Spikes And Stories

Scrum tips and agile insights from a Silicon Valley agile coach

No One Thinks They Lack a Bias Toward Action

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People often talk about the value of a bias toward action. I know I did, but I believe I was mistaken. Why? No one thinks they lack a bias toward action. After all, busyness and productivity are hard to tell apart. For example, I remember a younger me who didn’t have GPS. When I was lost, I would never stop and ask for direction. So while I was putting miles on the car, I really wasn’t going anywhere.

My point is I think it’s time we reframe our notion of action. Let’s call it a bias toward progress instead. It’s forward movement we’re after, right? Or maybe it’s conscious or intentional movement since sometimes going backward or sideways teaches us something important. So how does a bias toward action differ from a bias toward progress? Let’s talk about that today.

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Trust Is Consistency Over Time

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I can’t tell you how many times I heard LinkedIn’s former CEO Jeff Weiner echo these words.

Trust is consistency over time. There’s no shortcut for either.

It’s great advice whether we’re an aspiring or experienced leader. And I think it’s just as appropriate for coaches. Why? We don’t have this pesky thing called authority, which tempts managers to impose their solutions on others. Instead, we coaches are naturally curious and have a desire to bring awareness to those around us. And since we’ve previously talked about trust, let’s talk today about what consistency looks like and why it matters.

In 2016, researchers conducted a study to investigate the relationship between uncertainty and stress. In it, participants were asked to play a computer simulation where they would turn over rocks. They received a mild electric shock when a snake was found under a rock but received no shock when no snake was found. The results were astounding. I had imagined that those receiving the shock 100% of the time would be the most stressed, but that’s not what the study found. Instead, those shocked 50% of the time–those dealing with the highest amount of uncertainty–had the highest levels of stress.

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Introducing Conditions of Satisfaction to a Team

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Last we talked, I was arguing that if estimates are supposed to be accurate, we’d call them actuals. That’s not to say that estimates are meaningless. When used appropriately, they’re valuable and serve an important purpose. Instead, my point was this:

Estimates are about mathematics. Expectations are about human connection. That difference matters.

Speaking of expectations, you should have one of me. I promised I’d finish what I started by sharing how I introduce conditions of satisfaction to a team. To set the context, I encourage you to read my previous post before continuing.

What Do We Need?

Assuming conditions of satisfaction are new to a team, we’ll need a few things:

  • A fundamental understanding of the the uses and misuses of conditions of satisfaction.
  • A few members of a team willing to experiment with conditions of satisfaction. We’ll talk later about why we don’t need the whole team doing so at the start.
  • Some work where these conditions will be beneficial. Something the size of an epic could be useful, but it’s up to the team and the context.
  • Access to and buy in from the person accepting the work. Sometimes this is the Product Owner, but I’m sure not all of us are using Scrum.
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If Estimates Were Accurate, We’d Call Them Actuals

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Almost everyone agreed that we need to get better at estimation.

I heard this recently from a team. It’s not the first time, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Teams struggle with estimates; others needlessly obsess over it. And while I agree with the sentiment, it’s true but useless. It’s unactionable. In order to appreciate how teams gets there, let’s take a step back and ask ourselves a simple question.

Why estimate?

Ask the team, and I expect we’ll hear that we or others need to know how long the work will take. Or that we’re required to put story points to all the things we do. Or we need to create a roadmap so leaders know when we’ll be delivering. While all this is true, none of it is at the heart of why, which is to make the implicit explicit. Unfortunately, even that neglects something even more fundamental.

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