As so often, the team was focused on solving a problem. Whenever they saw a problem, they almost jumped at it. It was as if dealing with the problem allowed them to feel productive.

It was keeping them busy and distracting them from the broader and more difficult questions linked to their team dynamic. They had become used to focusing on their team, doing the work the team required, and reporting the results to their boss.

What they didn’t know and couldn’t figure out, was how their results contributed to the overall objectives of their organization. Unconsciously, they had decided that they couldn’t handle the negotiation with their boss and their peers. Maybe, because they were still learning how to lead their team. But maybe also, because by doing what felt best for their team, they were implementing their view of what success would look like. Thinking, for example about customer support, the default often is that they search for ways to do what the customer seems to want. In contrast to this, software development may tend to focus on the technology they want to integrate, as it seems to be what customers will want. Both departments think about their organization or customers through their own lens.

For the team, handling the bigger picture with their peers and their boss involved stepping into the unknown, letting go of some of their favored solutions, and becoming anxious that their new choices might not work as well as hoped.

Dealing with the existing problems as they were doing did respond to pressing issues. However, they didn’t compare it with the value and necessity of reflecting on tomorrow’s problems. What they were responding to, was the risk of losing customers immediately. What they weren’t thinking enough about, was if tomorrow their product would still serve customers as well as needed.

Their real challenge was that they couldn’t imagine giving up the approach they were using with their teams. They didn’t trust their ability to find the time to allow for a shared solution. One they could negotiate without abrupt solutions. They couldn’t imagine how developing a shared approach for the whole organization was possible.