There is a major difference between a travel agent and a tour guide. This difference can be seen in white-water rafting. There are plenty of rafting outfitters from which to choose along a white-water river trail. A travel agent will mail you brochures. They will suggest a few rafting outfitters and a river to enjoy. But a travel agent’s role ends there. They tell you to enjoy the journey. “Nice to meet you. Enjoy your trip.”
A tour guide is different. A tour guide will say “Nice to meet you. Get in. Let’s go.” A tour guide has been there before. They have traveled this journey many times. A tour guide shares the stories from past trips along the way. They provide you perspective of the journey, what to expect and what to look out for. You get inspired by their passion. They are with you, sharing in the journey. They are on the bus and in the boat. And if things don’t go well, the tour guide is in the river with you too.
Organizations need agile tour guides. An agile tour guide is someone that is willing to take the journey with you. Someone that has traveled that journey before. Someone to share the stories of trips past – the adventure, the mistakes, the storms, the celebrations. Someone to guide and inspire you. An agile tour guide will not be perfect. Their boat may tip over with you in it. But they are credible. They know the shortcuts to take and the ones fraught with danger. They can make your journey more enjoyable and the results much more valuable.
While travel agents have their place, I prefer to hang out with the tour guides. They know what’s really going on inside organizations. They have the experience of many journeys and the scars to prove it. They also tend to have more fun and their stories are more intruiging!
That is why I am leading an effort in the Scrum Community to identify and designate agile tour guides. In the Scrum Alliance, we call this the Certified Scrum Coach (CSC) program and we are qualifying those individuals who have been down the agile journey many times before and are capable of guiding others through it. Feel free to contact me if you would like to know more about this program or keep an eye on the Scrum Alliance website for a soon to be released application process.
Note: This concept of agile travel agents and tour guides came from my reading of a book entitled Simple Church. Some of this text is paraphrased from the book. While Simple Church is not a book on agile methods for corporate organizations, is indeed a book on agility – creating a simple and clear purpose with a simple and aligned process to execute it. Regardless of whether you are in a religious or corporate institution, this book is a worthy read.