De-hassle your organization!
Recurrent customer and employee hassles 40% of our time.
It makes people hate their jobs, problems never getting fixed.
It's never just one person's problem. To reduce your costs, shorten your cycle time, and generally improve your internal working environment, you need to systematically gather data on what's hassling your employees.
Because your employees are often closest to the customer, their hassles are usually related to what's hassling your customers, giving you tremendous insight into ways to serve your customers better. Their hassles are your opportunities.
Keep making John happy!
"The hour of horror" - Employees at Dell would gather around and brainstorm solutions to some - but not all - of the problems.
If you solve just one percent of your problems or make a one percent improvement in your products and services each week, you'll gain greater and greater yields from the solutions with each passing year. If, on the other hand, you aim for solving too many problems, you'll have made a hassle out of your de-hassling system! Instead of being your key productivity - enhancing tool, it'll become just another drag on everybody's time.
We better improving tests. regression bugs eat up CS/SE/DEV's time. 1% of a year is like 4 days. Can we have a quarterly day of only writing tests?
- What should we start doing?
- What should we stop doing?
- What should we continue doing?
We're collecting data in a slack channel, then track in PT. Though, do we see the pattern of bugs?
From my point of view..:
start measuring quality, ...need QA?
stop adding patches - it could cause another issue :( Bugs make the future planning blurred
keep being responsive. do not leave bugs, watch #oncall, switch accordingly
Executive-level list to share:
- What are the top 10 things that make your job a hassle?
There's no way to predict how much hassle input you'll receive. You could get a lot; you could get a little. If your team is reluctant to provide feedback, don't shame them; just work extra hard to respond to the few items you receive.
People are watching to see if their contributions area being considered. Don't summarize the data, give it back to the team in raw form.
People will want to see change as it's occurring.
"Noted, done." closing the loop in this fashion is absolutely crucial. Let people know what issues are being addressed, and which ones have been resolved. Internal note: can non-devs easily know when an issue is fixed?
Some companies will even keep an issues-aging report, tracking how long an issue has been outstanding, so it doesn't fall through the crack. Icebox: they need to have reproducing process
Use six-point set of problem-solving guidelines
A key technique is asking "Why" several times. (5 whys - Toyota)
The point: many big problems trace back to simple solutions if you'll just get Colombo-like and ask a lot of questions. Keep your de-hassling system fair and humane: focus on the process (the "what") and not the people (the "who"): involve all those affected; never backstab.
NEVER BACKSTAB. We all have the right to face our accuser. Besides, we're more likely to get to the root of the problem when all those affected are in the same room and thus less likely to attack the "who".
De-hassling your organization doesn't have to fall on the backs of the executive team. In fact, it's better to form a mid-management team to handle the initial screening and problem solving. Who else is as close to the action? Who better to know which items deserve priority attention and which employees are best suited to finding the solution? Think of it as a management-development opportunity, an investment in your eventual succession plan, as your supervisors and mid-managers have the opportunity to creatively address issues and improve performance and customer satisfaction.
The following sections will help you define what daily and weekly measure you and your company should focus on to drive performance, guide priorities, and help anticipate problems and opportunities. "Did I have a good week?"
It's the best if the company has one or two Critical Numbers around which to align the company over the next quarter or year. The number represents a key short-term focus in the company that will have the most impact on the future of the firm. Ask "What is the single most important measurable thing we need to accomplish in the next 3-to-12 months?"
The number represents how the company is likely to do in the future. It is typically a complex ratio made up of key indicators like the ratio of sales this week against the same week last year compared to the growth rate of the market. These key weekly measures make you smarter about how the business is doing.
Based on the Smart Numbers and Critical Numbers, every person or team should have one or two daily/weekly measures that align with these numbers. Can every employee see how what they're doing impacts the entire firm?
Scoreboard! Make your measurements visible. Every office employee has some kind of whiteboard which to graph their own daily and weekly measures. These numbers have a much greater impact if people see them on a large graph.
Once the habit of daily and weekly measuring is established, you want to start projecting ahead in addition to simply documenting the past. Forward Forecasting: This involves making an educated guess about how the next few weeks or months are likely to turn out based on what you know now. Then, by comparing actual results agains predicted strengthen your knowledge about what drives results fro yourself, your team, and the company.
A situation room is where you display your core values and purpose, priorities for the quarter and year, and a map of the geographical territory you cover. Also display your Smart Numbers and Critical Numbers large and graphically. Make someone accountable for making sure the displays are up-to-date. Many firms proudly display this information even for customers to see, giving customers confidence that the team is well managed and the executive team well informed.
It's essential that you develop daily and weekly measurements for the company, and daily and weekly measurements for every individual or team that align with the company measures. These numbers focus everyone's attention on driving performance, reinforcing priorities, and helping anticipate problems and opportunities. Make these measurements highly visible and graphical for everyone to see, and create a situation room for the executive team. Most importantly, just start measuring something and keep tracking different metrics until you find those that provide the most insight and useful feedback.
Does the issue really matter, is it of top importance, is there a customer affected by the hassle? Here you are looking for a pattern of recurring hassles. You can't solve every hassle right away, so you want to look at those that are costing customers and employees the most time or money.
Look back over your hassle lists. Did you write in generalities or list specifics? Some people will list as a hassle communications problems, or interruptions, or having to answer the same questions over and over. However, you can't begin to address these issues without knowing the who, what, when, where, how, and why of these hassles. Being specific also means being careful when using the words "always", "never", and "all the time." In staff meetings, push people to give specifics.
Look at the cause of the issue and not just the symptoms. Let's say you've identified a specific communications problem - in most cases, the standard response is "send out a memo." Rarely does this get to the root of the problem - instead, it serves as a quick fix. One of the best ways to get to the root of the problem is using the "5 Whys" technique. Ask "why" several times until you get to the root cause.
You don't want to turn your search into a finger-pointing or blame game. Besides, 95% of the time, it's a process problem, not a people problem. However, if all the what's keep leading to the same who, maybe you've waited too long and the person has to be let go. But you should still ask "What did we do wrong that caused this person to fail?" Maybe your hiring or training process needs to be improved. If you don't get to the root of the what, you'll keep making the same who mistakes.
Rather than run around getting ten explanations from ten people, get them all in the same room to give a truer picture of the entire problem. Getting everyone in the room together also helps to minimize suboptimization - where fixing a problem in one part of the organization causes greater problems elsewhere.
Never talk negatively about anyone if that person is not present. The only exception is if you need to seek the advice of someone before confronting the individual. In this case, you still need to bring the individual into the conversation as soon as possible. This guideline has its roots in such principles as the right to face your accuser and to be present when being judged. Besides, when you talk negatively about someone to another person, they have to then wonder if you are talking negatively about them behind their back. If you can be successful in implementing this rule, the level of trust and openness in your organization will improve immensely. And when the other person is present, everyone tends to follow the first five guidelines more closely.