Philipp Ottlinger

Agility - it's all about people

The topic of agility has haunted me since I started my career in the wild 2000s - at its core it's all about how changes in processes and procedures are implemented technically; as a core business of software development.

Various process and project management methods have been tried over the past decades, but the key finding has always been that the focus must be on people. Regardless of the process, people must be taken care off and "picked up", where they are with all their fears, worries and their technical/specific knowledge.

To my mind, this is what makes working in an agile environment so exciting: it is changing constantly! People need to adapt and have to learn continuously how to deal with changes on all levels of their life.

I wholeheartedly believe in the ability of people to work together successfully in a knowledge-oriented context and consider myself as a servant leader. Its task is to accompany and assist instead of commanding in a classic autocratic manner.

Cooperation is qualitatively improved through empathy, active listening and transparency among all interests and stakeholders, instead of just making daily work measurable by simply optimizing performance data, plain numbers or key performance indicators.

In my experience, the effectiveness of changes is not determined by hierarchies, but is hard and constant work - to achieve this it is helpful and necessary to interact at eye level!

Related links

• Servant Leadership - definition and context
• Servant leadship - lead instead command
• Agile Manifesto - better ways to develop software
• Deming circle as the base of change management
• ScrumAlliance - Scrum learning path and certification courses

Aikidō - change & harmony

The Japanese martial art (budo) of Aikido was coined at the beginning of the 19th century as an essence of traditional fighting techniques. It is spreading worldwide since that time. The main focus is on the realisation that conflicts can be resolved in a peaceful manner. Therefore there are no competitions in Aikido!

Instead of escalating and arming, a way of living is cultivated. It's made learnable with the integration of a philosophy of harmony, inner and outer peace, that focuses on the fight against oneself and overcoming one's own blockades.
Aikido absorbs the energy of an attack and literally returns it to the attacker. Thus mutual learning is enforced without destruction by violence or by creating winners and losers.

Applied to everyday life, this is how you can react to changes or challenges: from a stable point of view, while maintaining your own balance and keeping your center.

In addition, practicing Aikido with its constant role change — between attacker (uke) and defender (nage) — serves as an ideal physical balance to predominantly "sedentary" activities (like office jobs) and helps to keep a clear head.
Further information and training opportunities are available via KaiShinKan.

Get in touch

E-Mail

If you want to get in touch, feel free to drop me an email.

other profiles

Further information about me is available here:

• at Xing
• at Github
• overview of members of the Apache Software Foundation

Eingestellte Sprache en

i = 0;

while (!deck.isInOrder()) {
    print 'Iteration ' + i;
    deck.shuffle();
    i++;
}

print 'It took ' + i + ' iterations to sort the deck.';

Meaningful collaboration

The collaboration of people is often a central challenge, especially in the field of software development.

OpenSource

Ever since I got into software development, the subject of free software has fascinated me.

My first contact was due to certain professional projects and I was enthusiastic about Linux-based operating systems; later I was able to gain more insights into projects of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). Currently I am a member of the ASF and work within the Creadur project (as a PMC chair).

In addition, I have some insight into the JakartaEE project at the Eclipse Foundation and am interested in the cultural diversity that results when people work together and develop on a voluntary basis "all around the world".

The central principles of openness, transparency and freedom — regardless of whether copyright or copyleft licenses are used — represent an important philosophical, human, political and social concern to me.

InnerSource

The OpenSource principles, that have been popularized since the 1980s and have been used more widespread since the turn of the millennium, are now also being introduced in a structured manner into corporate contexts in order to achieve better and meaningful collaboration.

The application of these principles in various companies and the open knowledge transfer about them seem fascinating to me.

Primarily it is all about paving the way to a more productive cooperation. Developers want to work on projects that are challenging, fun, and make sense for the company or employer. Maintaining this curiosity requires constant adjustment and change. In recent years, there has been more remote work and asynchronous communication in everyday's project work, especially due to the increased switch to working from home. This makes it seem logical to study and learn from the experiences of the OpenSource movement.

The core principle of openness from the free software movement has also worked its way into various other areas "like a Swiss army knife" and is being adapted there: e.g.

• open access/ data/ government - Access and work with data from government organisations
• open education/ innovation/ knowledge/ music - Application in education and culture
• open standards/ hardware - Usage of open standards and application in open hardware

Related links

• open source initiative (OSI) - stewardship of the FOSS ecosystem
• InnerSource Commons - organisation of InnerSource practitioners
• InnerSource patterns - eBook on using InnerSource

Relaxation - body & soul

In daily life, many of us struggle or experience tension or conflicts most of the time:

• with ourselves
• with our families, children and partners
• with changes in our professional life
• with expectations and their comparison to reality.

As these contradictions and tensions affect the body-mind relationship, it is necessary to take care of oneself.

One form of esteem is recognizing your own limitations:

• you can't work indefinitely
• you need breaks
• you must exercise enough
• you have to have a healthy diet
• sleep regularly and
• you are in need of exchange with the people you love.

Besides that, you can't do everything on your own like Munchhausen. As truly social beings we need constant exchange, if possible across generations, cultures, countries or continents. This attitude broadens your own perspective and you begin to realise how small you are. Furthermore you begin to comprehend that individually you can only act as a part of a community. Apart from that we as humans seriously need each other.

Learnable techniques such as meditation, autogenic training or Aikido are my personal tools and helpers to integrate them into daily life and to constantly nurture and develop them further.