Transparency as an “Improvement Force”
I can't help but align with sports analogies here. Nearly every sport has the notion of recording team and individual performance so that one can then review their performance and plan improvement strategies. It turns out that these observations are different than the anecdotal feelings one has during the game. It gives you a perspective and view into the reality of your performance and not simply your perceptions of it.
Often pros will sit down to not only watch films of themselves and their tendencies, but watch films of the competition. In both cases, they're trying to gain a singular performance advantage under the guise of continuous improvement.
I contend that transparent game filming is as important to technology knowledge workers as it is in sports. However, what do you get on film? I think the film in this case comes from absolute transparency and visibility into the dynamics of software development. There can be no padding or misinterpretation here because it will corrupt your understanding and influence your success. You need the raw data that shows what you're doing, how well you're doing it, and whether it is meeting your business goals. In the world of software this implies deep insight (metrics) into your SDLC dynamics.
Here I'll probably connect directly to the two types of work -- your personal work and your teams.
For the individual, there is nothing like real data that underscores your performance. Here are some film metrics that might be relevant:
- What are the times of day where you are the most productive? When are you least?
- How quickly do you recover from interruptions? What are the most costly types of interruptions?
- What are you truly best at? So that you can take on work in your sweet spot and improve upon your strengths.
- What are your weaknesses? Which ones should you stay clear of when scheduling critical project work? Instead trusting other who are stronger to do the work. And which ones are worth your working hard to improve?
There is an organizational development model called Appreciative Inquiry. In AI, they focus organizational improvement at the strength level. Meaning, they de-emphasize trying to correct all of your weaknesses, and instead want to focus on amplifying the strengths of the individual and organization. AI practitioners feel, and I absolutely agree, that true success is tied to improving what you're already good at.
At the individual level, you also want to pay attention to your team. How you stack up against them matters as well. Not so much in a competitive way, but so that you fit well into your teams' performance dynamics. I like to think in terms of complimentary skills across the team and having strengths balance against each others weaknesses. The expression "a team is only as strong as its weakest link" strikes home here. Teams need to be considering their complimentary strengths, by watching their game film metrics, and focusing on amplification and improvement as a group.
There is also the matter of whether you have specialized or generalized skills. While specialized skill makes us feel -- well special. They are much harder to translate broadly across projects in most teams. They make work assignments difficult and create skills gaps when viewed at a team level. Again stealing an idea from agility, XP teams try to take a more holistic view. The XP practice of collective ownership focuses on the team getting to a place where anyone can effectively perform any required team tasks. Developers lose their specialization and become better generalists over time. Testers become able to write a bit of code, etc. This creates a group that has the general ability to attack problems with virtually any member of the team.
From a team leadership perspective, coaches need to be thinking in these terms as well. Understanding their team dynamics, looking at the data interrelationships and providing insightful personal and team based coaching�toward improvement. Not in a soft or squishy way, but aligned with improving their teams bottom line, business focused performance. Transparency, review and analysis, and taking consistent action are the keys here.
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