Week of 2021-06-14
Organizational mindsets are developmental
I’ve been playing some more with the idea of organizational mindsets in the context of a discussion of a team that finds itself “playing not to lose.” The thing that stuck out to me was that instead of seeing these mindsets as hierarchies--“how do I get out of this mindset to the next one?”--I find more opportunity space when seeing them as developmental. Through this lens, a mindset is a stage that includes and transcends the previous one. To get to the next mindset, the team has to master the previous one. To “play to win,” my team needs to first learn how to “play not to lose” really well. We can’t get to “play to change” if we suck at “playing to win.”
Each stage is a place to acquire capabilities that will take us to the next one. Overlaying my earlier thoughts on theory of change, the team has to spend a bit of time “playing not to lose” to learn how to sustain itself, to grow a “motor.” Then, this team must learn how to steer--grow a rudder!--while “playing to win.” Only then, the team will have enough capacity to “play to change.” At each stage, different sets of tools will be more prevalent. While learning how to sustain, honing tactics and execution will feel like the most important thing. Several of my dear colleagues got burned out trying to advocate for strategic thinking in organizations at that stage. It was heartbreaking, yet I understand now why this happened: the focus on robust strategy doesn’t come into view until the organization is ready to start “playing to win.” And only after the team has mastered strategy can it start considering concepts like “theory of change.” Until then, it will feel a bit “woo,” something that’s far too detached from the ground.
This stage progression isn’t guaranteed. Like in any hero’s journey, there are plenty of forces that may (and will) hold an organization at its familiar stage. It’s far more likely than not for a team to never advance to the next stage. For me, uncovering these forces and helping teams move forth on their developmental journeys is the most rewarding and interesting part of my job.
🔗 https://glazkov.com/2021/06/18/organizational-mindsets-are-developmental/
Own the tension
A couple of this week’s conversations about platform/product team interactions led to this insight. I’ve been noticing a weird tension between teams that are collaborating on certain kinds of projects and it wasn’t until I applied the 1P/3P framing that the nature of the tension started to reveal itself. The symptom here is that the teams are happily collaborating on the project, but the scope and requirements of this project continue to churn a little bit, like something is pulling at it. “I thought we agreed on this?” … “Well, I guess this is right, but …” Sometimes the tension manifests as prolonged and tortured conversations around shared processes and project governance.
In these situations, it might be good to check and see if the collaborating teams are in different parts of a two-sided market setup: the “1P team” that cares about the first-party side of the market and the “3P team” representing the third-party side of the market. The project on which these teams collaborate usually involves the 3P team providing means to develop experiences for the 1P team and feels like a great fit at first glance.
The tension arises because even though both sides are in a well-fitting customer-vendor relationship, their scopes go beyond that. The 3P team will likely have other customers who look just like the 1P team, but have different requirements and expectations. These customers might even be external to the company to which both teams belong. From the position of the 1P team, they will have this sense of being treated as “just another customer,” opening up space for heated conversations about “what’s really important here?” On the other hand, the “1P team” will likely be experimenting with ideas that are not aligned with the long-term direction of the “3P team”, leading to frustration around the health of the third-party ecosystem.
This seems like a good example of the challenge of coherence. Each team wants the other to be more aligned with them, to prioritize the work that overlaps. At the same time, each team sees their scope as a system where all parts--including those outside of the overlap--play a crucial role. There’s no right or wrong perspective here -- it’s a polarity. And like with any polarity, it’s worth keeping it and the tension it represents in sight. Make it part of the project’s charter. Speak about it at syncs and all-hands. Own it -- or be owned by it.
🔗 https://glazkov.com/2021/06/18/own-the-tension/
Being excited about disagreement
Chatting with colleagues this week, I am recognizing that it might be useful to talk here about disagreement. I used to hate disagreement. I would get tense and have this pain around my neck anytime I sensed a situation where people--even not including me--are disagreeing. Early in my career, I even prided myself in being someone who navigated skillfully around disagreements, a disagreement traceur of sorts.
Somewhere along the way, this whole thing shifted. I find that I am excited by disagreement. Not in the “ooh, people are fighting, let’s grab popcorn and enjoy their misery” sense. Not even in the “alright, finally we’re getting this out in the open!” sense -- though that might be part of it. My excitement about disagreement comes from the understanding that we all construct our own realities, and though we might believe that we all see the same thing, we rarely do. Our experiences are path-dependent, and it’s frankly a miracle that we agree on anything. From this perspective, disagreement is a discovery of a difference in this understanding of reality, a beacon pointing at an opportunity to learn from these differences, to add more depth to my understanding of reality.
When two TLs are having a heated argument in the comments of a doc, there’s something really interesting happening. They clearly both see something that the other can’t see, some valuable experiences that tell them they’re right. There’s a difference in mental models that’s just waiting to be discovered.
If you’ve worked with me, you’ve seen me use “Here’s what I am hearing. <insert my best understanding of the perspective>. Did I get that right?” technique. It may seem silly, but it helps to communicate that at that moment, I just want to understand what you’re seeing. Not interpret it, not pass judgement on it. I am happy that you’re seeing something different. It’s like a lonely eye finally found another eye -- hey, let’s try seeing in stereo! I heard it really adds depth! If I am able to let go of my perspective juuust a little bit, something new is revealed.
Sometimes it’s technical insight. Sometimes a hidden organizational tension. Sometimes, an underlying personal pain. In every case, my understanding of the world becomes richer, more nuanced. And that’s hard not to get excited about.