Are you stuck in the never-ending cycle of “I need to know more in order to take action?” Do you experience analysis paralysis every time you try to implement a new concept?

If so, you’re in good company. Most managers have struggled with this issue at one point or another. Let’s talk about how to get unstuck and take action that leads to real results.

It’s easy to slip into “study” mode instead of “doing” mode – here’s the catch:
You learn far more by doing than you can ever learn by studying.

Studying is great, and there’s definitely a place for it, but I can tell you from my own experience that it often acts like a security blanket.

Imagine trying to learn how to ride a bike only by watching videos and reading books. Sure, you might find a few things that are helpful. But there’s no way you’re going to learn how to ride that bike until you actually get in the bike seat and start pedaling.

Are you going to fall over? Yes, and that’s kind of the point! We learn when we’re in motion.

Isn’t it funny how we don’t judge kids for falling off bikes, yet we somehow have this idea that when it comes to improvement initiatives, there’s no excuse for making mistakes. No wonder we stay stuck in “study” mode!

But of course, overcoming fear is easier said than done. Here’s a simple three-step process that will help you cross that invisible barrier:

1. Recognize that you’re stuck in “study” mode. You can’t solve a problem until you admit there’s a problem in the first place.

Where is your time going? How much of it is spent reading articles and watching videos versus actually implementing the concepts in them? My guess is that you’re in “study” mode way more often than you realize.

At a minimum, you should be spending 50% of your time in “doing” mode, with the other 50% in “study” mode.

And I have a challenge for you:

Your objective for next week is to ask yourself every day, “How much did I learn and how much should I do?” If you’ve studied for an hour, make sure you spend another hour actually doing stuff, so that you reach your 50-50 goal.

2. Break the cycle of beating yourself up because you haven’t gotten started already. Tell me if this sounds familiar: you know you need to take action, but you simply don’t. You procrastinate, which leads to feeling bad about not taking action. You beat yourself up and procrastinate even further.

Here’s how to change the conversation with yourself to break that cycle. Tell yourself the following story until it becomes real for you:

“I’m in control. When I’m in the process of learning, I’m intentional, I’m learning on purpose. I can’t let learning get in the way of doing. Now, it’s time to stop learning and start doing.”

If you haven’t registered for Nave yet, you can do it here →

It’s free for 14 days, no CC required! It will take just a couple of minutes to come up with a reliable delivery forecast.

3. Take 10 minutes a day to perform one small action. That’s it. That’s all there is to it: put a reminder on your calendar so that you don’t forget to complete one small action each day, based on what you’ve studied. This is the simplest way to go from “studying” to “doing” on a daily basis.

Here’s an action item you can do right now that will take you from “studying” to “doing”:

Go ahead and pick an article from the Nave blog (any topic that grabs you, it doesn’t matter which one). Each article ends with an action item: once you’ve finished reading, make sure you follow through with the action item! Let me know which one you’ve chosen – I’m on LinkedIn, so send me a DM and tell me how it’s going.

I strongly believe you’ll discover pretty quickly that doing is a faster way to learn than studying, and it’s not so scary once you make a habit of it.

Thanks for spending time with me today, and be sure to share this article with someone you know who is also stuck in “study” mode. I’m excited to tune in with you on Thursday, same time and place, for more action-packed managerial insights. Bye for now!

The post How to Get Over the Fear of “Not Knowing Enough” appeared first on Nave Blog: Expert tips and guidelines for agile teams.

Hey there, my friends! I hope you’re having a wonderful day. Today, I want to dive into the issue of a lack of alignment when it comes to improving your processes. It’s something that can really throw a wrench in the works, making it tough to reach a consensus on which Kanban metrics to utilize.

Let’s face it, when people aren’t on the same page regarding the goals and objectives of an agility initiative, it’s no surprise that disagreements arise. And that’s precisely where the trouble begins.

Without alignment, it becomes a challenge to determine which metrics are most relevant and meaningful for assessing progress and evaluating any performance improvement.

The Consequences of Misalignment

Imagine a scenario where your teams have varying ideas about what constitutes success or how to measure it. Some may prioritize speed and throughput, while others emphasize quality or customer satisfaction. This lack of agreement can lead to confusion and conflicting priorities, making it nearly impossible to establish a consistent set of measures.

The truth is, without alignment, you’ll find yourself in a constant tug-of-war, struggling to find common ground that satisfies everyone’s expectations. It becomes a maze of differing opinions and perspectives, hindering your ability to accurately reflect whether you are making any progress.

And let me tell you, my friend, the consequences can be quite impactful.

When teams are not aligned on their objectives, how do you measure success?

Without a shared understanding of what success looks like, it’s like sailing without a compass. Each team member may have their interpretation of advancement, resulting in a lack of clarity altogether. It feels like being stuck in a loop.

Unfair assessments, misjudgments, and an inability to identify and address performance gaps effectively are just a few of the consequences you’ll face.

So, take a moment to reflect on the importance of alignment and the impact it can have on your initiative. Remember, my friend, alignment is the compass that guides your team toward their collective goals and unlocks their true potential.

How to Achieve Quick Wins

To address this issue, it’s crucial to foster open and transparent communication within the team. The goal is to ensure that everyone understands and shares the same vision.

For example, consider scheduling regular team meetings to walk through your vision where members can openly express their opinions and concerns. Encourage active participation and create a safe space for constructive discussions. This approach alone will help you promote alignment among everyone involved.

In addition, it’s essential to involve all stakeholders in the decision-making process. By bringing together representatives from different areas and levels of the organization, you can prevent any biases or skewed priorities.

For instance, consider organizing a workshop or a collaborative session where stakeholders from different areas can participate. By involving stakeholders, you increase the chances of selecting meaningful and relevant measures.

Remember, the purpose of Kanban metrics is to provide valuable insights and facilitate data-driven decision-making. Without alignment on goals and objectives, the metrics lose their significance and become nothing more than arbitrary numbers.

So, take the time to align your team, get everyone on the same page, and create a shared understanding of what success looks like. By doing so, you’ll pave the way for a smoother process and the ability to select the metrics that truly reflect progress and drive your team towards achieving its objectives.

So, what’s your next step? Open your calendar and schedule these events. Here’s the thing: you’ll only see results if you take action. And I’m here to support you along the way, keep you accountable, and cheer you on with every target you hit!

So go ahead and schedule these calls! Don’t delay, the sooner the better.

That’s it for today, my friend. I hope this discussion shed some light on the challenges of a lack of alignment and its impact on your goals. If you found this helpful, feel free to share it with others who may benefit from it.

Until next time, keep striving for alignment and success. I’ll see you on Thursday, same time, same place. Have a fantastic day!

The post My Proven Strategies for Aligning Teams and Reaching Consensus on Kanban Metrics appeared first on Nave Blog: Expert tips and guidelines for agile teams.

To spot opportunities for improvement and drive meaningful change, you need to trust your data. But, too often, teams doubt their Kanban metrics and, as a result, don’t feel confident making decisions based on those numbers.

More than ever, data and analytics play a crucial role in decision-making – but if you don’t have confidence in your metrics, you can’t reap the full benefits of Kanban.

Today, we’ll dig into these issues, with an eye on identifying the root causes of any distrust you or your team may be experiencing.

How to Lean Into Your Kanban Metrics – and Make Better Decisions Along the Way

Kanban metrics are meant to drive decision-making – but, too often, teams don’t trust the data emerging from their processes. Why? In many cases, teams have had negative experiences with data accuracy in the past, and they carry those questions and doubts forward.

Here’s a good example. Let’s say two team members look at the same chart but see different results. My best advice? Before you jump to conclusions, consider digging deeper into what data you’re looking into.

• Have you both selected the same date range?
• Do you have the same filters applied?
• Do you have the same setup in place i.e. mapping the same process statuses, excluding non-working time, etc.?

My point: don’t make assumptions. Instead, look at the facts and try to understand where the differences come from first.

Another common scenario: people trying to compare the results they see on their charts with results from a different tool. If you’re doing this, I challenge you to come at it from a different angle. Comparing results from different tools is not the best approach to gaining your trust back. There are so many different things that impact metrics, including:

• Do these tools use the same dataset?
• Do they have the same setups?
• Do they use the same mechanisms to make calculations?
• If the results differ, which one should you trust more?

If your gut says the data you’re looking into doesn’t make sense, instead of comparing results, try to understand the specific scenario you’re analyzing and brainstorm what factors might influence the data. Or even better, contact your vendor and share your concerns. I’m pretty sure things will make sense quickly.

Ways to Build More Trust in Your Metrics

That’s just one of the ways to start building trust in your metrics. Some other strategies?

#1 Run Experiments

The best way to gain trust in your data is very simple. Just test it.

Think about how cycle time, throughput, work in progress or even flow efficiency is calculated. Take a limited set of 20 or 30 tickets from your board and put the numbers in Excel. Then verify the results with the tool you’re analyzing.

Here is a great example of how you can calculate the percentiles using your cycle time data to prove your point.

This approach will help you and your teams gain greater peace of mind and build confidence in your Kanban metrics – and that will boost your decision-making process.

#2 Build a Culture of Transparency

When everyone in the organization has access to the same metrics, there is greater trust and accountability. This ultimately boosts confidence and leads to better data-driven decisions.

Be sure you’re granting access to all your teammates and stakeholders. It’s important to have everyone on the same page when it comes to revealing and understanding actionable insights.

One of the principles of any agile transformation is transparency – that everyone has access to the data that drives change management initiatives and has a chance to give their perspective on the matter. The more narratives you can collect, the higher the chance you’ll make the most of your improvement efforts.

#3 Develop a Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is a belief that our abilities and intelligence can be developed over time. By adopting a growth mindset, we can view mistakes and failures as opportunities for learning and improvement, rather than as a reflection of our abilities (or lack of…).

Your metrics don’t have to be perfect. Don’t get threatened by unpleasant pictures.

Let’s take a step back and think about the purpose of adopting Kanban metrics and analytics in the first place. The main goal is to gain visibility of the current state of our workflows. The ultimate purpose of these tools is to help us uncover areas for enhancement. We learn the lessons and then take action so that we don’t make the same mistakes again.

Learning from failure is the foundation of success. It is the secret ingredient that enables us to continuously improve our working practices, organizational culture, and ultimately increase business outcomes.

#4 Let Your Data Lead the Way

If you don’t trust your data, you won’t use it to make decisions. And if you don’t make data-driven decisions, you are stuck back to relying on intuition or good feelings. And that’s certainly not a recipe for long-term success.

If you’re struggling to deliver on your commitments, you want to understand where the delays come from. If you don’t make decisions based on your own past performance data, chances are, you won’t be able to understand what it is that actually slows you down.

For example, Is your QA specialist the bottleneck in the system? Maybe they can’t handle all the work produced by the developers? Is the work constantly being ignored due to other, more important work items constantly taking the lead? Is it being blocked by internal or external dependencies?

Your flow metrics and analytics will give you the answers. Without this information, you risk ending up pushing teams to work harder to meet their deadlines, when the solution actually lies in a simple tweak to your management practices.

You should always – and I can’t emphasize that enough – always let your performance data guide you towards your next steps.

Here’s what you do next. If you haven’t already, go ahead and connect Nave’s analytics suite to your management platform (it’s free for the first 14 days) →

Once you’ve created a dashboard with your data, analyze the results and let me know what you’ve discovered. Send me a DM on LinkedIn – I’d love to hear all about the opportunities for improvement you’ve revealed.

That’s it for today, my friend.

I hope I’ve convinced you by now that your data will empower you to help your teams find targeted solutions to deliver customer value faster. So let’s make sure that we do our best to address all the hurdles from the start to gain the peace of mind we need to make the most of our efforts.

Thanks for checking in and I look forward to seeing you again on Thursday, same time, same place! Bye for now.

The post Stop Doubting Your Kanban Metrics and Start Making Confident Decisions appeared first on Nave Blog: Expert tips and guidelines for agile teams.

More often than not, it’s well-meaning – teams analyze their processes to identify their next improvement initiative. They set a goal and put a metric as a threshold to achieve that goal.

More often than not though, they become so focused on hitting the target on that one metric that they lose sight of the big picture.

And while, yes, they’re making strides in making progress on their goal – often those boosts are happening at the expense of other even more important indicators.

That’s the challenge with taking a narrow focus on individual Kanban metrics. While one may improve, it’s often at the expense of others.

In this article, we’ll dive into the challenges of narrow focus, including strategies for avoiding falling into this trap. By zooming out to the big picture, you’ll be better equipped to think holistically, communicate, and constantly improve.

Putting the Pieces – And the Metrics – Together

I remember teaching my back in the day 3-year old son how to put together a puzzle. We started with the perimeter, and I showed him how to find and connect pieces with straight edges. It seemed like a good beginner strategy.

As he started to collect and connect pieces, I realized he was following my instruction to a fault – in attempting to build out the frame of the puzzle, he was so narrow-focused, completely ignoring the colors, patterns, and shapes of the pieces. He was just looking for straight edges and trying to force the pieces to come together.

Of course, it wasn’t long before frustration set in. He was discouraged and ready to tear apart the few sections he had successfully assembled. So we paused and took a step back to look at the bigger picture – not just the edges but everything that went into putting this puzzle together.

We’ve all been there. And it’s something I often see when teams are just getting started with Kanban metrics.

The Problem with Narrow Focus

Often people focus so narrowly on individual Kanban metrics that they overlook that 50,000-foot view.

To get the most out of Kanban it’s essential to understand not just how individual metrics connect but how each ladders back to your overall objective. No metric should be tracked in isolation.

Way too often we fall into this less-than-productive pattern. Let’s say that your teams get very narrow focused and only consider improving throughput and their goal is to complete as many tasks as possible.

While productivity is important, when you’re narrowly focused on quantity it’s very likely the quality of your work will start to suffer. As you rush through tasks just to hit your quota, it’s hard to maintain the same standards and attention to detail as when you’re deeply focused.

In this case, as you’re producing more work, your narrow focus is actually hurting your progress rather than helping it. You’re not considering the quality of your work or how each task impacts your customer’s goals. Instead, you’re only concerned with hitting a specific threshold.

That said, increasing your throughput is a great goal – I’m definitely not discouraging you or your team from boosting your throughput. But I am saying you need to consider that goal in context.

• Are you completing tasks that are truly important?
• Do those tasks contribute to your customers’ success?
• Are you sacrificing quality for quantity?

It’s important not to become too narrowly focused on the numbers. Instead, take a step back and consider how each metric relates to the larger picture, and adjust your approach accordingly.

3 Strategies for Avoiding Falling into the Narrow-Focus Trap

Let’s reveal three strategies that will help you make progress towards your objectives.

#1 Consider the Bigger Picture

Instead of focusing solely on individual Kanban metrics, take a step back and look at the larger process. Consider how each metric impacts the others and how they all work together.

Doing things right doesn’t mean you’re doing the right things. Tracking throughput is great but if it turns out the features you’re releasing aren’t being utilized by your customers as much as anticipated, you need to take a beat and zoom out.

Your team may want to analyze end-user feedback and conduct user acceptance testing to understand what your clients really want. Even if this means tweaking your existing prioritization mechanism.

And if that change results in lower throughput and longer cycle times in the short term, that’s okay because it ultimately leads to a better outcome.

#2 Communicate Effectively

Let’s say that your team is focused on increasing the throughput metric. They’re working to complete as many tasks as possible in a short amount of time until – spoiler alert! – their narrow focus sets them back.

Yes, until that point the team was making progress. However, they quickly realized that, while the number of tasks completed increased, the cycle time did not decrease as expected.

Your team will only be able to dig into the actual problem through effective communication and collaboration – and when they do, they’ll likely discover certain tasks are being prioritized at the expense of others. This almost always leads to delays in overall delivery speed.

This is a perfect example of flow debt. Any shift in priorities, deviation in the management focus, or other mid-process interruption can generate flow debt.

Delaying work is, often, the less costly effect of flow debt. More crucial? Flow debt can have a negative impact on the predictability of your delivery workflow and makes your forecasts less accurate.

Once the team has identified the root cause of the problem, they can experiment with different approaches to improve their predictability, for example introducing explicit policies on how items of different priorities should move through their delivery system.

Communication and collaboration are key to any successful team. Sharing information, discussing problems, and working together to find opportunities for improvement will ultimately help them head towards the same goal.

#3 Continuously Improve

Let’s say your team is solely focused on improving throughput and, as a result, they’ve been steadily increasing the number of tasks completed each week. However, their cycle time has also increased. Perhaps the team even realizes their prioritization process needs improvement, or they need to re-evaluate the way they manage their work once it’s already in progress.

By simply being aware of these facts, teams are broadening their focus beyond just throughput and considering the impact of their actions on metrics.

Over time, as the team continues to use Kanban and identify areas for improvement, they can make small evolutionary changes to their process that drive a better overall outcome.

Encourage teams to experiment to identify what works and what doesn’t. Metrics are important but they should not be the sole focus. Use them as a guide to help you make more reliable, more informed decisions.

Here is today’s action item: Now that you understand the importance of a big-picture view, I want to hear from you. Let me know which metrics you track. Send me DM on Linkedin. I’ll be personally following up with each and everyone so, once you message, keep an eye on your inbox.

Thanks for spending time with me today and be sure to share this article if you find it valuable. I’m excited to tune in with you on Thursday, same time and place, for more action-packed managerial insights. Bye for now!

The post Don’t Let Narrow Focus Derail Your Kanban Implementation appeared first on Nave Blog: Expert tips and guidelines for agile teams.

We’ve all been there. You want to introduce a new initiative – to shift your current management approach and try something new. But suddenly, doubt starts creeping in.

What if my team isn’t on board?
What if they can’t make the shift?
What if they don’t like the new approach?
Or what if my new vision fails spectacularly?

Let’s take a step back and talk about fear – specifically, the nature of fear and why we find ourselves getting derailed by it over and over again.

In 2019, all I could hear was constant self-doubt and second-guessing. I’ve been invited to speak at an industry conference in Spain. But once the excitement wore off, I panicked. I was thrilled to be asked – it was the first time I’d been invited to speak at a major event. But at the same time, my fear and insecurity completely paralyzed me to the point that I considered taking a pass. “Other opportunities like this will come along,” I told myself. “Right?”

Ultimately, though, I agreed to speak. I was able to separate fear and self-doubt from my rational side – the side that said, “you need to do this for yourself and your business.” So I took a breath, took a beat, and prepared to hit the stage. Which I did, hands shaking and voice cracking with every word (don’t believe me? Here’s the video…).

It wasn’t my finest moment. But I’m proud I spoke, even though I was (visibly) terrified. I can hardly remember a word I said. I was so laser-focused on the next word and the word after that – at getting from my (shaky) opening to my final nod without collapsing under the weight of my own fear of failure.

Our Natural Human Response: Why We Fear Failing

Whether speaking in front of your peers and colleagues, introducing new management practices, adopting new methodologies, or scrapping your entire strategy and starting over, change is scary. Why? Because, very simply, we’re scared to fail – and with that failure wind up feeling embarrassed. And that’s a tough emotion to swallow.

That worry is so significant that, when pushed, we wind up believing we can’t succeed. And that’s overwhelming.

I see this all the time – and the stakes don’t have to be sky-high either. I’ve seen countless people hedge when it comes to introducing new change management initiatives, especially when it comes to adopting Kanban. They don’t want to try something new and fail – especially if they’ve tried to implement other management approches, unsuccessfully.

And when that happens? That fear of failure can keep even the most high-momentum professional from doing anything. Even though it’s obvious their current processes aren’t serving them anymore, they stop and stick with the status quo. And nothing changes.

But we don’t have to succumb to fear of failure. By unpacking and understanding our emotions, we can overcome even the most debilitating fears, moving out of our comfort zone. Sure it isn’t always comfortable, but that’s where opportunity, achievement, and growth happen.

Balancing Fear and Fight – Shifting Away From “Safe”

Our fear of failure switch tends to flip when we don’t feel entirely safe – when we’re taking risks and stepping out of our comfort zone. Face-to-face with those hurdles, our brain goes into hyperdrive. If I can’t do this or don’t succeed, how will I feel – and how will others feel about me?

And when we do push forward? Often that discomfort starts setting in. It’s not comfortable. It’s not fun. It’s stressful. It’s like our fears are coming true with every single step. So if we weren’t completely paralyzed before, the further we go down the path, the more our temperature rises – and the more we worry about what comes next.

Here’s where the shift happens. Instead of leaning into that fear, flip the script. Don’t look at the stress, anxiety, and uncertainty as a bad thing. Look at these physical and emotional reactions as signs of growth. When we aren’t 100% comfortable, we’re learning, growing, and changing. So the more comfortable we get with being uncomfortable, the more opportunities we’ll have for growth.

How, then, do you calm your own fear of failure and reshape your perspective when opportunities feel overwhelming? Follow these four steps:

#1 Acknowledge Your Fears

The first step to overcoming fear of failure is to recognize and acknowledge it as a natural, biological human emotion. In other words, everyone experiences fear of failure, at least to some degree.

With that fear recognized and named, it’s easier to act on. When you feel that fear pause and ask yourself why. Is your fear definitely going to be realized, or is it just a possibility? If it did come true, would it be as bad as it is in your head? Could you steer away from those worst-case scenarios? With logic comes clarity – and with clarity often comes a more accurate view of what (likely) comes next.

#2 Reframe Your Mindset

Discomfort – and even failure – means you’re growing and evolving. Shift your mindset and really lean in. Because the more comfortable you are living with that discomfort, the more likely you are to take mitigated risks, challenge yourself and your teams, and push your boundaries. That’s when the magic happens.

#3 Start Small

Afraid to take that next initiative and introduce change? Why not start small? Break your goal into smaller, more manageable steps and focus on achieving those first. This can help you build confidence and reduce the risk of failure – and fear.

A perfect example: when it comes to adopting Kanban metrics, at the very beginning, start by tracking your WIP average age first. Don’t change anything else, just start tracking this one metric.

Perform one action based on what you’re seeing. If there’s aging work that’s been assigned to someone who is currently unavailable, jump in and tackle the problem. Or if the work is delayed due to a third-party dependency, escalate the problem. These all are very low-risk initiatives that can be performed on a team level. But those small changes can build as your confidence does, leading to bigger, more evolutionary shifts before you know it.

Get started with Nave’s Kanban analytics now →

Confidence is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. Keep building your confidence through bigger and bigger opportunities until you feel ready for everything that comes next.

#4 Celebrate Every Success

When you achieve that first quick win (see your WIP average age drop!), celebrate! No win is too small to raise a proverbial glass (or two). That positive momentum will support your confidence-building and help you start associating discomfort with these high-level gains. And that’s powerful.

Here is your action item: The next time you feel anxious about a new challenge, stop, and set a 10-minute timer. For those 10 minutes, just write – jot down everything you’re worried about – the actual fear and what you think could happen. Be sure and ask yourself:

What specifically is holding you back?
What is the worst-case scenario?
What would make you feel more comfortable moving forward?

When the first 10 minutes wrap, reset your time for another 10 minutes. During this “take two” you’re going to flip the script. Ask yourself, how can I reframe these fears so I’m in the driver’s seat?

If you can take control of the situation, you’ll be well-positioned to learn and grow.

With that clarity, it’s easier to commit and stay the course – to not just manage but embrace your fears and, from that place of power, keep growing and excelling.

I hope this article helped you re-think your emotions and, better, has empowered you to shift your internal dialogue and move beyond that paralyzing fear of failure. Be sure to share it with a friend or peer – someone who would benefit from this mindset shift.

Thank you so much for checking in with me today; I’m excited to see you again this Thursday for more managerial goodness. Bye for now!

The post 4 Steps to Rising Above Fear of Failure in Change Management appeared first on Nave Blog: Expert tips and guidelines for agile teams.

If your teammates feel unmotivated or detached from their process, it’s because they don’t see how their actions make a difference. Here’s 3 steps you can follow to help them reconnect.

Do you know what a lack of ownership looks like?

Imagine you’re looking at a split screen of two different workers. At first, there’s really no noticeable difference: both of them are focused on getting their work done.

However, after a few days, you notice something remarkable: one of the workers hasn’t said a single word the whole time, while the other one stands up and says to her teammates: “Hey, there’s no work that’s ready to be started – I’m gonna go ahead and analyze the next item in the upstream queue to get the wheels turning.”

The first worker doesn’t take the initiative to suggest any process improvements , while the second worker is just the opposite.

When people don’t feel ownership or responsibility for a process (and thus are less invested to improve it), it’s usually because they don’t feel connected to it. They don’t understand how their actions contribute to it.

They may not see the purpose or value of the process, they may not have been given clear expectations for their role in it. This lack of connection and understanding can be disruptive because people are less likely to take initiative, ask questions, or make suggestions for improvement. They don’t understand how their efforts will impact the final product.

3 Steps to Building Ownership in Your Teams

Here is how to help your teammates reconnect to the work they’re doing and take the initiative to continuously improve their processes.

#1 Ensure Everyone Has a Clear Understanding of Their Role in the Process

The best way to do this is by holding a team meeting to discuss the process and each team member’s role in it.

During the meeting, start by providing an overview of the process and its goals. Explain the importance of flexibility, collaboration, and continuous improvement. (It’s very important to go back to the basics!)

Next, explain each team member’s role based on their area of expertise. For example:

• Product Owner: Defines the product vision and roadmap, and works with stakeholders to prioritize features and requirements. Manages the product backlog, and works closely with the development team to ensure that requirements are understood and that the team is delivering value to customers with each iteration. Helps to identify areas for improvement.
• Scrum Master: Facilitates the development process. Removes any impediments that are preventing the team from making progress. Helps the team to continuously improve by facilitating retrospectives, and by coaching team members on agile principles and practices.
• Development Team (software developers, testers, UI/UX designers): Responsible for delivering the product incrementally. Collaborates closely with the product owner to refine requirements. Works together to design, build, test, and deploy the product incrementally. Ensures that the product is of high quality and meets the acceptance criteria for each requirement. Helps to identify areas for improvement.
• Quality Assurance Engineer: Tests the product to ensure that it meets the requirements. Develops test cases and scripts, and performs manual and automated testing. Collaborates with the development team to ensure that defects are identified and resolved in a timely manner. Provides feedback to the product owner on the quality of the product, and helps to identify areas for improvement.

Finally, provide clear instructions and guidelines for each step of the development process, so that team members have a clear understanding of what is expected of them.

For example, you could provide guidelines for backlog refinement, sprint planning, sprint reviews, and retrospectives. You could also provide guidelines for code style and quality, and for test automation and continuous integration.

#2 Communicate How Their Actions Impact the Process

A super simple way to communicate how team members’ actions impact the process is to provide regular feedback on how the team is progressing towards its goals.

This can help team members understand how their individual contributions are making a difference to the overall success of the business.

Let’s say that you defined a S.M.A.R.T.E.R goal: We are going to improve our cycle time by 20% by the end of Q2 by cutting out all the waste in our delivery process.

During your daily calls, you could provide updates on the team’s overall progress, including metrics such as throughput, cycle time, and lead time (never look into just one metric in isolation).

Go through the Aging Chart and evaluate any opportunities for improvement that will enable you to cut out waste. Examples of this include:

• Unblocking blocked work items
• Handling aging work instead of starting new work
• Pairing up to speed along an item that’s taking longer than normal

Remember: Your charts provide a clear visual representation of progress towards the team’s goals. Keep your team’s attention on your data to make reliable data-driven decisions.

#3 Show Them How Their Process Fits into the Larger Context

To help team members understand how their process fits into the larger context of the organization, provide them with regular updates on the product roadmap and overall business goals. This can help team members see how their team objectives fit into the larger picture and can provide motivation and purpose to their work.

You could also highlight specific features or improvements that the team has delivered. You could also share customer feedback or success stories to help team members see the impact of their work on the organization.

Encourage cross-functional collaboration and communication. By working closely with other teams and departments, team members can gain a better understanding of how their work fits into the larger organizational context, and can build stronger relationships and partnerships with colleagues.

And finally, a bonus piece of advice:

Always involve the team in the development of the process itself!

When you regularly solicit feedback from team members on how the process can be improved, you ensure that it remains relevant and effective over time.

It will certainly improve team members’ investment and engagement in it, and ultimately lead to better business outcomes.

Here’s your action item for today: Pick up just one thing from the list above, the one that’s the easiest and most straightforward to implement and take action on it as early as tomorrow morning.

Trust me when I say this, this alone will have a noticeable impact. Most importantly, it is one step further towards building ownership and driving continuous improvement.

That’s it for today, my friend! If you know someone whose team might be struggling with lack of ownership, make sure you send this article their way.

Thank you so much for joining me, and I’m looking forward to seeing you again on Thursday, same time and place, for more managerial goodness. Bye for now!

The post How to Overcome Lack of Ownership to Drive Continuous Improvement appeared first on Nave Blog: Expert tips and guidelines for agile teams.

It’s normal for people to resist change, even when breaking the status quo is the most logical step forward. I’ve got 3 tips for you to help your teams overcome that resistance.

Have you ever wondered why it can be so hard to try something new, even when we know it’s for the best?

Resistance to change is a common psychological phenomenon. It basically works like this: when our teams are faced with a new way of doing things, they instinctively feel challenged. Their brains go into overdrive, searching for a potential threat.

It’s a 100% natural response that’s meant to keep people safe. It unfortunately can also work against us and make it hard to implement new change management initiatives.

The good news is, we can understand this phenomenon better to help our teams adapt to change.

3 Common Reasons Why People Resist Change

Here are the top 3 common reasons why people resist change:

1. Fear of the unknown: It can be hard to accept change when you’re uncertain of the outcome. It’s even harder when that change disrupts your daily working routine. This is why people tend to stick with the status quo.

2. Loss of control: It’s natural to resist change if you feel like you’re losing leverage. If someone imposes a change upon you, you might feel like you don’t have a say or that your opinion doesn’t matter. This can lead to feelings of frustration and resentment.

3. Predictability: We’re attached to things that are familiar and predictable. We avoid things that require extra effort and energy. You might find yourself resisting change simply because it prods you outside your comfort zone. The more time, effort and resources required, the harder it is to make a change.

A little-known fact is that all 3 of these are actually rooted in a person’s identity.

Here’s what I mean:

Each person gets their sense of value and identity from the role they play in the team. If you were to implement a change initiative that affected the way they did their job, they might feel personally called out.

No one wants to lose that sense of security that comes from knowing they’re good at the job they do.

As a leader, understanding this fact will go a long way in helping you anticipate how your team members will feel about the business endeavor you’re initiating. It will also help you help them address their concerns.

3 Tips to Overcome Resistance to Change

Here are 3 tips that will help you overcome identity-related resistance:

1. Involve people in the change process: Make sure the people who will be affected by the change have a voice in the process. Take their opinions and preferences into account. Not only will they be more receptive to the change, but they will be more invested in it and likely to take ownership for their own role in it.

2. Communicate clearly and transparently: Some of the biggest headaches in life are simply a result of poor communication. You can save yourself a lot of stress by laying out your reasons for the change as clearly and transparently as possible – giving your team members plenty of opportunity to understand and see all the benefits. Make sure you also communicate any potential challenges or drawbacks so that your team members are prepared for them and feel like they’re being given a complete picture of the situation.

3. Provide training and support: Provide as much training as necessary to help your team members adapt to their new roles. By setting them up for success and giving them ongoing support, they’re much more likely to feel good about the new situations and prepared for the changes ahead.

Remember, at the end of the day, it comes down to empathy: understanding where your team members are coming from, and doing your best to acknowledge and address their concerns.

Here’s your action item for today: gather your team together and talk about the goals behind your next change management initiative. Be sure to keep the conversation streamlined and listen to each person’s input and specific concerns. No one should be left out of the process. I can say for a fact this is the most effective approach to overcoming resistance to change.

Thanks for tuning in with me today! If you know someone who’s trying to navigate a change initiative, please share this article with them on their favorite social media platform. I’m excited to see you on Thursday, same time and place, for more managerial goodness! Bye for now.

The post How to Overcome Resistance to Change and Break Free from Old Practices That Are Holding You Back appeared first on Nave Blog: Expert tips and guidelines for agile teams.

Today, I’d like to loop you into a new initiative we’ve just started. Each Tuesday I’ll be sharing a “mindset moment” with you, where we discuss simple but profound insights on how to become better leaders. I’m super excited about it, so let’s get started.

A few days ago, I had a conversation with several senior directors of product engineering.

One of them, a very experienced agile coach and trainer, had just initiated a new continuous improvement initiative. It was both incredible and inspiring to watch him navigate a whole new spectrum of emotions brought about by his new endeavor.

This was a guy who anyone could easily look at and think, “you’re already an expert and you’ve already achieved so much. You’ve constantly been improving your teams’ performance and making your customers happy – so why are you nervous?”

That’s when he said something that really struck me:

“It doesn’t matter what I’ve done in the past. Every time we put ourselves out there and do something new, the same emotions – the fear, the doubt, the stress, the maxing out, the feeling like you’re running a million miles a minute, the indecision, and all the decisions that need to be made – all of those feelings are the same and all of those feelings show up every time we decide to do something new, bigger, and greater.”

When we start a new agility initiative, we’re stepping into uncharted territory. You might be tempted to think that because you’ve done it before you won’t feel the same feelings all over again. Guess what, it’s not going to happen! You will always feel uncomfortable and unsure. That’s the not-so-good news.

Now for the good news:

Feelings of discomfort, doubt, or even fear are normal. You feel these feelings because you’re pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone. You feel these feelings because you are growing.

I’ve been in this game for 15 years now and I can tell you, I still continue to feel fear, doubt, overwhelm, and indecision all the time.

Here’s a simple mindset shift I’m proposing you try:

Instead of fighting against the uncomfortable feelings that make you want to pull the brakes, instead of running against them, embrace them. Because they are normal (they really are!). Tell yourself the following story:

“If I am feeling afraid and uncomfortable, it means I’m doing something bigger and better than before.”

We expect a lot out of ourselves, and sometimes those expectations aren’t realistic. We want to get all the good results without having to go through any pain or failure. We want to be as close to perfect as possible.

I struggle with this, too. So this is a reminder to both of us to celebrate those feelings of discomfort instead of pushing them away because it means that together we’re growing and doing bigger, more courageous things.

The post THIS Is How You Know You’re Growing appeared first on Nave Blog: Expert tips and guidelines for agile teams.