Givers & Takers

Which one are you?

The recent merger of the Agile Alliance and PMI has made me think about something orthogonal to the merger.

It’s about the notion that there are—

Takers in this world. Self-centric people. What can this organization do for me? How can I benefit? What’s in it for me?

And then there are Givers—people who are more focused on giving back to communities, individuals, and organizations.

Scrum Alliance, Scrum.org, Scrum Inc., Kanban University, Scaled Agile, iCAgile, and PMI broadly fall into the taker category. While some are non-profits, they typically take or acquire much more than they give. Some way more than others. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just their model and mission.

Agile Alliance, at least to me, was and is always more of a giver. They used the funds from their annual conferences to support our agile community and initiate many programs that Taker organizations would never support. For example:

• Agile in Color

• Agile Coaching Ethics

• Women in Agile

• Supporting worldwide Meetup groups

• Providing free educational content

They were also agnostic, thankfully staying out of the framework and certification wars.

Everyone is focusing on the Agile versus PMI aspect of the merger. Who won, who lost, and what does it mean for the future? I don’t care about those things. They will sort out over time.

I care because we’ve potentially lost one of the great giver role models in our community. And nobody seems to care about it.

More Takers

I realized several years ago that the Agile Alliance was in trouble financially. One key driver was COVID-19 and the impact on their annual conference. But membership was also down.

There were a wide variety of requests for new and additional members. Most of the social feedback reacted poorly to each request. Finding it hard to “give” to a giving organization. I have always been curious, especially since the basic annual membership costs $49.

I viewed that as a bargain. I increased my membership to a corporate version to provide more assistance.

But it always confounded me why there weren’t more Agile Alliance members. I mean, if you looked under the covers at the mission of the Alliance and what they did, it was a no-brainer place to invest your support of agility.

But that was me looking at the world from a Giving lens. The Taking lens would never be satisfied with what the Alliance offered. It was too self-centric. Far too often, they complain about the nature of the conferences—what they included and didn’t. In essence, far too narrow.

Inspiration

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stackleather_the-pmi-agile-alliance-merger-much-ado-about-activity-7282891756684066817-1jIC

Here’s a link to a LinkedIn post that inspired this one. I’m not commenting directly about it or commenting on the reactions and comments.

David’s commentary sort of put both the Agile Alliance and PMI in the same Taker category. He also largely evaluated each on what they gave back to organizations.

Here I wanted to shine a different light. One on giving and one on making our community better.

What about me?

To be honest, my business crosses both boundaries. Yes, I’m focused on generating revenue in my training and coaching practice. But I do have a demonstrable and transparent track record of giving back. For example, the Badass Agile Coaching days event I’ve run for the past three years. Or the number of steep DEI discounts and scholarships I provide for my classes.

At the end of each year, I feel quite comfortable knowing that I’ve Given my time and money back to the Agile Community that I love.

Wrapping Up

A couple of closing ideas…

Reflect on whether you are primarily a Taker, a Giver, or a nice balance of both. Are you happy with that stance? Does it serve the larger world well? Do you think a rebalance might be in order? Why?

I hope that the Agile Alliance's Giver nature permeates the PMI. Think of the good that can come from it, not only in/for the Agile Community but also in the larger PM space.

Stay agile, my friends,

Bob.