I know. Lemmings don’t commit mass suicide by blindly following each other and jumping off the cliff. But it’s a striking story. Sadly, it is a behaviour common to humans. I have seen this happening in my working life too.
For example, I have seen organizations jump on the latest hypes. Everyone wanted to “be Agile” because it was the latest and greatest. Now, we see people jump on the Agile-critics bandwagon.
As with many fads before people jump on Agile, half-hardheartedly try it, get disappointed and then join the bandwagon of Agile haters, critiquing it for the wrong reasons.
Now organizations jump on the product bandwagon. Everything needs to be centred around the product. These lemming organizations fail to realize how much of this product-centricity is strongly related to Agile. For example, Scrum is a framework to create and sustain valuable products. The fact people don’t realize this is very telling to me.
Today, however, I wish to discuss another variant of lemming-like behaviour: following orders without questions. To clarify, here’s an example. The CEO says": “We need to be a product-led company.” The next thing you know, people in the organization are taking action to do so. However, they never checked what the CEO exactly wanted. They just assumed they knew. And the obvious result is a catastrophic failure. Or at least wasted time, resources and money without achieving the desired goal.
Today, I will discuss how you avoid being a lemming running mindlessly without a clear destination.
Ensure people understand the goal
Don’t assume people always understand what you mean. Part of effective communication is seeking confirmation. You could for example ask people to convey the goal in their own words including how it makes them feel. This can help to understand how clear your message was in the first place.
Another approach is co-creating the goal. You can start with your suggestion and then invite people to improve it. I have had great experiences in collaborative sessions, using techniques like Liberating Structures to foster creativity, inclusiveness and focus.
The above suggestions are only effective when there’s a level of trust to ask possibly silly or uncomfortable questions. This requires showing openness to being corrected and criticised.
Communicate the goal clearly and often
Once the goal is established, you may need to broadcast it to a larger audience, like the organization or department. To establish the goal, you need to communicate clearly and often. You can add your goal to your narrative and continuously discuss and explain it. You also want to make it inspirational. People should want to work on it.
Communication shouldn’t be a one-way street. You will find better results when you allow active engagement of the people. You could ask people to explain what inspires them about the goal. You could organize workshops to allow people to expand on the goal and find ways to contribute. There are many ways to engage people and simultaneously ensure people understand the goal.
Find ways to measure progress toward the goal
Your goal describes something you wish to achieve at a certain point. To ensure people can rally behind it, find ways to measure progress towards the goal. These should be things you wish to change. Not things you need to do.
Suppose you wish to be more Agile. Then your goal is to be more effective in creating valuable products. It is NOT having 20 Scrum teams at the end of the quarter. Working with Scrum only is a possible approach to achieving your goal. It may work, or it may not. In the end, it is not about the approach. It is about the impact you make, using an approach.
To find metrics to measure the progress, it helps to ask the question: “What will have changed when we are successful?” You should know your starting point and the desired end state to effectively use metrics.
Assess your progress toward the goal regularly
Once you defined your measures to assess the progress, you can have regular moments of reflection to understand where you are, where you want to be and how you can ensure you work on the most important things next.
This does allow you to change course if needed when your progress is behind what you desire. This is ok. Learning that an activity doesn’t bring the expected benefits is normal.
Another benefit of regularly assessing progress is that everyone can get on the same page. It helps to have a common understanding and re-iterate the goal, where you are and what you best can do now. This enhances the focus of the people involved.
End note
People often think that when they convey a message, the receivers of the message automatically understand what they mean. And even more when they discuss topics that appear to be simple, like Agile, product-centricity, or collaboration. Everyone knows what collaboration is, right?
Sadly this is not that simple. You can’t assume you will be on the same page without verification. Assuming everyone is on the same page triggers lemming behaviour. This is especially so when people don’t feel safe asking seemingly silly questions.
Fads and labels are often attractive because they express something the organization does not have. The concepts can only be applied successfully if the top is willing to change the culture of the company. That requires leaders changing their behavior and continuously participating. Change cannot be delegated.
After reading this post, I was immediately reminded of the first Agile Manifesto value - "People and interaction over process and tool". This principle is crucial for any complex human interaction. If we prioritize people and their interactions, including the ability to understand others, then magic can happen. Unfortunately, I have witnessed many instances where people are only listening to respond rather than to understand the ideas of others. It doesn't matter what your role is, if you attend a meeting, try to be present, listen and understand other positions. It is essential for effective communication and collaboration.