Three or four little sketches (yes it seems that’s how it’s spelled) concerning commitment and motivation that I happen to perform regularly. Commitment and motivation is the whole meaning of invitation so dear to Dan Mezick. For the first one, it’s a recurring scene. It has taken place at several clients. Context: Scrum or similar.

Conversation

beginning of the conversation.

Him: “I’m bothered, since you came by the teams commit less”.

Me: “meaning?”

Him: “Well generally before they committed to between 8 and 12 user stories, now it’s more like 5 or 6…”

Me: “Ah”

Silence.

Me: “I observed that they weren’t really committing, that you were giving them a commitment.”

Him: “Yes, we were doing the estimations and the commitments”.

Me: “And before they delivered 1 or 2 stories done? isn’t that right?”

Him: “Yes, that’s true… sometimes! other times it really was 10 or 12 !!”.

Me: “Yes but in that case they turned out to be poor quality, not really done? hum?”.

Him: “…yes.”

Me: “Ok. So you’re right. let’s go back to an imposed commitment. Start giving them a commitment of 8 or 12 again.”

Me again, annoyed: “Besides since in the end they deliver 1 or 2, I suggest you make them commit to 43 stories”

Me again, this time, mocking: “And besides why not 578? Either way we get 1 or 2 at the end.”

Me again, sarcastic: “Actually we’re stupid might as well aim for 4563 user stories per iteration! World champion!! since at the end we get 1 or 2!! Yeaah”

Me, calmed down: “You can also continue to let them commit and deliver finished things, quality things, because their involvement will be nothing like before. And yes around 4 to 6 per iteration from what we’re observing currently”.

end of the conversation.

Keywords: Return to a real commitment. Return of truth. Return of quality. Return of real planning. Return to honest communication. Return of motivation. etc etc etc

Supplement

• You ask me to do something in 3 days where I estimate it takes 5. Since you’re my boss I do it in 3, but so I do sh**ty work, well yeah, it would take 5 days to do it! Too bad…
• You ask me to do something in 5 days where I estimate it takes 2. Since you ask me for incoherent things besides, and basing myself on Parkinson’s law, I do it in 5 days. Too bad…
• You ask me how much time it would take to accomplish this thing. I tell you 3 days. You ask me if I feel capable of accomplishing it under the conditions I describe. If I say yes my commitment and the quality of work delivered will be nothing like the cases observed above. Planning and motivation will also be greatly improved.

Supplement 2

We often speak of an engineer “productivity” ratio with a factor between 1 and 10. This comes from the book “Mythical Man Month” by Fred Brooks. Even if some question it in a pertinent way. I believe in it. What does that mean?

• Think of a task you love doing, something you really enjoy: observe your “performance”, “commitment”, “motivation”, as well as the “quality delivered”.
• Think of a task you don’t like doing, something you get sh** on: observe your “performance”, “commitment”, motivation", as well as the “quality” delivered.
• Think back to the “productivity ratio” mentioned above. I tell myself it’s true and that it concerns everyone. Being productive = Loving to do. And therefore: making people love, motivating = making productive.

Yes skills also come into play. But (I no longer know where this quote comes from): “enthusiasm creates skills”. To a (large) extent at least.

Refer to the last supplement.

Supplement 3

In agile training sessions, we often get to the agile manifesto principles. And we read “build projects with motivated people”. At that point, the room bursts out laughing.

Me, feigning surprise: “Why are you laughing?”

Them: “Ah the do-gooders! too easy! obviously projects work with motivated people”.

Me: “Ok, completely agree, we’ll stop the training on XXX, you want your projects to succeed? motivate people”.