Podcasts Technology Thriving Technologist Overcome Attachment: Discover the Mindset for Lean Software Development

Overcome Attachment: Discover the Mindset for Lean Software Development

Published: Oct. 14, 2017, midnight

Are you trying to get other people to use agile or lean software development methods, but they can\u2019t seem to break out of the mindset they\u2019re stuck in? Today I\u2019d like to offer some strategies to overcome attachment.

Building What Customers Want Takes Failure And\xa0Learning

Traditional management at many companies focus on predictability. They want to know how long things will take, and how much they will cost. Unfortunately if your software company wants to be innovative, you may already know that you can\u2019t measure performance this way.

If you want to deliver truly disruptive and valuable ideas to your customers, you need to\xa0experiment and make small investments\xa0to see how customers receive them.

Establishing the Mindset for Failure and\xa0Learning

I talk often about how important experiments are to the success of your software company, and how you can sell and introduce the changes needed to work this way to leadership and other stakeholders.

Assume for a moment you\u2019ve already convinced people of the benefits of lean software development methods that let your company experiment (DevOps,\xa0Continuous Delivery, Lean Startup techniques etc.).

Yes, people now understand the\xa0mechanics\xa0of these approaches. But it can be frustrating at first to help others have the courage to take risks and actually experiment.

This is because experimenting and then learning from the results, often requires\xa0failure.

The Uncertainty of Innovation Can Cause\xa0Anxiety

One of the technology capabilities I have said in other articles is crucial to a company sustainably releasing valuable software, is Continuous Delivery. This lets your team release your software to customers as frequently as multiple times per day.

If you\u2019re going to let the customer take a larger role in deciding what\u2019s in your product, and release it multiple times per day\u200a\u2014\u200ayou\u2019ll have an increased set of feedback.

Also subject matter experts like Product Managers will find out their ideas aren\u2019t as valuable as they\u2019d hoped when trying new things.

These two changes alone introduce\xa0 data-href="https://medium.com/jayme-edwards-mentoring/how-uncertainty-impacts-software-development-processes-9d7d7cefe5c6">uncertainty\xa0that needs to be handled with care. Without addressing this, your team will start blaming each other and going back to what they\u2019re comfortable with when their first few experiments don\u2019t produce the results they anticipated.

Overcoming Attachment to Enable\xa0Learning

If you celebrate Christmas or your Birthday, you\u2019ve probably experienced being attached to a gift or outcome you wanted as a child.

You and your team need to overcome these feelings of attachment at your company to use lean and agile methods for developing software. Without detaching from outcomes, people will feel threatened when things change.

We Must Be Comfortable With Uncertainty to Take\xa0Risks

The more comfortable you can be with trying things and not being able to guarantee that the outcome is something that you want, the more you can take risks. This is exactly the mindset needed to be more innovative with software development.

Strategies for Practicing Detachment

Since you know people need to be more comfortable with uncertainty, and they need to be less attached to outcomes\u200a\u2014\u200awhat are some strategies you can use to cope with this?

Thinking About the Possibility of Other\xa0Outcomes

Most people in corporate America don\u2019t want to do this. Typical work structures are all about certainty and planning for outcomes we expect.

Instead, thinking about the possibility that what you\u2019ve planned might not work out ahead of time primes you for a healthy mindset for taking risk.

When you\u2019re working with a team to experiment, remind them at every opportunity that everyone is looking forward to seeing the data to\xa0help them steer the product in the right direction.

If the data behind a release shows that a change wasn\u2019t positive,\xa0that is not a failure.

It must be clear that there will be no reprimanding for theories the team held about what would be valuable, as testing those theories will inherently prove when our ideas aren\u2019t good.

This is the nature of the scientific method!

Beware of Catastrophizing

Once you begin to allow yourself to entertain the possibility of uncertain outcomes, it\u2019s tempting to think of the worst case scenario. This is known as catastrophizing, and creates\xa0anxiety\xa0by focusing your thoughts on negative situations that haven\u2019t even happened yet!

When I\u2019ve caught myself catastrophizing, I often realize I\u2019m tensing up and experiencing the same emotions as I would if the event happened\u200a\u2014\u200abut it hasn\u2019t.

Spending significant time thinking about the worst possible outcome will cripple your team with fear, and cause them to lose the courage needed to present their best ideas to your customers. Yes, there is a time for risk management\u200a\u2014\u200abut innovation is not that time.

Overcoming Resentment to Past\xa0Failures

If you hold on to negative feelings about what may have happened in the past, you won\u2019t have the open mind necessary to try new things. Examples might be working with a person who made a mistake before, a business partner who didn\u2019t hold up their end of the deal, or a software development task that was more complicated than first thought.

Resentment is another form of attachment. You should consider practicing forgiveness and using whatever healing tools work for you or your team to let go of any resentment.

These could be simple things like giving someone a personal apology if you played a part in the situation. Or something that lets you face the situation and let your feelings with it rest such as meditation.

Whatever physical, emotional, or spiritual activity you can find that works to help you or others involved emotionally detach from the experience, use it. Let the past go so your team can try new things with a clean slate!

Challenging Limiting\xa0Beliefs

If someone told you something about yourself as a child, or perhaps a co-worker made a statement about your skills\u200a\u2014\u200ayou may be walking around carrying an inaccurate picture of yourself. You should challenge thoughts held about what is really true with respect to the limitations you or your team may perceive about their capabilities.

I once worked with a Fortune 500 client who only released their product at night when no customers were using it. They were convinced it was impossible to release it during the day even though the technology needed to do so was common.

Until I challenged this belief, and did not back down until I heard a logical answer for why it couldn\u2019t be done\u200a\u2014\u200ano one had considered it a possibility.

Once everyone moved past this limitation in their thinking, they were easily on board and supportive of working with me to plan for the change.

Separating Our Identity From\xa0Outcomes

In most companies if someone makes a \u201cbad\u201d decision, they are held accountable. What this can do though is cause you to place your self-worth in your decisions and their outcomes. To have the courage to innovate, you need to separate these two.

People on your teams should strive to treat each other kindly\xa0especially\xa0at the times when they make mistakes. But when they slip up and get upset at you or someone else for a decision that they didn\u2019t like, it\u2019s important to not take it personally. You can\u2019t control how the other person will react\u200a\u2014\u200abut you can control your reaction to their being upset.

Practicing Delayed Gratification

Your company may need to build and release five small versions of an idea to your customer before you hit the ideal solution, when delivering a product in a lean fashion. Because of this, the management team may be lacking in the necessary patience at first to see things unfold with the product this way.

Delayed gratification is simply waiting longer to get something you want. This might sound like a silly thing to recommend, but you\u2019d be surprised how many people I come across in leadership positions who are still very attached to immediacy. If you have people like this in key positions at your company, this may be the reason why you\u2019re having a difficult time getting support for the changes you want made.

Practice this yourself, and with your team, to relax your feelings of urgency so you have the patience to try several iterations of an idea before settling.

Permitting Others to be Frustrated with Uncertainty

It\u2019s natural that when trying something new, such as to not be as attached to outcomes, you and others will make mistakes. It\u2019s crucial that everyone be willing to forgive each other when unpredictable negative outcomes occur. Without this safety net, there can be no loyalty, transparency, or ability to take risks. These are the attributes of relationships at your company that can make or break the long term health of the software development culture.

You can also\xa0watch this episode on YouTube.\xa0

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