“This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.”
We’ll often use the expression “hindsight 20/20” to refer to the irony of how obvious doing something stupid seems after the fact. Everything – in hindsight – is seen with 20/20 vision. In reality, that’s only true if you actually bother to look back. If you don’t, then you’re destined to repeat the same mistakes over and over, a bit like the first half of Groundhog Day before Bill Murry figured out he had a unique opportunity to relentlessly improve on the same day until it was almost perfect in every way.
So, with all that in mind, this week we’re going to give you something far more powerful than hindsight: Foresight 20/20.
“It’s a rare change-management win-win and feels so intuitive the first time you do it that it becomes hard to imagine ever doing it differently”
Continuous Improvement
In the Agile software development world, the idea of continuous improvement is baked in to the process at every level, and at the end of every step in the continuous cycle of innovation (iterations, program increments, releases) there is always a retrospective (or inspect and adapt) session where everyone comes together to answer four simple but powerful questions:
- What went well?
- What did we learn?
- What should we do differently next time?
- What still puzzles us?
The drive towards continuous improvement is one of the most powerful elements of the Agile movement because it means everyone, at every level, is always looking to add more value – or take more cost out – of the process. It’s what the Japanese call Kaizen, and it was a significant factor in Japan’s rise to manufacturing dominance in the late 20th century.
We’ve seen this approach applied so effectively that a relatively inexperienced and inefficient team can transform itself into a high-performing team simply by learning from its own successes, and more importantly mistakes, over multiple iterations. The fact that the changes come from within the team, in small increments, rather than being imposed from outside (using, for example, the more traditional “optimization” techniques such as time-in-motion studies from the early management philosophers Frederick Winslow Taylor and co.) means that the team are bought in from the beginning. It’s a rare change-management win-win and feels so intuitive the first time you do it that it becomes hard to imagine ever doing it differently, despite the legacy development approaches like Waterfall surviving for decades and still being in wide use today. I recall one manager, the first time he was introduced to the idea of Agile, saying: “You had me at hello.” This stuff works, and you only need to do it once to be sold.
“If you made a 1% performance improvement every day, you’d double your performance every 70 days, such is the magic of Kaizen”
Your Personal Retrospective
Since we’re approaching the end of the year and if, like most of us, you plan to hit 2020 with some personal or professional goals in mind, otherwise known as “New Year’s Resolutions”, now is a great time to reflect back on your 2019. If, like most of us, you find that your resolutions typically last about as long as it takes to read to the end of this sentence, then gaining some clarity around what this past year has really been all about can only help to support you as you carry that learning into next year and really get those resolutions right (and fear not, like pretty much every other blogger in the blogosphere we’ll be doing a post on resolutions in January).
The first challenge we have is that doing this at the end of the year isn’t very “agile”. The true agilest would do this at least monthly, and potentially even weekly or daily (if you made a 1% performance improvement every day, you’d double your performance every 70 days, such is the magic of Kaizen). However, since we’re starting now, we’ll have to make do with an annual retrospective.
“This is called ‘Bottom Lining’ and it’s a powerful coaching skill – get to the essence in as few words as possible (and no fewer!)”
The Book of Your Year
Storytelling is a very powerful, very natural, human ability, so let’s tap into that and imagine that you’re writing the book of your year. We’ll give it twelve chapters (one per month). You’re going to need a pen and paper, because this is audience participation time:
Begin to reflect back on each month. Some were a long time ago, so you can try to remind yourself by:
- Reading your journals if you have them (if you don’t please consider making that one of your New Year’s Resolutions!)
- Scanning through your emails (don’t read them in detail, just glance at the subject titles and who you were emailing etc.)
- Review your calendar – what big events or meetings where happening?
- Review your music library – what were you listening to? How did that reflect your mood?
- What movies were you watching? What books were you reading?
- Review you Paypal or bank activity. Where did all that money go?!
- If they’re to hand, chat to friends, family or colleagues – the people you were doing whatever you were doing with – to see what they can recall. You could even do this together, perhaps as a family exercise. Make it a holiday game! Drink Eggnog. It might help.
Jot a few of the key themes down for each month, and as you do, also ask yourself a variation on those four questions from earlier:
- What went well? What should I be celebrating about that month?
- What did I learn about myself?
- What would I do differently next time? (No regrets, no judgement, just learning!)
- What still puzzles me? What should I run a few more experiments on before I call it a success or misstep?
Now, challenge yourself to come up with a title for each chapter. Try to capture the essence and try to make it compelling. Pithy even. This is called ‘Bottom Lining’ and it’s a powerful coaching skill – get to the essence in as few words as possible (and no fewer!)
Once you’ve done that for all twelve months, start to look for patterns across the months. What two or three big themes are emerging for you? To help, consider:
- Of all the things that went well – and by now I’m sure you’re realizing that there were way more than you thought – what should you really be celebrating about 2019?
- What are the most important lessons to learn and carry over into next year, so you don’t play out another 365 Groundhog Days? (BTW, in case you haven’t seen the movie, then just remember that the definition of stupid is to repeat the same steps and expect a different outcome). What really needs to change, to change the game for 2020?
Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to name your book of 2019. Remember to bottom line it. Make it catchy: Something that will remind you of the powerful work you’ve just done, and the incredible year of learning you’ve just had.
We’d love you to share it in the comments below! Or on the social media channels this was posted.
“Now, it’s time to dream. Start thinking about what you’d love to call your book of 2020.”
Foresight 20/20
Armed with the wisdom of your own experience, you’re ready to hit 2020 with a real sense of what needs to change. Rather than a vague and hopeful ‘this year it’ll be different’ – this time it really will, and you get to own it.
Now, it’s time to dream. Start thinking about what you’d love to call your book of 2020. If you did this exercise in 12 months-time at the end of 2020 (which we could then call “Hindsight 2020” – you heard the pun here first!), what would you hope to have celebrated and learned along the way? What big themes will stand out? What excites you about the possibilities. Feel free to share that one too! Why not make it a public declaration of intent?
We’ll come back to you in a few weeks to work through that 2020 plan together, but for now, step back and celebrate the rollercoaster ride of emotion that was 2019. You’ve earned it.
“I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met a girl. We ate lobster, drank piña coladas. At sunset we made love like sea otters. That was a pretty good day. Why couldn’t I get that day over and over and over?”
What now?
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