I saw this wonderfully courageous and informative post by Sabine Canditt the other day where she wrote about Sustainable Scrum.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sustainable-scrum-responsible-choice-sabine-canditt-x0gef
After just completing a The Week program facilitated by the amazing Ann-Marie Kong, it touched my heart.
That said, I wanted to highlight one comment reaction/interaction between Sabine and Erich Bühler
Erich said—
Thank you for bringing this approach into the world! Scrum does provide an iterative approach for teams to create value, but its scope is limited to the product level and struggles with dynamics across the whole organization for several reasons.
Without updating the underlying business and financial model at a strategic level, Scrum alone cannot transform organization-wide sustainability.
For example, a customer-centric model that focuses solely on customer satisfaction could lead to decisions that maximize short-term profit while compromising social responsibility or environmental impact. The resulting externalities would undermine sustainability.
In this case, I would recommend using the Enterprise Agility Ecosystem as it contains more than 170+ models that create an ecosystem for sustainability at different levels of the organization and use world-class research related to accelerated change, exponential markets, and the AI disruption.
For example, Enterprise Agility's TriValue Company Model provides a holistic value paradigm. By explicitly weighing customer value, company value and workforce wellbeing value, decisions can be better optimized for long-term, sustainable success. (continues, I haven’t included the continuation…)
And Sabine replied—
Erich R. Bühler thanks for widening the perspective. I completely agree that we need a long-term view and a systemic approach beyond single-team-Scrum. We need a different culture and different structures and processes like alternative financial models in organizations. Frameworks like SAFe cover these aspects, but it will not make a big difference as long as the underlying beliefs and thinking models remain the same. Which is: producing more and more products for customers willing to pay. Scrum is simple, generic and flexible enough to be used for a more sustainable purpose.
Weighing in…
I thought Erich missed the opportunity to acknowledge Sabine’s point and, perhaps, even to lean into it. Instead, he used it as an opportunity to provide a commercial for the EA World Community as…the answer. That’s not bad, just IMHO, not all that helpful from a sustainability perspective.
I want to focus more on Sabine’s post and her reply.
First, I thought she showed tremendous courage to write the post in the first place. LinkedIn isn’t always the friendliest social environment, and sustainability can be a contentious topic. Nonetheless, she courageously posted it.
Second, she graciously answered Erich’s comment.
Third, she made a crucial point.
but it will not make a big difference as long as the underlying beliefs and thinking models remain the same. Which is: producing more and more products for customers willing to pay. Scrum is simple, generic and flexible enough to be used for a more sustainable purpose.
The Real Point.
I was struck by something in this exchange. And, at least to me, it is the compelling point I want to amplify.
It’s not Scrum or EA World Community that will change our world of work and, more importantly, sustain our world. It’s not about processes, frameworks, models, or practices.
It is about individuals (humans, people) showing the courage to challenge the underlying beliefs and thinking models (status quo) and to stand up for something much larger than themselves. And it’s about forming communities of these individuals.
In this case, Sabine Canditt IS that courageous model and leader of change, and
Sustainable Scrum HAS the potential to be a vehicle for her and many others (communities) to create that change.
I hope to become a sustainability lighthouse shining as brightly as Sabine.
Food for thought and action, my friends,
Bob.
BTW: Sabine, I hope this doesn’t embarrass or offend you. You inspired me, and it’s my small way of appreciating you for it.