My Values

Rather than grand resolutions, which I’ll modestly keep to myself, I’d like, as we step into this new year, to talk to you about the values that drive me and that I strive to instill in my company.

Joy

Less intimidating and more accessible than happiness, it’s simple and lighthearted, almost commonplace, right at our fingertips: all you have to do is reach out and take it. Above all, joy has the advantage of being something you can bring about yourself. It’s a state of mind, a way of life. In practical terms? I don’t rule out any exploration or experimentation: other forms of coaching, writing a book, launching a product, open source, working abroad, you name it. The joy of discovery, the joy of the unexpected. Being true to oneself, keeping it simple. Accepting that you might make mistakes and moving forward. Joy.

Humility

Humility: it’s best to have a healthy dose of it in our profession, because the field of knowledge is vast and putting it into practice is complicated. There’s no magic solution: every choice has its pros and cons, whether it’s about architectures, programming languages, or team organization. These choices are highly context-dependent, so you have to stay attuned to the facts and even actively look for the fly in the ointment, sometimes to the point of changing your approach.

Example: I can’t praise Test-Driven Development (TDD) highly enough, given how much it simplifies my day-to-day work. But here’s the thing: what’s true for me isn’t necessarily true for someone else. If someone produces perfectly functional, readable, and tested code by writing post-development tests (Test-After), far be it from me to criticize them: whatever works!

Rigor

Rigor should go without saying: how could we manage without it? I’m thinking of the rigor required to name things accurately. I’m thinking of the rigor (honesty?) needed to accept the obvious when the facts prove us wrong. I’m thinking of the rigor (the courage?) it takes not to settle for superficial explanations and to go back to the root causes, a necessary condition for continuous improvement. I’m also thinking of the rigor it takes to convince a prospect without ever lying: not lying, but not missing out on the sale either… In short, rigor.

Action

And finally: action. Without action, even the best intentions are nothing more than wishful thinking. Action, concrete, small, daily, repeated, action is what moves us forward, allows us to gain experience, to confirm or disprove hypotheses, and to generate new ones. Do you read “Agile” in there? You read that right. “Continuous improvement”? That too. Action, concrete steps, examples, these concepts are closely related. It takes action to test a theory; it takes examples to test a rule. No need to say more: just act.