Working at Think Agile: What Motivates Me? 

If there is something that drives me to work with an organisation, then it is the organisation culture. I remember the day I called Pavel to ask if he was still looking for an Agile Coach and a Trainer. It’s been three years working at Think Agile & my excitement has only increased. I thought of penning down the reasons that are still driving me to work here.  

As some people say, pay people fairly and keep the money off the table. Hence, I will also keep the money off the table as I am paid fairly for sure. I am going to explore the other reasons behind my motivation to be with Think Agile.   

As per Daniel Pink’s book “Drive” – Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose motivate people. If you want to explore more, a video adapted from his talk at RSA can be found here. I will explore a few more aspects with these three below.  

Autonomy 

I’ve always loved workplaces where I have the right to self-manage and self-govern. At Think Agile, I have this autonomy to decide how I can be most effective for my organisation and my clients. In any situation, we have complete autonomy to produce an idea or a solution. Yet, we always discuss these with other coaches to get more ideas. In engagement sessions with clients, we often mention – “Please trust our coach, s/he is doing the right thing.” At Think Agile, we are always encouraged to do the right things for our clients.   

I was working with a client at the beginning of last year. After doing assessments, I discussed the readiness of the organization with an executive. We decided to not continue the coaching work until the leadership buy-in is there. Without leadership buy-in, an agile journey becomes miserable. I love this kind of autonomy where my team has trust in my knowledge, experience, and decisions. 

Mastery  

Before I joined Think Agile, I thought I knew a lot. After I spent some time with my colleagues here, I realized that the journey is long, and there was still more to learn. I always wanted to get comprehensive knowledge of agile coaching and training. I cannot thank our leadership team enough for the amount of knowledge I’ve gained over the past three years.

In each budget year, we have a learning budget equal to 10% of our annual salary. We can spend this money on attending external training, global conferences, and travel. On top of this we can attend all internal Think Agile courses. We end up paying a small admin fee and the cost of certification. What stands out for me is that we do not have to take any leave for it. At previous organisations I’ve worked in, we also got a training budget. But either we must take leave for them, or we are so busy at work that we do not get time to use this budget.  

Purpose  

When I fell in love with agile ways of working 10 years ago, it became my purpose to inspire others as well. I started inspiring others by speaking about it at various meetups and conferences. We have co-created our purpose at Think Agile. It is – To help workplaces transform into spaces where individuals can find meaning in the work they do, and teams can work together to support each other. The way we are inspiring people and organizations to become effective forces gives me inner satisfaction.  

To meet my own needs and keep me motivated, there are a few more aspects that keep me working for Think Agile –  

Respect for everyone  

At Think Agile, we not only have immense respect for each other, but we also respect others whenever we are interacting with them for any purpose. I remember an incident that had an enormous impact on me. We were interviewing a candidate in-person for an Agile Coach position. I had an online meeting before the session which I attended from home. Because of that, I arrived 10 mins late for this in-person interview. My whole team became upset with me for being late as an interviewee. I could have avoided this situation by planning my morning better. I learned from this incident that we carry the culture of our organization. We must respect everyone’s time no matter what the situation is. Within our team as well, if we derail from respecting each other, we call each other out and give feedback without having any grudges.  

We teach more than agile  

I always wondered – Is racism a thing? Does it exist? Yes, it does, and that is my experience too. In the past, clients have specifically asked for a native English-speaking trainer. When it happened for the first time, it made us angry and sad. We had two options. The first option was to not engage further with such clients at all. The second option was to work with them and teach them that quality of work has no relation to someone’s color. We chose the second option.  

We paired a first-language English-speaking trainer, with a non-first language English-speaking trainer. The former did most of the training. We negotiated to provide an opportunity for them to experience the quality of our trainers, especially the ones whom they were reluctant to work with. In the end, we could convince them that all our trainers provide the same quality of work irrespective of their color, race, or native language. We did the work and guess what? Till today, all our clients have loved our training! 

There was a big reason behind us choosing this option. We could have chosen not to work with them, live in peace, and they would have gone with other training providers. But they still would have demanded the same. By working & partnering with them, we sent a signal of intent and gave out a strong message that quality work has no language, color, or race. Sometimes you need to do the work to change the perception rather than avoid it. Diversity is an important aspect of life, and it is embedded in our organizational culture. 

Collaborative Courageous Decision Making  

Covid-19 hit businesses all around the world. We were no different. April, May, and June months in 2020 hit us and we were in a situation where one person might have to lose his/her job. We discussed it and brainstormed ideas that could help us resolve this problem. I am still proud of the decision we made. Instead of a person losing his/her job, we all opted for a salary cut for a few months. In this also, our leadership set an example by opting for a higher salary cut. The decision was – the lower the salary is, the lower the salary cut was to minimize its impact on an individual and family. Here is the blog I wrote last year on our leadership approaches in the challenging times of COVID-19.  

Unbiased recruitment process 

Three years back during my recruitment process, my CV was not asked for. I had to write a test that checked my agile knowledge and experience. Then I had to train on a topic and facilitate a session. This was the first time in my career when an organization did not ask for my CV. This impressed me as a candidate. The moment we see someone’s CV, we become biased towards what is been written in the CV.  

The whole interview process was a learning experience for me. I received constructive feedback so that I could know my improvement areas and work on them. I am proud that we still conduct interviews in such a way that it becomes a learning experience for a candidate. 

If my experience motivates you, at Think Agile, we are always in need of Agile Coaches, SAFe Program Consultants, and Scrum Masters. You can apply here. We would love to have you on this journey with us.