The amount of feedback on my last column showed me how much this topic moves people. Thank you for that! Most of it circled around one question: where do you start, where does the momentum for change come from? I’d like to spend a few more thoughts on that today. Change needs an attitude of wanting to want, and software development is the ideal place for it to take root.
Why Systems Work So Hard to Stay the Same
Yes, a system, in the sense of something with clear boundaries like a company, a group, a team and so on, doesn’t have it easy. People come together, build a stable framework, and then the trouble starts. Individuals want to break out, get changed by other systems, and impulses and impacts arrive from outside. So a system has its hands full just staying stable, to save energy.
We see this every day. A new person on the team, a changed instruction here, a new tool there, and a dynamic market out there. And really, all you want is to stay the way you are.
A system like that simply has no built-in drive to change. New ideas and innovation have a hard time. It gets even harder when things are going well, inside and out. Then inertia is high and the away-from motivation is low. And that inertia is usually stronger than any towards motivation.
That’s the trap we’re sitting in right now. If we look around, we’re doing well. Low unemployment, successful industries and mid-sized companies, great prosperity, maybe a bit of complaining on a high level, but basically everything’s fine.
So why change? Exactly: the pain isn’t big enough.
The dangerous part is that this stability and sense of security is very fragile. The warning shots are getting louder and landing closer, but they’re still far enough away that they don’t set anything in motion on a broad scale. Yet the parts of the economy that create stability and prosperity can come to an end quickly. A look at the world’s startup hotspots gives you an idea of what the future may hold.
Getting Things Moving
So how do you start? If you’re waiting for a government funding program to disrupt your own business, you’ll be waiting a long time. The political system has no interest in change. The feeble digitalization initiatives inside the public authorities themselves prove that.
Large corporations struggle with it too. The ones that have seen this like to move these initiatives out into sub-units, digital hubs and the like. That’s a sensible step, because change and innovation like to grow small: in teams, in projects and in each individual. But the challenge remains: how do I bring what was created there back into the system? Even when lateral thinking and change are called for, the system still pushes back.
So the question is: how do we build a framework that makes the momentum of change stronger than the effort to keep everything stable?
Attitude: Wanting to Want
In my experience, one answer is to establish a working attitude of wanting to want: to increase self-drive and self-responsibility until driving change becomes a need.
An attitude or mindset doesn’t fall from the sky. It takes time and patience to establish. What’s more, we can’t pour it in, press it in or prescribe it. It grows from within, in people and in teams. And it rests on our needs, values, beliefs and filters. So changing an attitude takes, above all, personal development.
Personal Development and Software Development
What does all this have to do with software development? I’m convinced: a lot!
- Software has become the most important factor in how companies create value. Data, interfaces, applications and so on. Amazon, Uber and Airbnb live on software as a platform, transport companies on navigation and capacity algorithms, and so on, and the trend keeps growing.
- In software development, we laid a foundation early on with agile methods for looking after the development of the people in our teams. Boards, retros, dailies, iterations, fun elements: at the core it’s always about strengthening self-organization, encouraging courage and communication, inviting people to think and take part, and strengthening their wanting to want.
That gives software development ideal conditions to become the seed of change. To keep going firmly down the road of digitalization and to help people grow.
And maybe you’d like to focus, in your own work, your team and your company, on putting more energy into wanting to want these days. You’ll be surprised what happens!
