Teams have a weird property I call communication overhead. Let’s define it as the amount of time and energy it takes to get on the same page.
It’s like the rent and utilities you pay for the building you’re in, a cost of doing business that can be reduced but never totally eliminated, a tax on every little decision you make together.
With new teams, it’s painfully high. That first sprint planning can be a real doozy on a new team.
But a year or two later? You can read each other’s minds! Planning, solutioning, and improvement conversations fly by. Consensus comes fast.
Trust is to communication overhead what Swiss bank accounts are to taxes. Meetings suck when communication overhead is high and safety is low. No trust, no engagement, no fun either.
When we really know and care about eachother, we know how best to explain a new idea, how to approach a conflict, how best to get the conversation back on track from a tangent. We learn how to live with each other. When trust is high, those things can be all but effortless.
But when trust is low? Look out. You’re in for a long painful conversation.
But it gets better. How? By increasing trust and peer-transparency, and by leaders leading by example in the realms of trust, vulnerability, and transparency. It also helps if the team isn’t mobilized badly.
