Cloudy with a Chance of SaaS - #004
The Path to Yes or Drive Your Team Crazy
Drive Your Team Crazy
“What’s the path to yes?”
…
“There is nothing worse than taking a bunch of smart, talented people, with a lot of ambition. Put them in a situation and then give them no mechanism for making a collective decision, they just kinda, they start clawing each others eyes out.”,
Bob Baxley from the Design Better Podcast[1]
I heard this quote almost 2 months ago, and I can’t stop thinking about it. When you are creating and fostering high-functioning software delivery teams, it is most certainly the team that will solve big hairy problems, but it is also the group that can rip itself apart if there is no “path to yes”.
Brilliant Decision Making at Apple
A team that can lead itself is amazing, but with any group, you will need a direction or goal post. You also need a tie-breaker of sorts. If the group is stalled, someone may have to assert their power to move the group in a particular direction while someone else may have to yield their opinion or thoughts on what needs to be done. That tiebreaker does not necessarily have to have the manager title, but they do need to be a leader. Later on in the podcast, Bob speaks to the brilliant decision-making capabilities of the senior leadership team at Apple. They had the moral authority, professional aptitude, and skills to point out an issue Bob’s team had not noticed in months of work. By always being one step ahead of your team, while also giving them the freedom to innovate, you as a leader are having to walk the tightrope of leadership.
A Process
Bob spoke fondly of his time at Apple. “His team would have a kickoff meeting for the week, set the week's agenda, and then work until the first critique session on Tuesday AM. They would have another of these sessions, towards the end of the day on Thursday. Finally, on Friday afternoons the team would show all of their design work to the senior leaders, including Steve Jobs. As I think about software development, I am always amazed that the core tenet of Agile development is the 2-week sprint. I get that is a nice round number, but in my experience, letting development drift along for 2 weeks before showing others your work, is equivalent to traveling without a map or compass. If you just bury your head in the sand and expect greatness to emanate from your fingers without looking up frequently, you might sail past wherever it was you were supposed to go. Or worse, end up far of course with no idea how you can get back.
The Apple
We always think Apple just comes out with their next innovation and assume it landed out of the blue from the mind of Steve Jobs, then Jonny Ive, and now the amazing design team. What I think is forgotten is the blood sweat and tears that go into creativity. The huge teams and processes outlined above, with ways to streamline and productize creativity, and ensures that no one strays too far from the mark so that greatness can emanate.
Thank You
Jim ‘The Designatic’ Tyrrell
[1]
https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/bob-baxley-podcast/