I was thinking back on an interaction I had with one of my co-workers last week, and how that made me realize that I have personally had a shift with how I identify myself at work.

This co-worker is relatively new to the company, only having been here for a few weeks, and I hadn’t had opportunity to introduce myself. The other piece of background here is to know that only part of our organization has operated under an Agile framework; the rest is still using a “traditional” system. We had the usual exchange of names. But when they asked me who I worked for, my first response is what made me have the epiphany. I didn’t say my manager’s name, I didn’t say “development” or even the project I am working on. I said “the Honey Badgers”, which is the name we have given to our Scrum team that started together back in 02/2012.

If asked that question before 02/2012, I can almost guarantee you I would have said “development” or “I’m a developer” or something to that effect. This is the change in mindset I am referring to. If you are like me, you will no longer find yourself identifying solely with your “silo” department; you will identify with the team you have been a part of and built a relationship with over the course of time. This is to take nothing away from my fellow developers or my respect for them. I actually think it is a good thing for the team and the organization when you start to identify yourself this way. It shows that you have invested yourself in your team and have dedicated yourself to the success of what your team produces.

What do you think? If you haven transitioned towards an Agile team from some other sort of management, have you also have this same shift in your mindset?