How work enters an organization or team is almost always a touchy subject because for many it is the root of the pressure on teams to do more than they are consistently capable of delivering — well. I was recently asked who’s problem work entry issues were by a department manager. My knee jerk reaction would have been to hold up a mirror, and they did bear at least some responsibility. But the real ownership of the problem has to be placed on the doorstep of the senior leadership. Several factors make it difficult or unsafe not to accept work that is pushed into a team.
- The method that each level of the organization is being incented/paid. Bonuses and other incentives that prioritize output over outcomes leads to the tendency to say yes to as much work as possible and then to cut corners to make it happen. Problems, such as technical debt, are ignored or spun to be someone else’s problem. People will generally do what they think is in their financial best interest.
- The insistence that teams continuously improve, lead by leaders who punish experiments that “fail.” Safety to try new ideas is critical for improvement. Punishing failures will lead to playing it safe and reduced innovation which means that teams get more done by cutting corners..
- Someone else will always say yes. I recently overheard a manager tell a team that they were not being team-players when they indicated they would not have the capacity to do a piece of work for a sprint or two. The manager pointed out that the team of contractors down the hall would be glad to tackle the work, so why did they need this team?.
- Leaders leverage mismatches of power to get to yes. I followed the manager down the hall after the discussion in #3 (above) and listened as they pressured the team of contractors to take the work. The words “I will remember your answer when we renew the contract” were actually uttered to the entire team. Mismatches of power preclude saying no.
When the manager asked who owned work entry problems the answer had to start with senior leadership because they create and own the culture of the organization. Their words and actions need to match. If an organization wants to be agile or have an agile mindset, senior leaders need to foster the environment that makes controlling the flow of work safe. Begin by changing how leaders in your organization are paid and incented. Senior leadership ownership of culture DOES NOT let other leaders off the hook or even the teams themselves. Everyone in the decision chain needs to understand the implication saying yes and agreeing to a delivery date without understanding other agreements already in the pipeline and what the team can deliver. Remember that Fred Brooks in The Mythical Man-Month proved that adding manpower to a late software project makes it later” just because we are using sprints or iterations hasn’t changed Brooks’ message that saying yes to everything is a prescription to disaster. Senior leaders: you own it; fix the culture.
Who Owns Work Entry?
