Week 2: Impediments

Impediments

Impediments. Those nasty things that stop you from getting stuff done. Nope. Impediments don’t just stop you from getting stuff done. Impediments are ANYTHING that prevent you from going as FAST as possible.

Think about that carefully for a moment. That might be faster than you have even gone before. Some impediments are “just the way things work around here”.

The question “Do you have any impediments?” during a daily scrum or standup rarely solicits any answers. Usually only blockers (things preventing work) get mentioned. Instead, listen to people’s language in the daily scrum. Any hint of uncertainty means there is potentially an impediment that can be resolved.

We have created a list of “impediment words”. Listen for these words in your next daily scrum and see how many potential impediments you can spot. Ask clarifying questions to uncover whether it is a problem, or if someone is just using uncertain language out of habit. Start to notice how often you and those around you use uncertain language.

There is a cutout of these words for you later in the chapter.

Not every impediment needs solving right now. The big hairy ones will most likely take months or even years to fully solve. Your aim is to make them less painful for your team. Chip away at them one small step at a time. The best way to do this is to source multiple ideas from the team. Many heads thinking of potential solutions is always better than one. You could also seek help from outside the team, perhaps other teams have already faced and conquered a particular impediment.

The problem solving tree is a great technique to help identify potential solutions for impediments. We have included this technique in this week’s reading.