Many proponents of Scrum based frameworks say:
- knowledge workers are people who know more than their managers
- we must trust & respect people
- people must self-organize
But then their courses go on to tell people what to do. They say – stick with these rules & then later you can modify them to fit you.
One then hears “shu ha ri” which is a martial arts term meaning to first obey, then modify & eventually transcend. But there are several things wrong with this metaphor.
We’re not in the martial arts where the idea is not to think but to act. Also, in the martial arts you train for a very long time before putting the learning into action & most ppl learn many different styles since different methods are needed for different situations. Also, people who break with what they’ve been taught are called are called ScrumButters or SAFeButters. Not surprising dogma results.
This contradictory logic is often ignored. We’re being told “we need to self-organize” but do “this” & later change, but if you change to something we don’t like “you’re doing it wrong.” And everyone ignores the self-serving nature of this.
What’s needed: training specific to the organization to get them started right.