Believing what you observe…
Retrospectives are, at their heart, all about observation. It is taking time to look at what happened… compared to what you thought would happen, and then adjusting accordingly. There are formal mechanisms in the Agile community that accompany any set of “Sprints”. One key point is suspending judgment, as the participants offer different perspectives. Good facilitation ensures that problem-solving and resolution are suspended until a clear problem exists. So, how do you facilitate and observe yourself, particularly with a Brain that lies to you? The key is of course is… music…
…let me start with the good news: you can change your programming. The Brain is constantly wiring and rewiring itself, so if you can begin to focus it differently, it will slowly change. Now for the bad news – it takes SIGNIFICANT work to convince your Brain that change is worthwhile. After all, those paths are literally burned into your neurons, and without a good reason, your Brain is pretty lazy, and actually sticks with what it knows, thank you very much. This is particularly true when you are low on energy as the brain consumes a lot of energy, particularly when it is “reprogramming.”
… particularly at Year-end…
One of our Neuroscience speakers talked about “emotional flu.” Her matter-of-fact explanation is all about observation: it is a “body budgeting” issue. When we are tired, not well hydrated, or have been hammered with bad news, we have no energy to change our “feelings.” In fact, she contends that emotions mostly fool us. And that we have the cause and effects backwards… our emotions CAUSE our actions... and the analogy that I want to use, of course, is … how we process MUSIC…
When I say “Jazz Bass,” – your Brain fetches what it already knows. For me, a smooth, slow, romantic evening… and prepares to be “right.” When you actually hear music for the first time, your Brain quickly compares these new notes to what it “knows”, and it predicts from the little bit of data it has, and guesses wrong… which causes the Brain to have to either shut it out and ignore it …. or reprogram. If you stick with the song, eventually, pieces will be “familiar” – particularly in classical music where the Overture introduces what your Brain will eventually “hear” in full, and now predicting correctly, the hormone released makes your Brain (and you ) feel great… and you have a new “favorite” song…
… who/what recharges you?
By the late ‘70s, jazz fusion was almost mainstream, and Dallas was a big enough venue to get good acts. I got tickets to see Stanley Clarke, expecting: “a calm, low-key, classic jazz concert” – it was the most raucous night of music I have seen 😉 He leapt all over the stage, and was anything but the calm, cool, collected tall guy with the big instrument 😉 It deepened my respect for him… and challenged me to think about “Jazz” differently. As I was with my new girlfriend (who is now my wife of over 40 years), the experience had extra emotions (and hormones) to help my Brain hear it differently.
Your body’s “budget” determines what your Brain does. There is a great acronym: HALTS; if you are Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired, or Stressed… yeah, reprogramming doesn’t happen. It simply shuts out the change, otherwise known as “learning,” and retreats, and produces feelings of loss/stress and cortisol that puts on weight 😉 And even that pattern is a pattern… like “I don’t like Rap” – so my brain won’t even pay attention to what is actually happening. It literally disposes of the “data” my ears are sending it. This is the most subtle problem with reprogramming – you have to reinforce the new data – 3 to 6 times more often; otherwise, your Brain sticks with “what it knows”.. Or thinks it does…. actually to be correct, what it has made up and reinforced as “true.”
Training to observe: For Me
A fundamental shift that helps – add the words “…. For Me” to every sentence. It puts you and everyone on notice that this is YOUR observation – not the truth… oh no far from it. So in my Retrospective, For ME, my Brain was more prepared for 2020 than many. For Me, I love change – my Brain has been trained to enjoy new music, new activities, learning new things, and curiosity. I lived through 2008, which freaked me out about business…, and I knew to turn off the TV. I had worked remotely for 15 years, so that was not hard For Me. For Me, my “body budget” was diminished by political discussions.
I also knew what recharged me: music – LOUD music. I knew music and had a way of connecting with people through it. For me, I felt rushed to try and tell the story of an artist in one day, so I stretched it to a week, or two… and I realized editing was needed, and not my core skill set… and let me connect with another real person – for me – very helpful.
observe problems differently…
… ultimately, it comes down to a core stance that my Dad taught me: “Change the problem to one you can solve.” This idea, like music, tricks you into thinking you know what is coming, and then twists it JUST enough to get your Brain to think – wait, what? And in that gap, change starts. As you facilitate your own Retrospective, I recommend talking about yourself in the 3rd person – that observational distance will slow down judgment. Find specific things that went well this year… and 3 to 6 times as many things that didn’t. And watch your body budget – do it when you are rested, hydrated, and, of course.. duh… along with music your Brain knows… and YOU “like” 😉 It is not as complicated as it sounds, and certainly not as much as this fantastic piece of music is, which is what you can be for yourself… The Magician.
