Growing up in Minnesota, I began skating soon after learning how to walk. It was the thing to do. I continued to play hockey through High School. I was pretty good. For High School. Going to college in northern Minnesota in the mid 1980s our school had a lot of very talented Canadian players. I discovered I was nowhere near their talent level. The biggest future star from UMD back then was Brett Hull. Go Bulldogs!
About that same time there was a rising star already in the NHL that we all followed. Perhaps you’ve heard of Wayne Gretzky. If you know anything about hockey you’ve likely heard about his talent. Even though he retired in 1999 he holds many scoring records that stand to this day. The top 3 are most goals scored, most assists and most total points. Not bad for an undrafted player!
Here comes the key information as it relates to this story. If you subtract all the goals he scored (894) from his total points (2,857) he would still have the highest total points ever (1,963 vs 1,921). We’ll get back to this later.
The Desire to Measure Productivity
I’ve been in the IT field since graduating from UMD in 1985 with a degree in Computer Science. My career has spanned writing code for decades to being in management to Agile Coaching.
Over that time I’ve encountered various methods to both be measured and to measure others. Most all companies have some form of individual performance evaluations. Future rewards, such as raises, promotions and bonuses, depend on these evaluations.
A Scrum Example
Many teams that use the Scrum framework will also use a concept called Story Points. These are relative estimates applied to new work items. The team estimates work items in Story Points in an attempt to predict how much work they can complete in next Sprint (typically 2 weeks).
Scrum teams establish an average velocity, or average number of Story Points completed per Sprint. Thinking back to the hockey analogy, completing one Story Point (SP) is the Scrum Team’s equivalent of scoring a goal.
Often managers, in an attempt to measure productivity, will use Individual Story Points. How many Story Points does each person complete per Sprint? This measure becomes the productivity metric.
Breaking it down, the averages might look like this. Team Velocity: 30 Story Points/Sprint
Team Member | Average SP Delivery per Sprint |
---|---|
Mark | 7 SP/Sprint |
Sara | 6 SP/Sprint |
Karen | 6 SP/Sprint |
Bill | 5 SP/Sprint |
Chris | 4 SP/Sprint |
Jeff | 2 SP/Sprint |
After seeing this report management might begin to wonder why Jeff is getting paid as a senior developer. His productivity is nowhere near people earning far less money.
In Team Sports Assists Matter
The stereotypical developer who locks themselves in the basement and eats pizzas and drinks sodas all day isn’t very accurate. The complexities of modern software necessitate a team approach. Agile approaches suggest a cross-functional team is optimal. This is a team which has all the necessary skills to completely deliver a product.
Like hockey, software development is a team sport. The team scoring points is more important than any one individual scoring all the points.
In hockey, helping a teammate to score is as important as scoring yourself. We call this an “assist”, or helping a teammate to score. In software development, this could be helping a teammate learn a new coding skill or solve a difficult problem.
Some formal techniques of providing an assist include pair programming, swarming or ensemble development. These Agile practices are designed to increase quality and correctness of the solution. They are also great examples of promoting a learning culture.
Make the extra pass
Ted Lasso
One of my favorite TV series is Ted Lasso. I resisted it for a couple years, my mistake. It is far more than a comedy though it’s advertised as such.
The main character, Ted, is the head coach of a Premiere League football (soccer) team even though he knows little about soccer. What becomes clear throughout the series is his coaching style.
He values teamwork over individual heroics. He values “making the extra pass” to score a goal. Valuing the selfless team level effort by making an assist. Helping the team over needing individual recognition.
Ted’s coaching philosophy is based on the Leadership teachings of legendary U.S. College basketball coach John Wooden. In many of the scenes in Ted’s office Wooden’s Pyramid of Success is visible.

Be Careful What You Measure
Tell me how you will measure me, and then I will tell you how I will behave. If you measure me in an illogical way, don’t complain about illogical behaviour.
Eli Goldratt
As team members understand how they are being measured they will attempt to accumulate as many points as they can. It’s human nature. It’s the path to higher rewards in this environment of measuring Individual Story Points.
Some indicators:
- Teams “cherry pick” easy work items to pull into a Sprint.
- Team members finish the low hanging fruit work items first in a Sprint, even though they are lower value, to score individual points.
- Team members working individually instead of pairing, swarming or working in ensembles.
The result in such an environment will be less teamwork, less learning. Also likely is lower quality and slower delivery. Rather than “help your buddy” team members will look to score for themselves. Assists across the team will reduce. The “extra pass” won’t happen. The team will score less.
Go to the Genba, Gather the Facts
Genba, or often written Gemba, is Japanese for “actual place” or “the real place”. It’s where the work happens. Where value is created.
For manufacturing, this would be the factory floor. For software development teams, this might be a team room if people are co-located. It might be online for teams who work remotely.
The key concept is to determine where value is created and to visit that location. Talk to the people. Ask questions. Examine how they produce value. Understand their issues and concerns.
It’s not management by walking around. It’s spending quality, meaningful time with those creating value. Get out of the meeting rooms. Put down the status reports and stop relying on dashboards thinking they provide an accurate picture of what is happening in the genba.
Don’t look with your eyes, look with your feet… people who only look at the numbers are the worst of all.
Taiichi Ohno, creator of Toyota Production System (TPS)
At the genba you will discover the facts. You will see who is providing the assists. You will see for yourself that Jeff is helping other team members by providing mentorship, teaching and guidance. He’s making the extra pass. Without his efforts the team would score goals (deliver value) far less often.
Don’t Lose Your Gretzky
By visiting the genba, you realize the Individual Story Point report is incorrect. It doesn’t show an accurate picture.
I’m hoping you discover this before placing Jeff on a performance plan. Or before Jeff leaves the team or the organization. Even without scoring many Individual Story Points, by visiting the genba you discover he is the primary contributor to the team’s success.
Like Wayne Gretzky, after taking away all his Individual Story Points, Jeff is still the total scoring leader of the team.
Teamwork matters. Prove to the team you understand this. Don’t be the reason great people leave.
If you liked this post and want to learn more about Agile, Lean or Leadership, please consider purchasing a book from my Recommended Reading page.
Until next time!
