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A web show where Poornima Vijayashanker, the founder of Femgineer, interviews guests on topics related to startups, entrepreneurship, software engineering, design, product management, and marketing. Sponsored by Pivotal Tracker.
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Now displaying: October, 2016
Oct 26, 2016

Working on teams is great because we get to share our skill sets and learn from one another as we build.

However, there are moments that prove to be challenging like…

… when you think you’re in agreement with your team, get to work, then days later the decision gets shot down. All that wasted time, energy, and effort!

Or…

… when you’re excited to try something new, but you can’t because you have to get approval from multiple people, some who don’t even know who you are!

Dealing with the all the drama can be demotivating and stifle innovation.

So how do you get groups people out of their own way in order to make decisions, deliver on innovations, expose weaknesses in strategy, and is it even possible?

Yes, it is and my goal in today’s episode is to show you how!

I’ve invited Janice Fraser who is the Director on the People Team at Pivotal Labs. Janice has a rich 16-year career with notable accomplishments such as being the CEO and Founder of Luxr, CEO of Adaptive Path, and more.

We’ll be focusing the conversation on showing how to govern teams that are self-governing through a concept known as balanced teams, and much of what we’re going to be showcasing is based on the principles and practices of Extreme Programming  by Kent Beck.

While much of what we’ll cover applies to building software products, Janice has also applied it to creating policies and processes for enterprises and the Obama administration.

This is a really meaty episode, where we’ll be getting into the weeds and covering:

  • How to make decisions in the face of inadequate information
  • How the old way of creating limited ownership and understanding, and balanced teams have shared ownership based on vertical and horizontal expertise
  • How extending an invitation to NOT buy releases pressure from a team feeling like they need to change or adopt new approaches immediately
  • Why decisions often don’t stick and how the UBAD model (understanding, belief, advocacy, decision) leads to decision making that lasts
  • How to create your “Island of Freedom” where you can have autonomy with boundary conditions you’ve agreed upon with your team and boss
  • Why trust is a two-way street: gaining the trust to experiment and sharing news even if it’s bad
  • Why trust includes a safety net of knowing that people are going to make mistakes

If you’ve been wondering how to make a shift in your organization, and have struggled to get people onboard, then you’ll want to watch this episode!

One of my favorite quotes from Janice from the episode is the following:

“Agreement happens when people agree to stop talking. People stop talking when they feel understood.  Understanding happens between individual pairs of brains.”

__ 

FemgineerTV is produced as a partnership between Femgineer and Pivotal Tracker. San Francisco video production by StartMotionMEDIA.

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