The Four Horsemen of Demotivation

Hello everyone! Today I will tell you about the Evil that can destroy entire IT teams. It only takes one person to succumb to it, and it spreads to his colleagues. The set goals are not achieved, new functionality does not go to production, and the project slowly dies. The name of this evil is Demotivation.

My name is Svetlana Uvarova, I work at MTS Digital as an architect. A lot depends on the role of the architect: how well or poorly the system functions, how easy it is to develop further, and so on. The ability to withstand such responsibility and work in a team become important professional qualities. And demotivation can kill them at the root if you do not notice its beginning, succumb to temptation and give up. In this article, I will tell you how to track the onset of Demotivation and how to resist it.

The first horseman of demotivation is the lack of a common understanding of goals and objectives in the team

It comes when the goal is not clearly set, its formulation allows liberties in interpretation and there is no image of the result. In this case, each participant strives for an individual goal that he himself has imagined.

The number of “goals” in the team increases, they do not coincide with each other. Everyone runs in different directions and, like “the swan, the crayfish and the pike”, the result will never be achieved.

At a certain point, participants realize that they do not understand the common goal, are working in vain and, most likely, will not achieve the stated results. The logical outcome of such a situation is disappointment in the work.

Each version of understanding entails its own composition of works and deadline, involvement of different teams. At the same time, all points are far from what the customer actually wanted. Such abundance leads to a large list of possible solutions.

Signs of an unclearly defined goal are:

• statements that arise that the work will be put on the table;

• flashing phrases like “and I thought that…”;

• recurring questions about boundaries and deadlines;

• lack of an image of the final result and clear signs of its achievement.

We won't tell you here how to set goals correctly – there is a lot of good literature on this topic. Moreover, it will not be possible to get rid of illusions completely. Often, the maximum convergence of different ideas is given by:

• meetings where the team's understanding of the goal is aligned;

• visual illustrations and diagrams, analogies and examples from life. Practice shows that all participants perceive them more or less the same way. I always draw pictures and often reveal different goals in my colleagues this way;

• collection of open questions and answers to them. The more of them, the more accurately and better the participants will understand the common goal, which means they will be able to avoid empty work and disappointment about it.

The second horseman is the lack of respect and recognition of the competencies of colleagues.

This reason usually manifests itself well against the background of different understanding of goals. Different understanding of the goal is completely different solutions to one problem in the heads, which, in the absence of respect and recognition of the competencies of colleagues, manifest themselves in constant doubts about other people's skills and decisions that are not their own.

The risk is especially high if a newcomer has arrived or if someone does not correspond to the stereotypical image. Any ideas and solutions cause mistrust in the team. Everyone starts doing someone else's job and checking the correctness of someone else's proposed solution, as a result – independently performing someone else's tasks.

Troubles mount gradually, usually expressed in “why don't you do it differently” and associated with the loss of time explaining the proposed solutions, the reasons for the choice and the profit from them. It is necessary to show that several options were considered and the final one has a number of arguments in its favor. It is necessary to prove each time that it should be done this way and not another.

All this endless explanation wastes time. Demotivating discussions replace design work, and deadlines are treacherously compressed. As a result, tasks are completed hastily, half-heartedly, or do not meet deadlines. The team starts complaining about the large number of internal approvals.

Often in such a situation the architect himself wonders whether he is needed in this position at all. Should he go to another team, where research, design and adoption of architectural decisions are really required. Periodically there is a feeling of uselessness and futility of the work done, it gently calls for her… Demotivation.

What to do?

The main weapon is understanding the motives of other participants. The architect (or any other team member) needs to accept the desire of colleagues to make sure that he is competent. Most likely, your team members give all their advice and demands to achieve the common goal, of course, in the form in which they understand it.

The team leader needs to explain to the team that doing someone else's work steals their working time. Unconstructive disputes do not solve problems. They leave an unpleasant aftertaste for all participants, and the tasks stand still. No one is interested in such a result, so respect in the team, recognition of the competencies of colleagues and the ability to conduct constructive dialogues are very important for the timely delivery of functionality to production.

Another question that helps a lot is “Who will be responsible and fix the accident?” As a rule, no one wants to stand up for someone else, and unconstructive alternative proposals along with demotivating discussions disappear.

If after the question someone remained with their opinion, then it is worth working with these opinions. How, why and why, I will tell you further.

The Third Horseman – Plurality of Opinions

This reason overlaps with the previous one, when team members try to come up with solutions for others and promote their options. But here we are talking about architects from adjacent teams. They do their work, design and evaluate different options and are also interested in the result.

Considering that the same task in most cases has several solutions, the opinions of the participants may differ. There are those who will stick to their version, without even trying to listen to their colleagues, especially when the implementation is not supposed to be done by their team. If, with all this, the authors of alternative solutions

• “they shout loudly and stamp their feet”;

• agree and add to the backlog, but postpone implementation;

• require action according to their description;

• they say everywhere “we didn't succeed because of them”

then it is almost impossible for an unprepared architect to survive and not become demotivated. In such a multitude of different opinions and requirements put forward by professionals, it is very easy to get lost and give up. And if you give in, you may never see the result. It is especially demotivating if a lot of work has been done: artifacts have been prepared, solutions have been described. But in the end, nothing gets into development and does not begin to live, simply because it is not understood, not agreed upon, etc.

Thus, a multitude of alternative opinions describing the ideal solution can be demotivating and can suppress a good and working idea.

Fortunately, you can prepare for and survive such situations by recognizing two very important facts:

• the architect's immediate responsibility is to consider a variety of solutions and choose from that variety. Your colleagues are simply doing their job very well, and having many different ideas from them proves this;

• all people look at the same thing from different sides and angles and see their own individual picture.

It is important to understand that there is always a choice. You can, in an embrace with demotivation, get upset and resent your colleagues, rewarding them with unflattering epithets. Or use alternative views on the task to create a common solution and achieve the goal.

Having multiple ideas about the same task can turn from an irritating and demotivating factor into the basis for the skill of seeing the whole picture. Learn to hear and put alternative opinions together, and this will become your strong point, and your colleagues will turn into loyal allies and friends.

A classic example of equivalence of opinions is the projection of a cylinder:

Those who look at it from above or below see a circle. From the side – a rectangle. If you look at it at an angle, you can see an oval and a figure consisting of two parallel straight sides and two arcs. Moreover, their shape changes depending on the point from which you look. To see the cylinder as a whole, you need to combine all the pictures.

It will be difficult for you and your colleagues to come up with a solution to a specific complex problem on your own. The result will be more accurate and simpler if you take into account other people's opinions and act together.

The Fourth Horseman is a failed project

Any failure is just a stage in life from which you can gain valuable experience.

In my practice, there was a case when I participated in the development of a system that was ultimately recognized as unclaimed and was not used. The approaches to solving the problem were assessed as unsuccessful. It seemed to me that I was not doing application architecture, but nonsense. I wanted to find a new place where I would improve my profession.

After some time, the acquired knowledge about the architectural landscape came in handy for solving new problems. Then I found out that my algorithms were mirrored and used in other projects. The obvious failure gave me a large amount of knowledge about the company's architecture, and some of the developments remained alive and are still in demand.

Yes, it may happen that all your efforts have gone down the drain and the final result is disappointing rather than joyful. You agreed with someone somewhere, but disagreed on something else… and the result does not satisfy you at all. There is a weapon against this evil too.

Remember that a good system first of all satisfies the customer's requirements. If they are met, then you have done your job well. Moreover, if your system is imperfect, then you have opportunities for its development.

If the project was closed, especially just before completion, then you will have knowledge about the architectural landscape and unsuccessful solutions that you will not use in your next projects. This will save you time on new and more successful tasks.

There is always a choice

Each horseman has his own weapon. By recognizing and stopping the oncoming demotivation, you will save your work from oblivion and yourself from the embrace of demotivation. Instead of giving up and sitting in despondency:

• work with the goal and objectives so that everyone on the team understands them as accurately and equally as possible;

• tell your colleagues about respect, division of areas of responsibility and the need to do your own job, not someone else's;

• learn to hear alternative opinions and put them together into a larger picture;

• Find valuable lessons from failed projects and reuse them.

If you do fall into the arms of demotivation, try to distract yourself – the next projects will be much more interesting. Positive emotions are given by sports, participation in conferences, training, etc.

Life is not all about work. Maybe you have a dog who wants to learn a few new tricks, and you discover agility. Maybe you've always dreamed of dancing, or running, hiking, or just walking in the park.

At different times I was helped by:

• wooden mechanical construction sets;

• growing plants (it's a pity there's nowhere to put them);

• painting (all the walls are covered in paintings);

• checking children's homework (really strengthens nerves).

MTS has many programs for employees that allow them to do something interesting outside of work. If necessary, you can sign up for weekly breathing exercises, yoga, or take a massage course.

No matter how strong the demotivation is and how much you want to give up, remember that there are no minuses without pluses. There is always an occupation for the soul that will allow you to recover and again receive satisfaction from work. You will definitely solve your next task better than the previous one. Life is beautiful!