I enjoy challenges. Yesterday, Linnea George place this in the comments of my post.
“Taking a hard look at the past, discarding the baggage, and then moving on with the lessons learned is a lot of self-work and a lot of mindfulness….Maybe the start of your next post?”
One of the most effective tools a product development team has at its disposal is the “retrospective” event. It’s an opportunity to inspect and adapt team processes so that the team can achieve goals and accomplish outcomes.
The U.S. Army calls it an “after-action review”.
On a personal level, each of us can take a look at what is serving us well and what is holding us back. For some people, like me, it was going through a 12-step recovery program. For others, it might include behavioral therapy.
My watershed came through the process of addressing the effects of PTS from my boots-on-the-ground deployment to Afghanistan. It took about a year of counseling to get me equipped to reframe situations and find “good” reasons for people’s behaviors.
Product development team carry their individual and collective baggage into work each day. If team processes or behaviors are not working, then they have choices to make about what serves their best interests in getting work done.
It’s tough to look in the mirror and acknowledge that you don’t like what you see. It’s tougher when someone is saying the same thing to you. Coming to terms with “bad behavior” isn’t easy.
Becoming a high performing team isn’t easy, either. More challenging is becoming a high performing organization.
If there is a problem, how might it be solved? It’s a direct question that opens an opportunity for discussion.
Product development relies on curiosity and the desire to innovate.
Consider curiosity and innovation as two sides of the same coin. One without the other may not achieve a desired outcome.
Curiosity could lead a team down paths that produce no value. Likewise, innovation might happen in smaller degrees that produce little value for clients and customers.
Taken in balance, they may be able to achieve accelerated results that outpace the competition in the market.
So, the next time a product team is stuck, remind them of this quote.
“An innovator is one who does not know it cannot be done.” – R.A. Mashelkar
You are welcome to challenge my observations in the comments below.
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