There is a great book called Discipline Equals Freedom by a former Navy Seal Commander called Jocko Willink.
In it, Jocko argues, perhaps somewhat counterintuitively, that to have certain freedoms we need to have discipline.
For example…
- Discipline in financial matters equals freedom to do what you want to do, like take a holiday.
- Discipline with health and exercise equals freedom from disease and freedom to do activities you enjoy.
- … and so on.
It’s a good book, you should read it. Consider getting the audiobook, Jocko’s delivery is … powerful.
It would seem the same is true with Agile…
I regularly find myself stressing to folks that agile is all about discipline. If you think it’s relaxed with a lot of people doing what they want, when they want then you have the wrong picture.
So it seems that with agile it’s the discipline that gives the freedom…
Discipline with regular sprint planning and the intake of work gives you the freedom to focus but also the freedom to make exceptions when it’s really necessary without things falling apart.
Discipline with being empirical about team and product performance and the discipline of working in short cycles gives you the freedom to move fast and break things, to experiment to find better solutions.
Discipline with inspecting and adapting how you work gives you the freedom to iterate to better ways of working.
Discipline with “choosing people & interactions over processes & tools” and making and keeping commitments gives you the freedom to act that comes from working in an environment of openness, courage and mutual respect.
Discipline equals freedom.