Gordon Cooper: You boys know what makes this bird go up? FUNDING makes this bird go up.
Gus Grissom: He's right. No bucks, no Buck Rogers.
Social Science research (for what it’s worth…) shows that almost all of us are extremely uncomfortable talking about money. Agilists are really no different.
In fact, I want to suggest that many, many Agilists have framed their practices around that discomfort, and that this framing makes us worse at meeting our customer needs and should change.
I’m not talking about our desire to get paid – and extremely well, I want to add. Per Indeed Agile coach salary in United States (indeed.com), the average Agile Coach makes about $141k/year (for comparison, the median salary in the US is $54k/year – and yes, I know the difference between average and median. There aren’t any Agile Coaches making $3M/year working for Goldman – which kind of thing deeply distorts ‘the average’ US salary.
But there are strong streams in agile thought that are really focused on shifting work (at core, technology work) toward a kind of artisanal ‘craft’ in which the satisfaction of making and the appreciation of abstract Quality are the primary driver of improving work.
Much as craft farming, craft carpentry, craft cooking and craft pretty much everything are the activities of those for whom survival isn’t a primary driver and which are typically supported in markets where there is a surplus of funds, I want to argue that this is a bit of a luxury good.
I am not arguing that craft and satisfaction are not things that matter – a lot. But I do kind of subscribe to a kind of Mazlovian hierarchy in which they are supported by and require a level of economic success to survive. Yes, they do also support that kind of economic success – to an extent. There’s a clear level of balance that is required.
But I don’t see that balance in conversations here around Agile or in many other places where I read what Agilists write. I’m willing to predict that a lot of the folks reading this will be upset and even angered by what I’m writing.
I’m good with that. Out of that I’m hoping we get to have some good discussions on how to do Agile better.
But one thing I am absolutely convinced of is that we are steering into a cul-de-sac that will limit the impact, adoption, and success of the things that make Agility matter unless we can bring ourselves to sit alongside the business and embrace the goals of the business. Those goals typically include making money and being successful in the business and social ecologies that our businesses operate in in a way that can be sustained.
Labor conditions that kill people aren’t sustainable. Neither are labor conditions that are so expensive that we can’t sell the things we make at a surplus.
I want to hear Agilists talking balance sheets, revenue, and customer acquisition – along with all the things we talk about today.
When we do, I think we’ll find they keys to making our organizations better from top to bottom, and we’ll find that we run into fewer institutional brick walls.