WHY SO SLOW?!
5 reasons why employees struggle to get things “done”
Everyone is so busy, yet it takes ages to truly get something done. Do you need your co-worker’s help, but are they busy with other things?
Scrum offers some simple solutions for common organizational problems.
1. Many concurrent initiatives.
I did a scan within an organization that needed help with tackling very long delivery times and late deliveries. In a survey I performed, it turned out that 85% of the surveyed employees were working on over 10 unfinished projects. One department had a whopping 54 unfinished concurrent projects. Two struggles reported by those employees were a lack of focus, an inability to prioritize, and not being able to get timely support from their colleagues. More fundamentally, several employees expressed that they did not feel safe to say “no”.
When we want to accomplish everything we get hardly anything done.
This lack of a singular shared goal hinders progress and dilutes your efforts.
A goal should function like a spotlight. It should help you communicate what initiatives are in the light of that goal and which are a distraction.
Scrum offers us two spotlights: one that shines on the Product Backlog and one that shines on the Sprint Backlog.
🔦Product Backlog: Product Goal
The Product Goal is the long-term objective for the Scrum Team. They must fulfill (or abandon) one objective before taking on the next. — The Scrum Guide
🔦Sprint Backlog: Sprint Goal
The Sprint Goal is the single objective for the Sprint. […] The Sprint Goal also creates coherence and focus, encouraging the Scrum Team to work together rather than on separate initiatives. — The Scrum Guide
Even teams with teams using goals, I still notice anti-patterns. A “goal” might be a summary of work or an incentive complete an X-number of unrelated features. A second common anti-pattern is that a goal is set, but other objectives are still ongoing. Perhaps the most common is that individuals work on multiple Scrum Teams, each having a goal, or a team working on multiple project/products each having a seperate goal.
2. Wandering between horizons.
A goal is worthless if you can never really know if you actually scored. Often, we face setbacks because our envisioned outcomes lack measurable or observable criteria.
It should be clear what “done” means. It should be observable and ideally measurable. Ambiguity in defining success makes it challenging to track progress and celebrate achievements. Vague outcomes obscures our accountability.
Done should mean that you are ready to move on to other things.
Therefore Scrum offers another spotlight that you can shine on your increment to determine if it is really done:
🔦Increment: Definition of Done (DoD)
The Definition of Done is a formal description of the state of the Increment when it meets the quality measures required for the product. The Definition of Done creates transparency by providing everyone a shared understanding of what work was completed as part of the Increment. -The Scrum Guide
But even with something as useful as the DoD, there are also anti-patterns to be aware of, such as:
- It only serves as a phase-gate to other teams (such as a hand-off to a seperate testing or delivery team).
- It is only a functional check-list but does not encourage critical thinking.
- It defines perfection, leading to overengineering and unnecessary complexity. “Done” should not mean it can nolonger be improved.
- It only contains functional requirements, neglecting non-functional requirements like performance, security, and scalability.
3. Starting before finishing.
New objectives may provide a welcome escape from a commitment to current ones. The tendency to embark on new endeavors is often more exciting than working through your current challenges. This also contributes to creating trails of unfinished projects that keep begging for your attention. Cultivating the commitment to see objectives through to completion before initiating new ones propels us forward.
“Stop starting and start finishing”
“Stop starting and start finishing” is a mantra often associated with Lean Thinking of which Scrum in part is based. It emphasizes the importance of completing tasks before taking on new ones.
You may start some work later, but you’ll finish them more quickly as this way of operating improves flow. In this state there is less context-switching, reduced stress and better collaboration.
There needs to be free space in the agendas — not packed with back-2-backs. Which lane would you rather be in? And where do you imagine the cars will flow through faster?
Which lane do you imagine has the greater throughput where cars enjoy higher velocity?
4. UNSAFE to say NO.
Saying “yes” to a goal means saying “no” to a thousand other things. Saying “no” might involve displeasing the very stakeholders to which you owe your seat.
What if employees don’t feel safe to reject certain assignments. What if they can’t be open about their workload struggles?
A lack of psychological safety can lead to various negative consequences, including burnout, obscured failures, decreased morale, and compromised professional and ethical standards.
Psychological safety is crucial for a Scrum team to function effectively, and it plays a significant role in empowering team members to voice their concerns or say no to distractions.
A Scrum Team is a self-managing team that subscribes to living the Scrum Values.
[The Scrum Team is] structured and empowered by the organization to manage their own work. Working in Sprints at a sustainable pace improves the Scrum Team’s focus and consistency. -The Scrum Guide (emphasis added)
The Scrum Team members have the courage to do the right thing, to work on tough problems. They are committed to supporting each other in deciding what to do and, perhaps more importantly, what NOT to do. In order to function like this, they must be respected by stakeholders.
Therefore Scrum requires a Product Owner:
“For Product Owners to succeed, the entire organization must respect their decisions. These decisions are visible in the content and ordering of the Product Backlog, and through the inspectable Increment at the Sprint Review.”
— The Scrum Guide
Regrettably, it is quite common in practice to have Product Owners who do not enjoy ownership of a product. The PO may be reporting to certain influental stakeholders. In such a situation, the PO can team-up with the Scrum Master, who can advocate and seek support from organizational leadership to empower them.
Again, what helps a PO communicate their decisions, is the Product Goal and how it acts like a spotlight, through which decisions can be motivated.
A common antipattern is found in scaling approaches where work trickles down to a team through top-down portfolio management. Each quarter brings new epics and features that teams then decompose for several upcoming sprints.
5. Army of Busybees.
Some work cultures create armies of busybees. A good way to become a busybee is to take on many concurrent objectives, trying to please as many stakeholders as possible and prioritize your work engagements over your mental health. Busybees are real meeting tigers that play Tetris in their agenda. A full agenda equals good time management, right?! 👀
Another great way to be a busybee is to fill up all your remaining time to micromanage that of others. If you check all these marks, then congratulations, you a now a Certified Professional Busybee (CPB).
If you want to get things done however, perhaps one should subvert the Busybee paradigm.
“Simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount
of work not done — is essential.” — The Agile Manifesto.
When a busybee engages in an objective, it thinks about all the things that might need to be done. A Scrum professional however tries to eliminate as much work as possible for it to be done.
“There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all” — Peter Drucker
Conclusion
The 5 primary reasons why employees struggle to get things “done” are:
- Many concurrent initiatives.
- Wandering between horizons.
- Starting before finishing.
- UNSAFE to say NO.
- Army of Busybees.
The pervasive issue of slow progress in organizations can be attributed to the absence of a singular shared goal. Scrum, with its emphasis on Product and Sprint Goals, offers a remedy by providing clear objectives that act as spotlights, guiding teams towards a unified purpose.
Furthermore, the lack of measurable or observable criteria for success leads to ambiguity in defining “done.” Scrum addresses this challenge by introducing the Definition of Done, ensuring transparency and a shared understanding of completed work.
The inclination to start new initiatives before finishing existing ones contributes to a trail of unfinished work. Embracing the Lean Thinking mantra of “Stop starting and start finishing” is advocated within Scrum, promoting improved flow, reduced stress, and better collaboration.
The reluctance to say “no” due to concerns about displeasing stakeholders underscores the significance of psychological safety within a Scrum team. A self-managing team, guided by the Scrum Values, relies on the courage of its members to make informed decisions, including the ability to decline distractions. The role of a Product Owner becomes pivotal in this context, necessitating organizational respect for their decisions and empowerment to fulfill their role effectively.
Finally, the prevalence of a “Busybee” culture, characterized by an overload of concurrent objectives and micromanagement, impedes productivity. The Agile Manifesto’s emphasis on simplicity, defined as maximizing the amount of work not done, aligns with the Scrum professional’s approach of eliminating unnecessary work.
