I was working with a failing team some time ago. I use "failing" to describe the outcome of the team - not the people on the team. Are you OK with that description?
An issue arrose in the stand up - a team member that was to verify the quality of a procedure did so and reported that there were a few records that didn't match expectation in the data set. Upon inquire the number of records not matching was over 2000. Most people acknowledged immediately the exaggeration - I could tell by the laughter. After about 10 minutes of discussing the details of the problem - it appeared the team had a handle on the specific situation.
I stopped the discussion and inquired if they could name the impediment. One team member did a great job of describing the impediment as a _communication gap_. Wonderful - I could work with that - the problem had a name and it didn't include anyones Proper Name.
"If the problem has a first name; we are going to have a problem."
I'm convinced that teams that can approach Radical Candor have an advantage over teams that are not yet able to have constructive conflict.
An issue arrose in the stand up - a team member that was to verify the quality of a procedure did so and reported that there were a few records that didn't match expectation in the data set. Upon inquire the number of records not matching was over 2000. Most people acknowledged immediately the exaggeration - I could tell by the laughter. After about 10 minutes of discussing the details of the problem - it appeared the team had a handle on the specific situation.
I stopped the discussion and inquired if they could name the impediment. One team member did a great job of describing the impediment as a _communication gap_. Wonderful - I could work with that - the problem had a name and it didn't include anyones Proper Name.
"If the problem has a first name; we are going to have a problem."
I'm convinced that teams that can approach Radical Candor have an advantage over teams that are not yet able to have constructive conflict.
Was the "communication gap" problem an example of Radical Candor? No, I don't think so. Yet, by naming the impediment (a pattern I was trying to establish). We would be able to refer to similar failures to communicate in the future. And perhaps remember that we could discuss the problem and resolve the actual problem.
But then I always want to go.... meta! And see if we are talking about the actual problem. I smell another problem...
See Also:
A conversation on Twitter that is an exemplar for lack of communication:
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| White Male Privilege - a default? |
Wondering why all the agile/XP stuff (like pairing, TDD, etc) doesn’t seem to work for a heterogenous team?— Sarah Mei (@sarahmei) April 29, 2018
It’s because they were developed by a bunch of white dudes. The practices assume the practitioners all have A LOT of built-in privilege. https://t.co/OI7XcHIigK
Cool Hand Luke
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