The chicken or the pig, what are you?

[jrineakter]

Column – Before I had put my computer in my leather backpack and left the room of my own accord, it was jokingly said that I had no business being in this stand-up meeting. “Why not?” I said, laughing. “Because you’re a chicken,” said the nice Englishman. His elbows went up and down. Bird dance move.


The parable of the chicken and the pig goes like this: a pig and a chicken are walking quietly, they know each other from the farm and found each other in their intention to go out, through the poplar avenue. They start talking like pigs and chickens sometimes do.

Committed versus involved
“Hey Pig, what do you think, what do you think about us starting something together?” asks Chicken.
“Yes indeed”, grunts Pig, “what were you thinking about?” “How about a restaurant, Restaurant Alles Vers Van Het Land”. Pig replies: “Hmm, great idea, and what are we going to feed the visitors?” To which Chicken says: “I was thinking of fried eggs, or omelettes, with bacon or ham? You provide the bacon and ham, I provide the eggs”. Pig thinks for a moment and then says: “Hmm, no thank you, Chicken. It would mean that I would give more and more of myself, and all you would have to do is lay eggs, which you do anyway. Let me put it in English: I would really be ' committed ', you would only be ' involved '.

No, this is not a case of joining the trendy wolves in the well-trodden forest of the agile fad.

The principle of the parable of the chicken and the pig is widely used in agile projects. No, this is not a matter of howling with the trendy wolves in the well-trodden forest of agile fads, this has to do with the alertness you always need to have to preserve the good and suppress the bad, to sift the sense from the nonsense. That chicken and that pig, with their super-short dialogue, touched on the core of the conditions under which teams will or will not be successful.

Consider the example of scrum teams having their daily stand-up meeting. Developers, testers, designers stand in a circle, together with the product owner and scrum master, and they all have to be pigs. All agreements that are made result in concrete actions from people in the circle. The responsibility for getting austria telegram number list something done always lies with someone in the team. Passing the buck or referring is not an option. You deliver, and if you don't deliver, you have something to explain. If you are always the one to explain why you didn't deliver, you can pack your bags. Maybe you will have another job tomorrow, good for you. Then you are definitely a chicken.

Consider the amazement that can be felt about statuses that are granted or rewards that are paid out, also for undelivered earnings. Unearned earnings, in other words. Whether it is a footballer or a board member, a director of a housing corporation or the chief of police, a private company or a civil service, a self-interested declaring consultant or an uncontrollable futurist, it does not matter. If there is no connection between the performance and the reward - in whatever form -, if that relationship is not there, there is a good chance that you are dealing with a chicken.

If there is no connection between the performance and the reward, if that relationship is not there, there is a good chance that you are dealing with a chicken.

The pigs are the season ticket holders who pay more every year, the mortgage holders who were not informed in time about more attractive conditions, the house hunters who never get their turn, the police officers on the street who have to remain at zero and wait in vain for a reorganization, the toilet attendants who are only allowed to clean the plates when the venture capitalists have finished ranting.

Column the chicken or the pig
Drawing by Sterre Steins Bisschop.

Take the suicide bomber
But the role of the pig and the chicken can also be determined by the perspective from which it is viewed. Take the suicide bomber. In the eyes of the Westerner, he is a pig par excellence. After all, he gives everything he has, his life, for his good cause. But in the eyes of the extreme believer, this sacrifice is no more than a logical and necessary step – laying an egg – on his way from the hereafter to the hereafter: he comes out of his act unscathed, his life is continued elsewhere. He is actually a chicken.