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Many teams ask me to help them beef up (or fix)
their Agile implementation. Naturally, some teams need
deep changework; others just need to reinforce
behaviours. Their most common complaint is:
“People don't mention enough (or any) impediments
during the standup.”
These teams might debate their standup problem at a
retrospective, or suggest that people think of their
answers ahead of the standup. That doesn't always work.
If people are to change their behaviour, they must
feel motivated and committed enough, even when the
change is as simple as “answer the third question
usefully”.
Many people don't actually argue with the motivation
of telling your team members that something is
impeding your work. It's committing to doing so that
stymies them.
One way to make change happen is to force it. Tell
people to “just do it”, or in a softer way, “try” the
new behaviour a few times until it turns into a habit.
But how do you get people to try it even a few times?
Let me offer this tactic: “Take One Simple, Measurable Action”.
You've probably heard the management mantra, “You
Get What You Measure”. Well, the idea here is to
identify just one simple action that brings you
closer to the desired state. If the action is
measurable (and thus clearly defined), you can't
wiggle your way out of it.
I've applied this technique numerous times in a
personal context. Having worked out regularly for
years, a few months of gym closure and subsequent car
accident rehabilitation threw me out of shape and out
of routine.
Telling myself, “I gotta get back in shape” got me
nowhere. Instead, I committed myself to 20 minutes of
some physical activity every day. Walking, mowing
the lawn, swimming, cleaning the house. After three
weeks of a measurable, simple, daily reminder of my
commitment, I'm back on the wagon.
One of my Agile teams had instituted this rule: “At
least one impediment per person per standup. Nothing
is too small.”
For the next few weeks, it forced people to reflect
on their work and identify what's holding them back.
All of a sudden they were mentioning things like the
two-hour build, which was so familiar they'd stopped
noticing it as an impediment.
Another team had set aside two hours every other
Friday for refactoring. Everybody makes themselves
available during the same time and they attack big
problems. That sets the tone that refactoring is a
normal part of development work, and sows the seeds
for increasing its scope and acceptance (among the
team, and also with the business folks).
A ScrumMaster I coached had taken well to Coaching
By Walking Around (which is my preferred style), but
struggled to make the time for it. He made himself a
rule: “Visit every team member for a 5-minute chat at
least once per day.” He also kept a daily list of all
team members in his notebook as a constant reminder.
Soon enough, it became his routine.
These simple rules are not forever and they rarely
spell an onerous commitment. Either the new behaviour
becomes a habit and it sticks, or you actually have
bigger problems to solve.
Some of the change problems you face are in fact
large. However, plenty change attempts naturally
succumb to Take One Simple, Measurable Action. Try that and let
me know what's worked for you!
Copyright © 2010, 3P Vantage, Inc. All rights reserved.
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