Odd name for a course

Over the past few weeks, I had a Facebook ad pop up on my wall that made my head tilt. No, it wasn’t rotated or had some odd picture. The title was what got my attention.

I will not get into the actual title name because it had some terms that, although not explicit, the purpose was definitely to be clickbait. The purpose of this course was how to handle individuals in a team that are not producing. Which on the surface, that is what every team needs to do together to help improve. Does that mean there needs to have negative labels thrown on them? No.

Let’s look at a Minttols article about the traits of a Servant Leader:

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/servant-leadership.htm

It provides a list:

Listening.

• Empathy.

• Healing.

• Awareness.

• Persuasion.

• Conceptualization.

• Foresight.

• Stewardship.

• Commitment to the growth of people.

• Building community.

As we look through this list, nowhere does it have a work or set of words to disparage others on the team. If the words in these titles were to be said in a professional environment, HR would certainly be calling relatively quickly for a discussion.

Where is the empathy? Maybe there is low productivity because of a sick family member.

Where is the Healing? Would someone want your help if they knew how there were being described? I could only imagine someone coming back from the course and trying what they learned when everyone knows the course. Unless it was a secret, but then there is a lack of transparency.

What about awareness? How long were productivity issues going on and not being handled to the point a course is needed. Unless the course is taken as a preemptive strike and new training, even then, the title alone will go back to what was talked about in Healing.

Is there no persuasion within the team to help? This is a deeper issue with an agile team then, and a short course will not provide the answers needed to get the team on track to being agile.

Inability to conceptualize the situation? This ties into the awareness and the understanding that not all issues are the same as with individuals are not the same. Dealing with issues and individuals needs to provide the help required in the right manner for each individual to assimilate. Going into the mindset of negative descriptions is not going to get the right frame of mind.

Where is the Foresight? Agile teams and environments are about being as strategic as they can be with the work being completed. That means dealing with the root of issues and not symptoms. That in itself is something that is a continuous learning path.

What has the team done to improve? Where is the stewardship in getting them to get the work done and improve?

Discussion of the healing issues can be tied into the Commitment to growth. Is somebody really committed to growth when they use negative teams to an individual’s productivity?

What type of community is being attempted here? People leave jobs because of leadership, and there are plenty of studies out there that prove it. Or, a lot of Glassdoor reviews. All of the previous questions will fall into this bucket.

Now I have not taken this course or know anyone that has, hence why I did not call out the name or where it is. Over the past few years, a lot of negativity is pushed out into the world, impacting everyone. This could be clickbait as well; I have done it with some blog posts to get a reaction. I just look at my last port on Agile is not Legitimate. It seems pretty harsh, and I am sure it hit a feeling of “Pardon?”. Reading through it, you will find I discuss where trust agile behaviours use fits within the Diffusion of innovation based on study results. So the title is not wrong based on the findings. It also does not contain any negative words towards individuals where the mindset going in would be bad. It is there to cause intrigue, interests, start a thoughtful conversation about the topic.

In the end, what I am getting at is I think it is time to become more positive. Have titles for courses, blogs, books that generate valuable conversation without getting that initial negative view popping in the head. Because that initial view will sit there and grow, and if it isn’t handled right away regardless of what is discussed, it will control the narrative.