The Agile Mindset - Socrates and Aporia
Ab initio
(This article is part of an on-going series dedicated to developing Agile mastery. Each post offers value to students on this journey, however, there is an advantage to those who start at the beginning.)
Let's talk a bit about the Agile mindset - what is it and what isn't it.
Back in the early days of Agile I had done a number of rounds with people who were adamant Agile was a philosophy, an over-arching epistemology for guiding every human being toward peace, happiness, and enlightenment, or a dramatic paradigm shift the likes of which humanity has never seen. Agile is none of these things.
Agile is, however, an incredibly useful innovation built on top of an equally impressive bedrock of previous innovations for how to get things done. It's a powerful way to organize our thinking around organizing people in order to solve complex problems. That is to say, a mindset. In order to be effective, we sill need an vast array of other skills, attitude, beliefs, and values in order to effectively leverage an Agile mindset.
What you'll encounter on the Stoic Agilist journey will have less to do with formal Agile training - the Agile 101 content - and more to do with the Agile you were born with. Like the beginner martial artist stepping onto the mat, you already know how to walk. What you don't know is how to intentionally move your body in ways that keep you and others safe while building confidence. The values and principles outlined in the Agile Manifesto are as fundamental as learning how to walk. Once we learned how to walk, we could walk just about anywhere in the world. Similarly, Agile values and principles are easily translated to other contexts because they are closer to the fundamentals for how we live our lives day-to-day. We learn as children how fragile plans are and how powerful the ability to respond to change can be (Responding to change over following a plan.) As we grow and mature, we learn how important trust and communication are to healthy relationships and how onerous contracts can be, even when they are honored (Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.)
There are also zillions of channels available to you for learning the Agile 101 content. That the Agile mindset has produced such a wealthy trail of tools, practices, and techniques is a testament to it's fundamental nature. But this massive mountain of stuff is still all just Agile 101. To make it all work, to combine the needed tool to a demanding situation in a way that leads to lasting success requires the hand of a skilled practitioner. And to become a master, you'll need something much more than Agile 101. You'll need to understand your fellow human beings. You'll need the skills and practices that won't be found by mining the Agile 101 mountain.
I don't have a 1-2-3 ranking for the mental models and strategies you'll need for a strong Agile mindset. Better to think of the ideas I present in the early string of posts as belonging to a set of mental models. You'll want to be skilled at using all of them, but you won't need all of them every time or in the order they're presented. Like tools, you'll need to know their strengths and weaknesses so you'll grab the right tool for the job at hand and set it down when it isn't.
After all that, I'm going to start this journey by laying down several stepping stones from...surprise!...philosophy! Investing a little time here will help you experience the difference between a philosophy and a mindset. And by doing so, you'll be better at maintaining those all-important professional boundaries and limits of influence.
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. - Confucius
The Socratic Way to an Open Mind
The high priestesses of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi served as it's oracle. They were in turn known as the Oracle of Delphi and are perhaps best known for the inscription placed on one of the Temple columns: "Know thyself." You probably have at least a vague notion of this inscription. What isn't generally known is that there are two additional inscriptions on the column: "Nothing to excess" and "Surety bring ruin." We will cover each of these in turn, starting with "Know thyself." Who but Socrates could better represent such a directive?
By all accounts, Socrates could be an infuriating character. All those damn questions! He often left his dialogue partners doubting what they knew. Indeed, if they knew anything at all! By beginning with questions, the entire school of Socratic philosophy seems to start with "I don't know" and end with "I still don't know." But answering all those damn questions isn't what's important. What they create during the Q&A process is what's critical. The questions are just the fuel for stoking the flames of curiosity and discovery. They're annoying because they crack open a mental state the Greeks called "aporia" - A strong sense of doubt, uncertainty, or confusion. Aporia is disorienting. It's an indication that your brain is open to learning something new.
That it's open to learning something new doesn't mean that it will learn something new. There are an impressive array of cognitive biases (cognitive dissonance, I'm looking at you) ready to spring into action and make sure the window of opportunity is slammed shut before to much of the cool aporia breeze can clear the air in our head. A set of well crafted Socratic questions will help keep that window open, if we understand what's happening and become comfortable with our discomfort of not knowing.
The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents and the oceans was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge. - Daniel J. Boorstin
The lesson here isn't about the questions asked (although that's very important and something we'll encounter in future posts), it's about the effect of the questions. It's about the space between the questions, the experiences we have as we struggle from one question to the next and allow them to take us somewhere more valuable. What's happening when we engage with questions is we do the hard work required to expose what we don't know but probably thought we did. In other words, to expose to ourselves our ignorance.
A strong and healthy Agile mindset is constantly scanning for ways to resolve the agilist's ignorance. As a matter of personal character, an Agile mindset keeps the aporia candle burning and at the ready to light a fire under curiosity and discovery.
Thoroughly conscious ignorance is the prelude to every real advance in science. - James Clerk Maxwell (emphasis added)
I have worked for years trying to find ethical and accessible ways to create a state of aporia in the people I'm trying to teach or coach. I've know for a long time, partly from my own experiences, that when people suffer a traumatic event - such as the death of a loved one or major health crisis - their world is suddenly turned upside down and an aporia-like window opens. For a short time, they are incredibly open to discarding old ideas and learning new ones. So open, in fact, it's more accurate to say they are incredibly vulnerable to shifts in world view that are not of their choosing. Clearly, inducing traumatic events into the lives of our co-workers is an untenable path for creating a state of aporia.
This gets us to the first exercise on this journey. I have found a way to gracefully open the aporia window while working with people one-to-one, but it take time and requires patience and dedication on both our parts. I'm doubtful, however, that finding and developing a deliberate state of "thoroughly conscious ignorance" through the one-way communication of a newsletter post is possible. So the task for you, dear reader, is to evaluate your own capabilities and tolerances for aporia. Spend the next several days physically writing out your responses and reactions to the following questions and challenges. The quality of your self-evaluation is directly related to the quality of your honesty in completing this exercise.
Do you seek new experiences and places or do you prefer familiar surroundings and a predictable routine? Describe in at least two hand-written pages the top three experiences you can recall that clearly demonstrate your particular preference.
How many tabs are open in your web browser right now? In at least one hand-written page, describe as many areas of interest that are represented in this collection of tabs. Are there two or three general themes that you can see across all the tabs that are open?
In at least one hand-written page, write out how you would go about designing a spice rack for a blind person.
In at least two hand-written pages, describe your level of tenacity and persistence. To what degree has your tenacity and persistence contributed to or inhibited your success and enjoyment in life?
Stew on this exercise for the next several days. Set your writing aside and come back to it after a short break. Refine and elaborate on your initial answers.
If you have any questions, need anything clarified, or have something else on your mind, please use the comments section or email me directly.
Photo by Moriah Wolfe on Unsplash