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How to increase team productivity (and reduce errors) using rallies



“You cannot make the same mistake twice: the second time it’s not a mistake, but a choice,
” Stephen Denn

If you are the only one who is responsible for the mistake, then you cannot argue with this statement. But what if a mistake is made by a group of people?

For example, is it easy for you to find and fix the mistakes your team makes in their work? Depending on the level of psychological security, sometimes even an open discussion of these problems with colleagues may seem impossible.

And what if a mistake is made in a company of 10,000 people? Is repetition of this error really the choice, as follows from the quote? Or are these problems that are beyond your control?

Yes, correcting the mistakes made by a group of people is much more difficult than fixing their own mistakes (which is quite obvious).

But there is good news: it’s quite possible to fix typical team mistakes, and this can be done at rallies. Let's find out how this happens.

Translated to Alconost

To fix group errors, you must first find them


Raise your hand if your team regularly takes time to discuss such questions: “What works? What does not work? Where do we better move on? ”

If you did not give up after three questions, most likely your team is working on a flexible technique with regular retrospectives . Retrospectives are general meetings at which you can think over and discuss what can be improved, and determine which processes should be continued to develop.

The main goal is to encourage continuous improvement based on honest feedback from the team. (By the way, 80% of all teams working according to a flexible methodology conduct retrospectives , so if you still do not do this, join us!)

Even if you don’t work according to a flexible method, the habit of pausing to check how the work is progressing and thinking about what can be improved in the future may become a factor that will allow the team constantly making the same mistakes to begin to change for the better side.

But there is a catch: even if you regularly hold such meetings - how often does your team really change something in the end? In most cases, we just say that we are going to solve the problem, but everything remains as it was.

Many teams only talk about changes and do nothing - because they are afraid, have no interest and desire to change something. Yes, new processes and rules can be difficult to implement, but this does not mean that you need to give up on the move. As one famous character once said : “Do not try. Do. Or do not. Do not try. "



Therefore, the question is: if rallies dedicated to improvement are the best way to identify and correct team mistakes, how to use it effectively so that changes really happen?

Triangle of success


Rallies aimed at continuous improvement and leading to real changes are the result of three factors: people, process and execution.



People: invite the right people to rallies.

Process: help others - encourage team participation and focus on the most important topics. It is especially important to encourage people to speak out if the team is geographically distributed .

Execution: monitor the implementation of decisions made. After the rally, the work is just beginning! In order for something to change, you have to do something.

Organizing rallies to discuss continuous improvement is a difficult task, because all three factors are needed to succeed.

I will give an example. Imagine that you invited the right people and follow the process so that everyone can speak out, but after the rally no one controls the implementation of decisions made. Will such an approach lead to success? Hardly.

Or imagine that you invited the right people and control the work on mistakes, but did not provide an opportunity to speak to colleagues with a milder style of communication . Will the whole team support the change? It is also unlikely.



Five rallying tips for continuous improvement


I will give five practical tips that will help invite the right people, ensure effective communication and encourage the implementation of decisions made.

1. Invite the minimum number of responsible people


Some believe that you cannot invite more than seven people to a rally . In practice, implementing such a rule can be difficult, however, try to limit the list of invitees to those who directly make decisions or who will be affected by the decisions made.

Go through the list of invitees and at each point ask yourself: “If this person cannot be present, will we be able to effectively identify and analyze the problems of the team?” If the answer is yes, then this person can most likely be deleted from the list: if he can’t benefit in the discussion, then his invitation will be a waste of time for both you and him .

Keep in mind: this may mean that even the boss will have to be excluded from the list!In the long run, self-organizing teams work better , so sometimes for the boss the best solution is to enable the team to work without his intervention.

2. Remember that remotely working colleagues are also part of the team.


Do you have remotely working employees ? The answer to this question may not be as simple as it seems at first glance.

According to Mark Kilby, a consultant on agile development techniques, there are three types of distributed teams : satellites, clusters, and nebulae.

  • Satellites are teams that have a central group located in one place and one or more people working remotely.
  •  — , , .
  •  — , .

According to Kilby, in all these cases, the team is considered distributed. In our case, it does not matter what type of distributed teams you attribute yourself to - it is important to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to participate in the rally.

If you happen to be the only one participating in a conference call, you know how difficult it is!

One of the solutions is to appoint each remote participant to have one employee working in the office as a “comrade”, who will be responsible for ensuring that their ward is heard.

Another solution is to turn the team into a “nebula" during the rally . In practice, this means that if only one person is connected remotely, then everyone else should do the same: Connect to a conference call or video chat, even if physically in the same office. This will help to equalize the interlocutors and will enable others to feel themselves in the place of a remotely working colleague.

3. Use the techniques of effective organization


Have you ever held a rally at which you had to force someone to speak out by force? * raises his hand *

It is unlikely that anyone will be pleased to hear the ringing silence at the rally, the purpose of which is effective interaction.

This is where the good old organizational techniques come to the rescue. According to Sam Kainer, co-author of the Facilitator's Guide , the rally organizer has four responsibilities:

  • Encourage full participation: help create a respectful and safe environment that encourages everyone to share their thoughts.
  • : , .
  • : , .
  • : , .

What do experienced organizers do in practice?

I will give an example. To allow introverts to speak out (see duty # 1 above), organizers can use cross-sketching technology .

This is a brainstorming technique that allows the group to quickly generate ideas. It differs from brainstorming in that participants are individually asked to write down their ideas, and only then share them with the group. This allows not only to parallelize and accelerate the process of developing ideas, but also encourages everyone to participate on equal terms.

Here's another example of how you can effectively facilitate an open discussion .

To ensure that a wide range of opinions is taken into account (obligation No. 3 above), the organizer may ask such questions: “Are there any other points of view on this?” or "Maybe someone sees it differently?"

This makes it possible to include in the discussion those who otherwise might feel uncomfortable.

4. Follow the "energy"


Imagine that you were able to identify a problem that needed attention, but there were disagreements about resolving it. What would you do?

In some teams, the decision is made by the oldest.

In other teams, a decision is not made until everyone has come to an agreement.

How does your team decide what to do next?

If you cannot answer this question right away, perhaps you should look at eight decision-making models , from authoritarian (one person deciding) to consensual (everyone should agree).

Another way to make a decision is by “agreement . ” In this case, the group agrees to make a decision that will be “good enough”. Instead of waitingthe best option, you wait until there are no serious objections - and choose this path.

One way to implement this approach is called Follow Energy. The retrospective specialist Diana Larsen introduced me to this technique .

The principle is as follows.

  1. List all the options that the team is considering.
  2. Ask the team to evaluate the relative impact of each of them (in the picture below , the sizes of t-shirts are used to evaluate ).
  3. Ask the team to evaluate the relative effort required to complete each action.
  4. Finally, and most importantly, ask everyone to put an end to the point that he would take up - for work on which he has energy.



The point with the highest number of “energy votes” is most likely to be implemented. Even if someone prefers another scenario, he will follow the agreement to work on what has more “energy”.

5. Focus on one thing.


Let's face it: changing is difficult, even if we are talking about some little things. How often did you say to yourself: “I’ll sit down to write a monthly report!” - and then it turned out that it was already the end of the month, and you need to try hard to be in time?

The reason is that you, like all of us, naturally resist change . It is necessary to overcome the bad habit of putting things off, but this is easier said than done.

As for the rallies for continuous improvement, as a result of them, many exacerbate the situation, trying to fix too many things at once. We discuss the 5-10 most important problems, find potential solutions for each and believe that the job is done.

No wonder nothing changes in the end!

Therefore, instead of a superficial discussion of several problems, focus on one: deeply analyze its main causes - for example, using the five “why” method .

As part of this approach, you ask the question “why?” five times and thus find out the main causes of the problem.

An example of this technique in action:

Question 1: “Why was the report submitted late?”
Answer: "Because there was no one to take on him."
Question 2: “Why was there no one to take?”
Answer: “Because the company has a high turnover: employees quit faster than new ones arrive.”
Question 3: “Why is the turnover high?”
Answer:“Because the company lacks a strong culture.”
Question 4: “Why doesn't the company have a strong culture?”
Answer: "Because there is no team or person who is responsible for its development."
Question 5: “Why is no one entrusted with developing a culture?”
Answer: “The main team did not consider this a priority.”

Using the five “why” method, it is possible to connect the failure to meet project deadlines with problems in the company's culture.

Of course, no one thinks that 5 is a magic number: ask the question “why?” Until you get to the main reason.

And only after that start looking for possible feasible solutions on which the team can immediately begin to work.

Limiting the topic of discussion,you reduce the amount of work in progress (WIP) , thereby increasing the likelihood that you can really change something.

Go ahead - improve!


There are no perfect teams. And honestly, perfection should not be the goal. But the lack of regular rallies aimed at continuous improvement is the first step towards making the team repeat the same mistakes more and more often.

So do not be afraid of such discussions - on the contrary: encourage them to be held, and you will see how the team begins to achieve success - together.

About the translator

Translation of the article was done in Alconost.

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