@thelaggingteam.bsky.socialThey might even be giving fives. Not because they're happy. Because "I haven't been fired and I'm still getting paid."
Katrina L. Coker (The Scrum Mother) on The Lagging Team: Nobody Asked the Team.
What's a five worth on your team's survey? One word.
@thelaggingteam.bsky.socialThe cleanest scores come from the team that stopped believing anything will change. Disengagement is quiet. Quiet looks fine. From this week's Sidebar, Fine Is Not a Status.
Which of your teams has the cleanest scores? Now ask why.
@thelaggingteam.bsky.social"Nothing's wrong" is the absence of a complaint. Thriving teams say it. So do teams that gave up three months ago, and the dashboard can't tell them apart.
New Sidebar out today: Fine Is Not a Status.
Your quiet team: thriving, or gave up? One word.
@thelaggingteam.bsky.social"Fine" isn't a lie. It's an answer nobody checked. One better question would have found out.
New Sidebar out today: Fine Is Not a Status.
Your team's last "fine": did anyone check what it was made of? Yes or no.
@thelaggingteam.bsky.social"Do you have any problems?" isn't a hard question. Most people say no.
Katrina L. Coker (The Scrum Mother) on The Lagging Team: Nobody Asked the Team.
What's the last hard question anyone asked your team? One word, or "none."
@thelaggingteam.bsky.social"Nobody quit." Top strength on the review. She was proud of it. She also knows what it meant.
Katrina L. Coker (The Scrum Mother), new episode out today: Nobody Asked the Team.
Has "nobody quit" ever been the win on your team? Yes or no.
@thelaggingteam.bsky.socialThe leader says nothing happened. The team says they delivered. Same organization, same quarter, and both of them are telling the truth. The information never crossed the room.
What's the last thing on your team that never crossed the room? One word.
@thelaggingteam.bsky.socialA team's performance isn't a property the team has. It's a relationship with a standard somebody set, and only one side of it ever gets examined.
Last time your team was called behind, who examined the standard? Someone, or nobody.
@thelaggingteam.bsky.socialHe got somebody he could say a true thing to, in a building where nobody was saying true things.
That was uncomfortable for me. I felt like I wasn't doing my job.
Does everyone on your team have someone like that? Yes or no.
@thelaggingteam.bsky.socialA team that's genuinely slow and a team measured against a fantasy produce the same status report. Red. Behind. Slipping.
They look identical. Are the fixes the same?
Your red project — slow, or fantasy? One word.
@thelaggingteam.bsky.socialHere's what would make me wrong. Don't take my word for it. Go trace the date.
Follow it until you hit a name and a reason, or you run out of people.
Where did your trail end — name and reason, name only, or nobody?
@thelaggingteam.bsky.socialBehind is not a fact about the team. It's a comparison: the distance between where you are and a date.
And a date is not a measurement. It's a decision somebody made.
The date your team is behind on — do you know who set it? Yes or no.
@thelaggingteam.bsky.socialI titled an episode "Stop Blaming the Team." The guest spent an hour defending leaders. I changed it and said I'd learned something.
Then I did it again.
New Sidebar out today.
The mistake you keep making after you've named it? One word.
@thelaggingteam.bsky.socialNew Sidebar: Nobody Checked Who Set The Date.
Find out who set the date.
@thelaggingteam.bsky.socialI asked Chris Sims what a leader should do when the team is behind.
Chris Sims: ask what support that team needs to learn and adapt.
When did you last ask your team what support they need — this week, or can't remember?
@thelaggingteam.bsky.socialHere's the part I had wrong for a long time.
I thought his leadership had made a judgment about him. They hadn't. They were stuck too. All of them. And I didn't see it.
The last person you wrote off — judged, or stuck? One word.
@thelaggingteam.bsky.socialChris Sims has a name for it: everyone is busy, but delivery is slow.
Everybody's working hard and staying late, and it takes longer and longer to get anything done.
Is that your team right now? Yes or no.
@thelaggingteam.bsky.socialChris Sims: "When I've been brought into organizations and they're behind, I find out somebody set them up to fail."
New episode out today.
The date your team is behind on — realistic when it was set? Yes or no.
@thelaggingteam.bsky.socialNew episode: The Harder You Work, The Behinder You Get, with Chris Sims.
@thelaggingteam.bsky.socialI was wrong about what I'd find in that building.
Not resistance. Agreement. Everybody nodding. Sessions went fine. And nothing moved, because nobody said the hard thing out loud.
On your team right now — resistance, or agreement? One word.