Consider the following video of an intersection in Hanoi, Vietnam. Although they have many lines on the roadways, the two things that first strike the Western eye are the fluidity of movement and the complete absence of signs, traffic signals, barriers and other traditional necessities for dangerous intersections.
But this behavior is not unique to Hanoi. In fact, the city of Drachten, NL has famously created what they call Naked Intersections with remarkable success. It seems that they had a particularly dangerous intersection that had seen 8 serious accidents in the previous 4 years. As people of a command-and-control mindset do, their first instinct was to put more regulation, more signs, more signals, more rules and more gridlock into the intersection which was already brimming with all of those items. But instead, they opted to go a different way. They eliminated all signals, signs, lanes and barriers and replaced them all with one simple rule: cars must yield to pedestrians and cyclists. And when they did, something amazing happened!
Drivers approaching the intersection slowed down because they believed that the deregulated intersection was perceived to be much more dangerous than the over-regulated version had been. Then, traveling at lower speeds, they began to do another amazing thing. Instead of looking for signals, signs and stripes on the roadway -- all of which had been removed -- the drivers were looking at the other people passing through the intersection and making real-time decisions about their actual situation rather than following some complex, prescribed rule set. This greater awareness and connectivity to their fellow travelers did something that the city planners had not dared to hope: in the subsequent 4 years after the intersection became a self-organizing thoroughfare not a single serious accident had been recorded, while the throughput of the intersection skyrocketed.
In these examples, we see several principles of Scrum applied. Self-organization is obvious. But we also see the importance of a Predictable/Sustainable Pace. Notice that when the travelers change direction, the other travelers just flow effortlessly around them with a minimum of congestion or delay. But the reason they have the freedom to change directions is specifically that they maintain a steady pace as they cross. Can you imagine how this would snarl if a car entered the intersection lurching and braking unpredictably? Chaos would ensue. And what about the importance of communication? Eye contact, signaling intent with body posture and, of course, the horns to announce their presence are all key to entering and exiting unscathed.
Self-organization. Communication. Predictability. Success!
We often forget what Scrum is and is not. Because the majority of Scrum adopters work in the software industry, many take it for granted that Scrum simply tells us how to create software. It does not. Some even make the mistake of referring to it as an SDLC. But it is not.
Scrum was never focused on what we were trying to produce. Instead, it focuses entirely on how we try to produce it! Scrum teaches us how to organize ourselves as a group of intelligent, human animals who share a goal. It teaches us to play to our natural strengths and depend on our evolved skills to maximize our successes as social animals. And as it turns out, when we are caught playing to our strengths and actively engaging our environment, we are also found reaching higher, running faster and more confidently attempting tasks we otherwise would not have considered.
