Why Don't I Floss My Teeth?

Article Comments

1. Tobias Mayer said on 08 Aug 09 22:51:
   Michael, this is an insightful appraisal of the Scrum adoption situation. Knowing what to do, and doing it, are often worlds apart. I am particularly interested in the Weight Watchers analogy. I have often thought that those transitioning to Scrum need some sort of support group. It is a much harder thing than we care to admit -- any of us. I have found commonalities between dysfunctional companies and addicts over the years, and Jeff Sutherland has also written about this, saying that companies first need to admit there is a problem before they'll begin to change. About eighteen months ago I wrote a post about using the principles (traditions) of AA to scale Scrum. This is coming at it from a different angle, but I think that the world of self-help can offer us a lot. The scaling Scrum post is here: http://bit.ly/10MRNH I wonder if Scrum user groups serve the purpose of support? Perhaps they need to be as much geared towards self-help as towards education and presentation, which seems to be the main focus. Also, setting up internal groups inside organizations to talk about the transition pain would be beneficial. Not sure how that would look though... Good food for thought here.
2. Michael de la Maza said on 09 Aug 09 07:07:
   Tobias, thanks for your kind comments. Creating a support group is something that I suggest to every client: Waterfallolics Anonymous :) When people have been doing something for many years they may have many psychological and emotional dependencies. Just as there are emotional eaters, who overeat not because they are hungry but for emotional comfort, there will be people who cling to Waterfall, not because it's better but for comfort. The roots of emotional eating can be powerful and rational (see, e.g., http://www.mindingthemind.com/reprints/Obesity.pdf), and I suspect that the roots of waterfall behavior may be similarly powerful, although I have no evidence to support this view (imagine, however, a person who was told at a young age by a mentor that their job 'is to make the boss look good' or was punished repeatedly in elementary school for doing their own thing, etc.). I have also been studying Alcoholics Anonymous and am building several games based on its ideas. Step 1 of the 12 step plan is admitting that there is a problem, hence the game Agile Confessions Game which encourages people to 'fess up to waterfall sins ("Act out a scene that captures the last time you used command and control methods to solve a problem"). :) One challenge, in my experience, is creating a 'safe' environment. An environment in which people are not defensive, are not playing politics, are not fearful, etc. Setting up a Waterfallolics Anonymous at a company and having it turn into yet another place for corporate gamesmanship serves no useful purpose. More broadly, I think that emotional/psychological state is one of the two greatest impediments to the successful adoption of Scrum. On a personal level, one of the difficulties I have is remaining kind, loving, and patient when I get asked an infinite string of 'technical' questions (Should our task board have three or four columns?) by people who are new to Scrum when I'm trying to focus on these concepts.
3. David Harvey said on 09 Aug 09 13:50:
   Hi Michael, Good points, but I'd identify these impediments as psychological rather than emotional. It may seem a small point, but generally speaking we have access to our emotions, whereas the resistances to change that we often encounter have deeper and less obvious roots. Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey have just published "Immunity to Change", a great book about precisely this, and develop several approaches to working with and overcoming resistance.
4. Michael de la Maza said on 09 Aug 09 17:58:
   That is a very helpful observation, David. To date, I have been using the phrase "emotional state" interchangeably with "psychological state." I now see that distinguishing between them is useful.
5. Ram Sathia said on 10 Aug 09 12:53:
   Michael, this is a good article on understanding impediments to adopting Scrum. The analogies used in this article (flossing and weight watchers) are very good. One factor that I've found useful to overcome the emotional or psychological imediments is empowerment. If people in the scrum team are empowered, you can definitely expect better results in adopting the Scrum methodology. You can help the scrum team members to feel empowered by many ways. Rotating the role of a Scrum Master between the team members is one way of making them feel empowered. You will notice that it helps the team to feel that they own the process of adopting the scrum model. The second aspect to the impediment is the fear factor. Simply, a good training on Scrum model itself can reduce the fear of unknown. As you said, the emotional and psychological impediments will need to be removed for a successful transition.
6. Andrea Maietta said on 11 Aug 09 01:56:
   The floss analogy is a good one - actually a quote ;-) and it points out how bad habits can hinder even the better intentions, even if we know what we're going to face. Another factor that hinders us, as Ram points out, is the fear of change (even if this has nothing to do with flossing... at least I hope so!). The support of an expert (e.g. a coach) or of a group can thus be very useful, so also the ww example is a good one.
7. Stephen B. Jones said on 17 Aug 09 05:42:
   I never floss my teeth. Why? Because (a) I wasn't trained to do it as a child, and you can't teach an old dog.... (b) because the benefits/penalties are *too negligible* to be recognised on a day-to-day basis. I might start flossing after my third root canal, but even then, how long before I forget the pain of that crisis, and revert to old habits? Most commonly, people only change when they have to, and seldom prior to that. Should, therefore, an agile transition plan seek to highlight the pain experienced by current dysfunctional practices? Spouting agile theory is effective only to a point. Yes, it spreads the ideas, but it does not get people to embrace them. Highlight the pain! Highlight the pain!