What could labels do for you?
For years, I’ve stuck to a simple mantra when my teams embark on something new: “Don’t name it.” The underlying premise was clear: Naming a process (the most common case for me) could lead to rigid adherence to prescriptive procedures. Whether it was about Scrum, Kanban, or Agile, I believed that empowering teams with values and encouraging creativity would yield better results. After all, a process crafted by the team, for the team, tends to be better understood and more readily adopted. Recently, though, I had a moment of reflection. While listening to the “ Founder & CEO ” podcast, Mike and Patrick emphasized the importance of defining the market and achieving market fit. I found myself completely agreeing with them, and It struck me: Why was I open to labeling and segmenting the market for a company, yet resistant to naming the processes I wanted my teams to follow? After some introspection, I arrived at a convincing answer. Here’s my perspective: Define a Label: When you’re ...