Getting Work Done — The Smart Way

Inspiring Desired Outcomes without the Conventional Management

Recently, during an office Biweekly Meeting, when the lack of execution of certain responsibilities by the developers was being discussed and I mentioned how it is the responsibility of the scrum master to get things done by the developers, there was a comeback that a scrum master cannot ensure that because a scrum master is not a “manager”.

This comeback astonished me — not because it was false or anything, or that my expectation from the scrum master was to “manage”. What surprised me was that even in this day and age, the act of getting things done is interpreted as being a “manager’s” job, or as if it is something that can be achieved only in one way, that is the conventional management.

Now before we begin, here is a disclaimer:

1. No, we are not going to discuss the role of a scrum master in an agile environment in particular.
2. No, we are not going to discuss motivation and how to drive performance holistically.

The problem statement is simple — how to get things done by your team without having the powers of a typical manager or a boss?

Why people do what they do?

Douglas McGregor identified managers to be either of the following two types:

The Enterprise World Magazine (TEW)

So, the Theory X managers assume that people only want rewards, and to get them to do anything, the rewards have to be attached to the success in work. This is generally a pessimistic approach, and perceives humans to be absolutely materialistic.

The optimistic approach of the Theory Y managers begs to differ. To them, people like rewards, but they also like to work, and doing work itself also makes them happy. The role of rewards therefore is to empower them to do more.

How to make people want to do what you want them to do?

Now that we decide to view our team as people who want to work but need enablement, we have to determine what kind of enablement they want.

B. F. Skinner would say, let’s first identify what behaviors are favorable and lead to the success of the task and what behaviors are not favorable and hinder the success.

If your team consists of individuals who are good at what they do and also like their work, this should be pretty easy. The rather difficult would be identifying:

1. Rewards — the offerings that they would really value
2. Obstacles — the problems that constrain their performance
3. Penalties — the suffering that they would fear enough to avoid but not so much that would start hating working for you.
4. Goodies — the pleasantries that they would miss if taken away so much that they would want them back.

Now if you are working with them as their peers or teammates, there is a good chance that you know them well enough to deal with them in terms of these four currencies.

Rewards won’t mean bonuses and increments. Just listening to their requests and fulfilling them might work. Obstacles won’t be deadlines or difficulty of a task. Maybe allow them to sleep for longer one day so they are happier the next day. Penalties won’t mean deductions. Tell them they won’t get invited to the next hangout maybe. Goodies don’t have to be an allowance that maybe revoked for them. You can probably just take away their cellphone.

Let me give you an example.

Recently, when one of my teammates had a higher priority task to do, while there was another deliverable pending, lesser in priority but the deadline could not be missed, I asked him how much time the task may take. He told me it will take 4 to 5 hours, while he cannot spare more than 1 or so. I told him not to worry and that I will do the most of it and submit it to him so that he will only need to spend about an hour or so just to refine it, which is the time he said he could spare. He agreed, and we delivered well in time. The credit of the outcome of the task goes to him — but does it matter? In a team, it shouldn’t. How did I manage to spare time for his task? In a team, it shouldn’t matter either. If that teammate acknowledges what I did for him, he will be more than happy to return the favor at some other time.

Similarly, if a behavior of your team annoys the shit out of your boss, and you are afraid that you cannot change that behavior of your team right away, don’t let your boss punish your team for it EVER! Please try to understand that you have to limit the power that your boss has over you and your team. And that is doable! If the punishment starts making your teammates not want to work for you, that is not a damage that you can ever afford.

So what do you do? You take the thorn out of your boss’s foot. Make the matter disappear for him and then figure out how to deal with the behaviors of the team. But never expose your team to your boss if you have even a shred of integrity. Your team’s failure to deliver is your failure to deliver. You cannot isolate the failure of your teammates.

Don’t make excuses! Be better!

Firstly, accept failure! Don’t hide behind the circumstances and be defensive. You can do it.

The point is, it may not always seem as simple as it did to me in the example I have shared above. But when performance of the team and delivering quality, and that too in time, matters, not having a structural or positional power of a ‘manager’ should not keep you from getting things done. You do not need to boss around to deliver, you need to be able to manage smartly.