I was searching for a specific quote that I saw one time. Someone said you can't change people's beliefs, you just have to let them die off and surround yourself with more and more people of the same belief.

However, I could not find this quote anywhere. I did find this interesting article about beliefs and why data may not be enough to sway people's belief and the WHY.

So, let's think about this from my favorite pet topic... Waterfall vs Agile thinking.

If i'm a well established project manager in a corporation with numerous years of experience and responsibility over a project or a program of projects then i have a large flock to protect. I have a survival instinct to ensure success and to win the pats on the backs from executive management.

The good survival mechanisms are to understand scope, risk, control change and head off any surprises before they can become nasty rashes in the face of executive management. My job is the spin game while balancing people's happiness and commitments to the project.

Now in comes agility and says we're going to make everything hugely visible to everyone!

Whoa, what? You're going to tell everyone exactly what's going on whether it's good or bad? This could be painful!

Immediately i'm in survival mode and feeling that this is a bad idea. There's plenty of evidence that visibility into the project is healthy for the project and the organization, however let's ignore that because I am! This is survival mode. I want my executives happy!

So what do you have to do to take my 'fear' away?

How would you make me know that your agile team is going to protect me and the project? what is my safety net?

Thanks to Jacob at commerce for pointing this out to me by saying "Find out what's causing them pain and help take that away, then they'll have no reason to not do it"