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Team Enablement

What is it?

Enablement in digital transformation means taking an active role in helping another person improve their software delivery practices. Enablement may occur naturally with more motivated individuals looking to learn and grow in their craft, or it may be an explicit goal when engaging with a customer to help them improve delivery practices on their team. At Rise8, we teach people through directly embedding in their teams and working with them to achieve their goals. We enable others by showing them our ability to execute and deliver.

I do, we do, you do

A key enablement practice is called “I do, we do, you do.” It’s a methodology that helps someone go from little-to-no exposure in a skill or behavior and slowly getting them comfortable enough with it to run on their own. This typically works best with the pairing model, another Rise8 Core Practice. Consider a teacher and a learner. You can comfortably progress the learner through a process by stepping them through the following phases:

  1. "I do" - The teacher does the work/skill/behavior and the learner shadows, taking notes and observing what “good” looks like. The teacher explains the reasoning behind the method.
  2. "We do" - The teacher and learner collaborate together on the work/skill/behavior (ideally through pairing). This begins to give the learner exposure and practice with the teacher there to guide them.
  3. "You do" - The learner starts to do the work/skill/behavior on their own with the teacher taking a backseat coaching role. The teacher can additionally be a safety net if needed.

Why Do it?

By teaching our customers about software delivery best practices, we can spread our impact, build trusted partnerships, expand our opportunities, and help our customers build better software - our ultimate goal. Enablement focuses on providing teams with the skills and resources they need to achieve success on their own, embodying the philosophy of “teaching someone to fish” rather than simply “giving them a fish.” For example, teams empowered through enablement often see improvements in their velocity, code quality, and ability to respond to customer needs more efficiently. It sets our customers up for success regardless of whether we are actively collaborating with them on a project.

Consideration

Some of your customers may not have been the folks directly involved with deciding to work with Rise8. Their boss may believe in the need to digitally transform but others in the organization may think, “Hey, I’ve been working here doing the same thing for 20 years. I’m an expert in my role, I’m trusted. I don’t need to change.”

There’s a vulnerability element in moving from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset and not everyone you work with will have a growth mindset. Terms like “enablement” may cause friction if the person you’re working with isn’t coming from a growth mindset. These scenarios are where some of the softer consulting skills need to kick in so that you can begin to earn the trust of the folks you need to work with.