Listening to a favorite
Last night I was listening to a favorite song, Blue on Black, by Kenny Wayne Shepherd. As an aspiring Blues guitarist, this song is captivating.
It’s a blues rock classic that was released in the late 1990s. As I was listening to the words they began to resonate more and more. They began to remind me of coaching engagements that didn’t pan out so well.
So I got to thinking…
An engagement that goes nowhere
I’m pretty certain most, if not all, Agile Coaches have encountered environments or teams where their efforts yielded few to no meaningful results.
You observe the environment, meet with the players, you develop a game plan. You collect data as everyone these days wants “data driven change”. Armed with an improvement backlog or something similar, you’re ready to dig in and enhance value creation.
You teach the teams, you coach the management, you work through various inspect & adapt methods. You show the data, you extol the virtues of Agile, you paint the beautiful picture.
But Nothing Changes.
Teams will not take up meaningful experiments. Management continues with their status quo Tayloristic approaches. Buy-in at this point is minimal at best.
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was forced by Hades to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity. When nearing the top the boulder would slip away, roll back down, and Sisyphus would need to start again.
In today’s culture, tasks that require great energy, only to be proven futile again and again, are described as being Sisyphean,in reference to the Greek myth.
What was happening?
In his groundbreaking book Think Again, Wharton professor Adam Grant describes 4 different mindsets, or modes in which we might operate. Three of which are:
- Preacher – in Preacher mode we want to convert the masses. We are quick to jump up on a soapbox. We profess the benefits of being Agile. We often become logic bullies to convince others we know what’s best for them. We may be far more subtle but underneath it all our goal is to prove ourselves right.
- Prosecutor – in Prosecutor mode our goal is to prove others wrong. We interrogate their beliefs and methods in order to use logic to convince them we are instead correct. This can often leave the client feel belittled or unheard.
- Politician – in Politician mode we’re negotiating with the client in order to gain popularity. We’re telling them what they want to hear rather than to risk losing favor by telling them what they need to hear.
In any of these 3 modes, we are operating from a position of winning at any cost. We want to be right and will use many different tactics to succeed.
A different approach
The 4th mindset that Grant describes is that of a Scientist. Rather than a desire to prove ourselves right, we desire to discover truth.
In Scientist mode we favor humility and learning above all.
We work by forming hypotheses and then running experiments to discover truth.
In situations where you are seeing little to no acceptance or growth, examine your methods of engagement. Do you find yourself most often preaching Agile? Are you continually trying to prove others wrong and using whatever means necessary to prove yourself right? Are you being totally honest or telling the team what they want to hear?
If any of those or similar questions are ‘yes’, consider approaching engagements with the mindset of a Scientist. Observe the environment, collect the data, meet the players – same as before. But then move forward using hypotheses and experiments to discover truths about the situation.
Sometimes… it’s just the wrong time
Back to the reference to the song Blue on Black, sometimes the situation just won’t bear fruit, at least not today.
These phrases from the song describe such an environment:
- blue on black
- tears on a river
- match on a fire
- cold on ice
- whisper on a scream
Each of those cases describes something that will not have an effect on the situation. Applying a whisper over a scream will not be noticed, nor would a tear dropping into a river.
Which is what KWS means with this lyric: “Doesn’t change a thing”
Sometimes no matter your ideas, your messages, your metaphors, your logic & reasoning, it just won’t land. Even taking an approach of a Scientist will not open minds. No meaningful change will happen. There are any number of reasons why:
- an unsupportive senior executive
- a contract
- a vendor
- fear
In such cases you might feel a little like Sisyphus, it’s futile to continue at this time. It may be a better use of your time and energy to find a more fertile environment, a place where curiosity and a greater desire to improve are present. Those are the places where it’s a joy to Coach the Willing.
Until next time!
