What is this Syndrome?
Have you ever been in a meeting with extremely smart people,
everyone agrees to move forward to do something, and then when you are in break
out sessions doing the work nobody really understands what needs to be accomplished? This is the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Syndrome!
This is where everyone was so confident in looking at a high
level idea, strategy, work item that they just said ‘Yeah we know what to do’
without asking clarifying questions or taking the time to really think about the
scope, deliverables, and assumptions that needed to be accomplished. You all just nodded your heads in high confidence
only to be paralyzed when trying to do the work. Let’s look at a few ways to catch the team in
this action and to prevent it from stopping your momentum forward!
Perception is Reality so Write it Down
You have heard me talk about the importance of diversity in
organizations because it truly enables better ideas for the marketplace. In this scenario, 4 people could be looking at
the exact same bullet point and perceive the meaning to be 4 different things. This is where talking and vocalizing about
the true scope of the team and deliverables that need to be accomplished are
important. When we vocalize our
perception, there is a balancing that goes on between the team members where all
the differences in opinions are raised. Everyone
starts to balance their ideas together and it is a unifying activity to build
the map forward.
By building this map, I am talking about writing down what the
agreed scope of the activity is, agree on the output deliverables so boundaries
are created, and document the common assumptions / dependencies so that it
provides context to others outside members on how you arrived at the plan. Quite possibly when all is written down, your
map forward might look completely different than what all 4 team members
thought from the start. However, the
movement forward will be coordinated in the same exact direction, thus creating
momentum.
Is There Overlap?
When the complexity of a program increases, you will have
many different workstreams off doing work so that the overall product goal is
achieved. However, if you think about
the above discussion, imagine this conversation happening times 7 different
teams. Then each of these teams comes
back together in order to review their scope, deliverables, and assumptions. What I have found is likely to occur is that
overlap between the teams are identified and you have just saved time to
reinvest in other parts of the product.
Think about how many projects you have been a part of where
there has been contention in terms of overlap of responsibilities. By doing this exercise up front, you can align
the various teams on their mission and bring them all together for a unified
product direction. Reduced wasted effort
on one team thinking they owned something and another team executing the exact
same deliverable.
Wrapping it Up
The market is shifting continuously so do not become complacent
that the ideas that you are moving on today will be what is needed in the
future. Even with all the discussions and
alignment above, maintain frequent check ins to see the progress and make sure
you have the flexibility built in to tweak what is needed from your teams. Decomposing the larger goal into smaller
subsections will allow you to shift and make sure the right product is being
produced for the customer. If everyone
knows what each team is supposed to be producing, there is accountability that
is generated that is often spread to far across an organization. Be that leader that drives forward, holds
teams accountable, and can be agile according to market demands!
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