Let's Talk About The Wrong Things 🔊

Humans are emotional beings and want to stay positive.

• As a child, it's very likely at some point one of your teachers said you are very smart. That made your parents happy.
• When looking at the work of someone you like, you tend to think they did a good job. It will increase their self-esteem.
• When estimating a piece of work, you tend to assume things can be done quicker than what it really can. Those who care, will feel they've made a good ROI.

In general, being positive is not a bad thing.

In software development, though, being too positive can backfire.

When a computer runs your code, it doesn't care if you believe things are going to be fine.

As Murphy’s law states:

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong

Asking “what went wrong” can have the potential to drive more improvement. If you focus on the things that went wrong, then what’s gonna be left are all the things that are right.

That's why, when doing retrospectives, teams try not to focus very much on things that went right. Those things may not need improvement or additional action, you just need to keep doing it. Wasting time on that can take the focus out of the problems that really matter.

The idea is to expand the bubble and keep the things that are right, understanding mostly what went wrong. The things that are right are your team's knowledge of how to do things properly.

However, if the team always focus on the things that went wrong, despite good intentions, that can lead to depression: If there's no "win", why would I like my job?

Balance is the key.

There might be value in focusing on the positive things, though.

In retrospectives, for example, it's possible to create topics to discuss what went right and from that discussion use the Devil's Advocate to come up with things to improve in order to do it even better.

If you can't extract good experiences from the things that went right, then when you get to the same problem it will be a shot in the dark.

If you focus on the things that went wrong, then what’s gonna be left are all the things that are right.

At the end of the day, it's all about the mindset.

If people are not sentimental about their work, they're much more likely to be able to talk about bad things without having to worry about bad reactions.

Focusing on the good things can increase the team's morale. It's positive, easy and comfortable. But may reduce the potential for improvement.

Focusing on the bad things can decrease the team's morale. It's negative, hard and uncomfortable. But may increase the potential for improvement.

Maybe when people are mature enough, when there ain't many problems to talk about, only then it might be worth looking at the good things and try to find ways to create wrong things for the purpose of improving it.

When people are mature enough, talking about bad things becomes easier

If you are fortunate enough to work in that kind of environment, then what you have is a good problem.

That said, you don't need to be in a team. You can put yourself inside that environment right now.

If you always focus on things you did wrong, then what will be left are the things you did right. And those don’t need to change. Just keep doing it.

The bubble is the knowledge inside your brain.

The difference is that you don't need to rely on a whole team to change.

You can just change yourself.