When my kids were young, they depended on my wife and I for many things.
- Providing them shelter
- Keeping them safe physically and psychologically
- Offering unconditional love and understanding
- Nurturing their budding sense of self-worth and morality
- Walking them to school
- Preparing their meals
- Doing their laundry
- Reminding them about personal hygiene
There were many reasons for their early dependence on us.
- They were young and vulnerable
- They were still learning how to be in life
- They had little to no financial means
- They could always count on mom and dad
- It gave mom and dad meaning and purpose
As they got older, they relied less and less on us as they sought their independence. Finally, living away from home and discovering “adulting” for the first time as university students.
The reasons for their early dependence started to fade away. They were older, wiser and stronger. Both in body and mind. Albeit, they still counted on healthy withdrawals from the bank of mom and dad.
No more having to hold their hands as they crossed the street or to do their laundry. It was great to see them becoming more independent and less reliant on us as parents. At the same time, we had to adjust from being helicopter parents, coddling their every waking moment to letting go and allowing them to grow as self-sufficient adults.
When I think of my work as a coach helping teams become more self-organizing, self-sufficient and high performing, there are three tells that I look for to assess where each team is.
- Who’s holding the pen? When the team gets together to plan their work, who writes up the work items, decisions and then updates the plan? When the team reflects on their past performance, who captures what is said and the improvement actions?
- Who’s speaking? When the team coordinates its work, who’s speaking? When the team demonstrates its work to stakeholders, who’s presenting?
- Who’s estimating? When the team estimates the effort to do the work, who’s providing the estimates or sizing? When delivery commitments are requested, who’s making the commitments?
If the answer to any of the above three questions isn’t the individual team members themselves, then who is it? When this is the case, here’s a list of who I’ve observed either holding the pen, speaking or estimating on behalf of the team and its team members.
- The project manager
- The people manager
- The team leader
- The most experienced or tenured team member
- The scrum master
By enabling this “doing on behalf of” practice to become the team’s modus operandi, it perpetuates the team and team members dependence on someone else rather than themselves. It robs the team of its opportunity to become more independent and higher performing.
I get especially concerned when the culprit is the scrum master. When the very person you would trust and expect to have an agile mindset, understand agile ways of working and lead the team’s growth towards high performing doesn’t get it, it’s not only sub-optimal but it’s almost criminal.
So why does this happen?
Like a parent who can’t let go of a child who wants to, or needs to become more independent, the list of reasons are many. It can range from a desire for control to a desire to protect the team. Here is a list of reasons I’ve experienced.
- Old habits die hard. The person “doing on behalf of” the team can’t let go of their old ways. Constantly tending to and caring for the team’s administrative needs. Always more than willing to speak on behalf of those who won’t. Directing the team on what to do next. Old ways give them comfort, especially when those ways are tied to one’s sense of purpose. Like parents not quite ready to let go of being parents, they desperately cling on to a team even when the team is ready to move on.
- Conflicting expectations. The person is caught between two worlds. One that expects top-down driven, hands-everywhere management. The other that enables bottom-up empowerment, accountability and “eyes-on, hands-off” leadership. The person wants to try the latter but is getting paid to do the former. Unfortunately, money wins.
- Lack of psychological safety. People don’t feel safe to engage. Perhaps they’ve seen others try with mixed results especially if weakness or failure is not an option or condoned. So, they automatically defer to the most confident or most outspoken or most senior person. Letting everyone else languish in complacency.
- Too mundane. Like “adulting”, if the work to be done is perceived as uninteresting, administrative, tedious or low value-add, people will jump at the chance to off-load to others who would be happy to do it. Like a child who doesn’t like cleaning their room, doing laundry or cooking for themselves. They’ll rather just leave it for their parents to do.
- Lack of education or training. Sometimes people just aren’t aware of the implications of their actions. Becoming a high performing team doesn’t happen overnight or by magic. It takes an investment in training, learning and trying new ways. An investment that many say they have no time for because they’re too busy doing things the same way they’ve always done them.
Like a parent and/or child that doesn’t want to let go of the other, teams will not let go and grow if there are others who continue “doing on behalf of” the team members. Someone or something is needed to break the cycle.
I see hope when I observe…
- Team members holding their own pens
- Team members speaking for themselves
- Team members estimating and committing to their own work
Next Chapter Consulting 