"I am" vs "I have"
From the Manifesting Business Agility Blog
by Al Shalloway
This blog concerns itself with organizations moving to business agility—the quick realization of value predictably and sustainably, and with high quality. It includes all aspects of this—from the business stakeholders through ops and support. Topics will be far-reaching but will mostly discuss FLEX, Flow, Lean-Thinking, Lean-Management, Theory of Constraints, Systems Thinking, Test-First and Agile.
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When you describe yourself, you should be careful about whether you are describing yourself according to your career or according to a path in that career. For example, to say "I am a doctor" or "I am a PMP" makes sense. That provides some identity of your goals, values and knowledge.
In the Agile space, however, we often hear people identify with a particular approach to a larger goal. For example, Scrum is one path to being an effective team coach. ACP is another one. Kanban yet another. Identifying with a path to a goal is not a good thing - it limits your possibilities and can create dogma and tunnel vision.
There is a big difference between saying "I am a Certified Scrum Master" and "I have been certified as a Scrum Master." One is an identification of who you are, one is a statement of knowledge you have. I prefer someone who says "I have an ACP" over "I am a Certified Scrum Master" because it's easier to learn something new than to change your identity.
Posted on: October 11, 2019 09:54 AM |
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Comments (7)
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Not sure I am fully in line with this. I think it is better if someone says: I am a Chartered Accountant rather than I have a CPA. Just my opinion.
Luis Branco
CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª
Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Dear Al
Relevant consideration
Thanks
Al Shalloway
Founder and CEO| Success Engineering
Edmonds, Wa, United States
Rami - thanks for this. At this level i think you are right.
At the level of doing Agile I think it is different. will have to think about this more. :)
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Thanks Al - I still think even on an Agile level, it is more professional sound to say "I am a certified Agile Practitioner" - Give it more thought :-)
Al Shalloway
Founder and CEO| Success Engineering
Edmonds, Wa, United States
Rami:
I don't think so. I believe the reason we have so much bad Agile is people identify with Agile. There is flow and lean thinking that has superceeded Agile but people are still stuck on the Agile Manifesto
So here i am definitely saying it is not true. If you are a certified Agile Practitioner then what happens if how you have been certified is proven to be wrong?
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Well, in everything in life, we can raise the question of What/If even on a doctor's or engineer's level, what if the university who certified them wasn't qualified enough or they did not attain enough education.
There are two sides to this subject and I do not think there will be a happy medium, it goes down to the certification body, what you are certified for and what's your personal preference but there is no right and wrong in the two scenarios that you've given.
This is my humble opinion. Have a good weekend and happy thanksgiving Al.
Al Shalloway
Founder and CEO| Success Engineering
Edmonds, Wa, United States
Thanks for the feedback. I realize I over-simplified the situation. Those of you who are new to following me will discover that sometimes I put out blogs that are perhaps premature but get me and others thinking - and that's my intent. In this case I think I did most of the learning (i.e., changed my thinking).
I've added a couple of paragraphs to the blog to clarify my intent.
Thanks again.
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