Making improvements positively
Do you have problems with meetings? In particular those meetings where someone has come up with an idea that may improve team performance, provide a technical solution to problem or add business value? All too often the idea being presented is shot down before it has chance to get off the ground.
Or those meetings where a dominant person hogs the limelight with their “solution” and others do not get a chance to speak?
Both scenarios can lead to disharmony in the team or worse a lack of interest in the work being discussed. As team leaders, it is our role to help facilitate meetings in a way that ensures all voices are heard equally. But often we don’t have the methods to do so. There has to be a better way of doing things.
The Perfection Game
The Perfection Game is one answer. A light weight protocol for discussing ideas in a positive, non-confrontational way where the focus is on improvement and not negatively focusing on what is wrong with the idea.
It has tremendous benefits and is such an efficient way of moving things forward in a dynamic way.
It focuses on listening, being positive and allows each person a platform to voice their ideas. If the team use this way of working, the discussions should all become a lot more productive.
So what is it?
The Perfection Game is a positive scoring activity where we look at a proposed idea and as a team see if it can be improved or not. It can be used one to one, one to many or as a written feedback exercise. Great for retrospectives or deep dives into ways of working.
So imagine this scenario which I am sure has happened to all of us on numerous occasions:
You are having a retrospective and a member of the team has a radical idea to help improve an aspect of how the team is working. The team discusses the idea and it being quite radical and different, focus on what they don’t like about the idea and why it won’t work. Eventually the proposing member gives up arguing against the negativity being generated, the improvement is lost, the team member feels rejected and unappreciated, and team cohesion and moral is damaged.
Recognise the scenario? I’ve seen it happen with teams on numerous occasions. The Perfection Game is a better way that encourages the team to look at a proposal in positive way and if they can see improvements to the idea, to be able to offer them up without criticism.
How does it work?
In the Perfection Game the team member presents his or her idea to the team. Optionally he/she can say “Begin” at the beginning and “End” at the end to notify the start and end of the presentation. The presentation can be in any form – a play act, a presentation, a video, just talking, anything.
The rest of the team are not allowed to interrupt or ask questions during the presentation, just listen/watch. This is important. It forces the team to engage in the whole rather than just think of the next question to ask. It becomes about the idea, not about a person’s next question. How often do your team just dive in with questions before an idea is properly explained?
After the presenter has finished, the other members each give a score out of 10 on how much value they think they can add to the idea. I’ll repeat that: “on how much value they can add to the idea”. Not how good the idea is in their opinion, nor whether they like the idea or not, but on how much value they think they can add to the proposal. A score of 1 being “I can add 100% more value”, 5 being “I can add 50% more value” and 10 being “I cannot add any more value”.
If a person cannot think of ways to add value they must give it a 10. Even if they do not like the idea, if they cannot add value then they must give a 10. They should only withhold points if they can think of a valid improvement. Wow.
Each team member then says what they liked about the idea i.e. “What I liked about the idea was X, Y & Z” and lists the areas they though added the most value. No negative points here, only the positives.
If they have scored less than 10, they present their ideas (or perfections) on how to increase the value in the following manner: To make it 10 you would have to do X.
The presenter can ask questions to clarify or gather more information about the perfections being offered.
At the end you have an idea that has been discussed with the team, some really good feedback and proposals that may improve the idea. It’s up to the team to decide what they do with it next.
Equally you can use it to gain feedback from a meeting. Ask for a score out of 10 and improvements on how the session could be perfected at the end of a meeting. Use sticky notes so you just gather the improvements for analysis later.
Conclusion
I love this idea. The team commits to listening to perfections without argument, only giving positive comments and only withholding points if they have an improvement they can think of. It encourages active listening rather than passive or negative listening and finally, asks people how they would improve an idea rather than what is wrong with the idea. I can think of numerous meetings I have been in where using this approach would have been far more productive than the confrontational ones we actually had.
The Perfection Game is taken from the Core Protocols. These are a set of recipes or behaviours for given activities, that help build trust with an a team and help build a space where members can speak and contribute without fear of conflict, even when others have differing opinions and ideas. They are designed to make your team awesome!
For more information the Perfection Game and the Core Protocols see the online documentation found here: The McCarthy Show
About the Author
Martin Boler is an experienced freelance Agile Delivery Manager, Scrum Master and Agile Coach. He has been practising and promoting Agility in the work place for over 12 years for organisations such as NHS Digital, Kingfisher, Nokia, Virgin Altantic, British Gas and Flybe. He can provide training, coaching and scrum mastery on a freelance basis. If you want to know more please contact him here.
