Your team is burnt out. They are not getting anything done. Work is "low quality". You can see and feel those things. But what you are seeing is an output of something—the downstream effects of other things happening. In some companies this is a black box:
John, I love what you do, you awesome light shiner. Nodding along once again. Too tired to give a more contextually useful bit of feedback other than: I actually took the energy to write this despite only just emerging from the black box and that’s the biggest tribute I can give you right now.
The black box contains broken processes and their resulting half-done solutions, the empty chairs of the last coding team, and the cold sweat of the current team. Build a window, add a guest chair for the right folks to begin listening, and start talking.
Thanks John. Another perfect annunciation of a foundational problem that's too often overlooked.
As someone who's spent a lot of time "in the box" and is also now at a stage where I'm outside other teams boxes and able to exert influence, I have a few follow up questions...
1. How would you suggest someone "in the box" responds once the flashlight gets shone in? There's a mixture of "yes the fires are burning, we feel that more than anyone", "despite the Fires, there *is* a plan - there are just resourcing/focus/external factors/time getting in the way", "but we could still use support", contrasted against "the wrong kind of support/oversight will be costly right now", "please leave us alone to let us fight them". That's a difficult line to balance with a concerned executive!
2. As the manager / flashlight shiner, how do you best support a team that is may be out of their depth, even if by no fault of their own. How do you show support for where they've gotten to, but enforce change that may be needed to solve root causes - even if that exacerbates issues in the short term.
Hi John - I feel like you are working next to me and reading my mind! Thank you for this article as it was something that I was trying to convey to my team and leadership. We cannot plan something that we do not understand
I really cracked up at the end, and I for one, don't want solutions, because I don't believe there are any like that. Sharing reality however is a good first step.
John, I love what you do, you awesome light shiner. Nodding along once again. Too tired to give a more contextually useful bit of feedback other than: I actually took the energy to write this despite only just emerging from the black box and that’s the biggest tribute I can give you right now.
You have taken your flashlight and shone it into my soul! Where is part II? I need part II!
I’m dying and laughing and crying.
The black box contains broken processes and their resulting half-done solutions, the empty chairs of the last coding team, and the cold sweat of the current team. Build a window, add a guest chair for the right folks to begin listening, and start talking.
Oof, this hits.
Thanks John. Another perfect annunciation of a foundational problem that's too often overlooked.
As someone who's spent a lot of time "in the box" and is also now at a stage where I'm outside other teams boxes and able to exert influence, I have a few follow up questions...
1. How would you suggest someone "in the box" responds once the flashlight gets shone in? There's a mixture of "yes the fires are burning, we feel that more than anyone", "despite the Fires, there *is* a plan - there are just resourcing/focus/external factors/time getting in the way", "but we could still use support", contrasted against "the wrong kind of support/oversight will be costly right now", "please leave us alone to let us fight them". That's a difficult line to balance with a concerned executive!
2. As the manager / flashlight shiner, how do you best support a team that is may be out of their depth, even if by no fault of their own. How do you show support for where they've gotten to, but enforce change that may be needed to solve root causes - even if that exacerbates issues in the short term.
Phew. Thought this was going to be a tragedy but turned out to be a feel good story with a happy ending. Very real life for too many.
So real!! :(
Hi John - I feel like you are working next to me and reading my mind! Thank you for this article as it was something that I was trying to convey to my team and leadership. We cannot plan something that we do not understand
I really cracked up at the end, and I for one, don't want solutions, because I don't believe there are any like that. Sharing reality however is a good first step.
Anyways, thanks for this!
Another accurate article, but still short of solutions ;-)
It seems that each of the fires in the black box could rate their own metric?