A New Years Thought
While re-reading Extreme Programming Explained by Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres the bit that always makes me think is within principals and humanity you have this section titled
What do people need to be good developers? (it says developers but I think that can be widened out to just good at their jobs):
- Basic safety - freedom from Hunger, physical harm, and threats to loved ones
- Accomplishment - the opportunity and ability to contribute to their society
- Belonging - the ability to identify with a group from which they receive validation and accountability and contribute to its shared goals
- Growth - the opportunity to expand their skills and perspective
- Intimacy - the ability to understand and be understood deeply by others
I am not sure I have had a job that has satisfied all of these yet (apart from the Military). This is not always other peoples fault as an introvert and a paranoid one at that I do find it hard to connect and possibly have Intimacy. This is something I have to embrace myself and work on.
I also feel though that we as a society and as an organisation we should highlight these five things more as I believe them to be a good stepping stone to achieving employee well-being and happiness. We can extend Basic Safety to include free from Mental Harm, as Mental Health while becoming more widely talked about is still not (in my view) talked about enough. People may still feel that they have to hide their Mental Health issues and that does not hold with Basic Safety in the work place. We need to make sure every one feels they can, if they want to, speak up if they are having a bad time and feel they are able to get support to deal with it in a way that makes them feel comfortable.
We can talk about Belonging more especially when it comes down to diversity. By being more diverse we automatically make it easier for people to belong. There is no part of belonging that says we have to all look and think the same. What it does mention is validation meaning reward someone for standing up and pointing out issues and how we could possibly get around them, even if they have seen it from a different point of view than you. It mentions accountability, a big one that seems to be disappearing, by being accountable for your own actions and others and owning that you automatically start to be more aware of the affect you are having on the people around you.
I am no saint and I have made mistakes but by constantly coming back to these points I learn from those mistakes and hopefully improve myself and my team. So thank you to the Authors and Happy New Year every one.
I also feel though that we as a society and as an organisation we should highlight these five things more as I believe them to be a good stepping stone to achieving employee well-being and happiness. We can extend Basic Safety to include free from Mental Harm, as Mental Health while becoming more widely talked about is still not (in my view) talked about enough. People may still feel that they have to hide their Mental Health issues and that does not hold with Basic Safety in the work place. We need to make sure every one feels they can, if they want to, speak up if they are having a bad time and feel they are able to get support to deal with it in a way that makes them feel comfortable.
We can talk about Belonging more especially when it comes down to diversity. By being more diverse we automatically make it easier for people to belong. There is no part of belonging that says we have to all look and think the same. What it does mention is validation meaning reward someone for standing up and pointing out issues and how we could possibly get around them, even if they have seen it from a different point of view than you. It mentions accountability, a big one that seems to be disappearing, by being accountable for your own actions and others and owning that you automatically start to be more aware of the affect you are having on the people around you.
I am no saint and I have made mistakes but by constantly coming back to these points I learn from those mistakes and hopefully improve myself and my team. So thank you to the Authors and Happy New Year every one.