Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?

by Aaron Dignan

Death to Status Updates. One of the most popular and dysfunctional meetings I encounter in my work involves a team presenting work in progress to their boss for their feedback and/or blessing. Many leaders believe that these status updates are the best way to scale themselves across multiple projects. But holding court and dropping “pearls of wisdom” on teams actually causes more trouble than it’s worth. For starters, leaders often lack the context to understand complex initiatives and the situation at the edge. This can lead to naive questions at best and irresponsible recommendations at worst. Updates are also disruptive, and not in a good way. Last-minute changes undermine teams and waste much of the time that was invested prior to the review. And, as you might imagine, these meetings become theatrical productions. Teams see updates as their chance to shine, so they overprepare, spending an average of four hours per week preparing for these moments. The alternative is far simpler. Leaders can either join a team and become part of the workflow, or they can be part of an advice process at the outset of the project or upon request. As one of my colleagues likes to say, “status should live in software.” Words to live by.

Ok, so what’s the alternate for design studio updates? I guess my desire to know what’s going on could be an email chain? Or a quick post up of current work? Maybe it’s about hearing my coworkers answer to the question “so what do you intend to do?”