Antoine Alberti5d ago
Alex Bird

> The only person who likes change is a wet baby.” This change corrects a problem so I’m OK with it.

From @donaldegray's essay "This Title May Change at Any Time! (How Do You Feel About That?)"

When a change idea is tied to a problem we feel, we have a much bigger appetite for the change.

Sometimes, I've sat on an observation of a problem and proposed solution for as much as a year until something happens in the life of the team for the problem to be felt. Whereas they had no interest in my idea when I first pitched it, a year later when they were feeling the pain of it, they were open (and excited) about the idea!

I've found that often I have ideas for change before there is a broad appetite for the change.

Mar 17 at 2:55pmWeb
Show threadAlex Bird6d ago

I have a friend who decided to sell his portable air conditioner in the winter. He decided in the winter, but he waited until a day into the biggest heat wave of the summer before listing it for sale. Clever guy.

I try to do this with my change ideas. I'm in a team, and I see some pattern, friction, pain point, or opportunity... but if others don't see it, I keep the idea in storage until the "heat wave". Practically, that means I'm waiting to see if anyone brings it up in retro, or if folks resonate with the observation of the pain that I talk about in retro.

When (if) we agree it's a problem that's worth thinking about, then I bring my idea out of storage.

Show threadElizabeth Zagroba6d ago
@alexanderbird Never waste a good crisis
Show threadArvid Requate4d ago
@alexanderbird Sounds well tempered. One just needs to resist to shoehorn other tangentialy related issues into one of those "solutions" to address personal pet peves.
Show threadAlex Bird4d ago

@reqa Aha, yes!! It's so easy to imagine a Big Complicated Fix that addresses two urgent issues and three pet peeves. What we actually need is a small, tactical fix for the one most urgent issue. It takes discipline to pick those apart, to distill the Big Complicated Fix into a small change.

I've seen some excellent tech leaders who can take a Big Proposal and shave off most of it to get down to the little insight that impacts the urgent problem.