What would your sprint look like if it was on fire? If there were no roadblocks in your way? If you had less confirmation about what to do and more focus on the actual doing? What if you achieved everything on time or gasp early? What if your Sprint was unleashed to its full potential? It’s not “impossible”, but you do need to ask yourself what is blocking your team, what is holding you back and…
I haven’t workshopped in a few years. Haven’t had the opportunity to get together with people in a room, ad-hoc, and workshop a problem. It’s something that gets scheduled now, gets pushed out, and gets delayed. And yet, when there is a problem at hand, it’s the most powerful tool that we have to use. “Let’s get in a room now and discuss” – I miss hearing that.
One chainsaw – consistently starts, is kind of powerful, doesn’t give up, keeps chugging, and needs some maintenance. Another chainsaw – new, strong, has the potential to do a lot, gets temperamental when you don’t position it properly or get the timing of the start wrong. Both do the same thing – cut wood, when you don’t want to be cutting wood because you need to cut wood. Which one are you going with?
Communication goes through many people. Along the way, it can become distorted, messages missed, and chaos and confusion ensue, the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing, and no one is sure what the other is doing. This happens, even with the best of teams, it happens. There is a trap that comes with these blips in communication – more meetings, more checkpoints, more communication – more, more, more – we need to…
You don’t always need to be the leader, sometimes you need to be the glue. Sometimes all your team needs is someone holding them together as they work through a tough release or deliverable. They don’t need future inspiration that will come down the road. They need someone focused on the now to get them through it.