Maximizing productivity is always a top priority for software teams. It can feel like making big changes is the only way to achieve big improvements. In our experience, small adjustments, both in process and mindset, can have more profound impacts. If a person/team became 1% more productive 100 times, that would result in them becoming over 2.7x more productive. These small improvements compound their effectiveness and create large productivity gains.
It sounds so easy! Why don’t more teams prioritize making these small improvements?!
“Professionals usually understand the importance of these activities and know what to do to execute them. They intend to do them. But they do not always get around to them. After all, each of these actions involves short-term ‘costs’ for a long-term benefit. Left to themselves, professionals, like all human beings, find it all too easy to take care of today, at the risk of underinvesting in tomorrow.” – David H. Maister
Keeping long-term goals in focus can help teams focus on making less urgent, yet massively impactful changes. We are working with a client where we started hosting “This is the way Wednesday” meetings after our stand-up. This habit ensures every week we’re looking at the big picture, understanding where we’re at in the process, and coming up with ideas as a team to get us to where we want to be.
Intentional habit formation can be a great way to ensure that small tweaks are sticking. Some examples of some helpful habits include:
- Dedicate the first 10 minutes of every day to review other team-members’ code changes
- Take five-minute breaks every hour to clear your mind
- Go on a short walk whenever stuck on a problem
- Mute notifications when focusing on a task
- Etc
Try bringing some of these ideas to your team’s next retrospective and see what sort of creative ideas your team comes up with! For more information about habit formation, check out the Atomic Habits book by James Clear. It’s full of great content on the subject!