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Becoming Awesome - Creating A Culture of Continuous Improvement - HackerNoon
Becoming Awesome - Creating A Culture of Continuous Improvement - HackerNoon
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Becoming Awesome — Creating a
Culture of Continuous Improvement
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Eric Weiss
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this article.
There are many different ways a team can improve. Some ways involve
technology and some ways involve people. Keep an eye out for these
kinds of issues, make note of them, and look for ways to improve during
your retrospective.
Communication
Workflow
Technology
Skills
mentor and coach the junior members in order to level up the skills of the
team. Don’t completely pack the senior members to capacity. Give them
time to mentor the junior members when they need help.
Two Failure Patterns
I have found two main failure patterns in teams that hold them back from
continuous improvement. Keep an eye out for these archetypes and
challenge them to be accountable and strive to improve.
The Complainer — This person brings all problems, but no solutions.
They point fingers, place blame, and take no responsibility for outcomes.
There is no accountability, follow-up, or commitment to improve. This
person also tends to drag others down with them, creating a toxic
environment that is disastrous for morale.
The Complacent — This person doesn’t want to rock the boat. They’re
just going through the motions. They show up to the retrospective, but
don’t offer any meaningful feedback. They spend no time outside of the
retrospective reflecting on how to improve. They don’t continuously learn
or share new ideas with the team. They also have no accountability or
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The Champion
There is a third archetype, which I like to call The Champion. This person
embodies all of the principles I constantly espouse. They have the
attitude that we can and should be our best possible selves. They meet
every day with intention and set clear goals. They reflect on their day and
take the time to think about ways to improve. They take personal
accountability for the success of the team. They engage with and support
their teammates across the company. They are bought into the company
mission and believe they are working towards a meaningful cause. As
leaders, we want everyone on our team to become this archetype.
A lot of times teams will call out some nice thing that happened and leave8/16
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A lot of times teams will call out some nice thing that happened and leave
it at that. Dig deeper and try to understand what lead to that success.
There is a lesson in there that should be brought to the surface and
possibly shared with other teams. Capture the principle or practice in the
team charter.
Show and Tell
Effective Feedback
Now that we’ve got the culture and the mechanisms in place to support
continuous improvement, there is one final piece to the puzzle.
Challenging ourselves and each other to do better is a delicate issue. We
must be able to provide honest and direct feedback to one another
without creating negative conflict.
Radical Candor
The book Radical Candor describes the principles behind open and
honest feedback. I won’t go into elaborate detail, but the goal is to show
empathy for our teammates while giving open and honest feedback about
behavior that negatively impacts the team. I recommend reviewing this
model and discussing it with your team. In my earlier failure patterns, The
Complainer aligns with Obnoxious Aggression, and The Complacent
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The method I use comes straight from couples therapy. The main idea is
that when we want to provide feedback, we are following a process,
which takes us out of normal conversation and puts us in a mode where
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which takes us out of normal conversation and puts us in a mode where
we are less likely to take the feedback as a personal attack.
The Trigger — Start by simply saying “Are you open to some
feedback?” This engages the other person and lets them know that we
are about to start the process. They then know what to expect, and how
to behave accordingly.
The Facts — “Do you remember when you did X?” By laying out the
facts as accurately as possible, you both agree on the event. You can
debate and clarify the facts until you agree on a common view of reality.
The Impact — “When you did X, you impacted me/the team because
of Y.” The goal of the feedback is to make the other person understand
how their actions impacted you or the team. Do not jump to judgment or
solutions. Simply work to gain a mutual understanding of the impact.
The Optional Suggestion — “In the future, I’d appreciate it if you did
Z instead.” It is not required to suggest new behavior unless you feel
strongly about how they should interact with you. It is enough to simply
provide the feedback and let them digest it. As engineers, we tend to
jump to providing solutions. Give the person time to reflect on the
feedback if possible.
The Acknowledgement — “Thank you for your feedback.” That’s it.
Don’t get defensive. Don’t make excuses. They are not required to make
any commitment at that moment. It is enough for them to thank you for
having the courage to bring this to their attention.
The Follow-Up — In this model, there is an implicit agreement that they
are now accountable for the feedback provided. They can take the time to
reflect on the feedback and come up with a solution by the next
retrospective. If the feedback was related to a personal conflict, they
h ld b i df l f th b h i d t t it i th f t
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18/7/22, 17:58 Becoming Awesome — Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement | HackerNoon
should be mindful of the behavior and not repeat it in the future. If the
person does not learn from the feedback, you should bring it up to the
team in the next retrospective. If the negative behavior is repeated, the
Conclusion
Truly great teams perform not because of their process, but because of
their attitude. With a poor attitude, you can never Scrum your way out of
it. With the right attitude and a culture of continuous improvement,
regardless of where you begin, you will eventually achieve greatness.
Through this fairly simple and straightforward model, I’ve been able to
transform demoralized, poorly performing teams into eager, engaged,
high-performing, awesome teams. Start with the Definition of Awesome,
define your principles and motivations, create an environment that builds
trust and empathy, encourage effective feedback, and give the team the
time and autonomy to innovate and try new ideas in the effort to become
awesome.
I’ve built my practice around helping growing tech companies mature their
team dynamic and agile development methodology. It may seem
daunting, but trust me, I can help you start making small, iterative,
meaningful progress in the right direction If you think your team has the
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meaningful progress in the right direction. If you think your team has the
potential to Become Awesome, reach out to me on my website and let’s
get you on the right path!
https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*ZmpiXekL-COKLLeagyzkoQ.png
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