Agile Dress Code

Last weekend was the Agile Coach Camp here in Ann Arbor. There were a lot of very interesting folks there, and as always happens in such situations, plenty of learning happened.

On the first evening, we had Lightning Talks, during which I presented an idea that had been brewing in my head for a while. It seems a little silly at first but I think it has some merit.

Basically what it comes down to is that I want to wear shorts and sandals to work. Things may be different on the west coast, but here in the midwest, jeans are about as casual as you can go without raising quite a few eyebrows.

The fact is that if you’re not in front of customers on a day-to-day basis, it really shouldn’t matter what you wear. You and your employer should strive to make you as comfortable as possible, thereby making you more productive.

My proposal is for the Agile community to unite and suggest to clients during Agile Transformations, that a key element to reaching Agile Nirvana is to free their staff of the corporate dress code.

Now, I’m the first to say that there need to be limits, but I think we can trust teams to exercise enough self control and common sense to make it work.

Who’s with me?