Changing Software Development: Learning to Become Agile

12.4. Make Learning Happen

Once you've examined yourself, start to create change through learning:

• Plant the seeds of learning: Give people opportunities to learn, reflect and discuss. Create forums where people can talk openly and learn from others, where they have time to learn and to rehearse.

• Remove barriers to learning: Whether it's lack of time, materials or space, address the issue. You may not be able to remove the barrier completely at the first attempt.

• Turn learning into action: Help people to apply what they're learning – give them a chance to try new things and encourage them to continue.

• Turn the action back into learning: Help people examine and reflect on what the outcome of different actions might be and what they can learn.

• Remove the barriers to further change: Spread the news about success and address concerns about doing things differently.

Remember to feed the results and experience of learning and change back into your own learning. Learn from what others do and help others to learn from what they do themselves.

Don't Use Jargon: Don't Use These Words ... Throughout this book, we've used words such as 'learning organization', 'knowledge management', 'incremental change', 'tacit knowledge', 'mental models' and even 'change'. These words are jargon. We have used them here because they name ideas and concepts, and help connect with existing work on these subjects. Don't use these words in public. Think them if you wish, but don't use them: Don't use them because ...