Bringing diversity, equity and inclusion to Agile
By Grace Johnson
Two years ago, I may not have been the right person to write a piece like this. I had been working alongside people just like me - from my race, country and geographical region. My interaction with the wider world had largely been during my postgraduate studies and for two years working with investors and international donor agency representatives in the housing sector in Nigeria.
But that changed with the worldwide lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which offered me an opportunity to be part of a remote team of people from four continents working on a worldwide project to celebrate the Agile 20 Reflect Festival. The festival, held from February 1- 28, 2021, hosted 140 countries from 19 world regions. It celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Agile Manifesto online and worldwide. The Agile Manifesto is a document created, signed and published in the year 2001 by 17 software practitioners. The document contains four values and twelve principles that greatly facilitated the delivery of value in the IT space; today the Agile philosophy is rapidly gaining acceptance and adoption in workspaces beyond IT.
The festival’s ultimate goal was to make the Agile space more diverse and inclusive. We wanted to advance the beauty, shared knowledge, richness of varying Agile experiences and adoption worldwide.
Grace Johnson
Knowing some regions of the world were advanced in their adoption of Agile, while other regions were just adopting or emerging in Agile adoption - the question was, how do we celebrate Agile or make Agile more inclusive and diverse when some regions are yet to adopt or are in the early stages of Agile adoption. The answer then was to do ‘Agile Evangelism, to increase awareness and education about Agile and why Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in this community is so important.
My experience working as a minority in a diverse remote team was with the core organizers (Trustees) of the Agile 20 Reflect Festival. At first, I did not see myself as a minority, I saw myself as equal with all working to deliver something unique that had not been done before within the Agile space. We are one and the color of blood is common to all races.
“At first, I did not see myself as a minority, I saw myself as equal with all working to deliver something unique that had not been done before within the Agile space. We are one and the color of blood is common to all races.”
As I dove into the work and my new work environment over time, I noticed my teammates would shy from any interactions with me. Soon it became clear that I could only express my views when called upon (probably my silence was noticed). Nonetheless, I was present at all meetings and, indeed, my presence may have added color to the diversity theme. To be fair and considerate to my teammates, for many it may have been their first time working with a diverse group, hence the instinct would be to interact with the people they have been all too familiar with. There were exceptions, however, some had never had the opportunity to interact across borders, their arms were open to all. Openness can unlock new worlds of possibilities.
The Festival Ambassador Network, which I led and which comprised 85 world ambassadors from 19 world regions, became my passion. The Festival Ambassador Network became the bedrock of the DEI the festival had hoped to achieve. Fondly called the United Nations of Agile, the network fostered collaboration across the world regions, countries, and communities through Agile events of all types. The festival broke down the divides and superiority battle Agile frameworks had engendered by simply focusing on the uniqueness of Agile adoption in each region or country. We also encouraged the use of local languages at events. By doing this, the Ambassadors together with their teams felt a sense of ownership of their content and audience (this was a major feedback from Ambassadors as well as attendees at the festival). Events for children and the deaf were also held at the festival. DEI can unite the world.
“The Agile values and guiding principles are humane, and they enabled our theme of DEI. The values also enabled me to open up to my team and foster a better work environment ever since and has ignited my interest in workplace psychological safety. ”
Agile holds the key to creating and nurturing a psychologically safe workplace. The Agile values and guiding principles are humane, and they enabled our theme of DEI. The values also enabled me to open up to my team and foster a better work environment ever since and has ignited my interest in workplace psychological safety.
Working with remote teams has also spurred my interest in the theme of DEI that has become a subject of conferences, workshops, politics, governance and more. Thanks to the clamor for equality in the year 2020, which saw protests across the globe.
The results of this past year and these experiences have led to a greater appreciation of the efforts towards a workplace where DEI is upheld and practiced. Working with teams and interacting with the world at the Agile 20 Reflect Festival, I know that progress has been made towards DEI. More can be done towards equity by welcoming, embracing and respecting the contributions of minorities in the tech space. Respect is the language the world understands
The emergence of Agile started from the tech space. Agile can take the lead in showing the world the importance and beauty of having a diverse, equitable and inclusive space.