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Posts Tagged ‘Loneliness

I Found My Voice; I did not Find My Tribe

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Various Agile champions within the corporation often find themselves stuck at “level 1.5”, in between the following two levels:

  1. “I found my voice/passion.”
  2. “I found my tribe.”

The Agile champion typically gets stuck at this level in the following manner:

  1. He/she finds his or her voice/passion in Agile.
  2. Various other folks in the corporation agree with him/her and constitute kind of “private tribe.”
  3. However, the folks that agree are hesitant to come out of the closet and throw their full weight behind Agile.
  4. The corporation remains ambivalent about Agile.


  1. A round of layoffs is implemented.
  7. Goto step 1.

IMHO The failure of many corporations to preserve Agile talent, and the resultant vicious cycle described above,  is rooted in lack of appreciation how deep  the connection between boredom and loneliness is. A young child does not know (nor does he/she have the vocabulary to express) what boredom is. The feeling the child expresses is that of loneliness. Only at a later stage does boredom get cognitively differentiated from loneliness. However, the two continue to be tied together emotionally.

Once the child grows up to become an Agile champion who found his/her voice, the boredom in the office is usually relieved. However, the twin sister of boredom – loneliness – cannot be satisfied through a “private tribe.” It requires full recognition and commitment within the corporation. In other words, it sort of demands that the corporation goes beyond recognizing the value (singular) of Agile and adopts the values (plural) expressed in the Agile Manifesto. If such adoption does not take place, an essential step to the formation of the tribe is curtailed . Without a full fledge tribe in his/her corporation, the induced feeling of loneliness sooner or later wears out the Agile champion.

This phenomenon, of course, applies to any professional passion an employee might pursue. John Hagel‘s Edge Perspectives post Pursuing Passion is a must-read for anyone who wonders how the corporation is impacted by losing the folks who got stuck at “level 1.5.”

Written by israelgat

December 14, 2009 at 5:15 am