Three Critical Competencies

I was talking to my husband about work the other day and reflecting upon other similar conversations when I had an epiphany.  It was one of those "It's so obvious" moments.  Whenever there are deep and continuous problems with a workplace, a product, or a project, you can boil everything down to a deficit in one or more of these things:

1.    Communication

2.    Trust

3.    Leadership

Failing to have a good communication strategy for any effort is a fast track to tragedy.  In order for any group to effectively work toward any goal, they have to understand what that goal really is.  They need to know why that goal is valuable to their organization or to their customer and how they can individually contribute to attaining that goal.  More importantly, they need to know when a change comes along, what that change is, and why that change is valuable.   Furthermore, the leaders of any effort must be able to effectively communicate to their customers.  Without a clear establishment of expectations for delivery of a project or product, the client can create a fantasy of what they're getting and build upon it as the effort progresses.  Those unrealistic expectations are not likely to be communicated to the work team until the product is presented to the customer.  Then the fruits of your organization's labor are met with a luke-warm reception, if not open hostility due to your having missed the mark, as far as the client is concerned.  A constant flow of information between work teams, leadership, and customers is crucial.  If a group's leaders founder in their communications, they will be met with confusion, frustration, anger, and resentment from both sides.

Trust is a three way relationship.  Not only do team members need to have trust in their leadership, leadership must have trust in their team members.  Open and honest communication about an effort is instrumental in building trust.  The communication must flow freely within a work group, both up and down the leadership ladder.  If team members do not feel like their leaders want to hear honest assessments of the situation, a decision, or an issue, they will shut down communication.  Leaders will then find that they are the last ones to know about problems.  They will not have input from their best advisers on the project, the people who are doing the work.  The work team whose leader does not trust them will not get the full picture of what they're trying to accomplish.  The team may not even be given an understanding of the scope and interrelationships of efforts and so make fallacious assumptions about the work and further undermine both their trust of leadership and leadership's trust in them.  To carry trust even further, the customer must be able to trust that they are getting what they have asked for and what the team has promised to deliver.  Setting realistic expectations and communicating constantly about status and deliverables will keep trust alive between the customer and the supplier.

Leadership is a quality some believe comes from a title.  This could not be further from the truth.  Leadership is seldom given and is almost always developed organically.  Work teams will naturally start to look toward those individuals who express a clear vision of how things are.  They will respect and follow the person who they feel is giving them the opportunity to succeed by providing key information on what is to be done, the goals for doing work, any supporting information, and honest acknowledgement.   They will follow the person(s) making decisions they feel are well considered and take account of different perspectives.  If a work group's managers or other leaders dither rather than decide, the team will feel rudderless since they have no definite goal and no rationale for that goal. Output will suffer and a joint effort will experience thrashing as different factions start working to their own agenda which likely will be divergent.  A more insidious risk lies in the team starting to follow poisonous leaders who can and will crop up in work groups with a power vacuum.  There is always the possibility of a person within a group who will be critical of the project, the organization, and/or leadership and offer themselves as the person speaking the truth about the situation.  

You MAY be able to limp along with communication and leadership alone, but your team(s) will not be as engaged as they could be.  Trust is the glue that binds teams and keeps them working harmoniously together.  Trust breeds frank communication of issues or risks because the team members feel that they can say the hard and unpopular things without fear of retribution.  They feel valued and invested in the work being done.  They have some skin in the game.  That's why I believe that you really must have communication, leadership, and trust in any work effort in order to succeed together.

Agendas - Everybody Needs One

I did a PowerPoint presentation on this some while ago and thought I'd transfer it to blog format.  Everyone seems to "know" the value of agendas but still, we all get invited to and, worse yet, set up meetings without them.  I'm guilty.  I will admit it.  We are all busy and we all are crunched for time.  I put it to you that one reason for that is wasted time attending meetings with no direction or output expected.  If we had purpose for every meeting we attended, I'm willing to bet we would not feel so pressed for time.

Agenda: n. a list of items of business to be considered and discussed at a meeting; a list or program of things to be done or addressed.  Derived from the Latin agere, which means "to do".

Agendas are about getting something done.  Whether it's making decisions, informing others, or producing an actual product, the agenda establishes expectations of completion when all is said and done.  When was the last time that you felt like the bulk of time spent in a meeting was productive or walked out of a meeting feeling accomplished?  When was the last time the converse was true?  Did either instance of meetings have agendas? Did the poor meetings use and follow their agenda?  Having and using a good agenda can help assure success and give all attendees the sense that the meeting was time well spent.

Why do you, as a meeting organizer need an agenda?  Many folks feel like they don't need an agenda.  They may feel that it cramps creativity or doesn't suit the purpose of the meeting.  Can you think of a meeting that doesn't need an agenda?

I believe that having an agenda makes sure that everyone understands why they are there in that room and what they are expected to do.  It gives them a level foundation upon which all participants can build and do the work at hand.  It allows them to focus upon the expected output for the meeting and get things done.  People won't waste time wondering why they are there and should give enough freedom to let creativity flow.  Further more, it allows a team to know when they've accomplished what they needed to get done, because they know what that is.  If a meeting does not have an expressed outcome, it is impossible to know if you accomplished anything.  If you know what you have to do, it's even possible that you can finish early and get back some time in your work day.

Meetings without clarity of purpose cost employers big money, when you look at the cost of everyone's time.  If they produce nothing, it's time wasted and money wasted.  Meetings without a clarity of purpose reinforce the attitude that meetings are not real work.  This results in people arriving late, skipping the meeting entirely, or disengaging from the task at hand by fiddling with their cell phones, doodling, or daydreaming.  No one comes to work to waste time so workers in fruitless meetings become frustrated and disengaged further from the work.

Agendas set the stage for success in the short and long term.  You know you should never embark upon a project without a plan.  Treat each meeting as a mini-project and have your agenda (plan) ready. You will be surprised at how well people start regarding your meetings.  If you give people a clarity of purpose, they will place a value on them.  They will stop dreading them.  They will stay engaged during the meeting, feel like they are contributing and generally be more engaged in the project.

A good agenda sets the plan for success.  A bad one will leave people adrift and may result in the failure to accomplish the meetings goals.  Being realistic is critical to meeting success.  If you try to cram too much into a meeting, it will fail.  You must also be sure to include everyone that is required to do the work to be done.  If making decisions, you will need to have all of the decision makers there.  You will need to present all the information, options, or ideas for consideration.  You will need to make time to hear from all of those at the meeting.  If you don't need to hear from someone, don't invite them, or make them optional attendees.  In your agenda, establish roles and responsibilities for attendees, as needed.  Advise them of these roles and responsibilities well before hand, so that they can prepare.  If you fail to do so, your meeting will come to a screeching halt and you will have an upset team member on your hands.  Time box your meeting, assigning time for each segment of the work.  Doing so gives you a tool to move the meeting along.  Stick to your timings when appropriate, but recognize when the team needs to extend a segment and let them do it, but remind them of the impact.  Start and end your meeting on time, with allowances at the beginning and ending to allow people to arrive from other meetings and depart to their next one.

Because time is money, invite only those people directly participating in or affected by the outcome of the meeting.  This is especially important for working sessions and decision making meetings.  Give attendees as much time to prepare as possible.  They need to get their work and their thoughts in line to contribute.  Be sure to communicate roles and responsibilities early too.  That way your attendees are prepared to do what is expected of them.  Also, inform the participants of the format of the meeting and the ground rules, especially if you are asking them to be active within the meeting.  By making sure that everyone knows why they're there and how to prepare and participate, everyone will provide value that will get the work done.

Remember, agendas set the stage for success.  They help the work team focus on what is to be done and ensure that the task is completed at the end of the meeting.  They help people understand their roles and the reason they are invited and they provide a plan for the activities to take place.  In the end, they're the checklist that helps you, the facilitator, know that you've guided the team to success.

Finding A Sense of Urgency In A Relaxed Environment

Finding Urgency in a Relaxed Work Environment

I am one lucky duck.  I work for an incredible employer who values each and every one of its employees.  We work in a relaxed environment where the I.T. professionals are treated well and where our business owners know our worth.  Not only that, they are a part of our teams, resulting in a high level of trust between the business and the technical sides.  That in and of itself is a rare occurrence.  Sometimes I think I’ve reached employment nirvana.

Other times, however, I have been beset by a nagging little voice.  That little voice probes and pokes me when I review our backlog or talk to our product owners about future product plans.  I can’t help but wonder “Are we moving as fast as we can or should?”

A little background here.  I come from a series of workplaces where I.T. had little to no control over timelines.  I come from a background where I.T. resources were treated as highly interchangeable assets in a cost center.  We could be replaced with little to no fuss or muss.  The business drove our timelines and I.T. was tasked with fulfilling their requests at the timeline specified or risk being replaced.  As a result, we were driven to work at a fast and furious pace.  As you may expect, we never lacked for a sense of urgency bordering on fear.

Coming to my new employer, I experienced prolonged cultural shock.  The pace at my new employer proceeded much more gracefully and I.T. was able to negotiate with project/product ownership to determine the timelines (unless they were driven by regulatory compliance).  This is when I started hearing that little nagging voice.

The sense of urgency that I was missing was mostly of my own making.  I was so accustomed to having the hammer hanging over my head, I didn’t know how to act without it.  I perceived my own work and those of my co-workers as proceeding at a snail’s pace.  I didn’t like this state of being, nor did I think that I or my team members deserved my own harsh judgement.  I had to find that urgency in the relaxed and respectful environment I found myself inhabiting.

To do so, I started by looking at the business.  I thought about what we deliver to them.  As an I.T. team, we deliver business value.  We may not directly make dollars for the company through selling our software, but we provide value to our company’s position when we give them quality software that meets their immediate business needs.  Therefore, it is extremely important to do the very best job we can to understand not only what they are asking for, but the context underlying the request.  It’s also important to understand what client requests and feedback is driving that request.  Often times, we can start coding early on and perform the requirements gathering as we work.  This can be costly, as requirements discovered later rather than sooner can cost time and money, and maybe even a client’s business.  I found urgency in the need to do the best business process analysis and requirements elicitation as early as possible. 

Next, I looked at the technical discovery and design process.  I wanted to work with my team to create rapid prototypes at a very low cost.  I pushed for use of wire frames and even hand drawn workflows to test out workflows with little to no developer time needed.  If these prototypes failed, it would be a matter of hours at most to revise them and present them anew to the client.  I found an urgency in failing rapidly with cheap prototypes rather than wasting developer time in creating a solution only to have it rejected by the business at a late date in the project. 

Finally, I looked to testing.  How could we as a team perform testing in a more efficient and time-frugal way?  I started looking at my own testing and how I may have been overlapping with the testing provided by our more than capable QA team.  I talked to the QA in my own team and discussed the matter with other Business Analysts.  This introspection and questioning helped me and channel my sense of urgency and help my team and the QA folks find opportunities for improvement.  It was incremental value, but value none the less.

My search ultimately led me to understand that you don’t need looming and unrealistic deadlines to have urgency.  You don’t need the looming specter of a highly competitive employee review process to drive you to new levels of heroics.  Urgency is there all around you to find.  Continuous improvement and reflection on how we work individually and as a team can fulfill that need.  Understanding the business drivers and the wants and needs driving requests adds to that sense of urgency and the need to please the customer, the team, and yourself.