I Recently read a very interesting book that aligned with my current situation in life, called “The courage to be disliked”. It is a book based on the psychology of Alfred Adler that places the world in a perspective of individual psychology and the innate characteristic of every human being to seek coexistence in society.
I was impressed by how long it took me to realize the synergistic – I would even say obvious – relationship between this thought with the Agile Manifesto and that’s why I decided to briefly write down my perceptions in this post.
Does the agility also resolve interpersonal conflicts?
All problems are based on interpersonal relationships
Alfred Adler
The first principle of Agile Manifesto states that we must keep “the individuals and their interactions” above procedures and tools. This principle argues that only through a genuine desire to cooperate and overcome the differences is possible a productive and harmonious work environment.
Adler’s provocation about this context serves as yet another reference to the importance of keeping this natural factor in view, managing it and always keeping it as a point of attention.
In addition to the four principles, the agility also proposes twelve values that, when observed, contribute greatly to the good experience of everyone involved in the project, whether they are developers or sponsors.
When the Agile Manifesto proposes that “the best architectures, requirements and designs emerge from self-organized teams” we can make an equivalence with the excerpt from the book where Ichiro Kishima and Fumitake Koga state that “(…) a person only becomes an individual in social contexts”.
Perhaps at first this relationship above is not so obvious but I’ll try to explain my point of view. In a self-organized team, each member has the opportunity to develop all their values, expressing their limits, defining their desires, contributing their ideas and values and collaborating with the constant and continuous maintenance of this “universe” in which they belongs.
I don’t intend to go too far in this article about the relationship between Man and Work, but it is undoubtedly a subject that I intend to develop soon. For now, just consider the importance of occupation for the sense of belonging to any productive Man.
Cooperation as key tool for resolving conflicts
The feeling of community is the key concept so debated in Adlerian psychology
ICHIRO KISHIMA E FUMITAKE KOGA
For Adler, the compass to continue moving towards happiness is “Contribution to others”. Likewise, the Agile Manifesto preaches “collaboration with the customer” as one of its principles in addition to “constant cooperation between people who understand the ‘business’ and developers”, “relationship of trust”, “face-to-face conversation”, and again “self-organization” as essential values for a good work environment.
I couldn’t say how many of the signatories of the Agile Manifesto have knowledge in this area of psychology, or even if any of them had access Adler’s proposal and manifestations. I have always learned that the entire manifesto was developed based on the empirical experience of the participants, and this undoubtedly strengthens the importance of these themes for the work environment.
Realize that the “trenches” vision and the “thinker” vision, despite being described in different terms (and at different times) preach the same principles and values aimed at mitigating problems that affect social life, productivity and human nature satisfaction may be yet another indication that we need to consider adopting them as widely as possible in our day-by-day lives, professional or otherwise.