Archive
About Usefulness
This one will be short. Just want sharing something I just found out.
I realised every time I get up of my desk to pick up a water, a coffee, go to the printer, whatever.. I always also find someone looking for something, and meanwhile I also found out that I always manage to help those people by providing, replacing, solving or just suggesting another way/ perspective. How do I do that? I quite don’t now.. I guess I perceive and then listen and .. Puff! Done.
Along with that, I just realised that this is what I do best and that this is exactly what I fracking love to do. Solve problems and be useful to people when they need it.
I’m glad I found that. I just solve myself a big problem.
Carpe Diem!
Cátia
Being a Coach
Hi :)
Here are some thoughts, based on my experience, about being a coach.
I realized it’s not about technology, processes and frameworks.
It’s not about teaching people how to do stuff, although it helps if you can show them a new way or help them finding a solution.
But that is not at all, the most important thing about coaching people.
Coaching is about inspiring.
People are smart enough to study stuff and find better ways of doing their work, but only if they are motivated to do so. Or if they realize they have a need and that they must create their own time for personal and professional growth.
My experience says that if you want to be a good coach, you need to: inspire people
Inspire so they feel motivated and eager to come to work
Inspire so they feel worthy, useful.
Inspire so they feel eager to learn.
Inspire so they feel HAPPY and FUN.
Inspire people to do and be better, to be all they can be, because that’s all they need: inspiration. Just a little push. All the rest they can handle it pretty well. And, oh boy!, once inspired you can’t imagine the potential ahead of you!
And last, but not least: Inspire them to be empowered.
Empowerment – not given but taken
Empowered people can change the world, or at least the things they touch. But empowerment is a tricky thing.
Most people, maybe due to education or culture, think that empowerment in a business environment is something that must be given by someone having a position of power. Meaning, if you are a developer you feel like you can only be empowered if you line manager or technical lead says so in front of everyone else.
This is not true. This is not empowerment- this is task attribution or delegation.
Life in an office is not that much different from life in… well, life.
As such, empowerment is not given but rather taken (taken as in assumed not taken as in steal for someone).
Once you put your mind to solve something in your personal life, there is no one who can stop you as well there is no one who can actually give you the energy and will power to do it, except yourself.
Same in office. You should not expect to be empowered, you should take the chance to change or do something and embrace the power and greatness of doing it. Take it, don’t wait for it.
Really powerful people are not in a power position, they make it. They are the one’s you recognize as leaders, opposite to those you consider just silly bastards with illusion of power, the one’s you comply with but whom you’ll never follow wholeheartedly.
Gandhi was a powerful person. And he did not have any high position in the hierarchy of kind lawyers, he was not DR. PHD Master MBA Mr. Gandhi. He was powerful because he chose to be so, he took every single chance to make the difference and change people’s life and or mindset.
It’s up to you to be powerful. It’s up to you to be different and drive for yourself your own path. If you choose to do so, then, you might as well consider yourself a coach.
What about people who don’t want to change?
Yes, they exist. Sometimes out of fear, sometimes envy, sometimes ignorance, but yeah, they are out there. You can bring knowledge to people, but only if they want they will learn. And some, let’s face it, just don’t want to. And that is ok. If we were alike and all inspired people, life would be boring and expectations too high.
So, Know when to give up. Some people don’t want to change and they won’t let you do it. Just go and use your energy somewhere else. You deserve it, as well as all the others waiting for you to arrive and waiting for the chance to evolve with you.
Expectations
Expectations are good, they drive you. They help you aiming and they lead you there.
But, on the other side, expectation can also be a time bomb in your hands.
I’ve always had problems managing both my temper and my expectations. I’m not a patient person, so it’s really hard for me to contain my expectations to a sane level.
If, on one hand, this is good because it helps me eager and open for growth and new experiments, on the other hand it’s a big problem because I may never be satisfied with what I’ve achieved.
So, my personal advice, coming from my own pain, is: Plan your expectations.
For example: Write them down in a paper whenever you accept a new goal. Then, just track them down. Once you’re done or the time is up, you’ll know where you are and how far you are from your initial expectations.
Things will evolve and I really hope you add more and more expectations to that plan of yours, but the point here if for you (and me) to be able to look down to that plan, and know that your achievements are actually good, and although it may feel like they are not, you’ll (we’ll) know that this is only our big-mouth expectations talking and trying to trick us by overlooking what has been achieved.
I once heard a sentence from a writer I never forgot, because it makes a lot of sense on my way of living, he said: It’s extremely arrogant and hypocrite to judge the past, having the advantage of being in the present.
This is how I always managed my expectations. I would judge what I did, but having as basis my current mindset. And that is wrong. I should always fit the results into the expectations defined at the time and considering the situation when they were set.
I did that, now I won’t do it anymore. I learned and now, I know better.
Have a nice weekend, and, please… Go make the difference is this little world of ours.
Leaders and Servants – Tips for the Scrum master
Scrum masters are not meant to lead (lead technically or in terms of business), they are meant to serve. And serving has different flavours.
This ‘epiphany’ started with a 15 seconds chat with a fellow Scrum Master.
- ” Should you be a leader? “- I asked the scrum master
- ” Of course”- He replied
- ” Will you drive the team?” – I asked
- ” Of course, I must drive them to do better”
And here I disagree.
It’s too easy to lead and drive (easy for those who really are drivers and leaders, for the others: this post is not meant for you).
Too easy to make people follow. And good too. But only if you mean lead and drive their motivation, engagement and pride.
So I say – Scrum masters are not meant to lead (lead technically or in terms of business), they are meant to serve. And serving has different flavours:
When you start as a Scrum Master (I call it Type 0) in a new team you serve as the person who helps removing impediments, you serve as the person who helps organizing the work, serve as facilitator on running events as daily scrums, retrospectives, demos and by setting up practicalities.
But for me this is a first level Scrum Master. A servant of practicalities. You won’t grow a team with this, you are just keeping things clean and neat.
So here comes my favorite flavour: The Scrum Master.
- The one who causes pain by uncovering what’s wrong and does not heal people by making small patches that hide reality or solve temporarily stuff (does not loose time fixing symptoms) .
- The one that, above all, believes that the team must heal for itself no matter how hard, how painful and how long it takes. For every fall you take, you will rise stronger. And this is true also for teams.
- The one that believes, that knows!, that each team is smarter than any Scrum Master in earth and they’ll find better and or most suitable solutions for their own illness.
I guess this is why Scrum Master as troublemakers for some. These little bastards keep pointing out your problems and they don’t let go until you fix them.
I’ve had my count of type 0 Scrum masters, so nice and protective. Always keeping things neat but unfortunately with no impact on the team growth. Sometimes it’s also because it’s really hard to justify where a Scrum Master spends it’s time, so we do this neat boards and cards and things (which are ok and needed, but nor what teams need the most). How do you explain and justify that 100% of your time relies on observing the team, making questions and reading? That’s waste, right? May be. But, isn’t it needed?
I also had my share on type 0 too. Now I guess I don’t care anymore. I dedicate myself to do silly and hard questions. Of course that I still try to do (as much as my skills let me) neat boards and things to increase visibility and transparency, but if they don’t use them, that means they see no value, so I stop. Ok, there’s a minimum you must keep, but what’s the point of doing stuff for people if they can’t fully use it? We should be helping with answers not more waste, right?
And the only way I know to help with answers is by making questions.
Are you helping with questions or giving the answers you want to see? Is that the answer they need? How can you tell?
Sometimes we know the team needs something, for example, to do a brainstorm and get a common understanding by sharing different perspectives, but it happens that they don’t feel they need it. That’s ok. If you know you are right, just prove it. Show why they need it, make questions that will help them figure out that actually they need to do something.
But don’t just recite the books you read: they are smart enough to give you all the arguments to prove their reality is different, and how your suggestion doesn’t fit.
Question everything, maybe even suggest a way and ask them to experiment it – you’ll probably end up with a new way of doing stuff: a better way for all.
Bottom line, don’t try to be a leader. But also don’t be just a team assistant doing practicalities. Observe, question, suggest, try. Be a servant. A servant of pain and doubts. Make them think out of the box, new perspectives, new ways.
Don’t be a driver, just show them how to hold the wheel if they need too. show them how it can be done, don’t trap yourself on thinking that’s the only way of doing it. Let them evolve.
And scream, scream a lot while you are all taking a ride with them driving, they’ll surely improve the way they drive just to shut you up. My dad tried that and it worked ;) I’m a better more confident driver now, and he… well he sleeps while I’m driving.
Ode to the Scrum Master
I’m the darkest hour
I bring trouble and pain
My words are sour
I’ll make you play my game.
Come to me with no stubbon mindset
I’ll break you and your assumptions
like the dawn by the sunset
My voice stands against interruptions
But I try to heal, and all I get is hurt.
I try to fix, and I get broken.
Managers find me inert
and my lovely teams find me too outspoken
In the end i’m a lonely being
no place in current world
although more like me I keep seeing
fighting like hell for the holy word
Master they call me in scrum
but all I do is question,
Agile or not you are done
because i will change your direction
I will grow perfect teams
happy people delivering
using all my knowledge to that mean
i’ll let no one hindering
and I promise to be honest and just
I promise i will back you up
I promise my openness and all my trust
I promise I’ll never turn my back but
Today I found I love my job,
but also that my job doesn’t love me
Not the people around, that’s odd!
Although some feel good,they never say it.
Only evil speaks in these walls
And I grow tired from so much fights and wounds
But i promised: Thy shall never fall !
and now, I dont know anymore.
The 7 Feet Under model – losing good people
It’s time for me to finally publish and share my famous 7 Feet Under model.
WARNING: this post contains strange things as Zombies, dirt, graves, stupidity, sarcasm and some other weird thoughts that may hirt the reader. enter at your own peril.
The ’7 Feet under model’ is a simple visual summary of my observations during a Workshop, as a second title I called it ‘Losing good people’ because this is what happens when we submit people to constant failure without listening or helping them to take actions.
After drawing this model, actually without thinking about it but just drawing it by heart while listening to people talking, I became aware of several things. The biggest one may be that I realized that people aren’t demotivated just because they like it, people are not giving their best because they don’t want to. This happens also off course (not liking or not wanting), but what I observed is that most of people in the room had aspirations and dreams, and they were all lost due to a long exposure to failure. And, I’m afraid to say, they no longer knew what to do to change, whom to talk to about it without showing vulnerability. And as we all know, vulnerability is a funny thing and leads to an amazing distorted perception from those who show their vulnerability and from those who hide it. In short: It means weakness to those who hide it, it is strength to those who embrace it.
Well, but let’s not go through vulnerability today, Let me just explain you what happened and the model, let me take you back in time with me and show you what I’ve observed, learned and reflected later on.
The Stage
I was asked to run a workshop where people would reflect on the meaning of Sense of Urgency (SoU) and later brainstorm what could we do to wake up or boost everyone’s SoU.
(It was actually a funny workshop where I heard lots of, well, silly things, if you have time just enjoy yourself here).
It was an interesting session full of different reactions, although the most common one was blaming and denial. At the time I was a bit stressed and losing my patience because I was feeling like I was in a freak show. I saw people I knew better blaming everyone and finding the most extraordinary escape goats to every single thing being discussed as a probable root for lack of SoU. I knew they were ,are, capable people. Fighters. People who can and do better. So I could not understand why they couldn’t just deal with it – Face it and deal with it!
As a facilitator I tried not to intervene much, and if at the beginning I was stressed with the things I heard, the fact is that after embracing my observer role, I start finding it funny (the proof is the post I’ve made at that time). But after some time I stopped amusing myself and tried to understand why such good capable people showed so much despair and lack of faith in others and consequently in themselves.
I was listening and I noticed myself drawing this thing I called the ’7 feet under’ model.
You may not agree with the things I’m about to write, but actually in this post there’s no place to agree or disagree. This is the result of an observation, as such I really hope you read it and find something helpfull to you, to your own inspiration, reflection, perception or simply to your aspirations. I added some advice – which actually you can take at any stage (check the ‘Try this’ sections) and I hope you see the value and usefulness in it, maybe for you or for someone next to you.
The 7 FEET UNDER model
(click image to expand)
Explaining the Model
1st Project / 1st foot under
The Ignorant
When you fail for the first time, or your project fails, mainly you feel Ignorant, as if you didn’t see it coming. You feel as you couldn’t know better and that’s because you are new so you had no way to predict, or expect and deal with so many bad things at the same time. So in the end, when you fail for the first time you feel a bit ashamed but you dont feel ike the worst professional in the world, specially when there are more people working with you and they’ll surely finding other reasons for failure.
Try this:
Reflect on this: During first failed project you are learning. Everything, including failure, is part of learning process and it does grow your knowledge, in business, impediments, risk, people, in all that surrounds you. Includes also a bit of learning on how to feel bad afterwards, how to be humble and how to live with it. So, as I see it, your first failed project can still bring you something good: you can learn. Just don’t expect things to be great by default. You need to, you have to, do something about it. You have the power to influence things around you, so just do it. Use all the energy you couldn’t use in celebrating that first project into making the best of the next project.
2nd Project / 2nd foot under
The Blamer
Second failure and you start feeling.. well.. angry. It shouldn’t have happened again, something went wrong and it certainly wasn’t you because this time you had more experience and you prepared yourself. So, you get into resistance mode, you blame others for failure and you point your mighty finger to every single thing that made your project fail. You take sides. We did everything right, it was their fault, the platform guys, the architects, the designers, the dog…
Although this is demotivating, the good thing is you can still learn. And trust me, you have a lot still to learn, else your project wouldn’t have failed. Also this is the first time you can start feeling some willingness to change. Change your behavior, as in collaborate more openly and often with people around you. Or simpler solution, you can also change your job, but keep in mind that if you do so, you have to leave behind your frustration.
Try this:
You got to realize that blaming takes you no where but demotivation and frustration, and it endangers your credibility towards your colleagues. Read about the @ChristopherAver’s Responsibility Process , you’ll understand how usual your behavior is and that actually you can change it by mastering the responsibility Keys.
3rd Project / 3rd foot under
The Indifferent
When your 3rd project fails, you feel…nothing but dirt upon you and the grave getting deeper beneath (My apologies to sensitive readers). You are feel indifferent. It’s like you don’t care, you are getting used to that flavor in your mouth and you already said last time that the dog is the one to blame. This is a crucial time for you and your turnaround. Being indifferent to the things you do is one of the most dangerous things that can happen to you as a professional and lately as a person. Just think about the long hours you spend, in misery I say, in the office.. do you think it will be easy to leave that frustration behind office doors? No buddy, you’ll take it home with you..straight into your personal life. This is the right time for you to jump. Up or Out.
Try this:
Stop for a moment. Reflect on what makes you happy: Your passion. What drives you? What brings meaning to you? If you don’t know how to find the answer to these questions, you can always start by reading something about what drives humans- if you understand what we value, it may happen you’ll find out what makes you go forward. You can read about motivators in @DanielPink ‘s book DRIVE (or watch in youtube the short animated version) and in @jurgenappelo‘s blog here
4th Project / 4th foot under
The Proud Ignorant
Congratulations, you reached the peak, from now on no way up, always down. This is the phase of conscient Ignorance. At this point you don’t care, you don’t know what’s going on and you know it and you don’t give a damn.
Basically you are like this guy?
(BTW, I love this picture. I don’t know who did this, but my appraisal to this amazing human being.
Please forgive me for not adding your name here, but I don’t know where to find you.
If by any chance you find this, let me know and I’ll fix it immediately. Respect!)
Try this:
Pair work with newbies. Work with people new to the project and shake down your sarcasm and skepticism. Working with new people gives you a new perspectives plus may boost your own energy by watching how passionate they can be regarding the things they do. Let yourself be influenced by their motivation. Grow a relationship with someone that needs help fitting in, nurture that person. You’ll be asked a lot of things and you may actually feel like it’s important to provide and answer or, better, to find out a solution together. I propose this because I believe that at this stage you are incredibly fed up with everything, so having someone in need around you may actually rescue you from all that and give you a chance to build something great and recover the sweet taste of usefulness.
5th Project / 5th foot under
The Self Inflicted Ignorant
Boy, from this point onward there’s no return (almost). You better find yourself a winning project and turn the table else you are doommed.
People that unfortunately reach this phase, get into a state of Self Made Ignorance. As in first failed project, the ignorance they carry is genuine. They really don’t know better. They are completely alienated from the current world. But if on the first failed project your ignorance came from inexperience, now it exists because you let yourself grow stupid. Basically this is it. You let yourself grow STUPID (I felt this several times already in my short life, not always it comes from failed projects… grow stupid is a natural thing, sometimes because we are lazy or just because we chose a different road and forgot to keep up our knowledge).
In this stage, because you feel you’ve been failing for too long, you got used to it, there’s no apparent punishment (if it may be true that no one fires you, actually your punishment is worst – you are growing exponentially stupid day by day).
Try this:
Start small projects at home. Recall the things you used to be happy doing and do them again, even if that means rewriting the same small application or paper you did in college. Start small, grow big. Go to meet-ups, conferences, interest groups. You don’t have to speak, actually you shouldn’t or you may loose respect at first sight :D (kidding) (I guess), just listen..and as you feel yourself less stupefied you can start sharing.
6th Project / 6th foot under
The Zombie
Your 6th project failed. Should I thank you for that? No, because I guess you didn’t even notice it. You come in the morning because you are used to. You sit and you do some stuff on the web (facebook keeps you alive still).
You lunch with people you used to know (the one’s calling you for lunch are just like you, the others avoid you), you wonder around the coffee area, you feel lost and lonely, and there’s nothing like some gossip to sparkle your mind. You manager keeps rating you as low performer and you don’t care as long as the paycheck is the same. People stopped asking you things because they don’t find it funny anymore that you answer to every question with a: ’uh?’
Try this:
Find someone patient and respectful in your team and ask if you can sit next to him and learn. Call it pair working. Be honest by say you have given up sometime ago but you would like to know more about the project and learn something and who knows? even be useful. If you don’t feel comfortable with this, maybe you can try to do some other stuff the team is not doing (because they forgot it, delay it, don’t like to do it or simply don’t know about it) and do it. You can, e.g., test some of the stuff your colleagues are doing, but watch out!, testing is not easy and it requires great skills to be a good tester, but maybe you can start slow. Test simple things and compare them to the requirements. Then humbly help team improving their stuff (don’t throw crap into their vent else your a dead arrogant useless zombie).
7th Project / 7th feet under
The Coma
At this stage you have some similarities with the zombie but, you don’t move anymore, nor you talk to colleagues.
You come to office, not too late because people would dare looking at you and salute you. You leave early though. But no one cares or even sees you. While leaving you try to look like you are busy, like if you need to leave for an important meeting. Meetings are your favorite place, not lunch time anymore, no. Now you like meetings, specially Calls. You just sit there with your headphones and you turn on all those voices talking about products and budget and funny stuff, you don’t understand half of what they say but it’s your job to attend those Calls. So you just do it. Headphones on and some excel report with lots of numbers. And so you day goes by and you feel as if you’ve done something.
Try this:
Find a new job. Honestly: Find another thing to do.
Lots of people have done it before you, actually lots of people are doing it right now, while I write these lines and also while you read them..and in between! Change is difficult, of course! All good things carry risk or uncertainty but after doing it, when you look back you’ll feel proud of yourself for having the courage to take that first step. I advise you to read about change in @olaflewitz ’s blog , or here in @yveshanoulle book you can see how lots of people changed their lives and found some meaning to it!
Seriously! What are you doing there? Wasting your time, being unhappy, frustrated, no passion, lonely.. useless. You can do better. You know better, the world is full of possibilities…get out and find something that makes your eyes sparkle… maybe some other area, doesn’t matter, don’t waste your life. Life is just one shot, don’t throw it away for nothing.
And there you go… I salute you because you finally got there, 7 feet under!
To everyone in or getting into any of this stages, or just slightly disappointed with life, I advise a few books and talks (feel free to add more here):
Books
The Dip by Seth Godin
Epiphany by Elise Ballard
TedTalks
The Power of vulnerability by Brené Brown
3 things I learned while my plane crashed by Ric Elias
The 3 A’s of Awesome by Neil Pasricha
Dare to disagree by Margaret Hefferman
School kills Creativity Ken Robinson
Thanks!
Cátia
The Deliver Crap Project
Hi
This was a draft post I had here for a long time, it’s a rainy dark day here in berlin today. Looks like a nice day to release this post :).
The Deliver Crap Project
Sometimes people forget their purpose while creating products or services: to serve a need. I would go further and say: to satisfy a human need, because if you look closer to your business it all comes down to this: satisfying a human need – even if that only means to get a few old bats richer (educated folks call it shareholders)
While forgetting their purpose (to extinguish needs), some people (unfortunately not yet extincted as dinosaurs are, but quite similar to them) like to focus on other stuff like time, or number of “resources” they “control”.
To this unbalanced ecosystem of needs, purpose, resources, time, people, and whatever the late bring into it (emotions, motivation, anger, greed, aspirations, …) someone called Projects.
I like to see projects as a love triangle : Time, People and Scope.
When things “go wrong” (aka: expectations are not being achieved) then everyone thinks about messing up with our love-triangle..but:
If we mess up with time:
Team perspective: our sustainable pace will be endangered
Managers Perspective: I won’t ask my customer for more time or we’ll loose face
If we mess up people:
Team perspective: team pace will slowdown cause if more people (new to the project) join, we need to ramp them up. Nobody trust us to get our job done, all they care is money.
Managers perspective: I’ll have to pay more people (OMG, Thi OPEX monster returns)… plus, if this bunch can’t handle it why the hell would I just add more of the kind, let’s just whip them
If we mess up Scope:
Team perspective: ok, looks wise because it’s nonsense to change time or people now. Ah! We knew it was to much since they pushed this..
Managers: damn it! I’m loosing functionality, I can’t drop anything else… I want it all! Lazy bastards
Of course that, by now, you already understood the Manager in this post is not such a wise guy (nor the team I would add). Or, they are all just being pressured by all other non-scrum, non-agile, non-whatever entities around them who want sparky shiny neaty cheap new awesome blasting profitable stuff in the market.
Nevertheless all this, what actually happens is that most of times: nothing really changes- nor time, nor people nor scope (all we have are some small changes in this variables):
- Ok guys, so John from the other team will give you a hand 2 hours a day.
or
- Ok guys, so we will drop that feature where the customer can listen to Star Wars theme while writing emails.
or
(this is my favourite cause it really happened in one of my previous jobs- Oh OH I really really have to write a new post about it!) ..but it goes something like this:
- Ok guys, so we can release 1 week later then agreed, because as I know you are always late* I actually promised the customer the release 2 weeks after the date I requested you.
*It was worse than this but I’ll post it later.
So in the end what we do is keep on feeding our wishful thinking. We evolved from gods to god and from god to the It-all-will-be-ok-believers.
When nothing changes because people don’t want to listen and adapt, only one thing can happen:
Team delivers the functionality committed, on the day committed to their customer. Not bad hum? Specially because this is what we want in the first place. The catchy question is: what is being delivered? I tell you: crap.
We’ll sell low-quality functionalities, we’ll sell bugs and we’ll sell technical debt. Plus we’ll sell our public image to the devil when customers start talking to each other on how our company releases products and then sends dozens of engineers to work 24×7 in customer’s premises to fix their own..CRAP!
You know what we are doing here with this fake solutions? We are loosing time. The right time to do the right thing.
It’s amazingly hard to face problems, of course it is. But that is life. Just face it. Stop dreaming that it all will be perfect, cause it won’t.
You have the power to change things, and this silly thingy of quick feedback (even when it all looks bad) is good for you: it allows you to take decision before it’s too late. So talk, discuss, share concerns and solutions, focus on the customer needs, on real purpose. Focus on what you can do and not on what you can’t!
So, to all the managers who can take decisions I say:
Grab your balls mister. Do your job. Being manager can sometimes be a shit, but that’s why you are here: to help us not to send crap to our customers. And if you think you can solve things by pressuring the team and pushing the impossible scope, think twice- all you’ll get is double crap.
To all the managers who CAN’t take decisions I say:
Find a new job, we don’t need you. We already have enough cables to quietly lay around the room.
To all the teams I say:
You can say no and you can explain why. You are own the product as much as the manager does, you have the right and responsibility to fight for it.
And in the end, even after you speak your mind out no one listen, then… just make as much crap as you can. For sure you are in the right place to be rewarded for it.
Did you notice we spend more time at office than at home? what does this tell you?
Looking fwd for your answer :D!
Have a nice day,
Cátia
Engage your team – seeking and finding followers
Dear reader,
How often when leading we use good examples to support us?
How often when talking, while trying to explain something, we use that person (which we know it’s already engaged) as an example to support to our case?
It’s human, we always seek for supporters. That’s why we try to be surrounded by family and friends. Football clubs. Religion. Going to same grocery store, Church, Same strip bar*. Whatever.
But today I was thinking that maybe sometimes we should just seek for something else, rather: someone else than our “star supporter” .
Just try to go and seek elsewhere. Pick up someone else, even if you don’t know if you are really being supported by that someone else, go for it if you see some empathy or slight engagement.
There are at least 3 reasons to do this, as far as I see it:
1- You don’t fall into the old trap of everyone listening to you feeling that you have favorites (even, specially!, when it’s not true.. )
2- You empower someone else and praise his engagement (and everyone else will pay attention and feel like: oh! I can do that to0)
3- You. For you. If you start seeking new followers, you’ll start finding them. And at the end of the day you might just find yourself surrounded by people that ..well: follow you, and maybe even inspire you to keep on and, if that’s the case: do better.
Hope this helps you today. Just popped up on my mind.
See ya!
*Strip bar was used here only for SEO purposes :D
Perceptions – How important in a TEAM
Wikipedia says that PERCEPTION is..
..The organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to fabricate a mental representation through the process of transduction, which sensors in the body transform signals from the environment into encoded neural signals
And how important this is!
… Perception simply defines the shape of the world for you.
And how interesting this may be!
… Aren’t we just living around perceptions daily?
Everything you do, see, smell, tastes…the way you think: nothing but the product of your perception.
How much of you does it take daily? How wrong and right can you be at same time?
And if perception is just the way our head decides to store information, how hard can it be to .. I don’t know.. Defragment our brains and rearrange info? Shouldn’t be that hard right? Think about it…
SO, here’s my advice for you today…
- Listen and acknowledge
- Store it the way your brain is wired to do so (you can later thank to your parents, society, culture,.. for all that)
- And then, just when you perceive a different view, don’t deny it or fight it. Stop for 30 seconds and reflect on:
- “What I know about this is MY perception. What I hear now is ANOTHER perception. Not better or worse. Just another perspective. Another way of storing, identifying and accessing info from a different brain”.
I knew perception since I was young, but I just stumble on it some time ago while preparing a retrospective about relation between teams. No damage can be done with perspectives, opinions, and comments if you get your teams to understand (or remember actually) what perception is.
And when you do so, you are much more open to talk and more secure about feelings (yours and others).
As far as I’m concerned, and to all people that think that perceptions are just smoke and should not be address inside a working team, I keep my perception on this: YES, they are perceptions and not facts, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. They do. As such they should be address and talked about. It may end in someone changing behavior or mindset, or someone else changing his perceptions: either way it’s a positive breakthrough and brings people closer. Teams closer.
If I can trust you, I am not afraid to talk and confront you.
If I can talk and confront you with my opinion I will commit to what we decide together.
If I can commit to what we decide together I will act accountable for what we do.
If I can act accountable I will fight for our collective results.
And then, just then, we, together, won’t be dysfunctional anymore.
Deadlines: a boost
When you work with a team of smart people, deadlines can actually be positive thing. But there’s a catch: deadline cannot be fake.
If the deadline is something with meaning for end users (not just for the sake of plans- although we all understand the importance of those), the team will take a responsible approach towards delivery .
It’s a pretty simple principle: people need a purpose.
If the deadline is something that makes sense to the real world, then the team will be able to take decisions based on priority, will be more aware of consequences and will be able to keep decisions and options simple and focused. Better than any manager, after all they know the real consequences of every option.
Have you read about Real options?
Read it, @PapaChrisMatts and @Olavmaassen have made a pretty good job explaining it.
Key indicators of Team happiness
Key indicators of team happiness was something that struck me the other day. Out of nothing, as always, something I heard while walking through the corridors and that made this click on my
head. Then I started observing some other things happening around me that also were a sign of team’s happiness. There is more stuff for sure, but I will only talk about this 3 obvious things you will certainly also notice around you.
I see teams cursing and damning the software and the build system (oh that little red devil). I see them stressed, under pressure, in frustration, angry, confused, tired.. you name it. Think about yourself! But nevertheless you can see some indicators that they love their work and that they are actually pret ty happy about that they achieve and with whom they do it.
Here are just 3 of the most silly but obvious one’s:
1. System.out.println(“Hello World!”);
They get here in the morning with their big smiles saying hello to everyone and telling silly jokes just to get everyone in the mood. They look like saying ” Hey i’m back home again, just went out
for some sleep”. This is a most positive point. They are not playing goofy, they are sharing their happiness for being at that place with the people they like to spend an important part of their day. Actually the most important if you think about it! When you get home, all the stress goes away, you are in your kingdom with your loved ones. While at work, you are under pressure, dealing with different cultures, people, opinions, failures and success. That’s where all the thrill happens!
2. System.out.println(“See ya Later Alligator!”);
They leave in the afternoon, but they take too long packing because they still want to chat a bit and be sure everything will be the same the day after.
A kind of promise everyone will be back. This is also positive. Means they are of course happy to leave, cause life exists outside the office, but they are happy they can come back. They will come back. And do it all over again. They don’t have to, they want to.
3. System.out.println(“We are Awesome!”);
This is for me the most important indicator, and the one that made me write this post. It makes the best of my day, when I to wonder through the corridors and lots of times hear people talking to each other saying: ” you know what would be cool?”
And this is the most important indicator you need to know in order to understand if your team is happy about what they do.
When they are always trying to think out of the box, thinking about new stuff for the product they are building.. not just getting stucked to the plans, no! having space to dream and create, thenyou know they care for it. They like it and they want to make it even better.
This is what makes them return every morning. This is what makes me return every morning. The amazing everyday.
See ya!
Catia
