The English poet John Donne said it well when he wrote that no person “is an island, entire of itself.” We are interconnected to one another as people, and a crime we commit against ourselves is isolation.

There is a term used in the Agile space called a “community of practice.” This term refers to the positive connection one person or group has to another when they are both passionate about a similar subject. The goal of a community is to encourage each other to learn and grow in a given field. Scrum is a passion that many believe in, but often make the mistake of trying it alone.

Isolation is a term we have all come to know intimately, and I’m sure we have all felt the need to simply meet with another person. There is a spark in the human mind that fades when it does not come into contact with other minds–or other sparks. If we think of these sparks as embers, and the more embers that gather, the more they grow into a fire. 

It makes a great amount of sense that those who try Scrum without a community of practice end in burnout and a slow decline in zeal. Many of us have probably heard the African proverb “if you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together”. In almost all situations, I’d rather go far.

An example of a community of practice is as simple as a group of friends in different spheres coming together regularly to talk about their ideas. At Agile in Nonprofits, we have a Facebook group and free monthly office hours where anyone can come and talk to us about Agile and Scrum-related things. These small ways that we stay connected are all it takes to form a habit of conversation and wild ideas. 

I feel like that’s what happened with the Agile Manifesto–they came together as a community to fix an issue and it started a revolution.

We’d love to have YOU join our community of practice, here is a link to our office hours, and here is a link to our Facebook group.