The Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center was lit last night. As is my tradition from years past, I grumbled about the crowds and traffic and meandering tourists during my evening commute out of the city. But I have to admit I appreciated the tree's colorful lights on this dark, rainy morning coming into the office. The season of celebration and gift-giving is here, after all!


By some coincidence (or was there some holiday magic involved??), I was listening to a podcast on my morning commute about Agile adoption and creating an organizational 'gift' culture. Bob Payne discussed Seth Godin's book Lynchpin, and the 'emotional labor' necessary to sustain a transition to Agile practices.

In the gift economy, you are rewarded for generosity, i.e., sharing your unique ideas, passions, energy, and talent with others. As you give freely without strings attached, you in turn receive assistance, recognition, credibility, information, and more. The health of the community that you support also benefits you. You can see this gift economy working on open source software projects, across social networks, and on successful Agile teams. Its not about you.

It seems fitting at this time of year to take a step back and ask whether you've been naughty (and hoarding your gifts for your own benefit) or nice.

Download the podcast from the Agile Toolkit website.