If you can't negotiate abt the work, you aren't collaborating, you are taking orders. #mgmt #agile #collaboration
— estherderby (@estherderby) December 23, 2013
This is exactly why I left my last job.
During the 5 years I was there I heard the word collaborate so many times that I became numb to any affect it might have on me. At some point it became a big joke because the reality was some completely different. Here is what "collaborate" really meant where I worked and see if any of this resonates with your experiences.
The upper managers "collaborate" with each other then disseminate their plans to those of us who are lower not the org chart.
Questioning things in the "agile open workspace" may be seen as insubordination and ruin your career, you just don't know which question will have that affect.
The ceremonies of stand-ups, planning, retros, tasking, sprint reviews, etc all feel more like dogma than effective development practice.
The most important information regarding the project is closely guarded and held until we "need to know".
There are pre stand-up meetings to try and sanitize the news for the real stand-up.
The idea that came out of the software conference is not welcome in our project because no one else in the company could support it in production.
Making any changes at all to your workstation without express permission could get you fired.
After many months of prototyping, experimenting, and talking with customers the realization comes that the best way to build something great is to start over completely. This news is so unwelcome no one will take the risk to say it except at the bar.
Responding with "How do you know they are best practices?" causes the product owner to pull rank.
Talking to a customer directly is punished and dire warnings are sent out by email that we must "Filter everything through me" and "We need to tell a consistent story to the business"
Command-and-control may be the kryptonite of collaboration.
