Why ideas are like food they taste best when shared

One of my Jewish grandmothers, I am not sure which one, would always cut a slice out of an apple she was eating and share it with me telling me “Ess” yiddish for eat. She knew the secret that food tastes best when shared. How many times have I taken a bite of my food at a restaurant  and offered it to my husband to taste because it was delicious and I wanted to share the experience.

Good Ideas are like that something you can’t wait to share. As a developer whenever I would solve a particularly complex problem, implement a new framework or algorithm  I could not wait till my next peer or sprint review to show it off. There is no greater joy in engineering than solving a puzzle, unless that is sharing your victory with someone else who gets it.

Connecting to our team members over ideas or challenges is one of the foundations of Agile and what the Ceremonies are made for, each offering a different point of connection. In Stand Up you share what you are working on, planning to work on and what obstacles you are facing to socialize the work and get feedback. Retro is for sharing challenges or success and brainstorming on action items of what to start, stop or continue, all are encouraged to share.   Sprint Review is where we demo the work and solicit feedback from our stakeholders, thereby improving our product by adding ideas of others to the mix.

So why do development organizations become so siloed? Why are we not sharing best practices across teams and other parts of the company? Good wisdom transfers, iteration is good for all types of larger tasks, delegation can lighten any load and collaboration makes a better project. 

One of the opportunities I took advantage of was to present a learning on Coaching vs. Mentoring at my current company. This was attended by all parts of our organization and was a chance for me to share the results of my Certified Agile Leadership courses and leadership books I constantly read. This led to many people who I did not know previously reaching out to learn more about the topic and provided me with a forum to pitch the Mentor Program I had helped start with our Women’s Employees Resource Group.  

So what ideas have you cooked up or are savoring? And why not share so others can have a taste?