Agile Alliance Women in Agile - Lightning Talk - Gender's Impact on the Ability for Agile Teams to have Meaningful Feedback Loops
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The document discusses how gender impacts the ability for agile teams to have meaningful feedback loops. It summarizes research finding that women are more likely to have a "proving mindset" when receiving feedback, while men are more likely to have a "growth mindset" focused on improvement. This is influenced by factors like lower self-confidence levels and experiences with bias against women. The presentation recommends that teams be aware of these tendencies, encourage growth mindsets, change defensive language, and view mistakes as learning opportunities to help create more open and meaningful feedback exchanges.
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Agile Alliance Women in Agile - Lightning Talk - Gender's Impact on the Ability for Agile Teams to have Meaningful Feedback Loops
- 1. GENDER’S IMPACT ON THE ABILITY FOR AGILE TEAMS TO HAVE MEANINGFUL FEEDBACK LOOPS Women in Agile Workshop August 6, 2017 Joanna Vahlsing | @joannavahlsing
- 3. 5% 200% WHY????? @joannavahlsing | www.joannavahlsing.com
- 4. AGILE TEAM GOALS Reflection Inspection Adaptation Continuously improve Candor and Honesty At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly - 12th Agile Principle Open Communication GIVING AND RECEIVING FEEDBACK @joannavahlsing | www.joannavahlsing.com
- 5. WHY DO SOME PEOPLE REACT DEFENSIVELY TO FEEDBACK???? WHY DO SOME TAKE IT IN STRIDE??? @joannavahlsing | www.joannavahlsing.com
- 6. 2015 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW STUDY DEFENSIVE = PROVING ACCEPTING = IMPROVING @joannavahlsing | www.joannavahlsing.com
- 7. GROWTH MINDSET = IMPROVING, LEARNING AND EFFORT FIXED MINDSET = INBORN TALENT AND TRAITS UNLIKELY TO CHANGE • SEEK OUT CHALLENGING SITUATIONS • WELCOME FEEDBACK, INCLUDING CRITICISM • STRIVE TO PROVE THEMSELVES • AVOID FEEDBACK AND CRITICISM WHAT THEY FOUND @joannavahlsing | www.joannavahlsing.com
- 8. MINDSET IS INFLUENCED BY THREE FACTORS AGE GENDERSELF-CONFIDENCE @joannavahlsing | www.joannavahlsing.com
- 9. REGARDING AGE AGE “AS WE AGE, WE SIMPLY BECOME MORE SELF-AWARE” @joannavahlsing | www.joannavahlsing.com
- 10. REGARDING SELF-CONFIDENCE SELF-CONFIDENCE • Men show improving self-confidence up until their early 40s, experience a mid- life dip, then experience rising confidence again until their mid-50s. At that point, their confidence tends to decline. • Women, on the other hand, start out less confident, but show steady increases from their mid-20s until their mid- 60s, ending up more confident than the men. LACK OF CONFIDENCE = PREDICTOR TO A PROVING MINDSET @joannavahlsing | www.joannavahlsing.com
- 11. IMPOSTER SYNDROME @joannavahlsing | www.joannavahlsing.com
- 12. REGARDING GENDER • WOMEN = MORE LIKELY TO HAVE A PROVING MINDSET GENDER • PROVE-IT-AGAIN BIAS 6 out of 910 out of 9 @joannavahlsing | www.joannavahlsing.com
- 13. SO WHAT CAN WE DO? • BE AWARE OF OUR TENDENCIES • ENCOURAGE SHIFTS TO A GROWTH MINDSET • CHANGE OUR LANGUAGE • MISTAKES ARE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES @joannavahlsing | www.joannavahlsing.com
- 14. MY ASK TO YOU • PLEASE KEEP THIS IN MIND WHEN: YOU’RE IN A POSITION TO GIVE FEEDBACK AND YOU’RE IN A POSITION TO RECEIVE FEEDBACK @joannavahlsing | www.joannavahlsing.com
- 15. WE’RE ALL IMPROVING AND GROWING THANK YOU JOANNA VAHLSING | @JOANNAVALSING JOANNA@JOANNAVAHLSING.COM
Editor's Notes
- Good Afternoon. First, I want to say thank you to Natalie Warnert and the Women in Agile Initiative for this opportunity. Also, a huge thank you to Laura Powers for being such a wonderful mentor. It feels so good to be here today, I’ve loved hearing all the positive enthusiasm for the second annual Women in Agile Workshop and I can’t wait to see how much it grows.
- Moment of truth - I’m a cryer. I cry at movies (happy and sad), commercials, touching stories, you name it - I feel things deeply and on a very personal level.
- So, as you can probably imagine, I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with feedback. Only recently, have I been able to hear critical feedback without crying in the moment. Years ago, I was receiving my annual performance review from my boss, 95% of the content was the successes I had over the course of the year, how my projects had furthered the company toward goals and objectives and the positive impact I had on the organization. 5% of it was areas where I could continue to grow and have even a larger impact. I didn’t see that way - that 5% became 200% - I saw it as I was failing, got defensive and started crying. The feedback was delivered professionally, and I knew that she had my best interests at heart. Because I didn’t score “100%,” I felt like I was failing - queue waterworks. My logical mind was curious why it impacted me so much, and the more I read, I realized I wasn’t alone and I became fascinated with the topic of giving and receiving feedback. Has anyone ever felt like this? What does this have to do with the success of agile teams?
- So, we all know that one of the goals of agile teams is to become learning, adaptive and responsive to the current conditions to achieve an outcome. Without regular feedback, assessment, understanding and a bias for improvement, an agile team cannot operate at optimum health. Today, I want to share with you a particular barrier to achieving that optimum health, one that studies have shown to differ between genders. My hope is to increase awareness amongst the agile community so that we know it exists. Agile teams performing optimally are continuously inspecting, reflecting and adapting to continuously improve how they work. They foster an environment of open, candid and honest communication. The 12th agile principle reinforces this behavior. What’s critical to this? Giving and receiving feedback.
- So - In your organizations, do you ever wonder, “why do some people react defensively to feedback?” and “why do some take it in stride?” Have you noticed any gender differences to how people react?
- In 2015, Harvard Business Review gathered data on how people react to feedback. They called the defensive tendency “proving” and the accepting tendency “improving.” Their definitions were very close to Carol Dweck’s “fixed vs. growth” mindset work.
- What they found “People with a growth mindset tend to focus on improving, learning, and effort; while folks with a fixed mindset assume that our abilities are based more on inborn talents and traits and unlikely to change. The former seek out challenging situations and welcome feedback, including criticism. The latter strive to prove themselves to others, using their existing skills. They tend to avoid feedback and criticism, and usually select tasks at which they can look good and succeed.”
- When they reviewed the data, they found that respondents' orientation to either a proving or improving mindset was influenced by three factors: Age, Self-Confidence and Gender.
- Regarding Age, as we age, there “is a gradual evolution of a proving mindset into an improving mindset.” They theorized that “as we age, we simply become more self-aware – and it may also have something to do with confidence,” which was the second major factor they uncovered.
- Regarding self confidence There is a fascinating and slightly complex relationship between self-confidence and an improving mindset. Men show improving self-confidence up until their early 40s, experience a mid-life dip, then experience rising confidence again until their mid-50s. At that point, their confidence tends to decline. Women, on the other hand, start out less confident, but show steady increases from their mid-20s until their mid- 60s, ending up more confident than the men. “The best predictor we could find of people having an orientation toward ‘proving’ was their lack of confidence. Those who scored highest on our confidence percentile were more likely to have an improvement mindset.” - 2015 HBR Study
- This is also where imposter syndrome can come into play, which is the fear that someone doesn’t really belong in their role, and they will be discovered and fail. Imposter syndrome has been found to be widespread in high-achieving women, and this lower self-confidence will also impact one’s likelihood to speak up during retros and contribute feedback to the team. Back to my story, that 5% of critical felt like I was being “found out” that I wasn’t qualified to do the role that I was in. Also, keep in mind, if there is also a fear of failure environment in the organization, imposter syndrome can be even more pronounced and erode self-confidence. I’m pleased to see that there are sessions this week on Imposter Syndrome and finding one’s authentic voice and the impact it can have on achieving goals (personal or business)
- What they found about Gender: They found that women are more likely to have a “proving” mindset than men are, especially early in their careers. They theorized a few possible reasons, including that women are socialized to be less confident, where men are socialized to be overconfident. Also, women are subject to the “prove-it-again” bias, where their competence is constantly (and unfairly) questioned. In another study, two-thirds of women interviewed encountered prove-it-again bias, where women found that they had to provide more evidence of competence than men in order to be seen as equally competent. A typical scenario is where a woman mentions an idea, the idea is ignored, a man brings up the same idea, and the idea is heard. Or, when seeking a promotion, if there are 9 things that need to be achieved, women will do 10 before asking for the promotion. Men will ask for it when they have 6.
- So what can we do as an agile community? Be aware of these tendencies as we observe our team members’ candor and ability to provide feedback to each other, especially at times of reflection and retrospection. Look for ways to encourage shifts in team member’s behavior to steer them toward developing a growth mindset. If someone is sensitive to feedback, suggest that they start with small doses of feedback and work their way up. Team members can also change the language that they use when praising to foster that growth mindset – “your effort really paid off” vs. “your report is brilliant.” Team members also need to stress that mistakes are learning opportunities rather than cause for embarrassment or punishment.
- My ask is to please keep this in mind the next time you’re: In a position to give feedback AND In a position to receive feedback
- We’re all improving and growing. Thank you, and I’ll be around after the workshop and here all well if you’d like discuss more.