Expectations with transitioning to a ticketing system
Setting clear expectations for how a new ticketing system should be used is critical to its success. After all, nothing aggravates a customer more than not knowing how to get help so they can do their job.
The move to a ticketing system is a necessary step in a company's growth. It can be an exciting shift (especially for the support teams using it!), but it can also be cause for some heartache, especially for the end users expected to use it. The root cause tends to be change… those individuals are going from simply emailing or talking to someone to now having to use a System.
Generally it doesn’t matter what system is used, there’s now a process to follow. That process could be as simple as using a new email or more complex like having to go to a website and fill out specific fields in a form. This change results in friction, especially when expectations for what those users should do aren't clearly set.
Exactly what is expected can differ, but regardless of specifics, what an end user is expected to do should be considered during the deployment process. Taking time to think through what they’ll need to do, speaking with some directly, and adjusting your system to help make things easier does take time, but it will pay off in the end.
Failing to think this aspect through can lead to a lot of friction as your new process and system is rolled out. Customers, after all, are the ones who are coming to you asking for assistance. They’re the ones who may not be able to get their own work done, and now knowing how to reach out for help, or not knowing when help will be provided, can make their lives a lot more miserable.
Below are a few questions I ask myself to help figure out what those expectations are. By no means a complete list, but a good starting point that will help you get into the head of the folks expected to use your shiny new system:
Who will be putting in tickets? I prefer that the person experiencing the issue report it, but will it be OK for someone else to submit it? What about agents submitting on behalf of a user?
What is the expected response time? Knowing how long to wait for a reply or resolution is critical, but to protect your team and also to keep users comfortable with timelines. Having this clearly set and shared is important.
Where/how should tickets be entered? Ensuring everyone knows where, and how, to enter tickets reduces frustration, especially if it changes. You should also consider what happens if someone puts in a ticket the 'wrong' way.
We’re human first
It’s very easy to forget that our coworkers are people too. Odd as it sounds, keeping in mind everyone is human first is incredibly important to building strong relationships.
Working in tech I’ve found it very easy to forget that the human element is still there. It’s REALLY easy to focus on how the systems interconnect, or which technology you’re using, or what error popped up… but it’s far more important to remember that everyone involved, the people using and complaining and working the tech, are human. That said, I imagine that many folks who work in tech don’t do it because they want to interact with folks, instead they do it because tech is amazing.
This split can make things…. Problematic. Think back to any interaction you’ve had with someone on a support team who’s been less than empathetic. Or hasn’t taken the time to get to know you… or cannot pronounce your name properly (or even cares). They may do a great job of fixing whatever problem you have, but the interaction still left a bad taste in your mouth.
Remembering that we’re all human also goes both ways. The customer asking for help should keep in mind that tech may have had to work overtime to fix a problem and really just wants to relax. That stakeholder who’s upset their deliverable will be a bit late needs to keep in mind that the project team is doing everything they can to help. That same help desk technician, however, needs to remember that the person calling in to get help for the same problem they’ve fixed 9123 times today still needs their help.
It can be incredibly hard to remember this basic rule, especially when things go sideways and the pressure is on. We’ll find ourselves falling back to demanding things, placing blame, and other behaviors that “feel good” because we’re able to vent, or we think we’re doing something that helps… when really it just signals we don’t see others as being people. Instead, this behavior signals we see others as not needing our empathy or compassion.
There’s a few tricks I’ve found that help keep the “we’re all human” aspects near the top:
Small Talk - While it seems like it’s just a time waster, small talk (how was your weekend, what’s up with those boxing gloves in your background, etc) help uncover small pieces of folks. This, in turn, helps make them less “This person is wasting my time” and more human.
Asking them for help - This is very useful if they don’t think you’re as human as you’d like. Asking them to help out with something, even something small, helps them see you as another person and not just a machine that pushes buttons.
Checking in - I’ll randomly reach out to folks I haven’t worked with in a while just to say hello, or to share an article I think they’ll like. This both helps keep our relationship going, but also shows them I’m interested in them beyond just the project we’re on. Some of my stronger relationships have come from this approach.
"I had to give" someone feedback
Feedback is can be hard to give or accept. It requires a culture that is open to providing and receiving it, and an open mind set that everyone can do better.
Feedback is critical to learning. Without understanding the impact our actions make we cannot course correct and become better. One of the best sources of feedback is our team; the folks we work with. Not only do they have an understanding of how we work, they understand something about the work itself. This gives them insight into how we can improve in specific areas, as opposed to generalities.
Understanding that feedback is important is one thing, but being able to accept it is something else entirely. Many times the phrase “I had to give so-and-so feedback” is used when describing giving feedback. This phrasing sets up a bit of an adversarial understanding. They’re giving feedback because they “have to”, because something went wrong that needs to be fixed.
Phrasing
This phrasing instantly tells everyone that someone screwed up. It tells the team that so-and-so made a mistake and the boss (or whomever) has to come down from on high to make sure it doesn’t happen again. This phrasing also puts the boss into the mindset of “correcting a bad thing” instead of “helping someone improve”. At this point it stops being positive feedback, and instead turns into something closer to a punishment.
The person receiving the feedback will also pick up on this difference. Going into a meeting where you “have to be given” feedback primes you for being in a defensive / negative headspace. It takes what should be a positive event - learning to become better - and shifts it into a negative event - being dressed down. While this certainly isn’t guaranteed - after all everyone will accept and interpret feedback differently - it certainly doesn’t help.
Part of how feedback is delivered is built into the culture of the company - do folks expect regular, honest discussions on how they’re doing and where they can do better? - or do they expect to only be told when they screwed something up? While this framework will certainly impact any feedback discussion there’s a lot a team, or even an individual, can do to frame feedback as a positive.
Use different words
As noted above “I have to give feedback” sounds negative, so just say something different.
“I liked XYZ you did, let’s talk about how you can get even better next time”.
“I’ve got some ideas on how you can increase your impact”
The intention is to present the discussion as a positive, “lets help you do even better” talk vs a “you screwed up, don’t do it again” talk. The words you use to transmit that intention are incredibly important… take time to think up a way to indicate you’ve found something they can do better, without sounding like a demerit.
Openly talk about feedback
Many times feedback is only provided during set times (generally around performance discussions). This not only guarantees it’s stale (ever had a manager bring up something that happened 4 months ago? Or not bring up anything at all?), it also clearly ties it to performance. This linkage is dangerous since it puts everyone in the mindset of “feedback had better be positive or I won’t get my bonus/increase/whatever”.
This also makes feedback a rarity, something that only happens at set points. This breaks any positive habits around feedback and instead sends you scrambling to look up what feedback is, how to write it and how to accept it. Knowing that it’s coming up, and that you and your team don’t regularly do it, just adds to the stress of it all.
Many of these challenges can be overcome by making feedback a regular, and open, thing on your team. The more the team experiences feedback, the more the team talks about the feedback and the more open it is will make it easier to give, and accept.
On Perseverance
Perseverance, or the ability to keep going, despite hitting brick walls repeatedly is a great skill to have. Having it means we can weather unexpected challenges more easily, and makes it easier to reach if they crop up.
Perseverance, the ability to keep going despite hardships, is a very important skill to learn, and something I recently had a chance to practice. On Friday I took what should have been a 4 hour exam… which lasted 5.5+ hours. Instead of starting this (stressful) exam that I’d spent 8 months preparing for immediately, I was greeted with a black screen and a spinning beach ball. Despite figuring out how to get help, I ended up waiting on hold for tech support. For 2.5 hours. Talking to chat bots. In circles. At several points I considered just calling it and rescheduling (something that would set me back another two months).
Instead, I took a moment to breathe and figure out my options… Everything basically amounted to waiting on hold for chat support… or phone support… or chat support again… and again and again. I figured if I could just get the RIGHT agent on the phone, I’d get in and could take my exam. It just took my not giving up. Eventually, 2 hours later I found that agent, and my exam started. 8 questions in it immediately broke. Again. This was another chance to give up. I’d already spent half my allotted time not answering questions, and who knows how much longer it would go on for. Instead I chose the perseverance route; apply my previous strategy of reaching out again. And again. And again.
This was not as easy as it sounds. Whatever chat system I was tied into would automatically send me a message “from the agent” every 3 minutes. It was something like “Thanks for your patience, I’m still looking into your issue”, that just repeated. After 40 minutes of non-responses I began asking if anyone was actually there, and they could type in literally ANYTHING other than the stock message to let me know. Eventually I hung up on that chat and opened another, and kept doing that until I found someone who could help me. The same thing happened to me on the phone; after 30+ minutes on hold an agent would pickup, tell me they’d fixed the issue, then hang up. I even asked one to stay on the line until I could confirm the issue was resolved, but they said they couldn’t.
Long story short I ended up passing that exam…. But not after getting a hands-on lesson in perseverance. In this case it expressed itself in not giving up, in not saying “I give” and quitting, in continuing to look for an answer despite every avenue being non-helpful. This is hard stuff… it would be SO much easier to just reschedule or do it later, but it wasn’t worth it to me. Not only would I have to go through all the anxiety of prep AGAIN, all the waiting AGAIN, I’d have wasted almost 3 hours of my life on hold.
Situations like this crop up all the time. We’re in meetings that we’re bored stupid in. We have to work on projects that just… never… die. Something fails and we lose several hours of work that we have to re do. The challenge is not to get stuck on how annoying/stupid/etc the situation is, but instead of focus on what’s important; being present, completing our work, solving the challenge.
Broken Comb Skillsets
Broken Combs have expertise in a few areas, in addition to general skills. This makes them a great addition to any team since they can fill multiple gaps. This can, however, result in them getting spread too thin…
A broken comb skill set refers to the shape a comb with missing teeth makes - some vertical lines and a horizontal one (and certainly doesn’t suggest the individual is broken!). They’re essentially an extension of the “T” skill shape, multiple in-depth areas with a (potentially) broad general base. This type of skillset is very interesting to work with, as they have multiple areas of expertise. While this is not without its challenges, broken combs can be very flexible and bring immense value to a team.
The upside of a Broken Comb
Broken comb skill sets offer the advantage of multiple focus disciplines. Due to these areas they can potentially reduce the need to bring in additional team members, or negate the need to bring in outside help. By excelling in multiple areas they provide a lot of flexibility and are able to make a big impact on projects. This is especially true if their areas are related (your tax and finance systems, for example) as they are able to easily support thos areas and understand the interconnections between them.
In addition to their areas of depth they are also similar to how a “T”-shaped skillset with a broad skillset of more general skills. This general knowledge helps them bridge gaps between areas (even their own), and allows them to get a better handle on the big picture. The mix of focus areas and general skills can make for some very versatile individuals, capable of not only handling technical areas, but also “softer” skill sets.
The downside of a Broken Comb
While not a rule, despite a Broken Comb shaped skill sets offer deeper expertise in multiple areas, it’s likely their depth isn’t as great as an “I”, or even a “T”. This is simply due to not having as much time to dedicate to each one as those other types. This may result in overconfidence, or stretching too far in those areas. Have multiple focus areas can also detract from their overall impact as they may get pulled in too many directions to be truely impactful.
Similarly, the breadth of general skills may be limited as a lot of energy is put onto the areas of focus. This leaves less capacity to developing general skills, or to developing them deeply enough to be at least minimally effective. This can result in broken combs having narrower general skillset than their “T” shaped counterparts.
Managing a Broken Comb
Understanding what any given Broken Comb’s focus areas are is important to fully using their talents. Take time to understand where their interests lie, and what areas they choose to focus on. This will not only allow you to be utilize them on projects, but also help the continue to improve their focus areas. Knowing how wide (or narrow) their general skillsets are is also important. Their wide range of skills can make it seem like they can handle anything, but knowing where the edges are is critical.
Broken Combs can also fit in incredibly well between teams, especially if there are folks with I-shaped sklil sets on either side. A Broken Combs multiple focus areas allows them to (relatively) easily translate between groups as they share an understanding with each side. This can also open opportunities to expand someone else’s skillsets and the Broken Comb can relate to them, and the new skill.
If you’re a Broken Comb
Take time to understand where the edges of your focus and general areas are. Knowing your areas of depth allows you to further exploit and build those skills, and knowing your general areas will make it easy to see how things connect. It will also help you better communicate to your team what you can do… and help avoid situations where you’re expected to be an expert but really don’t know.
Having multiple focus areas (plus generalized skills to round you out) will make you very popular. Be careful that you don’t get pulled into too many different directions. Take an active approach in shaping what work you take on to best maximize your interest and impacts.
T Shaped Skillsets
T shaped skillsets offer a single deep area of expertise, with a broad general base to support it. They can be great at helping bridge gaps, and filling in where others need support. Their depth, however, may not be as deep as someone with an I shaped skillset, and their general skills may not be strong enough in some situations.
If an “I” shaped skillset is very deep in one area and not much else, a “T” shape is a skillset that’s deep in one area (the vertical part of the T) with some general knowledge of others (the horizontal part of the T). Generally these folks have a broader range of interests or responsibilities than someone who is “I” shaped, resulting in a broader skillset. These individuals may also have been on the path to be an “I” shape and made the conscious (or not!) choice to broaden vs. deepen their skillset.
I find “T” shapes to be good at putting together a broader picture, or investigating new areas (think a Business Systems Analyst, project manager, etc). Their broad skillset allows them to more easily interface with other groups and understand new topics at a higher level, while their single deeper skill can have them either leading or assisting where an “I” shape would be. These individuals can take the place of an “I” in some areas, but you need to be careful since the depth of the “T” tends to be shallower than that of an “I”.
The upside of a T
T-shaped skillsets result in an individual to have one area of in-depth focus. It also results in them having at least a passing familiarity with other areas of the business, systems or processes. This allows them to dig into one area of expertise, while also making it easier for them to flex into other areas or to draw from their other experiences. This more rounded approach can result in more novel solutions to challenges, or help break out of challenges than an “I” shape may get stuck on.
“T” shapes also tend to be more open to exploring new areas or learning new skills. This makes them useful in situations where different teams or groups have to come together as they can “talk the talk” of both sides. In addition, the depth of the “T” can have them serving as the technical expert as well, eliminating the need to bring in more resources. While each individual and situation will have it’s own requirements, having someone who is more flexible on the team can be a huge help. This deeper expertise also makes it easier for them to work with “I” shaped individuals in a similar field; they’ll very likely share many concepts, skills and ideas.
The downside of a T
While a “T” shape does allow for some in-depth expertise, it is uncommon that it will be as in-depth as an “I” shaped skillset. This is generally due to the “T” shape drawing energy away to build the general skillsets, however, may also relate to the interest an individual has in any one area. Some folks simply aren’t interested enough to learn EVERYTHING about a particular area, so use the time that would be spent drilling deep to expand into other areas. This can be detrimental as the “T” shaped skillset may not be able to handle the complexity of some scenarios, requiring more resources.
While “T” shapes have a breadth of skills, the depth of many of them may be lacking. This could be due to a lack of need (e.g. “I know enough project management to get by”), lack of resources (“I never got formal training) or lack of interest (“I started learning XYZ but got bored”). This may result in situations where a “T” quickly gets in over their head.
Managing a T
As noted “T” shapes offer a lot of advantages. Not only do they have a single deep skillset, they have many other skills that can be applied. This makes them great for throwing at problems that relate to the area of interest as they’ll be able to apply multiple tools or ways of thinking to the challenge. This may also be hazardous since they may end up over their head. Unless they’ve learned to raise a flag for help (or are closely watched) this can quickly lead to big problems.
The depth of a “T”’s area of focus may also not be as deep as you need for any particular task. While they may seem to know enough, they can quickly get blind-sided by some obscure or specific thing that they don’t know how to handle. While this can be mitigated by their broader skills (e.g. knowing how to ask for help, how to research the problem, etc.) it can lead to project delays or other challenges. Until you’re at a stage where you can gauge their comfort, it may be beneficial to regularly check in to see what support they need.
You can support a “T” by learning if they want to deepen their focus, or expand their range. Deepening their focus may involve getting them more specialized training, pairing them up with an “I” (or another “T”) who has the same focus, or letting them take on more challenging work in that area. This will give them a deeper focus, but may also reduce their breadth. Supporting their range could involve assigning them to work on projects related to their focus (e.g. if they’re a lawyer put them on something just outside their speciality), or embedding them on other teams to learn how they work. This will increase their breadth, but may reduce the depth of their focus.
If you’re a T
Understanding where your focus is and how wide you want your breadth to get is important to being a successful “T”. Knowing the limits of your focus is critical to knowing when to ask for help or call in support, and will also help you learn where you can expand (if you choose to). Knowing how wide your skillset goes will help you avoid flinging yourself off the deep end.
You may also end up being the swiss army knife on your team - the one person who can be counted on to assist anywhere. Clearly communicating those boundaries to your team will also help you avoid situations where you’re expected to perform but have no clue what’s happening. While your interest and skills may be broad, they do have limits! That said, these can be great opportunities to expand your general skills since they’ll be new.
"I" shaped skillsets
“I” shaped skillsets are deep in on area of expertise, and light on others. This results in an individual very well versed in specific topics, but they may need support to fully maximize their impact.
Individuals with an “I” shape of skills have one focused their time on delving deep into a single skill. This means they’ll know everything about a specific tool, concept or area, which tends to make them excellent resources for those topics. This focus can, however, lead to other skills not being as strong as they could (or should) be. For example, a technical resource who is incredibly knowledgable about yoru system, but cannot effectively communicate, or a lawyer who knows everything about their area but is incredibly abrasive in interpersonal interactions.
“I” shaped skillsets may not be very common in smaller environments, if only because the level of challenges that crop up on a regular basis don’t necessitate their skills. Frequently this results in these individuals working as consultants or contractors so they can stay busy.
The upside of an I
Folks with I shaped skillsets are incredibly important to successfully completing large and complex projects. This is mainly due to their in-depth understanding of the topic at hand, which tends to allow them to either foresee challenges before they crop up, or deal with them if they do. While “T” shaped folks or “broken combs” may also possess some amount of skill in those areas, they rarely get to the depth that someone with an “I” shaped skillset can delve.
This means folks with an “I” shaped skill set are great to throw at large, complex problems that fit in their wheelhouse. Their experience and background will give them a good idea of where to begin tackling the problem, and since they’ve done it all before they’ll know what steps need to be taken and when. Their innate desire to learn about that topic will also result in them continuing to sharpen their skill set, either through formal training, experimentation or networking with others in their field. This makes them a great resource for trying new things and getting the most out of their work.
The downside of an I
Given the immense amount of time and focus it takes to develop a single set of skills this deeply, “I” shaped skillsets tend to leave folks lacking in some areas. When unrecognized this can lead to some severe challenges with projects, as this individual will keep chugging along their path without realizing other areas may need attention. For example, understanding the need to communicate changes to a project’s scope is incredibly important, however, if I’m entirely focused on a technical buildout I may not share that information in time.
The extreme depth of skillset an “I” shape offers also can make it hard to find one. This is less a challenge for that person, and more for someone seeking those skills. This can lead to increased market demand, as well as scarcity (think back to how hard it can be to find an expert in some smaller fields). The focus on one particular area may also blind this individual to learning about other areas, potentially leading to not fully understanding how their work interacts.
Managing an “I”
Managing an I
The best advice I can provide here is to learn to identify when someone has an “I” shaped skill set and where that skillset ends. Theres a number of signs that will help indicate an “I” shaped skillset:
Long history with one technology, concept, etc. - Individuals who have specialized over a number of years in one field may tend to be “I” shaped.
Disinterest in other areas - Not expressing interest in other disciplines, ideas, etc. while focusing entirely on one is also a good indication.
Knowing where these edges are allows you to find ways to support them, whether it be through integrating them with a team of “T” or “broken combs” to help fill out the gaps, or someone skilled in managing “I” shapes. You can also look for groups of “I” shapes and have them work together. This can result in multiple folks with deep skill sets playing off each other and performing great work… you just need to be careful they all aren’t blind to each others areas.
Being direct, and repetitive, with communication can help avoid potential problems as well as folks in the “I” shaped bucket sometimes end up assuming others will fill in the gaps, or simply forget to take specific actions (e.g. communicating updates). Consistently connecting with them (or putting them on a team that’s stronger in those areas) can help maximize their impact. Helping ensure their schedules are cleared can also be helpful as it allows these folks to focus their time.
If you’re an “I”
Similar to someone managing an “I” the best thing you can do is to be aware of where your skill sets end. Knowing this boundary will help you work with a team (since you can call out where someone else needs to step in), and where you can choose to improve. Knowing the depth of your skill is also important, as many folks will turn to you for all the answers about a specific area. While you may be a super-expert, there’s always *something* you don’t know… and know that edge is just as important and knowing everything else.
Asking for feedback on how to improve your overall performance is also a great (if not uncomfortable) idea. There’s no expectation that you master other areas or take on more work, but there may be some simple and straight forward things you can do to help keep things running.
Skill Shapes
We all build skill sets as we grow… but we can built them in different ways. Understanding the depth and breadth of our (and our teams) skills is important to our success.
Everyone is different (citation needed). This part of our reality impacts every aspect of our interaction with folks, but in this particular piece we’ll look at how it impacts our work. There are many different ways to try and quantify or qualify our differences, from things like MBTI personality assessments, to background degrees, to more. Here, we’ll focus on our skillsets, and how our understanding of others (And our own) can impact our work.
One straightforward way to look at skill sets is to group them into “T”, “I” and “Broken Combs”. These three classifications are useful to understand where an individual’s strengths lie, and how they can be best utilized to tackle any given challenge. They can also be used to dig into past projects or events to better understand why things went the way they did. I’ll start with a high-level of each of these, then dig into them more in the coming weeks. Note that none of these is necessarily better or worse than any other - they’re just tools to help understand people a bit better (yourself included!).
Skill Shapes
I-shaped people
I (like the capital I or lowercase l) shaped people tend to have one deep skillset… and not much else. These individuals are valuable where in-depth knowledge is needed for a particular area - specific programming languages or systems, business processes etc. In my experience I-shaped people tend to be a bit more senior in their career or area, and likely ended up choosing to focus on a particular skillset because they find it interesting, or have a particular talent for it. Note that this extreme specialization can make it challenging for them to adopt new concepts/ideas, which may lead to blind spots developing.
T-shaped people
T-shaped individuals are similar to I-shapes, in that they have one specific skill they’re much better at (the vertical line in the “T”), however, they also possess at least a passing familiarity with several other skills (the vertical line in the “T”). This broader exposure of skills allows them to more easily flex between assignments, or to more easily interface with other groups as they may know some background concepts or parts of their systems. Note that because they also possess a broader skillset, their in-depth knowledge may not be as deep as someone who is “I” shaped.
Broken Combs
Like T-shaped people, broken combs possess basic knowledge in a broad set of skills. They differ from T-shaped people because they will possess at least 2 skills in more depth (this is where that name comes from… imagine breaking most of the teeth out of a comb). This allows them to be subject matter experts in several areas, while still maintaining general knowledge of others. Similar to a T-shape, however, their depth of knowledge in those areas may not be as great an I shaped person.
Each of these shapes offers its own insights, and I will be delving into each of these shapes over the next few weeks. Like many concepts these are not intended to limit or restrict an individual… instead they’re intended to be used to better understand how an individual or team will act (or to explain how it got to a specific situation).
On Forests
Keeping an eye on details is important, but understanding how it all comes together, and how those details interact with everything else, is equally critical to success.
While it can be incredibly gratifying and satisfying to immerse oneself in details, keeping an eye on the bigger picture is also incredibly important to success. Not only does understanding how your contributions fit into the grand scale help you understand your work, it also helps you identify and correct potential problems. The challenge is remembering to look up every once in a while and seeing what the spread looks like.
Zooming out
One pitfall many folks fall into is assuming that your manager/director/leadership will be the ones to handle the big picture. They do, after all, sit behind a Bigger Desk. In many ways this is not a bad thought or approach; it’s literally their jobs to concern themselves with the big(ger) picture. This, however, doesn’t excuse those of us working on the details from also understanding, at least to a small degree, that larger picture as well. This expectation also goes both ways; those leaders are also expected to understanding, at least to some degree, how the details work.
Ensuring everyone involved is at least aware of the greater picture has a number of benefits -
Seeing how your contribution fits in - Knowing that the really boring and tedious spreadsheet work you do will help drive down cost, or make someone else’s life better makes it MUCH easier to accept that work. Not having this knowledge can result in you internalizing negative feelings around it.
Avoiding potential problems - Knowing where a project should be headed ,or what it is intended to do, can help you sniff out potential problems before they show up. This can take the form of helping you rule out specific approaches, altering leadership to specific things and more.
Broaden skillsets - Most of our time is spent in our specific areas of focus (which is good, it’s why we’re there!). Getting exposure, and awareness, to the greater picture helps us expand our skillsets, understandings and connections. This, in turn, rounds us out and helps us be better at our specific area of focus.
Finding ways to keep an eye on the bigger picture can seem daunting… after all, most of the we’re just focused on our small area of the project. There are some easy ways to see what else is going on at other levels:
Just ask - The simplest way I’ve found to learn about the higher levels is just to ask. Ask around your team and see what you can learn about your project.
Get involved - Similar to asking, get involved with other aspects of your project. If you’re a sales specialist maybe get time with the operations team to see what they’re doing. If you’re on the tech side, talk to Finance. Something as simple as attending one of their status meetings, or asking them to show you their system can give you a great idea of how they operate.
Annnd a bit further
While learning about the greater forest does take some time and energy, the return is more than worth it. Not only will you get to expand your own skillsets and knowledge, you’ll also help keep the project moving in the right direction. So go ahead, take a moment to stop looking at the trees and see the forest.
You Gotta Ask
Everyone’s got questions they need answers to… but not everyone asks them. Speak up. Even if someone thinks you’re a fool for a few moments, you've given yourself a chance to improve.
“Better to be thought a fool for a moment than to remain ignorant for your lifetime”
I’m not 100% sure where I first heard that quote, but it has helped me immensely both in my personal and professional lives. We’ve all had those situations where we’re not 100% sure what someone said, or what they mean… or even if they’re talking to US. We’ve all also had that lingering thought of “well, I don’t want to sound stupid….”, so instead of asking a question, we keep our mouths shut. And we’re lesser for it.
Our ego’s are incredibly annoying things. While they do have some positive qualities (helping us acknowledge when we succeed, being a CLEAR signal for failures, etc), here I’m more interested in their negative qualities as it relates to the quote above. Specifically, our fear that our ego will be hurt if we ask a “stupid” question. There’s many thoughts on “stupid” questions (see if you can figure out which one I ascribe to based on the quotes), ranging from “there’s not stupid questions, only stupid people” to “there’s no such thing”. Regardless of one’s philosophical approach to them, however, we still fear asking one, because it can change how others perceive us.
Speak up
This perception is heavily influenced by the culture of the group we’re with (e.g. teams with higher psychological safety will likely perceive less threat by asking questions), but that inner fear can still exist. Knowing how to overcome that fear is an essential skill, that not only helps you get better at asking questions, but can avoid some amazingly terrible situations. In each of these examples (and by no means is that a complete list!), taking a few moments to speak up can avoid a world of hurt.
For example:Not getting clarification on what someone needs from you… then delivering the wrong thing.
Not asking for follow up information on a potential risk… and then having to deal with that risk.
Not asking how to take your medication and taking the wrong dose.
In addition to help avoid potential downsides, speaking up and asking for clarifications also helps improve how others perceive you. Asking questions about the topic at hand tells others you’re paying attention to what’s going on. (While I’d like to think everyone always pays attention in meetings, somehow I don’t think that’s the case). By extension, this signals you’re interested in the topic, which is always a good thing to show.
Asking questions also helps others understand your level of comfort and experience with the topic. I’m not suggesting that asking questions will make others think you’re inexperienced and a fool, but rather the questions you ask will help them know where you best fit into the solution.
Personal Growth
Questions will also help you expand personally. Not only will you learn something new (or avoid potential problems), you’ll get valuable practice asking questions. This sounds silly, but the more you ask clarifying questions, the more comfortable you’ll get with asking questions. This in turn, will give you more access to knowledge, and help you improve overall. So ask away, you can never chase away too much ignorance.
Flexibility
Flexibility is an ever-more-important skillset. Bending yourself to a task lets you meet new folks, explore new areas, and even avoid things you don’t want to do.
In any given day I find myself coaching team members, managing projects, investigating bugs, being blindsided by new asks, and many many other things. Looking back, any given day represents a crazy mix of things, and juggling them all is certainly challenging. Despite the insanity of it all, I only really find problems when I try to control the flow things, or when I push back directly and reject doing something. Fortunately the best approach to this isn’t to just accept ALL work that comes my way, but rather to be flexible in what (and how) I accept.
Many roles these days are anything but specific. Job descriptions provide a rough outline of what a role is, but they can never fully capture what you’ll be doing if you get the job. Even if they’re fairly well written, they tend to include something like “duties as assigned”, which leaves a HUGE amount of room for other responsibilities to creep in. This craziness isn’t even touching the randomness that is smaller companies and/or startups!
Handling multiples
The wide range of randomness heading our way requires that our approach shifts from one of “I only do XYZ” to “I do a range of things”. The trick to finding a good balance within this range isn’t to remain rigid in how we accept things, but rather to be more flexible in what we accept, and more importantly, flexible in how we reject things. This may be further compounded by who is asking us to help out… for example if a VP is requesting help it can be a smidge harder to dodge that than someone else.
Being flexible in what work or responsibilities we accept has several benefits. Exposure to new areas/teams/ideas helps improve our overall skill sets. This can make our current jobs easier (by providing better context, resources, etc), and also opens doors that we may otherwise not have looked at (e.g. cultivating an interest in a new area of the company). Flexibility also improves our relationships, either by exposing us to people we wouldn’t otherwise work with, or by giving us time to deepen existing relationships.
Being flexible in how we reject work is equally (if not more!) important. There are times when you’ll decide you can’t/don’t want to take something on. When asked (or “asked”), straight up saying “no”, while direct, will likely be seen negatively (e.g. “you’re not a team player”), potentially damaging your reputation but also reducing the likelihood you’ll get help in the future. Instead you need to find a way to bend out of the way. Suggesting alternatives (“Did you consider asking so-and-so? They’re really good at this”) and pointing out better ways to do the thing (“Instead of manually doing this, did you consider automating it?”) are great approaches that avoid the need for YOU to do the thing, while still helping ensure it can get done.
Flexibility also means being open to changing how you operate. Especially now with many folks working from home we’ve had to change up how we work. Resisting the need for video conferencing is basically impossible, so instead of fighting these, flex, and use them. Sure, it requires some effort and creativity to find new ways to operate, but by making time to update team norms, meeting schedules, and other aspects of work you’ll avoid the discomfort of trying to fight the tide.
Make Time to Connect
Frequently back-and-forths are a signal that text communications are failing. When you notice this it’s best to change the medium - look for voice or video (or in person!) based communications to break the cycle.
Frequently I find myself either directly involved in, or watching, a chain of emails/texts/messages going in circles. One person asks a question, which is misunderstood or requires followup, which leads to more questions and goes around and around and around. It is incredibly easy to keep that chain going… after all, we know the other end is reading them, and we think we can get to agreement if we just. keep. emailing.
Unfortunately this is rarely the case… At best, this results in wasted time as it takes several cycles to get to mutual understanding. At worst, it results in damaged relationships. A much quicker (and simpler) approach is to break the cycle and connect - pick the phone (or jump on zoom) and take the 5 minutes to explain things in person.
Tangled
Communications technology is a weird thing. It allows us to instantly send messages, but weirdly this results in us being further apart instead of closer together. This could be due to the asynchronous nature of text communication (there’s no way to tell when the receiver will read it), in the static nature of the communication medium (sarcasm, for example is REALLY hard to pickup ion text), or in the assumption that other folks will “just get it”. Regardless, email or comment wars frequently crop up, with individuals endlessly sending messages hoping ONE of them will make sense to the other side.
We’ve all read a response from someone and wondering how the heck they didn’t understand our message. We took so much time carefully crafting our message, only for them to somehow miss the point. So we take more time to carefully craft a response… which is received in a similar manner on their end. This chain eventually becomes self-sustaining and will continue indefinitely unless someone breaks the cycle (the worst I’ve seen was a ticket with 150+ comments on it running in circles).
The problem with these cycles isn’t that the folks involved aren’t smart, or well intentioned, or anything about the person. It’s about the medium and some assumptions we make about it. Tools like email, slack and @ mentions are great for quickly sending a message around the world… unfortunately they also fail to capture a great deal of information. Tone is hard to encode in text… so is sarcasm, body language, and basically all of our body language. We tend to not see verbal communication run in as many circles because we get that additional information… we can see if someone is confused, or more easily pickup on frustration.
We also make assumptions about how we communicate and how others will interpret what we say. On our end we assume that our message is understandable. For ourselves this is (hopefully!) true, after all, we wrote it. For someone else, however, this may not be as correct. We all filter communication through our own experiences, and others rarely, if ever, have the same experiences we do. This ties directly into how someone else would interpret our message. Over time we get more familiar working with folks, but even WITH experience we can send a confusing message.
Finding Clarity
The trick, then, to breaking the circle of endless text communication is to step outside of it and use a different method. Getting back to a place where non-text information is shared (phone, video chat, etc.) will reduce or eliminate many of the problems pure-text conveys. By making communication more real-time we also provide immediate opportunities for the other parties to ask clarifying questions or point out challenges immediately. By both reducing the feedback loop, and providing a richer communications environment, we can make our connections much more impactful.
Self-Awareness
It’s easy to learn a system by exploring it… just click around and learn. Learning yourself, however, is a bit more complex.
Being aware of ourselves is one of the most important skills that we can learn. That said, from my experience it also happens to be one of the harder skills for people to learn. Figuring out a new technology or sales technique is easy - we attend the training or we tinker with the tool. Figuring out how YOU work, what makes you frustrated, what your habits are, however, doesn’t have a class or a seminar. It’s not something you can REALLY tinker with or take apart. Instead, it requires a level of critical thinking and truthfully examining yourself. This is, to say the least, a bit daunting.
On the up-side, there are many versions of things like the Meyers-Briggs (you know, that one that tells you what color you are, and how your color interacts with other colors?) test to help teams uncover their inner operations. (Or maybe that’s the MBTI, I always get them mixed up…). These types of exercises are useful, however I find they usually can’t get deep enough in some areas to really dig into self-awareness. These exercises help point out how an individual may interact in a professional setting, but it ‘s up to the individual to figure out how to apply that across the board.
This makes sense, since many of these assessments are intended to help groups of professionals work together. They both provide a common language with which to discuss how people work (“you’re an WRST? I get it now, I’m a BEST!”) and also some general guidance for the individual on how to operate. This works great for groups that all take it together, however, I’ve found them a lot less useful for individuals.
Choices
Work presents an interesting version of this since we can’t really choose who our co-workers are… we’re kind of stuck with whomever’s there at the time. This differs greatly in our personal lives. We are, to some extent, stuck with family, however, we do have a great deal more control over those relationships, and who we choose to socialize with. This makes understanding how, and why, we will/do react in specific ways even more important… we’re consciously choosing to be with these folks instead of being ‘forced’ to.
The same techniques teams use at work to improve themselves can be tweaked to help out in our personal lives. Some ideas include:
Regular Retrospectives - Make time each week to reflect on the week and any areas you want to improve. How did certain conversations go? Do you understand why you get easily annoyed at something?
Focus Time - Set aside specific time to take a deeper dive on one area of yourself. I find journaling is a great approach for this; something about writing things down helps get them out.
Active Feedback - Find someone you trust to talk over what a blindspot might be or how to improve something. This helps break down any mental preconceptions of yourself you have, but does require a lot of emotional trust in whomever you speak with.
This isn’t to say it’s easy… even admitting something to yourself (let alone someone else) about how you think/feel/act can be hard. That said, it’s certainly worth it. Getting a better handle on how you will behave in any given situation both makes you more effective and also reduces any surprises on your end. Over time you’ll also learn more about yourself, in turn making future improvements a little bit easier.
Best intentions pave the road to massive headaches for other people
Some of the biggest headaches I’ve had to deal with were the result of really good intentions. As challenging as it is, remembering to treat these as learning opportunities (and not taking someone’s head off) helps not only fix the problem faster, but build better partners.
There’s almost nothing more dangerous than a well-intentioned individual who knows a little bit about how things work. This can be the combination of many factors, such as seeing a particular solution somewhere else in the past, thinking they know what they’re doing / thinking it “can’t be that hard”, rushing, and just good old fashion dumb luck. Unless other evidence exists I always treat these as honest mistakes.. That said, I’ve seen these crusaders end up:
Emailing a group of 1200+ people accidentally - Instead of just collecting emails it also forwarded them to EVERYONE on the alias…
Telling a VP a 60+ hour job should only take 2 hours - Nothing like being told to deploy something in 2 hours that you know from experience is over a week of work.
Crash a corporate network offline - Backing up a 60+gb harddisk over a cable modem is bad enough, but when it crashes an entire corporate network you know you’ve done REAL well.
(Fun fact - I was responsible for one of those….)
Personally I always encourage folks to learn more about tech and systems. This, in general, makes for more informed users and can make things easier overall. I’m constantly looking for ways to help people better engage with their tech, and to help foster that curiosity. I’ve also seen this approach ignite interest in folks who want to learn more about tech and systems, to the point of them changing their career and interests.
That said, a little bit of knowledge goes a long way towards wreaking havoc. Once folks get just a little wind behind their sails they tend to forget they don’t know everything about a setup. Many training videos, sessions and tutorials are tailored for a specific audience and use case… one your coworker(s) may be exceeding. The sense of confidence felt when making or requesting a change masks a lack of knowledge over what is really going on… which can result in massive headaches for tech teams when they have to clean things up.
I’m “Helping”
To help curb this… “helping”... I’ve adjusted my approach to working with non-tech folks (While tech teams certainly commit these errors I’ve recently found it to be much more common in tech-adjacent groups). In addition to giving them basic knowledge to do their job, I now also take the following steps:
Point out hidden dangers - Thinking through what MIGHT go wrong is a great way to uncover potential risks. I go through this before I setup training, and then use the output to better inform users. For example, if there’s a field I think they might want to use, but isn’t included in the training, I’ll specifically call it out and what it’s for. This helps avoid situations where they see it later and think “hey, that looks useful, let’s use that!”.
High Level Documentation - While I cannot expect my users to understand ALL the ins-and-outs of a system, I can expect them to know high-level basics. Knowing that Workday sends a termination file to XYZ teams is important info… and they should know that. Knowing reports are accurate as of last night at midnight is important info… and they should know that. I both call this out in training, and ensure there is documentation to back that up. Training also covers where the documentation is, and how to find it… while this doesn’t guarantee we’ll avoid those challenges at least I know I’ve given it to them.
Encourage them to come up with ideas… then talk to you - I have always encouraged my users to think up better ways to do stuff… now I’ve added a second step - talk to me (or someone!) about that idea BEFORE doing it. I frame it along the lines of “You’re a super smart person, so help me find better ways to do things. We need to keep in mind that there’s a LOT of other moving parts, so when you’ve come up with a new idea, let’s brainstorm on how to make it happen”. This both stops them from acting blindly, and also helps build better partnerships and trust.
Whoopsie
Throughout all of this it is important to remember everyone makes mistakes. I’ve watched experienced and trained engineers forget to deploy a change to production due to a poor file name. I’ve personally deleted over 5,000 trouble tickets by changing a configuration file (thankfully we could roll it back!). The important thing is learn and not do it again. This requires a great amount of support from your team, as well a company culture of safety and acceptance. This story of a man who lost $2 million is the perfect example - his company treats these as development experiences, opportunities to get better.
It can be incredibly challenging to not react poorly when uncovering these errors. (Why the *()@#$*&^ did you do that??!??!), and it is certainly a learned skill in responding appropriately. I’ve started taking specific steps to help both keep myself in check, but also limit damage and maximize learning:
Breathe - The damage has likely already been done, so taking a moment to breathe and assess won’t hurt much.
Quick Assessment - Determine a preliminary root cause and prevent further damage. This might mean rolling back some code, (un)plugging some hardware or making a quick phone call.
Alert Partners - Generally happens the same time as #2, but let any downstream partner teams know of the error. THis will allow them to help out with damage control and minimize surprises.
Deep Assessment - Dig into what happened and why. Understand as deeply as possible how the change negatively impacted things and what should have been done differently to prevent that from happening.
Deploy Adjusted Fix - Based on the assessment deploy the updated changes.
Share - Clearly document and share out a detailed assessment of what happened and how it will be prevented next time.
The individual who caused the ruckus should be involved in every step of undoing it. This will help build their confidence by improving their skill sets and give others more confidence in their ability going forward. The final step, “Share” is also critically important (and frequently missed) to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Saving this knowledge also helps ensure that other team members do not commit the same error (something that is sadly too common).