Staying Unstuck

Just as I was posting Getting Unstuck, another blogger I know was reflecting about “getting out of a rut”. For this writer, the interesting direction was not generating new ideas, but establishing new behaviors. As anyone who’s ever tried to change their own behavior knows, establishing a new habit takes much more that just identifying what the new practice should be.

Things that help to establish new routines can include the following:

• Have a buddy. I like to learn how to do something, such as use a new tool, and then find someone on my team to teach it to. Teaching someone else to do something builds understanding. And when I forget to use my new tool, I now have someone who will remind me.
• Make it part of the routine. Redefine the process to depend on the new behavior. For example, peer review before check-in. Someone can see that a rule is being violated. That works best with a new behavior we want to put on the critical path for product release.
• Make the desired behavior visible. The example that comes to mind on this is documentation of test processes and the like that’s internal to the team. When I added a “what’s been documented this week?” section to weekly status reports, it was a lot easier to get documentation tasks done.
• Match rewards with the desired behavior. What we reward we do, even if the only reward is recognition. But sometimes there’s a disincentive to the new behavior that has to be addressed.
• Understand why. Have an answer to the question, why are we doing this? And assess – is it working? Knowing that a change brings us closer to a desired goal is a powerful motivator.