This weekend I was discussing agility and leadership with Thomas Juli, the Agile Coach and Human Business Architect. He shared his experience with the Daily Scrum. In Scrum, this a 15-minute team-level stand-up meeting, in which the team members synchronize with each other to organize themselves and identify issues holding them back. The key questions are: 1) What did [each of us] accomplish yesterday? What is my goal for today? and what is making it difficult to achieve that goal?
"I have found it works much better, if you ask another question first," he explained. "What would that be?" I asked. "What would make you happy?"
Wow.
Last December, I realized that while I had a what-matters card called "family, health and happiness" (aka green), all of my green tasks were about other members of my family. Nothing was about myself, and I was getting a bit run down. I resolved to make sure that one of my green cards each week was about doing something for me, to make me happy.
So I resolved to make sure that every week, I had at least one green card that makes me happy. I still have cards about things I do for my family, and I am happy to do them, but there is something about recognizing the need to take care of myself which helps me feel energized.
I am thinking one's own happiness is important enough that it should be reflected in the Personal Agility framework, and not only if you choose to list happiness as one of the things that matter to you. So I am considering an update to the 6 questions:
What do you think? What are the pro's and con's to this change? How would adding some space for happiness change your life?
"*" indicates required fields