My Pandemic Puppy, Business Success Coach
Like many people during our collective COVID-19 lockdown, my spouse and I decided to welcome a furry four-legger into our family in September. Our experience has been filled with joy, amusement, love, walks, razor-sharp puppy teeth, and a few unwelcome steps in poop.
At the same time, I started a new job as Program Manager with the Product Design team at RingCentral. I was surprised by the parallels in both experiences and realized that effective strategies for raising a puppy also apply to successful approaches to managing teams and projects.
Establish relationships and build trust.
In preparing for our puppy’s arrival, we read books, watched training videos, got advice, and made plans. We designed our home as best we could, posted a checklist on the fridge for the first weeks of puppy training, and were anxious to ‘do it right.’ However, the best advice we got was not to worry much about all of “that” in the beginning and focus on creating a loving bond with our new puppy, Honey. And most importantly, to establish a foundation of trust. This was terrific advice. In the early days of having our new furry friend at home, we spent our energy enjoying her, getting to know her, playing, snuggling, and helping her adjust to her new life. Once we established a foundation of love and trust, the work of training could begin in earnest.
Similarly, much of effective program management is built on relationships founded on mutual respect and trust. Establishing these key relationships can take time and effort, but they are key to cross-functional collaboration, reaching across the org for support, knowing who can help get something accomplished, and so forth. And, having positive relationships across the org makes work that much more enjoyable.
Don’t rub their nose in it.
Teaching a new puppy to live in domestic harmony with us includes house-training. For my grandfather’s generation, a puppy ‘accident’ led to swatting them with a rolled-up newspaper and rubbing their nose in their own waste. Our modern sensibilities are more inclined to a kinder and gentler approach.
Current theories of dog training emphasize positive reinforcement, using a reward for desired behaviors, rather than a punishment for unwanted acts. The rewards (treats, praise, toys, clicks), make puppies more likely to repeat targeted behavior, where punishment can damage trust and make training less successful (and a lot less fun!)
The business world has similarly become aware that incentives and positive reinforcement are powerful motivators. And while it may be important to acknowledge if people or teams make an error or underperform, it does more harm than good to dwell on it. It can be more productive to turn the situation into a learning opportunity and move on. Catch people and puppies doing something right, then reward and celebrate.
Define clear roles and responsibilities.
Before we even agreed to get a dog, my spouse and I had many conversations about who would be responsible for what. We discussed what elements of dog care we wanted to do, and what we decidedly did not want to do. He opted for yard poop clean up; I said I’d pick up the dog mess in a bag when we were out and about. He’s an early bird, and chose morning care; I’m more of a night owl and opted for the overnight shift. He sourced the vet and I’m in charge of finding a suitable doggie daycare center. These predetermined agreements were super important, especially when the dog needed to go out at midnight (on it!) or 5 am (not it!).
Working agreements and clearly-defined roles and responsibilities are also central to high-performing teams and well-run projects. When I start working with a new team, I like to review their existing agreements, if they have them. These can include their DOR (definition of ready) and DOD (definition of done), tools and processes, and other ground rules including stand-up attendance, whether cameras and mics are on, asking for help, and so forth. If the team hasn’t documented their agreements, I’ll facilitate a session for them to do so, and then revisit every so often — after a couple of quarters, or when there are new team members or other important changes to the team or their remit.
It’s also important to establish clear roles and responsibilities for the team, stakeholders, and project contributors. There’s an alphabet soup of frameworks for defining roles (RACI, DACI, RASCI), which can be helpful depending on the situation, but regardless of which framework is used (or any formal framework at all), it’s most helpful to define who is driving the work, who’s approving it, who the key contributors are, and who needs to be informed.
Ask for help.
Despite all the preparation and studying we did before Honey came home, after a few weeks of house-training accidents, crazy puppy biting, destroyed shoes, and crate training failure, we realized we were out of our league and needed professional help. We enlisted the help of a recommended dog trainer, and that has made a world of difference. Yes, it wasn’t cheap, but it was worth it. We got reassurance about what we were doing right and advice about what we could improve. A couple of small adjustments made dramatic improvements in our confidence and our quality of life. And, we have an expert we can call on for any future issues.
I’ve found the same to be true professionally. While there is an endless supply of management books, online training, podcasts, and magazine articles, nothing beats getting sound advice from a pro. I’ve been fortunate to work with some amazing coaches (shout out to Courtney Kaplan), and the DesignOps community has a great Slack channel where folks graciously offer assistance when asked.
Play early and often.
I tend to work too much and stay stuck at my computer for hours on end. During COVID quarantine, this got even more pronounced. But puppies require lots of play and outdoor activities. If we don’t get Honey out for a long walk or a visit to the dog park, then we pay the price in the evening — usually with a wild case of the zoomies, chewed shoes, or general puppy naughtiness. So, I schedule time to play with her. And it’s been great for me. I am ‘forced’ to take a break from the computer, move my body, smell the roses, and have a few laughs at her puppy antics. It clears my head, and I’m more effective when I come back to the office. I think more clearly, and I feel better. I’ve learned that taking a walk around the block can remove my mental blocks.
So, while onboarding our new family team member hasn’t always been easy, it has been filled with joy and surprising reminders about what’s important in life, and work.
