The trouble with feedback

I have mixed feelings about feedback. In my own life I have grown tremendously by accepting direct feedback from people I trust and respect. On the other hand I hate it when someone uses a demeaning label on me and expects me to be grateful for the opportunity to improve.

I have also pissed many people off with my subjective judgements, but sometimes I did manage to positively influence people in a honest and comapassionate way.

Here are some notes that I want to remember when I’m faced with giving or getting feedback in the future. Let me know if this approach works for you as well.

Ask for feedback

I’ve just left my job after almost a year as a Product Owner working with several teams of software engineers. To put it mildly I was dissatisfied with the specific ways that my organization went about the topic of peer review so I decided to take matters into my own hands and ask for direct, anonymous feedback from everyone I’ve worked with. I created a Google Form with one numerical and two open-ended questions with a note asking for the feedback to be constructive and that specific examples would be most helpful.

The questions were:

1. Would you like to work with Michał in the future? (1-10)
2. What did you like the most about working with Michał?
3. What did you dislike the most about working with Michał?

The results

I got 10 responses (roughly the number of people I worked with) and got a 75% average result on the want-to-work-with question. Direct feedback (even anonymous) may be more positive then reality but, even slightly discounted, this result makes me happy. Despite all the mistakes I’ve made I seem to have had a net positive impact on my teammates.

That’s mostly a vanity metric though, so the open-ended questions ware there to provide more actionable ideas. The respondents told me what I should apply even more of (enthusiasm, knowledge, adaptability) and what I should improve (be less forceful with “the right way” to do things).

A story of reconciliation

One specific response surprised me the most: I got feedback from the person I had the most “trouble” with. The one I would expect would give me a score near zero (described in the form as “would rather be chopped to bits”). Instead he gave me a 7 and not only that: he gave me the most comprehensive answers to the other two questions with very useful comments regarding how he perceived my attempts to make our teams more Agile.

That was valuable in itself but beyond that it put our relationship in a completely new light. We will not be able to benefit directly since I’ve just left the company, but it did remove one of the most painful thorns that would otherwise have troubled me for a long time. Thank you!

Make it direct and anonymous

Overall I believe the most important thing was to make sure that the feedback was direct and anonymous (unless someone chose to identify himself). Without that I think the results would be skewed too much to be useful.

Give honest feedback with kindness and compassion

When I’m ever in a situation where I’m the one giving feedback here are some things I’d like to remember to ask:

• Does the recipient want the feedback or is it about me wanting to express my judgement (or worse: hurt that person)?
• If someone gave me the feedback I’m about to give, would I find it helpful or hurtful?
• Does the feedback include concrete examples or is it a bunch of generalizations?

I strongly believe asking those questions will make my feedback more readily accepted and my relationships with those I give my feedback to will be strengthened instead of strained.

Deliberate practice

Feedback is one of the necessary conditions for significant growth and a lot more can be written about it so expect future posts to continue the topic, including:

• As a team member: How can you use feedback to grow as individuals and as a team?
• As a manager: how can you help the people in your organization by encouraging a culture of asking for and giving honest and non-aggressive feedback?

In a strict sense the role of a Scrum Master is defined in the Scrum Guide as:

“The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring Scrum is understood and enacted. Scrum Masters do this by ensuring that the Scrum Team adheres to Scrum theory, practices, and rules.“

I personally believe the mission of the Scrum Master is helping the team be happier and more effective at solving problems our customers care about.

(This wider meaning can also be used if Scrum is not accepted or actively disliked in your context; it might be more helpful to use the name Agile Coach then or just do it without using any name at all.)

This allows me to apply the concept in a wider context and also sanity check my methods by their results:

• Is the team happier?
• Are the customers happier?

If not you have your answer.

How not to start

Imagine you’re at working at a company, you feel you’re good at your job. One day the company hires someone to help you and your team improve.

This person has the best intentions and only wants to help you. Furthermore all his suggestions are actually true. We’re imagining things, remember? 😉

He comes, looks at what you’re doing and starts pointing out mistakes you’re making and asking things like “Is this the best you can do?“.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07So_lJQyqw&w=500]

How do you feel?

I don’t know about you, but I’d probably strangle the guy.

If you make this mistake you deserve:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM_6tgVJb_o&w=500]

(But do keep in mind that Scrum Shock Therapy is an option if the team accepts the challenge willingly.)

So how can you go about helping a new team in a less confrontational way?

Step 1) Get to know them, let them get to know you.

A more promising way would be to first seek first to understand and then to be understood.

In the immortal words of Deckard Cain “stay a while and listen“.

While you’re learning about the company and the team and also letting them learn about you …

Step 2) Help them remove some painful obstacles.

The world is full of major and minor annoyances and every team is struggling with some things that are not that hard to resolve, but somehow don’t get the attention they need.

This is a great opportunity for a new Scrum Master!

If you solve a problem that the team actually cares about and not the ones you think are important and you do it over and over while avoiding major blunders along the way, you will watch the balances in your emotional bank accounts with them grow steadily.

After some time you might be ready to…

Step 3) Facilitate a good retrospective.

The best Scrum Masters don’t tell people what the problems are and how to solve them.

They make reality painfully obvious so that the team can see it themselves.

A lot can be written about retrospectives and a lot has been, but for now keep in mind:

• focus on the facts, not opinions; de-escalate emotional conflicts as much as you can,
• try to find the root cause, don’t stop at treating the symptoms,
• plan concrete actions and fit them in with your regular plans,
• check the results of your changes: did they have the desired effects?
• remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day; repeat retrospectives regularly,
• be happy with incremental improvements as long as they add up to larger gains in the long term.

After some time slowly you can reach for more and more tools and then the sky’s the limit!

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Do you want to learn more? Check out:

• The Scrum Guide
• Funny Scrum Master video
• Scrum Shock Therapy
• “Coaching Agile Teams”
• “Agile Coaching”
• “Agile Retrospectives“

Outside the box:

• Crossfit: Coaching the Positive

User stories for this post:

• As a manager or customer I want to understand what a great Scrum master can do for me.
• As a Scrum Master I want to improve my own understanding of my role so that I can be successful.
• As a member or a creative team I want to understand what a Scrum Master can do for me and my team.

Update 2014-07-31: more about steps to take when you start with a new team.