The importance of Being There (at work)!

Did you know?

Only 26 percent of IT employees in North America are fully engaged at work, while 22 percent are actually disengaged, according to a global study by consulting firm BlessingWhite.

Being there…

At a time when unemployment is at an all-time high, only one-quarter of IT workers are fully engaged or Wowed by their work, while the remaining 75% just go through the paces or don’t care at all.  When you consider specific industries fraught with frustrations of rework (exceeding 40% in some areas) and impossible deadlines such as in waterfall development, I would bet the excitement factor of going to work is even less.

#Kanban, #Lean, and #Agile communities are exceptions

The Agile Manifesto recently celebrated its 10th anniversary last month, and Kanban, Six Sigma, Lean, and Agile methods now share space with waterfall as leading methods in the software and systems development space.  Agile (in my humble opinion) was one of the first to restore a sense of sanity in software development.  In earlier times, a group of  business customers with rapid fire changing requirements would challenge software developers (tired of the constant change and “jello” like demands) for amorphous software products.  The result too often – failure.

It makes sense, in this type of environment, to do iterative development.  It was illogical to do the opposite: long development cycles to produce products already obsolete before they hit desktop computers.

Approaches like Kanban, Lean, Agile, Personal Kanban and others continue to transform our industry and inspire software developers to become “fully engaged” in the work.

Less head banging… but you have to engage

Certainly there is head banging and more job satisfaction in this new world (if “tweet volume” is any indication, the Kanban/ Lean/ Agile communities are a happier lot!) but it takes commitment to show up and be part of the action.

I believe that the Kanban and Lean and Agile communities know the importance of really being present and engaging at work.  We also know it is critical to create a community of like-minded people who meet in-person – at conferences, local meetings, at social events.

LSSC11 is coming soon!

The landmark Lean Software and Systems conference is only 10 weeks away in Long Beach, CA on May 3-6, 2011.  Make your choice of conference to attend in 2011 the LSSC11 (especially if you can only attend one!)  See my related post Top 10 Reasons to attend LSSC11.

Join the movement of people who know the Importance of Being There in software and systems development: The Lean and Kanban and Agile communities.  I hope I will meet you at LSSC11!

Have a Wow! and engaging week at work,

Carol