Tech projects are hard. Mistakes and obstacles are a reality. Unhealthy teams allow problems to go uncorrected and problems usually become chronic. But that’s an uncomfortable conversation, we don’t like being told we are wrong. It’s even worse to be told we are wrong in front of our team, (our “tribe”). The art in this situation, is to make it about the team, and avoid making it about the individual. This triggers the good “instinct to become” wiring, and avoids triggering the bad “instinct to survive” wiring which diminishes our ability to think logically.
Good team leaders and healthy teams learn and improve. This means acknowledging mistakes. Healthy teams call it out problems in the context of relevance to team and goals and results. This is what that might sound like:
- “Hi team, we didn’t have a great week, lets take a minute to review, learn and improve.”
- “As I thought about the situation and considered my role. I recognize I could have done a better job of clarifying and communicating our goals. My bad, I will work to improve this area. Your feedback is welcome and encouraged”.
- “We hit ObstacleA, ObstacleB. Is that correct? Any clarification, additional detail?”
- “What are root causes and corrective actions for A and B?”
- “To learn or improve, I suggest we do X, and Y. Is that reasonable?”
- “OK, we learn, we improve and we move on. The past is the past.
Just like a winning sports team, we need to practice and play together to perform better. Today we learned and got just little bit better as a team.”
This approach avoids singling out individuals. It shows the team lead is accountable and will not pass the blame. This approach keeps it objective, focuses on the problem, and root cause, without assigning blame. It serves to resolve problems and move forward into positive space. Positive space triggers our “instinct to become” frontal brain wiring). By avoiding dwelling the negative, we avoid triggering our primitive “survival” brain wiring; and we diminish our ability to think logically.
Consistency and follow up are essentials. Do your best to identify and improve on each and every teachable moment. Its critical to avoid picking on one area while ignoring other areas. Avoid playing favorites, as it will result in alienating part of the team.
This is the marathon, not the sprint. Consistency, determination, kindness are the key ingredients. Golden rule stuff … is this the type of team you would like to be a part of?