Articles

Can't unsee

Make the unseen seen. Once you see it, you can't unsee it, and you have a fighting chance at the better decision.

How I see a decision

We all have mental models, and a decision map helps you see and navigate your own mental model, if not improve it.

It starts before any option, with the first question: what do you want, and what state are you in when you choose?

What people need are magic glasses: a telescope, a microscope and a stethoscope in one pair.

• Telescope: where do you want to be?
• Microscope: where are you, exactly?
• Stethoscope: how are you, really?

Seeing isn't believing. Sight is just a tool, which is why one of the lenses listens.

The learning loop

Then seven steps, round and round:

1. Aware: what aren't we seeing yet?
2. Observe: what is actually happening?
3. Orient: what does it mean for us?
4. Intent: what do we want?
5. Decide: what will we do first?
6. Practice: do it, then do it again on purpose.
7. Integrate: keep what worked, until it's simply how we work.

Then round again, as people who have changed.

It grew out of John Boyd's OODA loop: observe, orient, decide, act. I added three steps and changed one. Act became practice, because done once it's an act, and done again on purpose it's a practice.

Try it at your next retro: one real decision, seven questions, one sticky note each.

Draw it once, where the whole team can see it, and nobody can unsee it. Including you.

The productive paradox

Some of the most useful things I know sound like contradictions: two things that look opposed, and both true. Holding both, instead of picking a side, is where the learning is.

• Doing work and no work.

  Real Scrum Masters do ZERO work.

• The intelligence that isn't artificial.

  We are the stewards of intelligent problem solving. There's nothing artificial about it.

• Results by not chasing them.

  It's not about the results. It's your commitment to doing your best in service to others.

• Say less to be heard.

  Ask questions and wait 3, 5, 7 seconds.

• Fail first to succeed.

  We write a failing test first that defines the outcome we want to achieve.

• Professional and fun.

  If you're not having fun, then others will likely mirror that energy.

More soon, one paradox at a time.