Becoming a Value-Driven Professional
Without a value-driven mindset, creating innovative products is impossible.
Without a value-driven mindset, creating innovative products is impossible.
Almost all organizations I know claim to be Agile because they use Scrum, Kanban, or SAFe (the undercover waterfall agent), and they are proud to say, “We are AGILE.” It’s too naive to think a framework is enough to master agility.
For me, two massive problems hold companies back from becoming agile:
They have an output-driven mindset and fear the unknown.
With a full focus on output, you will get sub-optimal results and a demotivated team no matter the framework you use. Following a plan cannot inspire people but solving a significant problem can. The question is, how can you move from an output mindset to a value-driven one?
Let me share the characteristics of value-driven professionals and how to promote such a mindset to your team. I hope you can benefit from it.
What’s a Value-Driven Professional?
The main characteristic of value-driven professionals is doing what should be done instead of following rules blindly. They are afraid of wasting time with pointless tasks; they want to ensure their energy will yield real value instead of pleasing people.
Value-driven people don’t bow to the status quo; they are rebellious and challenge whatever doesn’t lead to generating value.
Looking to the Agile world, you would identify value-driven professionals by the following traits:
They are annoying. Value-driven developers would say, “I cannot work on something until I understand the problem behind it.” Value-driven Product Owners often piss people off because they decide to focus on reaching goals instead of pleasing stakeholders.
They are mavericks. Following orders make value-driven people panic. For example, when top management throws a roadmap over the fence, a value-driven team won’t jump into execution; they will first strive to understand the goal behind the roadmap and then do what should be done instead of following a plan.
They are brave. Their only fear is delivering something that helps nobody progress. Therefore, they focus on the outcome. They want evidence their work makes a change in someone’s life. Providing output doesn’t motivate them, but changing people’s lives for the better does.
They are heroes. Circumstances may not be favorable to create value, yet value-driven professionals are motivated to break walls to deliver value. They don’t see anti-patterns as unchangeable factors but as challenges to overcome.
Working with value-driven professionals is inspiring because they do whatever it takes to make a change. Falling into a victim mode isn’t an option. Even when the scenario is adverse, value-driven people walk courageously to the unknown, pick some fights, and ultimately surprise everyone by delivering outstanding results.
“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.”
― Roy Disney
Moving From Output Orientation to Value-Driven Mindset
Since the beginning of my career, I’ve worked with more than fifty Scrum Teams, and I’ve had the chance to observe many transformations. I don’t want to illude you and claim I have the perfect formula of becoming a value-driven team because I don’t. It’s a journey teams need to take to move from whatever they are to a value-driven team.
Everything starts with responsibilities. Let’s take a Scrum team as an example. Most teams I know work in the following way, Product Owners decide upon priority and are accountable for that, developers implement whatever they receive, and Scrum Masters ensure the team is practicing Scrum while stakeholders understand how the framework works. What’s the problem here? It creates silos inside the team, and it’s very similar to an assembly line. Everyone does one specific task very well, and they are accountable for that instead of the overall.
A Scrum Team will never unleash its potential until each team member feels accountable for the whole.
Siloes kill the success chances. A value-driven team has no siloes. The difference is simple; everyone feels accountable for the whole. Product Owners are the ones who decide upon where to land, and yet, developers will challenge the decisions until they can follow them. Developers are reluctant to work on something they don’t understand; they want to ensure their work creates value. And Scrum Masters focus on fostering a value-driven mindset inside the team and stakeholders.
Scrum Teams become stronger when they function as a single unit. They are like heroes on a mission. Roles don’t get in the way of delivering value. Everyone in the team focuses on creating value, even if that means stepping out of their comfort zone. Such teams have passionate discussions because they want to ensure they create value. They do not allow themselves to create a fake harmonious environment. On the contrary, conflicts fuel their energy.
You may be wondering, “I can work on a value-driven Scrum Team, but my organization still thinks on output, so I am still trapped.” You could perceive your scenario as immutable or challenge the status quo. Don’t let the misconceptions stop you from progressing.
Without conflicts, you cannot escape from an output orientation.
It’s a fact that most organizations don’t cope well with the unknown. They want to have predictability, “I want to know what I get from the money I pay.” Still, accepting this fallacy is the right way of generating disappointing results. What I learned is, results talk louder than arguments. Sometimes we’ve got to be bold and take risks by not doing what our top management wants us to do. Nothing can speak louder than great results.
If we want to get where ordinary teams don’t get, we need to do what they don’t do.
Final Thoughts
Being a value-driven professional means being different. That’s why facing conflicts becomes unavoidable.
It’s demanding to keep moving on, sometimes you feel alone, you may think it costs a lot of energy to overcome all your challenges, you may get tired of the resistance you encounter. And still, you won’t give up because delivering ordinary results frightens you.
Value-driven professionals are the ones who wake up every day to make the world a little better. They do whatever they need to ensure their work improves our lives.
Did you like this post? What about becoming a Medium member to benefit from unlimed reading? By doing that, you can support writers like me and thousands of others 😊
