I think getting feedback of a remote team is challenging. Which practices could be tested an proven to enhance trust on our teams?
Edgar Schein, former professor of the MIT specialized on organizational development explores the particularities of two sets of cardiac surgery teams which were successful or unsuccessful to adopt a different kind of heart operation and concludes:
Overcoming the barrier of professionalism and cultivating a more personal relationship with your teammates gives more ability to adapt to new challenges, even more than the specific expertise of each team member.
High hazard industries could prevent serious disasters if its employees were able to to give feedback once they trust the managers. The root cause was that the managers thought they were open to listen, but once Schein interviewed the employees they told they didn't felt safe to say bad news, or that the've already tried but didn't received any response. Even not an acknowledgement of receipt.
Also in hospitals, nurses and technicians do not feel safe to correct a doctor who is about to make a mistake. Doctors say that it is their professional duty to do so, but once interviewed nurses reports on several hospitals that doctors feel free to yell at nurses on a punishing way.
We gotta first: Learn and understand how to ask better questions to build better relationships based on mutual respect. Trust and communication will not be created by itself. It has to be actively built. Do more asking and less telling.
On the other hand, I'll mention which I consider the most fundamental of Marcus Blankenship advises on its talk "Getting Actionable Feedback From Developers":
- Ask at least weekly on one-to-one meetings, for feedback. Not once-in-a-year.
- Build trust. Hear, don't interrupt. Take notes on paper, not on your laptop (and I add: also don't use your smartphone while the meeting).
- Don't ask directly for feedback: use specific questions, e.g: "What you consider, is the probability to finish this task on time?". Hear and be patient. Then: "Why is that?". Hear again. Patience. Finish: "What can be done to improve the probability?"
- Finish with a "Is there anything else you want to tell me"? As it is pretty common that the other person is just starting to tell you what really thinks and will make a stop to see how you react before to be sure to continue. And it is you who should provide this confidence to continue getting better feedback.
I would like to hear your comments about which practices have been successful on building trust on remote dev teams and to get better feedback!
I'll leave also some links related.
Edgar Schein: Humble Inquiry
Markus Blankenship: Getting Actionable Feedbaack from Developers