Every time I join a new team, I go to the next fresh page, and on top of that page I write: “WTF - [Team Name].” Then I make a note every time I run into something that makes me go “wtf,” and a task every time I come up with something I want to change. (View Highlight)
For two weeks, that’s all I do. Ijust write it down. I don’t tell the team everything that I think they’re doing wrong. I don’t show up at retro with all the stuff I think they need to change. I just watch, and listen, and I write down everything that seems deeply weird. (View Highlight)
This is a trick I picked up from a team lead a few years ago, who learned it from a previous lead of his in turn. It’s one of my most powerful techniques for making changes on a team, and managing myself while I do it. So I’m going to walk you through how I use that list, and how it helps me to build a reputation as someone who’s really effective at getting stuff done, and avoid being someone who’s complaining all the time. (View Highlight)
There’s always stuff that makes me go “wtf” on a new team. The team talks for an hour in retro about a serious problem, and then leaves without making any action items. The tests don’t run locally and no one seems to notice. Big chunks of the build board are always red. Only one person can do some critical, time-sensitive thing. The team is spending a bunch of time on some feature, but when I ask around no one can seems to know why it’s important or how it’ll help a customer. (View Highlight)
Once I’ve got a nice big list, I start crossing things off. There are four reasons at this point that I might cross off something I’ve put on that list:
After a few weeks, though, I’ll still have a bunch of weird, unresolved issues on that list. At this point I’ll start talking about it with other people on the team, the team lead, and my manager.
I’ll ask why things on the list are that way, and how they got to be that way. I’m trying to establish credibility as someone who’s genuinely curious and empathetic, who’s patient, and who respects the expertise of my coworkers. That’s the reputation that’s going to let me make changes later. (View Highlight)
Before I started keeping this kind of list, I brought up problem I saw immediately, as soon as I noticed it. The reputation I got was, “Nat’s always complaining about things. Nat thinks we’re never doing things right.” People stopped listening to me. I was personally frustrated, and professionally ineffective. (View Highlight)
There’s no faster way to totally sink my credibility, as a new team member, by making a huge fuss over something that’s not a problem, or that the team doesn’t see as a problem, or that there’s already an effort to fix, or that there’s a really simple way to fix that I just didn’t see at first. There are always so many problems on a team, so many things that could be better, that I’m only ever going to solve a handful of them. Working on problems in the order I noticed them is rarely the most effective order. So the WTF Notebook gives me a place to park the impulse to fix it now, damn it! until I have more context for deciding what to work on first. (View Highlight)
Generally, I’ll find out that the things that problems I’ve noticed are around for one of a few reasons.
The team hasn’t noticed it
The team has gotten used to it
The problem is relatively new, and the old problem it replaced was much worse
They don’t know how to fix the problem
They’ve tried to fix the problem before and failed (View Highlight)
At this point I’m looking for one or two problems that have been bugging one of my new teammates for a while, and that have relatively simple solutions. I’m looking for something I can put on the retro board and know I won’t be the only person who’s bothered by that problem. Then, during the team conversation about the problem, I’ll identify something that teammate suggests as an action item that we could try immediately. That way the team starts to see me as someone who helps them solve their problems. (View Highlight)
The feeling that I want to create, the association I want people to have with me, is, “Oh, Nat joined the team and little things started to get better, almost immediately. It feels like we’re starting to make some progress. And it’s not like they showed up and started telling me what to do, either. They’re really listening to me, they’re helping me explain myself to the rest of the team.” (View Highlight)
Pretty soon, I’ll start to get in to the really sticky issues. The problems the team knows about but is afraid of dealing with. The things that aren’t “that bad,” but that no one wants to talk about. Maybe they’re missing the technical skills to deal with the problem. Maybe there’s a knotty people problem at the center of it. (View Highlight)
At this point I’m going to be talking to my manager. I’m going to bring them that list I’ve been working on, and I’m going to say something like, “Now that I’ve been on the team for a few weeks, this is what I’m seeing. We’re making progress on some of it, but some of these seem like they’re going to take longer. I wanted to get your thoughts before I try to do anything about them. Is there something I’m missing? Is there a particular area I’d like you to focus?” (View Highlight)
The reaction I’m looking for from my manager, at this point, is something like, “Wow. This is really validating. I’ve been concerned about these things but the team doesn’t seem really bothered by them, so I didn’t want to push too hard. I’m glad you’re bringing this up.” (View Highlight)
Then we can have a conversation about what their concerns and problems are. I can do some reflective listening to help them organize their thoughts, and I can talk about what I’ve seen work well, or not, in the past. They’ll start to see me as someone with good judgement, and someone they can come to for help solving their harder problems. (View Highlight)
There’s a very specific reputation I want to have on a team: “Nat helps me solve my problems. Nat get things I care about done.” That’s the reputation that’s going to get me the results I want in next year’s performance review. That’s the reputation that’s going to get me a referral a few years from now. (View Highlight)
