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Jurgen Appelo is a writer, speaker, trainer, entrepreneur, illustrator, developer, manager, blogger, reader, dreamer, leader, freethinker, and… Dutch guy. Since 2008 Jurgen writes a popular blog at www.noop.nl, that covers topics including Agile management, software engineering, business improvement, personal development, and complexity theory. He is the author of the book Management 3.0: Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders, which describes the role of the manager in Agile organizations. And he wrote the little book How to Change the World, which describes his new supermodel for change management. He is also a speaker who is regularly invited to talk at business seminars and conferences around the world. Jurgen is co-founder of the Agile Lean Europe network (for Agile & Lean thinkers and practitioners in Europe) and the Stoos Network (focusing on change agents for organizational transformation). After studying Software Engineering at the Delft University of Technology, and earning his Master’s degree in 1994, Jurgen Appelo has busied himself starting up and leading a variety of Dutch businesses, always in the position of team leader, manager, or executive. Jurgen has experience in leading a horde of 100 software developers, development managers, project managers, business consultants, quality managers, service managers, and kangaroos, some of which he hired accidentally. Nowadays he works full-time developing innovative courseware, books, and other types of original content. But sometimes Jurgen puts it all aside to do some programming himself, or to spend time on his ever-growing collection of science fiction and fantasy literature, which he stacks in a self-designed book case. It is 4 meters high. Jurgen lives in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) -- and in Brussels (Belgium) -- with his partner Raoul. He has two kids, and an imaginary hamster called George. Jurgen is a DZone MVB and is not an employee of DZone and has posted 126 posts at DZone. You can read more from them at their website. View Full User Profile

The T-Shirt Test

03.16.2013
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You pass the t-shirt test when people proudly wear a t-shirt with the logo of your organization on it.

T-shirt-chinchillaWould you proudly wear a t-shirt with your own name?

I would.

Would you proudly wear a t-shirt with the name of your spouse?

I would.

Would you proudly wear a t-shirt with a drawing by your children?

I would.

Would you proudly wear a t-shirt with a photo of your pet?

I would.

Would you proudly wear a t-shirt with the logo of your employer?

Hmm…

We spend most of our days living with ourselves, our partners, our children, and our organizations. And maybe a dog. Or a chinchilla. A happy life should include feeling happy about the relationships that you maintain, with yourself, your spouse, your kids… and your colleagues. (And your chinchilla.)

I call it the T-Shirt Test. An organization passes the t-shirt test when employees will proudly wear a t-shirt with the company logo on it, hoping that other people notice the name of the organization. Hoping that other people say, “Wow, you have a chinchilla? you work for company X? That’s so cool!”

When your colleagues don’t care to associate themselves gladly, in public, with the image of your organization, you might have a problem.

Are you wearing the name of your company?

(Jurgen Appelo is author of Management 3.0, a best-selling management book for Agile developers. It has a picture of a monster in it.)

Published at DZone with permission of Jurgen Appelo, author and DZone MVB. (source)

(Note: Opinions expressed in this article and its replies are the opinions of their respective authors and not those of DZone, Inc.)