The Human Side of Continuous Improvement

In the world of DevOps, continuous improvement is a set of principles and practices that enables an organization to make their delivery of applications 'lean' and efficient, while leveraging feedback from customers and users to continuously improve the product or feature being developed. On the human side of the process, things can be a bit trickier to define so crisply. Human hearts and minds are complex systems of feelings, memories, insights and observations. Our perspectives and meaning-making systems are built on old habits, old stories and triggers that can be difficult to get past in the name of continuous improvement. “Blame-less” retrospectives are seemingly impossible in the face of the “truth” we think we hold based on our perspective.

I have a set of tools, which I use to help deconstruct challenging and sometimes emotionally charged situations. This is a series of questions designed to change the locus of control behind the perspective to foster taking responsibility for one’s own perspective in the spirit of continuous improvement.

I am using an example of a challenge I recently faced. My intention is to offer it as a template for the introspection one can use to promote growth and continuous improvement on the human side of digital automation.

These questions offer a way to take responsibility for the part we play in any challenging situation:

1.   What challenge did I face?

I chose to do some business development with a colleague of mine in the hopes of reducing the lag time between my consulting projects. He had spoken to me about an exciting opportunity, and I was happy to lend my help creating a “Pitch Deck.” I’m good at using PowerPoint and I believed in the opportunity that my colleague had presented to me.

Unfortunately, after 20+ hours of my time, I discovered that the opportunity was not as viable as it had been represented and there was little hope of recouping my investment of time. In fact, much more development work would be needed to make our ideas “pay off.”

My colleague had offered to pay me for my time, so I sent him an invoice, but reduced my rate with a “friends and family” discount, to help defray the expense. I calculated that I had given him good value: a pitch-ready slide deck, hours of my thought-partnership and the discount, so I was satisfied that my invoice was fair.

I was surprised when he responded with an even lower-priced “offer” and then a substantial delay in paying me the amount, even though he had promised to pay me the following week. I held firm on my price and am still awaiting payment.

2.   What response did I choose?

My response has run the emotional spectrum from anger, sadness, disappointment, grumbling, disbelief, to betrayal and fear. I haven’t had much success with feeling better about anything and I find myself wondering if the continuous improvement “thing” is even possible.

That said, I am hoping to objectify my response with this blog, and find the “high road” for the sake of my own continuous improvement. This is the demonstration of why the human side of continuous improvement can be so tricky—one’s own perspective is always in play. Even as my anger and frustration and feelings of being disrespected subside, I’m still left wanting to be compensated, and wanting justice. That inner child (the one that lives in all of us), is hurt and needing to be comforted.

The response I chose for public view was to stay professional and fact-based with as little rancor as I could manage. I scrubbed my email responses until they lost any emotional charge. Hence, my need to tend to my emotional landscape on my own (and in this blog).

3.   What were the unsatisfactory consequences of my response?

The unsatisfactory consequence of my response is that I haven’t (until now) dealt with the very real emotional backlog I created in myself. The challenge is still unresolved. I continue to second-guess myself and think I could have done or said something more powerful that would have ensured understanding and respect from him. I have to keep reminding myself that I am learning and improving with every interaction I have—AND that I cannot control his behavior and choices. It’s natural to feel disappointed when trusted friend doesn’t behave in a friendly or respectful way.

4.   Is there anything I can do now to improve the situation?

Yes, I am improving the situation by writing about it and using it to learn more about my own internal processing. I am reminding myself that in a blame-less retrospective no one is getting in trouble—not even me—so, no self-criticism. And strangely, I feel powerful because I can use these tools with some emotional objectivity. I can feel some spaciousness beginning to seep in.

5.   What lesson can I learn from this challenge?

The lesson feels like one I have had previous attempts to learn and that is that everyone has their own perspective. No doubt, he doesn’t see his actions as unsatisfactory. In some way, he may feel like the one who has been wronged. I can learn again that when I choose to trust people, I am sometimes disappointed. That’s ok—it won’t stop me from trusting again. I like the way it feels to believe in the best in others.

One logistical thing I might try next time is to agree before-hand on an amount of time I am willing to spend and stick to it. Perhaps I would feel better if we had agreed to $1000.00 and no more—then he wouldn’t have to delay payment or feign surprise when the deal goes bad. Again, I cannot control his reactions; I can only change myself.

In the final analysis, the internal “scrub” of one’s feelings can be painful, but valuable. It makes conscious that which would otherwise remain unconscious and therefore becomes fertile ground for other unwanted and unconscious reactions to other situations. This kind of self-reflection can eliminate the tendency to tell the story over and over again, too. I’ve told it now, and I feel internally peaceful about it. One might argue that I have a picked a public forum to tell it, thereby exacerbating it, BUT I have stripped the story of any identifying markers to protect the identity of my former colleague. I publish it here in the hopes that the questions above may prove helpful to you as you scrub your own internal landscapes and perform continuous improvements in your own professional and personal lives.