Self-care vs. Sustainable Pace
Vacation season is upon us (yesssss!) and it has me thinking about the importance of self-care and downtime, especially after another challenging COVID year! But I started to wonder what place, if any, vacation truly has in our Agile environments where the focus is on sustainable pace. Does Agile really allow team members to step away from their work to restore and refresh themselves? The answer, from my perspective, is a resounding yes. And here are just some of the many reasons:
Agile teams focus on Capacity
Agile, and especially Scrum teams, focus on capacity when committing to work over a specified period of time. It’s understood that there may be periods within the calendar year where less work may be expected to be delivered because team members will be absent for holiday celebrations or vacation. And teams are able to adapt to that change in capacity by adjusting the amount of work they commit to for that period of time. They can still deliver value, and they certainly will, but the actual output may look smaller than in other periods of time.
Agile encourages cross-functional teams
I’ve talked to friends who work for companies who have recently adopted an unlimited vacation model. “Take all the time you want”, their managers say, “but you’ll have a pile of work to sort through when you come back!” Yikes! Agile teams are cross-functional, which means that no one individual should be solely responsible for a type or piece of work. This means that team members can feel free to take the time they need to restore and refresh themselves without worrying that they’ll come back to a huge pile of work. The team carries on without you and can step in to pick up work or roles that you might normally take the lead on.
The power of the Board!
I’ve written about this in a previous article, but the team’s visual management board can actually support team members who have taken some vacation to jump back into work much more efficiently. At a glance they can assess where the work is within the Sprint (if they’re working Scrum) or what work has been completed or prioritized in their absence (if they’re working Kanban). Individuals don’t have to worry about keeping a list of to-do’s on paper or (worse) in their brains while they’re trying to unwind on vacation, because they know it will all be waiting for them on their board when they return!
Sustainable pace isn’t sustainable if your team is exhausted and at the brink of burnout! So take that vacation, relax and unwind with your family and friends! Work will be there when you get back, and your team has your back while you’re gone- just like you will when they take their vacation! Happy vacation season, my friends, see you in the Fall….Hopefully restored and refreshed from some amazing holidays!
