
Conclusion
The Agile Ruhr Camp is colorful, diverse and inspiring in every respect. The creative design of the Unperfekthaus Essen certainly helped to bring a suitable mindset to the sessions. The warmth, openness and willingness of everyone involved to share their knowledge gave me the deep conviction that I was in exactly the right place for my work. I am delighted to have learned more about agile team development, new leadership, successful sprint reviews and other topics.
Above all, however, I have learned that companies, teams and colleagues can only stand in their own way on the path to successfully practicing agility. If, on the other hand, agile values are taken to heart as far as possible, this is an active contribution to the success of the project and the company.
Editor's note: For reasons of better readability, I have refrained from using gender-appropriate formulations in this article. All references to persons apply equally to all genders.