Slow down to speed up

Occasionally pausing to see how things are going, and then improving and speeding up, is not such a bad idea. Give yourself this space. 

Recently, we paused to look at the workday of an overloaded product owner. We asked what the planning of his day looked like and found out that he had taken full responsibility for a wide range of tasks. He was busy all day coordinating with users, translating their wishes and problems into system changes, guiding the team in realization, approving the work realized, organizing review sessions, training users, and overseeing implementation. Additionally, there were regular production disruptions he was called for. No wonder he was exhausted. We advised him to bring his situation to the guild for product owners and discuss with some peers how they handle it. Other product owners shared how they had transferred many of these tasks to the team. The main eye-opener the product owner got was that he actually had too little trust in his team, resulting in a need for control and taking everything on himself. He discussed this with the team and together they redistributed the work, creating more breathing room for him. His development in the profession was about learning to let go. 

A fun exercise to become aware of the power of stopping and reflecting:

• Discuss the image below.

• Ask participants what they see. Ask them to think of how this image relates to their work situation ask the following questions:

• Do you recognize the people in the image?

• Who keeps working hard and pulling the cart?

• Who says there is no time to look at improvements?

• Who offers solutions, but they are not listened to?

Slow down to speed up