Aspiration, explained
What separates criticism (okay if done right) from complaining (not okay):
Audience
👌 Criticism is directed at people who can do something about a problem. (e.g. “Damn that’s a lot of timeouts. #team-platform-ooo, is this on your radar?“)
🚫 Complaining is open-ended, and discourages others from taking responsibility. (e.g. “jeez our app is slow”)
Specificity
👌 Criticism is about specific things (e.g. “damn, our test suite is slow”)
🚫 Complaining is often too general to be helpful (e.g. “ugh, being a dev here sucks”)
Solution-Orientation
👌 Criticism is directed toward fixing a problem. (e.g. “Yikes, the Edit Group page is completely broken for me as a manager. I’ll log a bug, but #team-tech-service can we prioritize this?“)
🚫 Complaining simply revels in a problem or even makes it worse. (e.g. “I can’t even use the app as a manager. Can someone make me an admin?“)
Examples / Observations
Observation created over 4 years agoFeaturing:Brandon J.We critique, we don't complainWe ask clarifying questionsWe get agreementsCollaborationBrandon joined Practice at a challenging time: we were in the middle of the quarter, just starting on an initiative that hadn't been one of our planned goals and wasn't fully fleshed out. In the midst of that, we didn't take the time to help him understand Practice/our team and squad workflows like we should have.
He handled it all with grace though, not giving us a hard time and constantly looking for ways to make us better. He's brought some ideas to Practice that have helped us work more collaboratively and in my opinion, have helped us all stay better aligned in terms of where we are in the project and what the next steps are.
It's hard to make us better when we don't make it easy for you to get your feet under you, but Brandon did just that. Thanks Brandon!
Observation created over 5 years agoFeaturing:Noah B.We put learners firstWe have difficult conversationsWe ask clarifying questionsWe get agreementsWe recognize the opportunity in challengesWe inspire others to do better workWe don't wait to be told what to do, we take initiativeWe challenge ourselvesWe represent Lessonly positively in the communityWe critique, we don't complainImplementation engineerTechnical investigatorTier-2 escalation engineerNoah has been with us for a little over 6 months at this point and in that time, he's done a great job developing relationships with the rest of the company, going out of his way to help both customers and our internal folks resolve issues, and helping improve the escalation process. He's done such a great job that folks outside of our team have sent me messages about how helpful he's been. Here's the latest from someone in the company: "Noah has been killing it! He is doing an awesome job, especially with a few difficult customers lately. We appreciate him and his hard work SO VERY MUCH!!"
Thank you, Noah for your empathy, patience, and the initiative you take to help everyone do better work 🎉
Observation created over 5 years agoFeaturing:Tom C.We put learners firstWe have difficult conversationsWe share before we're readyWe ask clarifying questionsWe own our requestsWe are truthfulWe are coachableWe inspire others to do better workWe don't wait to be told what to do, we take initiativeWe put the team before ourselvesWe challenge ourselvesWe critique, we don't complainRubyCommunityInitiativeMentorshipDesign CollaborationBack-end engineerIn last week's Learn Squad weekly huddle, the topic of a bug (dubbed "a hole in the spacetime continuum") came up. This bug came to life as a result of a story I had recently done in the Accessibility epic, but Tom had taken the initiative to fix it shortly after it was noted as an issue in Slack. I greatly appreciated him taking this on, but found myself feeling even more appreciative in Monday's meeting during the conversation around what happened/why the bug occurred. He explained that he guided me down the wrong path when I consulted him on some Ruby syntax while working on the ticket, and explained the fix. Prior to this, I had never seen someone take so much ownership over an issue that occurred from assisting another engineer. In my past work, the responsibility would've fallen all on me, so this experience left me in awe. I am very thankful to work alongside someone like Tom, who a) understands we're all human, and b) takes ownership of his work (whether that's in the codebase, or offering help to others)!
Observation created over 5 years agoFeaturing:Conlin D.We put learners firstWe share before we're readyWe ask clarifying questionsWe highlight what's workingWe own our requestsWe recognize the opportunity in challengesWe inspire others to do better workWe don't wait to be told what to do, we take initiativeWe put the team before ourselvesWe challenge ourselvesWe critique, we don't complainCommunityInitiativeMentorshipProduct DiscoveryDiscovery engineerFront-end architectFront-end engineerLast week, I did a code review for Conlin. In the PR description, he did a phenomenal job at leaving detailed testing steps and notes around why the story was necessary. Beyond that, however, he also went out of his way to thoroughly talk through the issue on a deeper level. He explained the research he did on the problem, potential solutions (and why they wouldn't work), his decided solution (and why it does work), as well as the history and potential future of the problem. As both a reviewer and fellow engineer, I was really impressed by how much thought and effort went into this.
While I already find myself aiming to be as clear and informative as possible in my PR descriptions, seeing this inspired me to raise my standard going forward, and left me feeling grateful to work with Conlin.PR of Reference - https://github.com/lessonly/lessonly/pull/7482
Observation created over 5 years agoFeaturing:Casey S.We inspire others to do better workWe get agreementsWe have difficult conversationsWe highlight what's workingWe critique, we don't complainManagerWow... just wow.
First, she tried something new, and added clarity as to how the new thing should flow:
https://lessonly.slack.com/archives/C8UPX4UPM/p1564432055022900
https://lessonly.slack.com/archives/C97TXG1PW/p1564432252002200Then, the retros happened... all three of them (I wasn't there, so I can't say how they actually went, but as an outside observer, I was impressed with what happened).
Then, she didn't let the things that were discussed die on the vine... no, she took it upon herself to write up the note for all three, with clear actions, and clear ownership of who is going to take on which actions:
https://lessonly.slack.com/archives/C97TXG1PW/p1564675008018100
https://lessonly.slack.com/archives/C8UPX4UPM/p1564675014002100
https://lessonly.slack.com/archives/C97TXG1PW/p1564670582013700I'm damn near in tears of pride and excitement (I cry a lot, so tears of joy, sadness, and pride are relatively common, but I will say they only come when something in the world hits me in my soul).
Here's why...
I've tried retros of all shapes and sizes. I've hated retros of all shapes and sizes. They are often well-intentioned, but it is really difficult to get a group of adults to open up and share in such a way that useful progress can be gleaned from it.
When looking at the result of this, I think of our value of critique, not complain. Clearly, what happened in those retros is people opened up, put themselves out there, and critiqued and not complained! I see no way clear action items like this could be found without that happening.
This shout out is aimed at Casey, but let's be clear, I'm thrilled with the vulnerability and teamwork that had to be shown by the entire Practice and Tech Services squads. Also, I Casey got the idea for this new format from Aaron (:highfive: man!!)
Casey, it has been amazing to work with you from day one, and every day I am a bit more in awe. Thank you for being you!!
Let's keep it rolling... ONWARD!!
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