Applying the Modern Agile mindset to other areas and disciplines

How could applying the Modern Agile mindset - the perspective change, the empathy, the curiosity, the collaboration - change areas other than the software industry? How would this apply to education? What would these ideas mean for other disciplines like medicine, engineering, and scientific research?

Collaboration

What would happen if we could get different disciplines in the same room working on the same problem. Bringing together people for whom an area of study may not seem relevant? People who are passionate about a problem but may never be consulted?

Take protein folding, for example. Rather than just a biologist, a chemist, or even an engineer, what if we included an artist or someone who was into origami, or welding? These other people with their different perspectives could provide insights that may not be obviously related to what we think the problem is but could inspire ideas to experiment on and different ways to look at the problem, finding solutions that would not normally be available because we don’t have those people in the same room, collaborating and experimenting on these problems together in a traditional setting.

Perspective

What if we were to structure education after a trade skill or craft, a place where they can follow their passion, where they can be introduced to different ideas and perspectives or explore subjects that they may not have thought they’d be interested in, where art and science work together instead of being exclusionary.

What if it were safe for doctors and nurses and other health professionals to fail with quick feedback while they’re developing their skills? While they’re learning, while they were figuring out how they were going to apply their knowledge? Instead of the ridiculousness they go through now, the long shifts, the inhumane amount of hours spent on duty. What if instead it was a safe, collaborative environment, where they learned they didn’t need to get the right answer every time, but that more important was asking the right questions, and listening to their patients.

Empathy

How can we show people that the old rat race, the “I want more than the other guy” is counterproductive! How can we get people to understand that helping someone else realize their potential, achieve their goals, find fulfillment and growth, is more rewarding, worthwhile and beneficial?

One of the things that are needed are resources.

The resources to provide the necessities (and niceties) so the people that are passionate about a problem can focus on that problem, not on “will I get a promotion”, or “how can I earn more money”, or “why can’t I afford a shiny new car like Bob?” If instead they and their families were taken care of, comfortable, having ready access to education and entertainment, and they were allowed to chose from a host of problems and issues, to follow their passion and curiosity - how much further could we progress?! What wonders might we accomplish if we were able to really focus on problems that mattered? Illness, disease, food, water, shelter (for those lacking the resources to provide such), advancing science, math, the arts, medicine - or maybe a better question is, what problems couldn’t we tackle?

Curiosity

Imagine if people were allowed to harness their intellect, intuition, curiosity, passion, and focus as broadly or narrowly as they enjoyed? What if instead of being the exception to the rule, like Einstein, Hawking, or da Vinci, people were given the tools and opportunities to think and experiment and learn, making incredible insights and breakthroughs the norm. Think of all of the “happy accidents” that resulted in something amazing, like WD-40, super glue, the microwave. Now what if we fostered an environment where instead of being purely random, experimentation and safe failing with quick feedback loops were encouraged, making seemingly accidental discoveries commonplace and perhaps inevitable.

What if we were to bring together Procore, the Waldorf schools, and Gearbox Software? An unlikely trio? Maybe - or maybe with a cross section of construction, education, and gaming, they’d create an entertaining, safe, configurable environment for learning and educating the likes of which hasn’t even been dreamed of yet!

Modern Agile

I believe that harnessing the power that is brought through ideas like that of Modern Agile, applied to much more than software development, coupled with the resources on the order of Elon Musk, could bring about true, lasting, societal mindset changes to bring us to a place more akin to Star Trek - not necessarily some ideal Utopia, but a place where instead of fighting each other, tooth and claw for scraps of little green paper, we’d instead be striving to make an environment that is safe (psychologically and physically), make each other awesome, learn and experiment rapidly, and to deliver value continuously to the human race, the earth, the solar system, the universe.

I believe this is achievable. If someone had asked me a year or two ago, I’d probably have laughed and shrugged, thinking this completely and utterly impossible. Now, though - now I not only think this can be done, I believe that, for our continued survival, and for us to thrive, that his must be done. And given the people I’ve met, the people I’ve had the pleasure to interact with, the people who have touched my life, and whose lives I hope I’ve touched, I think we can get there.

We just need help.

I think Modern Agile will provide a foot in the door to get people to start to listen and see that not only is there a better, more humane (and human) way to build software, but a better way to work together, period. And we can use that as a springboard to experiment with better ways to approach education, careers, personal and professional fulfillment, and more.

This is very pie in the sky, I know. What can I say, Agile and Beyond always seems to get my engine running, and this year is no exception. And I’m not getting any younger. And neither is the planet. And from what I’ve been hearing, the clock is ticking.