There is a difference between discomfort and pain.
Pain is our body’s way of telling us to stop. It means we’re damaging ourselves, and need to cease whatever we’re doing to avoid further injury.
Discomfort signals we’re going beyond our normal bounds. It literally means we are going out of our comfort zone. It’s not necessarily pleasant, but it is fundamental: for growth, building strength, and evolution.
Ironically, many of us have learned to push through the pain. Our bodies and minds suffer, while we studiously avoid the discomfort of going beyond what we know and moving into the unknown.
Tech teams are no exception. They will put up with:
painfully slow build times
anxiety-driven deployments
difficult to test and debug systems
conflict and poor communication between teams and functions
But ask them to stop doing PRs and try Trunk Based Development? Woah there. Things aren’t that bad.
There are simple practices and methodologies that solve many of these issues. So why the resistance? Because they require people to step out of the ‘standard’ way of doing things and start taking more accountability.
Until you’ve experienced working in an environment free of these headaches, it can be hard to imagine what it’s like. Once you have, it’s hard to imagine how you’d do it any other way.
Why not start now? Is it pain, or discomfort that you’re afraid of?