Productive Collaborationfor Agile Environment

Fireside Chat

Goals for this chat1. Reset team communication across teams for success agile

development

2. Review benefits of productive collaboration

3. Raise awareness of non-productive collaboration

4. Self Awareness & Accountability - how we each affect collaboration

5. Giving and receiving constructive feedback

HIGH LEVEL GOALRelease amazing software at a quicker pace in agile process to gain more satisfied customers with happy employees

4 Core Concepts to Agile process

1. We value individuals and interactions over processes and tools

2. We value working software over comprehensive documentation

3. We value customer collaboration over contract negotiation

4. We value responding to change over following a plan

We value individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Motivated individuals and teams collaborating and working together, are more creative, and can produce

higher quality work.

Productive Collaboration

● Encourages brainstorming and conversation

● Built on trust

● Everyone is coached and led by other members of the team

● Success & failure is felt by whole team

● Failures are not blamed on individuals so people have courage to innovate and

learn from others

● Team goals outweigh personal motivation

● Need positive attitude by all - which is contagious, choose to be happy, others

will feel it

● Focus & active listening

What Product Collaboration Looks like

● Lots of energy

● People build onto each others thoughts

● People are encouraging of each other - that’s a good idea

● Confidence to add your idea

● Leave the meeting satisfied

● Team is on the same page and can move forward

Non - Productive Collaboration

● Evokes defensiveness

● Shuts down brainstorms and innovation

● Opinions are stated that are not helpful

● One negative spin sets a negative tone of discussion

● Team energy is focused on internal issues and not how to move forward

What Non - Product Collaboration Looks like

● One or two people do all of talking

● Disengaged people not participating or listening

● Off topic or past history brought up and derails the discussion

● Need to repeat or rehash what is being discussed when someone is not paying

attention

● Leaving meeting unsatisfied and frustrated (side conversations to clarify

points)

Own Accountability During Collaboration

Blocking Collaboration

Blocking: this happens when team members behave in a way that disrupts the flow of

information in the group.

● The aggressor: this person often disagrees with others, or is inappropriately outspoken.

● The negator: this group member is often critical of others' ideas.

● The withdrawer: this person doesn't participate in the discussion.

● The recognition seeker: this group member is boastful, or dominates the session.

● The joker: this person introduces humor at inappropriate times.

Be aware of creating conflict/tension

● Assume best intentions, remove past pretenses or your agenda in conversations

● Do not bring up past baggage to prove points, focus on the future and moving forward

● You can be right or be happy - being right is about protecting your own ego

● In a collaborative team, team dynamics come before your ego

Be aware of creating conflict/tension

● Avoid the trigger words - You, But, However

○ You makes the person defensive

○ but & however just negates your previous statement

● Speak for yourself - do not generalize your opinion or use higher authority

● Negative statements

● Sarcasm

● Non-constructive feedback

Constructive Feedback

Constructive feedback is NOT:

critical, accusatory, vague

Constructive Feedback is:

useful, meaningful, impactful, easy to understand

Giving Constructive Feedback

● If you can’t give constructive feedback, don’t say it at all

● Do not give vague and generalized feedback

● Give clear examples

● Do not exaggerate feedback to make a point

Generalization

“Everyone has been complaining about the new upload area”

instead

“We have heard from 10 admins that they are confused by the upload area. Here is what they explained….”

Generalization

“This is completely busted.”

instead

“I’m not sure this is working as expected. Can we review it?”

Trigger Words

“This looks nice, but the widget is completely useless.”

instead

“I’m not sure I see the value in this widget. Can we review it?”

Negative Assumptions

“Why didn’t you tell me about this functionality changing?”

instead

“This functionality is important to my customer. What can we do going forward so there is a better communication on this?”

Sarcasm

“Of course you never make any mistakes, that’s why you didn’t add validation.”

instead

“We should add validation here in case someone makes a mistake.”

Past Baggage

“Again, this wasn’t tested thoroughly.”

instead

“Is this something we should have caught in testing? How we can improve our testing going forward”

Need to be Right

“I told you last month that this wasn’t going to work.”

instead

Say nothing. No value is added to the discussion.

Taking Sides / Higher Authority

“Even the CEO agrees with me.”

instead

Say nothing. Does not add value to the discussion.

Negativity

“Didn’t anyone think this through.”

instead

Say nothing. Not productive addition to discussion.

Outcome of Constructive Feedback

● Ability to move forward and make progress

● Rapport is built between team members and increased communication

● Individual is confident to try new things and innovate

● Individual is self-motivated

Outcome of Non - Constructive Feedback

● Unclear feedback fosters a sense of helplessness since there are no ideas on

how to improve

● Individual leaves feeling dejected

● Inability to move forward, feeling paralyzed

● Unsure what direction to go and if you will make the right decision

● The giver of the feedback loses respect and trust, poorly thought thru feedback

diminishes your own credibility

● Giving inaccurate or ungrounded feedback leads to resentment by others

● Giver of non-constructive feedback is left out of future communication

Receiving Feedback

● Speak up and ask for clarification without defensiveness

● Try not to challenge the feedback and become defensive, instead focus on

getting more details on what would work going forward with follow-up

questions

● Do not take it personally

● Listen, ask questions, don’t argue or get defensive

● Know when to disconnect - if collaboration turns into non-productive conflict,

identify it and disconnect with statements like “fair enough”

QUESTIONS?