Incrementally Better
As a leader, I often feel pressure or the burden of expectations to provide a truly exceptional culture and workplace. I need to have the right vision, the right strategy to deliver on that vision, and the right processes to execute the strategy—all the while looking after the people I lead as teams and individuals. I need to have everything lined up, hit every business goal, and have perfect engagement scores. Reality, however, is never that simple. Things go wrong, and sometimes the problems feel insurmountable.
When things don’t work as I want them to, I’ve been tempted—more than once—to just throw it all out and start from scratch. Let’s shake up the teams. Let’s revamp all the processes. Let’s reorg to pursue a brand new strategy. It’s easy to believe that broad, sweeping changes are the solution to bridge large gaps.
But we also know that too much change, too sudden or too frequent, have negative effects on the organisation as a whole. Change is disruptive. Teams take time to go through the storming → forming → norming → performing lifecycle. Process changes cause confusion. Change fatigue sets in. And at the end of the day, despite our best efforts, we might fix some of the issues we’re having, but we’re going to create new, different ones. A “big rewrite”—where you throw away all the code and start from scratch—is rarely advisable when dealing with software systems. Massive overarching changes are also rarely the answer when it comes addressing gaps in your organisation. Think of it as a last resort; when all else fails.
This is why Blackmill’s mantra of “incrementally better” resonates so strongly with me. It isn’t just about code. We strive to improve our software through small, incremental patches to fix bugs or deliver on business goals. We can—and should—take the same approach to our organisation.
By making smaller and frequent organisational improvements, each change carries less risk. The feedback loops get shorter, as we find what works, and what doesn't, more quickly. It also establishes a culture of continuous improvement. If the people you lead can feel steady momentum in the right direction, they'll be more inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt. That, in turn, reduces pressure on you to be perfect.