The "No Asshole Rule" Project Team Charter
I am publishing a series of Principles under the title of 'the "No Asshole Rule" Project Team Charter', and this is the third of those to be published.
The Introduction, Context and Summary of all the Principles is in a master blog post: "the No Asshole Rule Project Team Charter"
The context to this series is a book called "The No Asshole Rule" by Robert Sutton, a Professor at Stanford University and the author of other books and papers.
(Look at the end of this post for the complete list of Principles, and links to the other published articles)
Context of Principle #3
This next principle addresses the "Where are we going?" question that is sadly all to frequently asked and answered superficially, and then all to often ignored.
In the 2nd Principle we addressed the focus on producing something of value. In this 3rd Principle we address how we are able to recognise this value as a Team when we see it.
We have to have the same vision across all of the team, in such a way that we are assured that the next team mate's vision is also our own.
Creating a shared and actionable vision across multiple people is not automatic or easy. It does not just arrive based on reading of the same content, or a workshop.
And once created, the shared vision is easy to lose: it has a short half-life if not maintained and reinforced.
As the project unfolds, each individual, and combinations of individuals in sub-groups across the team, will evolve their understanding of the project's contexts.
This evolving understanding is almost always along different tracks: it depends on so many factors, including the specific skills and experience of the team members and the events and shared experiences that they go through as part of the project.
A compelling and vibrant vision captures the attention and engages the team in a persistent and strong way, and provides clear handles for reinforcement and for detecting when there is drift.
Anyone who has seen or heard Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech knows exactly what his vision was, and what that society would have looked like once it was achieved.
Anyone who was working towards that end goal would have been in absolutely no doubt about their ability to recognise when one or more of their mates had perhaps started to drift onto a different track.
And the dream had another fundamental characteristic (which was proven in tragic circumstances): it was bigger than any one person and survived after MLK was gunned down.
So a project team that is going to function efficiently, harmoniously and effectively needs to have a Common Mental Model of Success (which I'll abbreviate to "CMMoS").
The term "Shared Vision" is more commonly used (and is more natural from a language perspective), but suffers from the generically used terms for mission statements and the like which tend to be too generic and not actionable at a team level.
The concept of a "mental model" is that it is quite detailed and evidenced in day to day artefacts such as diagrams, charts, tables, and lists.
Behaviour that creates, shares, validates and nurtures the Shared Vision is helpful. Behaviour to the contrary is the Asshole behaviour that we are seeking to avoid.
Principle #3: "I have a dream"
I understand that the team has been created and funded to achieve a defined goal or purpose;
And I understand from Principle #2 that this goal or purpose is defined alone as something that has value to my customer(s).
For us to achieve this goal, we must have a mutally compatible and shared idea of what that end goal looks like.
I will subscribe to the idea of a Project Team's "Common Mental Model of Success" or "Shared Vision of Success".
I commit to establishing, protecting and nurturing a shared vision that is an actionable and tangible Common Mental Model of Success in the minds my team-mates.
I understand that developing, validating and maintaining a Shared Vision is not a trivial exercise but that it is a critical enabler to the Team's effective and successful operation.
I will help my team-mates to establish and develop this Shared Vision and to validate that their understanding and mine are the same.
I will look for evidence each and every day that the Shared Vision is in use and that it drives all our activities on the project.
I will seek out and surface dissonance in this Shared Vision and work to resolve that dissonance as rapidly as possible.
I will use this dissonance as a way to improve and shape the Shared Vision as it grows from our shared and growing knowledge and experience.
If I do not create, promote and allow our Shared Vision to be the basis of our team's activities, or if I do not detect and resolve gaps or drift in our Shared Vision, then I am acting as a Project Asshole.
Application
All too frequently Shared Visions are either avoided or worse, defined as generic "mission statements" that sound inspiring but are not actionable.
You've all read Mission Statements that could apply to any context or project without much change.
In any process that mandates such a thing, it's all to easy to "game" the process by putting something together that seems useful, but is actually just a process placeholder.
If I come into a project that is already established, the first thing I look for is evidence of a Shared Vision and tangible artefacts that instantiate a Common Mental Model of success.
This includes such things as:
- whether the team is using the same language to describe what they are doing
- if I ask the individuals to describe the project and its goals, do they easily articulate this or are they grasping for words
- are there common documents (such as project diagrams, schemas) that are in evidence and use
- what project-related material is on the walls of the cubicles or common work areas of the team and its members
In the days when printed specifications were the norm, my greatest warm and fuzzy feeling of project well-being was to see the same document in use by all team-members, well-thumbed and dog-eared and marked up with post-it notes or notations.
In the current trend to Agile, the project "Vision Tree" is a good example, but if and only if the language resonates with the team members own words.
Familiarity with these documents is easily tested.
Whatever the visible or other artefacts, a team that is in alignment will be able to demonstrate that alignment readily and easily; without preparation and without artifice.
Anything less means that the team has not achieved that state.
Most frequently Project Teams see this Shared Vision development as a one-off thing: something to be rushed into at the beginning of the project and never touched again.
Somehow the team leadership needs to build Shared Vision activities into the daily/weekly/monthly cycles of the project.
If there is "vision fatigue" its best to stop and come back to it again: building it iteratively in small chunks is achievable if it's not seen as a "one-off" activity.
In agile for example, perhaps its worth reviewing in every sprint retrospective.
It's important to build some ceremony into this process: the shared vision will be a hard-won thing and should be celebrated: a little formal signing ceremony might be appropriate.
Behavioural Anti-Patterns
Good examples of behaviour that is not supporting a Shared Vision (and is therefore the behaviour of a Project Asshole) include:
- not attending vision workshops or whatever activities you facilitate to build the vision
- attending but not participating: it's ok to be quiet (there are many ways of contributing) but it's not ok to do your email
- being critical or cynical about the concept of having a shared vision, or about activities that center on its development or use
- objecting to refinement discussions as "nitpicking about words"
- insisting on articulating the project goals differently to other team members
- refusing or being uncomfortable with any signoff or investment ceremonies
And so on. Creating and maintaining a Shared Vision is hard, and just about any Asshole behaviour can undermine it.
The Charter – 9 Principles to Work By
Principle #1: "There's no 'I' in Team, but there is a 'me' in Awesome"
Principle #2: Delivering Fast and Furious Value
Principle #3: "I have a dream"
Principle #4: I am not a Job Title, a Deliverable or a Process
Principle #5: Cult of Accountability
Principle #6: Leaving Footprints
Principle #7: Respectful Disruption
Principle #8: Bureacracy is Shit
Principle #9: Practising Awesomization