Intent-Driven Leadership is a logical step on your journey to build a problem-solving habit.
Are you and your Agile product teams on the journey to a problem-solving habit? Have you had success using Bounded Innovation to jump-start your problem-solving journey? Are you ready to move outside of your innovation box and move to the next stage on your journey?
Moving Out of Bounded Innovation Can Be Scary
Taking the next step towards a problem-solving culture can be intimidating. Bounded Innovation controls risk and is safe. But allowing unconstrained problem-solving at the team level can seem daunting. I have seen managers and teams struggle with this part of the journey.
Often, managers may not know if the teams have the ability to make decisions on their own. The potential delivery risk of allowing untethered team decision making seems too high. And teams are often not conditioned to make decisions for themselves. Their habit is to ask management to make product delivery decisions.
So what can we do to break through these obstacles? Intent-Driven Leadership provides an excellent framework that relieves the pressure.
Intent-Driven Leadership
After Bounded Innovation, the next stage in your journey to a problem-solving culture is Intent-Driven as shown in Figure A.
The Intent-Driven stage follows Intent-Driven Leadership as developed by David Marquet1. David Marquet is a retired US Navy Captain. In his book, Turn the Ship Around, he outlines how he used Intent-Driven Leadership to change the status quo on a nuclear submarine. It allowed him to put control of a nuclear submarine out of his hands as the captain and into his crew’s hands.
Intent-Driven Leadership puts control into the team’s hands.
His method builds a leader’s confidence in the team. And it builds a team’s problem-solving competency and their own confidence in their abilities.
A nuclear submarine is the ultimate command-and-control environment. If this method works here, it can work for your Agile product development team. I have seen it work. Let’s see how.
How Does This Work?
I won’t go into the details of Turn the Ship Around. You can read it for yourself if you wish. But I will describe how I have seen it work with the teams I coach.
Step 1: Outline the Experiment
Discuss with your team why problem-solving capability at the team level is critical. Develop a shared understanding. Then, ensure your team has the desire to move forward with the experiment.
If they commit to the experiment, outline the experiment together. Define the expected results, when to check the results with them, and how to measure the results. Evaluation of experiment results every two weeks is a good target.
Step 2: Provide Clarity to the Team on Their Purpose/Goal
As an Agile Leader, you must provide a clear purpose for your team. Do not provide the path to achieve the purpose. Rather, you should collaborate with them to outline and create a shared understanding of their “Why.”
Step 3: Promise Not to Decide for the Team
Agile Leaders support team decision making and help the team build this competency. If your team comes to you with a decision, you will not answer. You will ask them questions and collaboratively build their problem-solving capability.
Tell your team this is how you will behave to set their expectations.
Step 4: Outline Applicable Decision Types
Clarify with the team which decisions apply to to the experiment. You may choose to have certain decisions remain with you for the experiment duration. This is a valid thing to do. David Marquet kept the decision to launch weapons as his own. He did not want the lives of others to have to be on his team’s shoulders.
After the experiment, you can expand the decision making scope if you wish. This is up to you and your team as you progress on your problem-solving journey.
Step 5: Ask Your Team to Use “Intent” Language
When the team approaches you with a decision they would like to make, ask them to start with, “We intend to…” This simple tweak builds the team’s confidence as they realize they are in control of the decision.
As a leader, you will ask any clarifying questions to the team to ensure they are deciding safely. Then, you will say something like, “Sounds good, carry on,” or “Let me know how it goes.”
Step 6: Ask Your Team to Be Transparent on Their Decision Making Confidence
During the experiment period, tell the team to let you know if they are not comfortable making a decision.
Collaborative problem-solving builds team capability.
If this happens, help the team become comfortable by asking questions. A Socratic approach will make them think critically about the problem. Resist any urge to solve the problem for the team.
Answering takes control away from the team. Collaborative problem-solving through asking questions builds team capability.
An Intent-Driven Scenario
Let’s review how this plays out in a typical scenario. In the below example, a team approaches their Agile Leader with a design decision they intend to make.
———
Team Member 1: “We intend to design the system using XYZ.”
Agile Leader: “What other options have you considered?”
Team Member 2: “We considered two options. We built a quick proof of concept to test both. The XYZ design is the best approach. It aligns closest with our goal and brings value to our customers quicker.”
Agile Leader: “What steps have you taken to verify this approach is what our customers need?”
Team Member 3: “We are planning to validate the XYZ design with our customers this week. We wil use a low-fidelity paper prototype.”
Agile Leader: “What use cases are you considering?”
Team Member 4: “We are starting with the base use case. We will add in alternative use cases later.”
Agile Leader: “Excellent. Carry on. Let me know how it goes with the customer.”
———
As you can see from the interaction, Intent-Driven behavior is in play. The Agile Leader does not decide for the team. Clarifying questions help the Agile Leader to ensure the team is thinking about all aspects. The team members specify their intent. And they explain how they have thought through their approach. The verbal interaction builds team confidence.
What Results to Expect
When experimenting with Intent-Driven behavior, you will notice immediate changes. But it will take many experiment loops to build habitual behavior patterns and customize the approach to your context.
You can expect to see the following improvements.
- Increased trust by the Agile Leader to the team
- Higher team problem-solving confidence
- Greater team happiness
- Improved team ownership
- Increased innovation (more heads are better than one)
- Better decision quality (decisions made closer to the information)
- Amplified desire to move to team problem-solving behavior full-time
Once you have witnessed the above results and feel confident, you and the team are ready to move to the next stage in your problem-solving journey. This will be an exciting time for all. Relish it as you get ready for the next step—implementation of a full-time Problem-Solving Policy.
Related Posts
- Agile Leaders Must Build a Problem Solving Culture
- Bounded Innovation and Your Problem Solving Journey
- We Need Managers to Become Agile Leaders
- Overcoming the Fear of the Incapable Team
- Agile Leader Pattern 6 for Building Awesome Teams: Serve the Team
References
- Turn the Ship Around!, L. David Marquet, 2013
Todd Lankford unlocks Lean Leverage in organizations to cultivate powerful, engaged product teams who maximize outcomes and impact.
His articles share his experiences and learnings along the way. Join the mailing list to get them in your inbox.