On Fear

Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash

This week I joined a Risk Storming workshop led by Beren Van Daele. Disclaimer: my attendance was spotty due to overlapping events, but I think I got a passing understanding.

 
One aspect of the workshop stirred my attention, and it was the mention of fears in the context of goals vs fears.

Obviously anyone wants to achieve certain goals, so it makes sense to set goals and to mention them in a workshop like this. However when setting goals there are certain second-order effects or side-effects that we want to avoid, minimise or eliminate entirely. Here are a few reasons why I found intriguing (and valuable!) the explicit mention of fear.

Acknowledge fears when planning

Acknowledging fears and taking them into account into planning is a desirable trait in any wise person who seeks to introduce change. Let's say we want to roll out Scrum because of certain advantages that we hope to gain. As with any change, this change too will have undesirable side-effects. For example new meetings/ceremonies, perhaps some people do not like Scrum, a certain rigidity dealing with urgent bugs or even incidents (it's not in the sprint! is something I'm sure has been uttered before), etc.

So when introducing change we should not worry too much about the expected positive outcomes which are likely to take care of themselves, and instead we should invest on mitigating/removing/preventing the negative outcomes as these might negate the positive, in part or even entirely.

Recognizing (and acting on) fears

It's said that middle-managers run the company, and to do that effectively they need to very apt at reading between the lines and understand not only the goals, but also (and perhaps more importantly!) the fears of both their reports and manager.

Often (and perhaps for the wrong reasons) people do not speak about their fears in clear terms, but instead choose to mask them behind vague statements or jokes. Just like anybody can be a good employee when they have a good manager, an exceptional employee can also understand (and act on) what's not said explicitly.

Nobody gets fired for buying IBM

That B2B is predominantly fear-driven was a powerful revelation to me, and here's why:

1. it is crucial for a salesperson to get into a B2B meeting with confidence into the product they're selling
2. it is supremely necessary we understand the fears of the (potential) customer, especially if these are not addressed by the features or values of what we're selling

Psychological safety

Fear works against psychological safety (the group is safe for interpersonal risk taking). Which, in turn, negatively affects organizational performance.

Cooperation in Generative culture (Westrum)

Elaborating on the psychological safety, IMO cooperation in a generative culture can only occur if we actively recognise our and others fears. Cooperation is easy to "fake", with superficial attempts. Deep collaboration can only happen once we acknowledge the fear(s) of the group, stop trying to be right, and start being effective instead.

Conclusion

I wonder if risk storming is onto something bigger than just risk identification. Food for shower thoughts.