Celebrate “bad news,” it only makes us better!

 

tldr; The "agile mindset" means treating suboptimal results, negative feedback, and missed goals not as failures, but as invaluable data points and opportunities for improvement. Key takeaway: Leaders must foster a culture of Psychological Safety where teams are encouraged, not punished, to be transparent about disappointing results. Actionable steps: Use "bad news" to get curious, hypothesize, adjust strategy (pivot), and measure outcomes (results) over just outputs (activity). The goal: Create an environment where there is "no bad news, just news that can help us get better at achieving our goals." Things to try:  Specific action steps a leader can try to improve the team’s Psychological Safety can be found at the end of the article.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again - I am blessed to work with some of the best, most talented people I’ve ever met. I was participating in a Crew meeting this week where I got to hear the leader deliver some very candid news about the results the crew was producing. The results were not what we had planned to achieve by this point in the quarter.  While it wasn’t the news I had hoped to hear, what struck me was the transparency. The Crew didn’t shy away from the disappointing news, they leaned in. They didn’t make excuses, they got curious. They didn’t start laying blame, they started hypothesizing.  

 This instinct - to take data (good news, bad news or otherwise) and turn it into a way to start thinking about options - is what the “agile mindset” is all about.  It’s rooted in our values. It’s the manifestation of what we believe!

In the pursuit of delivering exceptional value, it’s easy to get caught up in tracking good news, green charts and celebrating positive metrics. But if you’re only measuring success by looking for the positive, you’re missing the most powerful growth driver available.

The mindset barrier: fear of failure

When sub-optimal results surface, how does your team communicate and react? Do they go silent? Is the immediate response defensiveness? Blame? Excuses? Fear? If so, it’s very possible that you have a psychological safety problem.

A culture that fears failure misses out on great opportunities to improve and innovate. Leaders must set the tone: we don't punish the bearer of bad news; we recognize them. Data and metrics that fall short of goals are indicators that we have opportunities to improve our strategy or execution. Feedback like Customer or User complaints are not a sign of failure; they are a direct, unbiased report on reality. 

The most effective leaders aspire to create an environment where teams can face that suboptimal data and negative feedback, analyze it, and own the necessary changes without the anxiety of retribution.

The feedback loop: it’s only bad news if we make it bad news

In the past, I’ve discussed the difference between measuring output (activity - being busy) and measuring outcomes (achieving the desired results from the work we do).  
 
We all know that sharing what we’ve completed (what we built) is important, but measuring the results we've achieved from building things is really what matters. The more we can use data to help us understand how our features are being adopted (or not) gives us important insights as to if we’re doing the more effective activities.  
 

Knowing how our output is impacting our outcomes is key to helping us make better decisions about what to build next! Seeing where our efforts may be falling short and using that data to make changes is about as agile as a leader or team can get.

Suboptimal results with metrics on a report tells us that what we had planned is not achieving the outcomes we have hoped for, and that something needs to change.

• An unhappy user (customer) is telling us that there is a gap between their desired Outcome (why they want our product or service) and their current reality (how they are actually experiencing our product or service.) 

• These types of data are invaluable, they point to places where we should consider changes or improvements to the way we are working, or the features that make up our product and services. 

Leaders and teams that seek out this kind of data and turn it into insight, and then action are on the path to maximize the value that they can create.

Turning sub-optimal data into improved Key Results (KRs)  

So the leadership challenge is, how do we put this into practice? How do we make news that may be perceived as “bad” to surface quickly so a team can analyze and act? 

How can a leader create an environment where a team not only feels comfortable delivering bad news, but actively looks for it and sees it as an opportunity.

Here are some things to consider trying:

• Make certain everyone has the same end goal. Cross-functional teams that have members supplied from different reporting structures (Chapters, for instance) may not all have the same goal. By ensuring that everyone on the squad has the same team-success objective, you create a shared accountability to achieve that goal, and a very personal motivation to “do what it takes” to succeed (together!)
• Embrace the news, and celebrate the person who shared it. Imagine being on a team where there is NO bad news… Missing goals and not achieving expected results is a very unpleasant situation for anyone to be in. As a leader, it’s on you to ensure that you people who come forward with unpleasant news are celebrated. Use the news to challenge the team to adjust their approach… make a pivot… or try something different to help achieve those goals. Bad news is only bad if we treat it as such.
• Make sure your measurements include Key Results and Key Performance Indicators. Reporting dashboards are often laser focused on Key Results. Consider updating your reporting to include team performance indicators (predictability, quality metrics, or even how many hours the team invested in training this cycle) in addition to the team’s results. This broader view helps to invite a richer discussion, not only on what the team is achieving, but how they might improve the way they achieve it!
• Measure and prioritize your team’s psychological safety. A team that feels safe, valued and respected is far more likely to surface problems or challenges early (oftentimes early enough to adjust before it becomes a really big problem!) Psychologically safe teams will take measured risks, pivot faster, and more than likely achieve their goals, or tell you the goals are unreasonable before you get too far behind. Shameless plug here- if you’re unsure about how to measure your Crew, Squad or Team’s psychological safety - reach out to your coach and they will get you the help you need.

This is the power of agility. Using data to drive results.  Empowering people to use data to gain insights and then use those insights to make meaningful changes.  

Why not aspire to be like the Crew that inspired me!  Work to create an environment where there is no bad news… just news that can help us get better at achieving our goals. Ask your team- "What bad news are we not talking about?" and see what they have to say. You may just find reasons to celebrate!
 
We all win together!
Coach Dan