As a coach, I can be pretty sneaky sometimes.
One of my favorite sneaky strategies? Getting things wrong.
People looooove to correct other people. So being wrong is one of the best ways to get teams engaged.
I wish I could say that I’m doing it intentionally, but I’m not. I work in areas where I just don’t have any domain knowledge. And I’m trying to keep up with terms I know absolutely nothing about. Therefore I’m wrong. A lot.
So when I put on the Trello board that we have to meet with a GM instead of a VP, I get corrected very quickly.
Or during refinement when I’m bungling documenting the requirements for 5.1 vs 5.1.2 vs 7.1 vs 7.1.2 vs all the numbers with all the dots, the team jumps in to talk about how they actually need to be testing their audio.
Do it enough, and the team starts to take over documenting their work.
Do it enough, and you start to uncover conversations about shared understanding on the team. They thought they were all on the same page about their testing strategy, but now they’re not so sure.
I’m not doing it intentionally. But I’m also doing it intentionally.
It takes a certain level of being OK with looking stupid.
Certainly if our backlog consisted of stories related to BTS, I’d have a whole lot more expertise.
I do my best to get teams started using the knowledge that I have, then I turn it over to them to own their work. It took me a while to stop feeling dumb and to start embracing the vulnerability of being the person who knows the least.
It’s about getting comfortable with knowing what you don’t know.
And if BTS ever needs an Agile Coach, they know who to call.
Photo by Kevin Woblick on Unsplash