Did your new initiative break? Did it not go as expected? Was the team unhappy with what you tried to do that didn’t work? Did it blow up in your face? Good – that’s the idea, your leading should break at some point. If it’s not breaking, it means you’re not working on it, and if you’re not working on it, it means you’re not trying to get better, it means you’re coasting. And if…
When things break, you can do any of the following; Get mad that it broke. Complain that it broke. Run around screaming that someone broke it. Schedule a meeting to discuss that it broke. Argue about the level of brokenness within it. Or, you can get to fixing.
I love debugging. Press F5 and walk step by step through everything you have just created. It’s awesome. Could you imagine debugging your life – pressing F5 and figuring out what is wrong with you? “Oh looks like you had a huge lunch and are now tired.” “Trying to do too much and need to slow down or drop something” “You’re stuck in an infinite loop because you can’t solve that problem” And on and…
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.