Oh, I couldn't, oh, I didn't have time, oh, I forgot.

Have you ever received similar responses from your employees? This happens especially often when it’s not a task in Jira that is visible on the board, but when it comes to less formal agreements.

– did you read the document for today's meeting? – no, I didn't have time.

What are the consequences of this?

In the tradition of systems thinking, we begin our analysis not with the reasons for this phenomenon, but with how it affects the situation in the team as a whole and the results.

Here again we see a break in the cycle of control through communication.

What does this lead to:

1. Results are falling. Small delays in deadlines accumulate into big ones. You didn't have time to discuss something – the task didn't make it into the sprint. And so on, and now the entire project is delayed by a month.

2. The best, responsible people are demotivated in an atmosphere of general irresponsibility. I won't explain why this is bad.

3. Last but not least. Teamleadwho is responsible for the team's results, including deadlines, has to tighten control to minimize delays. And that's why he becomes fucked and angryI speak from experience 😉

According to the precepts of conflictonomics, we estimate the price of the issue

For the team:

1. If this is not an episodic but a systemic problem, then once or twice you miss a sprint and a six-month project slips by a month.

2. In addition, a fucked up evil team leader makes management mistakes, the cost of which cannot be estimated 😉 For a leader: an unsuccessful project means a year without a promotion.

Why is this happening

Without claiming to be an exhaustive list, we will give several possible reasons:

1. General lack of coordination in the team's work. People do not see the big picture, what and why they are doing, and the results. That's not their goal.but imposed from above. And they treat the matter accordingly.

2. Infantilism specific people. There are programmers who think that their job is to write code, and that someone else should do everything else. I was like that once. This is a big misconception. A programmer does not just write code, but is responsible for the team's results. And this, at a minimum, means fulfilling agreements. What is not a reason:

3. Overload of specific people. NOT included in the list of reasons! If a person is overloaded, his job is to warn about it in advance, and not to confront the manager with the fact of an unfulfilled agreement. If he does not do this, see the previous point.

4. The team leader's task statement was unclear. It was unclear who had to do what and by what deadline. is NOT the causeThe responsible employee clarifies these things in advance.

   And the most important. All these reasons and non-reasons ultimately come down to the team leader.. It is your task to improve the work of the team as a whole and to raise responsible employees from people. I am saying this just in case.

Okay, what to do?

1. Improve the team's work 🙂 Set a goal together with the participants, so that it becomes their goal (there will be more information about this in the article). Improve the processes, etc.

2. Let's look at this situation from the point of view of communication. Once I would answer not all these “didn't have time” and so on – “okay”. Don't do that. The most important thing here is not to be satisfied with such answers from employees. And using the metamodel (we wrote a little about it here, but there will be a separate article) find out the real picture and make management decisionsHere are some questions to start with: – “didn't have time” – “what did you do instead?” – “couldn't” – “what got in the way?” And most importantly, get an answer as to what the person will do differently next timeso that the situation does not repeat itself. You need to make it clear that excuses will not work with you, you will get to the bottom of the real reason and do something about it.

3. Introduce strict rules of the gamewhich are mandatory for everyone, including you. The main ones are the implementation of agreements and working on mistakes. We will also write more about this.

Cool, what does this give?

1. Well, the probability of successful completion of the project increases with all the consequences for the team and the leader personally.

2. People grow upand with them the team's ability to solve complex problems

3. Last but not least, team leader freed up from endless reminders, pings, kicks. And maybe, finally, do something interesting and useful.

This example, like the previous one, shows how several fundamental concepts – the cycle of management through communication, the price of the issue from conflictonomics (more here) and one or two tools allow you to correctly assess the situation and find a way out. Replacing an endless number of management frameworks, the thoughtless use of which only harms the matter. Tested by bitter experience.