Don't Ask for Forgiveness, Broadcast Intent!

"It’s easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission" 

"It’s easier to apologize than to get permission" 

We have all heard these phrases or something similar. I believe that there is a much better approach than asking for forgiveness after the fact, which is to Broadcast Intent beforehand. Be transparent with your intentions, tell people what you are planning to do. It is not asking for permission; however, it does leave an opening for conversation if others have questions or concerns.

The phrases about forgiveness and permission are often attributed to Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper. She did help make their use more widespread, however the phrases didn't originate with her. Grace Hopper is one of the early pioneers in computer science. She coined the term debugging, although in her case it was the removal of an actual insect.

Broadcasting our intent is something many of us do in our daily lives. Using turn signals when driving is a form of broadcasting intent. The driver is letting drivers and pedestrians know that they intend to turn. Of course, ignoring the case of the drivers that just leave the turn signals on for miles on end.

I was recently in a situation where I wished the other person would have broadcasted their intent. I was riding my bicycle thru the forest preserve and was starting to pass another cyclist. I called ahead "on your left" broadcasting my intent to pass. The other rider did not broadcast his intent and didn't hear, or perhaps didn't process mine. He made a sharp left catching my front tire on his back one. The end result is that we both went down. Luckily without too much damage to either our bicycles or either of us. If he had broadcasted his intent the outcome hopefully would have been different.

In an agile setting, broadcasting intent is about letting other people know where we are headed and what we intend to do. A team may broadcast their intent to release the last sprint increment. They would inform their stakeholders of the release, including the relevant details such as the date and time of the release. This allows the team to control when they release while still allowing others to raise any concerns. 

Broadcasting intent is not just about releases. Intent should be broadcast about any activity that a team or individual plans on doing, which others should be informed of and to allow them to ask questions or raise concerns. When broadcasting your intent, you should always include what it is you intend to do and when.

Broadcasting intent allows each team to move at its own optimal speed, without needing to slow down to wait for approvals. Have you ever sent an email that asks for a response by a certain date and then had to track down responses after that date? If instead, you add to the email that no response will be considered agreement, then you are broadcasting your intent?

Broadcasting intent doesn't always work, as we can see from my example on the bike path. As with all failures, we need to take time to learn from them and figure out how to improve.

In a meta move, we sometimes need to broadcast our intent to begin broadcasting intent. Meaning we need to let everyone know that from here on we will be broadcasting intent instead of asking for permission, or forgiveness as Grace Hopper popularized. 

Like voting in Chicago, broadcast your intent early and often.

Stay Agile.