"I have no idea who you are, but let's get to work!"
Leveraging user manuals for team efficiency
Daily feelings in Slack:
“Does he trust me?”
“She doesn’t want any help.”
“Do they not know we know this already?”
“Why hasn’t he responded?”
“He seems pissed off today.”
“I can’t focus, she just keeps adding comments in this thread!”
We’ve all been there. People work without getting to know the individual they are working with. Assumptions are made about colleagues and they are never addressed. Instead, we bury our feelings and choose to talk about them at Happy Hour with friends.
This is one of the most underrated opportunities for increasing team efficiency. Learning how to work the people on your team. On Growth, we’re all in the Toronto office. We grab lunch, have drinks, and sit together every day. Yet, we still don’t talk about how to work with each other. We don’t share our tendencies, habits, or quirks when it comes to our personalities and working style.
After reading Brave New Work, By Aaron Dignan I came across an exercise he recommends a team goes through to clear up some of these internalized feelings.
“..what if we wrote a user manual about how to work with us and shared it with our teams? Suddenly they’d know why we always seem sketpical or prefer to give feedback in person or get excited about a good pun. How much time and confusion could we save?” - Aaron Dignan
We were a new team when I put together the “User Manual to Me” template and had each team member fill them out.
Here is that template:
Questions about you
What are some honest, unfiltered things about you?
What drives you nuts?
What are your quirks?
How can people earn an extra gold star with you?
What qualities do you particularly value in people who work with you?
What are some things that people might misunderstand about you that you should clarify?
Questions about how you relate to others
How do you coach people to do their best work and develop their talents?
What's the best way to communicate with you?
What's the best way to convince you to do something?
How do you like to give feedback?
How do you like to get feedback?
After going through this exercise, we immediately knew more about how to work with each other. In addition, we shared our user manuals to the wider company. This allowed stakeholders to also have the opportunity to learn more about us before giving feedback.
Over time, more teams at Jobber adopted user manuals which leveled up our ability to collaborate and get shit done cross-functionally.
For us, the user manuals were a great starting point for our working relationship. After getting to know your team and work with them for an extended period of time, one might want to adjust their user manual to provide more clarity. This is up to the individual.
To finish, here is my user manual to give you a feel for it:
Questions about you
What are some honest, unfiltered things about you?
I'm passionate about work, and that can sometimes come off as 'aggressive'. Just know, it's all coming from a place of genuine excitement.
My emotions sometimes get the best of me.
I can get defensive over decisions. Be patient with me and make fun of me for it.
What drives you nuts?
Finding excuses for things that you had control over
Strategy being looked at as a list of tactics
Unnecessary meetings
Meetings where people are just on their phone or working on their laptop
The Edmonton Oilers
What are your quirks?
I stare into space when I'm thinking really hard about something. It looks weird.... just ignore me
I tap my foot like an absolute crazy person while sitting
When we go for coffee or a drink, I will probably rip up the coaster or sleeve to shreds... I don't even notice (should I see a doctor?)
I tend to collect 3+ glasses on my desk throughout the day (oops)
I move around the office a lot. it's not because you smell, I just like to relocate throughout the day
How can people earn an extra gold star with you?
Don't go directly to a solution, frame the problem & think about the strategy
Read situations and react. People are tuning out during a meeting? Call it out
Have fun, bring good energy to the workplace and help the whole company get to that same level
Making other people in your team or company more successful
What qualities do you particularly value in people who work with you?
Growth mindset
Positive outlook on opportunities. Not thinking about what's wrong about the idea... but first thinking about what could be great about it
Open communication
Plugged in. You know what other teams are working on & how our work affects others
Data focused
What are some things that people might misunderstand about you that you should clarify?
When I get caught up in situations that cause stress or anxiety... I can come off as angry or having the feeling of 'panic'. Give me a few moments, I will come back down to earth and make fun of myself.
I love work & talking shaaaaap, but it's not all work all the time. Don't think you should just talk about work with me even if I'm pushing it :p.
Questions about how you relate to others
How do you coach people to do their best work and develop their talents?
Find what they're passionate about, what fires them up - and do whatever is possible to set them up for success
Get people out of their comfort zone and into areas that will ultimately take them where they want to go
Make sure they have balance in work & life
What's the best way to communicate with you?
Directly
Video Call
Slack
What's the best way to convince you to do something?
Come with not just an idea, but with the data, the strategy, the why. What is the impact.... is it actually that big or just something cool to work on?
How do you like to give feedback?
I like to give feedback directly, and leading with specific examples that led to specific behaviors that either had a positive or negative impact on the situation. I try and provide this feedback real-time vs bottling it up into an end of month meeting, sprint review, or town hall.
How do you like to get feedback?
I prefer directly, don't hesitate to toss me a zoom link or book a quick 30 min meeting with me to provide me feedback, positive or negative. In addition, I actively look for feedback so please provide it and please call me out when you have the chance! :p
If you have feedback for the team I'd rather that be in our public channel so it can be discussed in the open.