![\"Push\"](\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4024\/5081759768_1f137eb59e.jpg\" "\\"Push")
<\/p>\nA common challenge I\u2019ve heard from Development Managers or Product Owners is\u00a0\u201chow do I push my software development team to go faster?\u201d Here are ideas on how to approach this topic and have more productive conversations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Start by clarifying your own mind, particularly your intention and motive for trying to get the team to go faster.\u00a0If there increasing external pressures on the project, or it\u2019s becoming clear that it wont be possible to get everything you hoped for by the due date then these\u00a0are worth clarifying and sharing with the team.<\/p>\n
Take the time to understand where you\u2019re coming from and why.<\/p>\n
This step may seem obvious, but it\u2019s worth slowing this down and even talking it through with a mentor or trusted peer and asking them to play devils advocate and try to see things from the team\u2019s perspective.\u00a0 It\u2019s much better to get clear on your own intentions and motives than to mop up from an argument later.<\/p>\n
As the old saying goes, \u201cbe careful what you wish for\u201d because you may get it, but at the expense of other goals.\u00a0 Sometimes to go faster you may need to use indirect or oblique strategies, such as removing the causes of bad quality or delays.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you think that the team is going slower than it could be, then get clear on\u00a0the evidence you\u2019ve seen or heard that leads you to this view. If you tell a team \u201cI think you can push a bit harder and work faster\u201d but can\u2019t\u00a0use specific examples that they recognise and understand then it\u2019s likely they\u2019ll feel unjustly accused. See my post on handling a team member who talks ‘too much<\/a>‘\u00a0for an example of using directly observable data.<\/p>\n If you can\u2019t be specific about why you think the team could be going faster, then be open and say so – \u201cthis is just a hunch\u201d – You could ask the team to help look for evidence, by asking \u201cIf you were performing under or over-capacity, what would we look for as evidence?\u201d<\/p>\n Talk to the team about why you want to help them get more done. Share your intent for bringing it up.\u00a0 Start by sharing what you\u2019ve seen or heard. Ask them what their view is of the evidence\u00a0you’ve\u00a0got? Do they see it the same or different?\u00a0 If they see it differently then get curious and ask them what they see that leads them to their view.<\/p>\n Sometimes the conversation can get bogged down under an escalating\u00a0game of \u201cno, your\u00a0approach is bad for this reason, we should do my approach\u201d. One way to avoid this conversational log-jam is to focus on the interests behind the positions, or more simply, ask them what they like about the solution\u00a0they’ve\u00a0proposed.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve found the best way of encouraging more productive conversations is to learn and model these more effective approaches yourself.<\/p>\n If there\u2019s a strong disagreement between you and team about the level of productivity, then focus on jointly designing ways that you could move forward. Think about what data would persuade you from your point of view and ask the same of the team. \u00a0Use work that is about to begin and come up with a way of collecting data that would make future conversations clearer.<\/p>\n This is a topic I may come back to in future and look at it from the team\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n Image Credit: gentlemanhog, on Flickr<\/a><\/p>\n A common challenge I\u2019ve heard from Development Managers or Product Owners is\u00a0\u201chow do I push my software development team to go faster?\u201d Here are ideas on how to approach this topic and have more productive conversations. Understand your own mind Start by clarifying your own mind, particularly your intention and motive for trying to get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Seek to understand the situation by looking for evidence<\/h2>\n
Talk to the team, sharing interests and concerns<\/h2>\n
Jointly design ways to tests disagreements and move forward<\/h2>\n
![\"Benjamin](\"http:\/\/a3.twimg.com\/profile_images\/870580223\/twitterProfilePhoto_reasonably_small.jpg\" "\\"@benjaminm\\"")
Hi, I\u2019m Benjamin<\/a>. I hope that you enjoyed the post. I\u2019m a consultant and coach who helps IT teams and their managers create more effective business results. You can find out more about me<\/a> and my services<\/a>. Contact me<\/a> for a conversation about your situation and how I could help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"