Inspect and Adapt

I completed my masters degree about 35 days, 7 hours, 50 minutes, and 15 seconds ago (As of the time of writing this sentence). During this time I've been enjoying the opportunity to rest, recharge, and reflect. Being able to attend graduate school was a great privilege, and this break has felt luxurious. "Break from what?" Good question - I'm actually not entirely sure what comes next, at least not professionally, although I can sense myself inching closer to whatever that is.

One pattern in the world seems to be this: It's tough to both operate something and improve it at the same time. The philosophy of lean manufacturing speaks of "continuous improvement" - but in reality even this is often accomplished not in the literal sense, but rather, through a consistent application of the plan-do-check-reflect cycle. 

In my personal life, the "reflect" especially often gets skipped over or shortchanged. I plan. I do. I know the outcome, and then it's right onto the next thing.

One aspect I really like about agile is the idea of breaking your working period into shorter-than-annual or shorter-than-quarterly cycles, with a bit of time to stop, reflect, and formally plan all contained within the cycle and performed through fairly consistent ceremonies. One aspect I liked of the specific flavor of agile in use on a project I was a part of was repeating this pattern one-up by taking roughly a sprint-sized chunk of time off after a period specifically to inspect and adapt...that is, to stop operating the system for a moment while you focused on making a few improvements to it.

Similarly, as I move into this next phase of both my personal and professional life, I want to be more deliberate about creating some gaps for deliberate reflection. Let's revisit this again, in approximately another 35 days.