Scott R. Coplan

Relatively Speaking

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The Problem

Let’s assume you want to grow as a leader, a person, or a community member. But in order to grow you must accept some change, and we all know — Change is bad! That’s what one of my employees used to say — jokingly. Change is a problem, especially when it’s individual or organizational growth. We can choose not to grow, but, as another saying goes, living in your comfort zone will kill you. The opposite is also true — living outside your comfort zone can kill you too. We need beneficial change, but it’s difficult to achieve given there’s no time. Hopefully, the torment we endure individually and organizationally is enough to motivate change and overcome the obstacles preventing us from achieving greater balance personally and professionally. Unfortunately, there’s a simple and nettlesome truth, life is messy and there’s no magic potion that heals imbalance.
Is there a better way to change and grow? There HAS to be a better way! If there is one though, it’s seldom achieved and rarely sustainable.
To make matters worse, there are always distractions. The world is out there worlding, as one of my notable advisors once said, which means a lot of things are just happening everywhere all at once. A client once told me her brain constantly has at least 15 trains leaving the station, at the same time, all going in different directions. One thing for certain, while our brain can’t process these thoughts, we’re absolutely reacting to it.

We need beneficial change during and as an outcome of growth. Hopefully, the torment we endure as individuals and organizations is enough to motivate change and overcome obstacles preventing us from growing more harmoniously.

I’m not talking about finding balance. Balance is the state of equal weight amongst all elements in our lives. It’s not worth even trying since balance is unachievable. Alternatively, harmony is sustaining that pleasing combination of our life’s elements. Unfortunately, in that rare moment when endowed with harmony, turmoil lays just beneath the surface of our consciousness, ready to be stirred by every fear, misstep, or event. Don’t think for one second that any solution to this problem is easy.
Even if we boldly decide to figure out a better way to change, we must act quickly because the variables included in any change become exponentially more complex the longer we wait. More people get involved, additional required conversations arise, other decisions must be made, and so on.

The Solution

Agile helps to manage change. It offers a software development philosophy for managing projects and teams. Documented in the Agile Manifesto as a set of conceptual values and practical principles, it is applicable far beyond just software development. While there are scores of shrewd Agile tools and techniques, there is one worth noting in our never-ending pursuit of harmonious change. Agile uses relative estimating, a helpful technique to size the allocation of time to complete software development tasks. Derived from the concept of relative value or the attractiveness, in terms of a variety of factors, of doing one thing relative to another.

Think for a moment, maybe you are wrestling with the magnitude of this change in isolation, which is its absolute value. Alternatively, here’s what should go through your mind. Consider the relative value of achieving growth-driven change versus doing nothing. Ultimately, it’s up to you to start by defining the outcome of the change you seek. If you don’t, forces around you will define the outcome whether you like it or not. If you don’t accept that, just know there are consequences for doing nothing. You relinquish control over whatever happens as a result of inescapable change. That uncontemplated change will end up incomplete, late, costly, and/or substandard. The relative alternative is to do what you can to make that change as beneficial as possible, despite the fact that you’ll have to endure some pain.

Source

Cohn, Mike, Agile Estimating and Planning, New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc., 2005.

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