The Heart of Business
I stumbled across a great quote from Dan Roam,
“The heart of business is problem solving.”
This is a great phrase. Why did he use the words he did? Take “heart” for example: it could refer to the central nature of problem solving – it is at the core of what we do in business. But when I see the word heart other associations arise for me. To me, heart refers to a sense of passion about something. It speaks to something that I love. Problem solving is a passion that we pursue – something that we love to do.
It reminds me of another great quote from Ken Schwaber,
“Work can and should be an ennobling experience.”
I remember the first time I saw that quote – it blew me away. How can work possibly be ennobling? I’m sure there are many ways, but here’s one for your consideration: work can be ennobling if we are allowed to pursue our passion for problem solving.
I’ll take it even one step further – I pursue my passion for resolving impediments. Isn’t that what you want in project leadership? Take your favorite methodology and rephrase it in those terms and see if it fits:
The heart of scrum is resolving impediments
The heart of kanban is eliminating waste
The heart of XP is solving the customers problem
It really doesn’t matter which project methodology/framework you choose, just follow your heart.