A self reflection guide for developers
Short story:
You may have seen the following story play out either directly or indirectly in your career. Picture this — Alex is a developer with a few years of experience. A specialized team (Data\Production\BE\FE\Growth…) seeks him out to complete a critical project. Alex really enjoys the work and once completed, asks for a permanent transfer. Alex believes that this is a new found passion. While a bit sad, Alex’s manager supports the decision.
A few months go by, reality disappoints! Alex had not expected to find the work so unsatisfying. His motivation and performance take a hit. He tries to power through for 6–12 months, only to become even more frustrated. Things continue to get worse and Alex is informed that he is being placed on a PIP. Time to find a new job.
Why read this blog post?
We strive to avoid experiences like Alex from happening too often. At the cost of oversimplifying, the key is in having a higher degree of self awareness. And as a people lead, the key is in having a deeper understanding of your direct reports and not taking things at face value. I believe the above two goals can be achieved by utilizing two highly effective frameworks — 1) In Flow and 2) Cookies & Radishes
Why these two frameworks?
I have tried many different frameworks in both my own work optimization and in coaching my teams. These two stand out in particular when the goal is to facilitate self reflection and uncover hidden drivers. Did you have success with any other framework? If yes, please leave a comment below.
Needless to say that I did not invent these frameworks. They are mentioned in countless books and articles. All I offer is the small innovation of combining them together And with that, let’s familiarise ourselves with them:
Framework1: Being “in flow” (From alifeofproductivity)
Flow is a wonderful concept that originates from the gaming industry. Skills are on the X axis and Challenges on the Y Axis. A player starts at Level 1 of the game. It’s easy, the player learns how to “jump”. Great!! Level 2 gets a bit harder because Challenge goes +1 but soon the player learns to “open a door” and Skill goes +1. Fast forward, it’s been 10 hours and the player is still playing the game. Wonder how? The player has been “in flow” the entire time.
Above the flow channel is the Anxiety zone. e.g. It’s your second week on the job, you are on call, there is an outage and you are expected to fix it, fast — trigger Anxiety.
Below the flow channel is the Boredom zone. e.g. It’s the 3rd month that you are working on the company’s rebranding project — tasked with a repetitive job of changing colours & margins on the homepage — trigger job hunt.
This is why “growth” is so important. You want to keep yourself, and if applicable your team, in flow, always challenging yourself to learn new skills, ideally without too much anxiety. Staying closer to that top line “flow”.
Hold that thought as we discuss framework 2
Framework 2: Cookies & Radishes (From The Atlantic)
This is based on an study that splits participants into two groups: “Team Cookie” & “Team Radish”. One by one, participants enter a room. The room has a table with two bowls — one with Radishes and another with Cookies Not just any cookies! Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies! The room is engulfed with the smell of these cookies.
“Team Cookie” participants are asked to eat cookies and not bother with the radishes — great time for them!
“Team Radish” participants are asked to eat the radishes and ignore the cookies — tough times for them. Some of the Team Radish participants find ingenious ways to cope with temptation such as picking up cookies and sniffing. One went so far as to lick the oozing chocolate. Unsurprisingly, they were asked to exit.
Once done with the task, the bowls are removed and participants are asked to solve a puzzle. Only there is a catch that the participants are unaware of — the puzzle is unsolvable and the experiment is meant to measure how long each participant takes before giving up!
So, who do you think would try harder? One group persevered for 18 minutes on average, the other only 9! Almost half!
Most people (including me) think that “Team Radish” would work harder. They just went through a tough time, and need a win, right? Wrong. Turns out “Team Cookie” were able to metaphorically bang their head against a wall for longer. The conclusion is that grit is muscle and we have a limited recourse of it. Some tasks are cookies. They align with our passions and we enjoy working on them. Radishes, on the other hand, almost always require perseverance. Once complete, we are happy to move on.
It’s worth mentioning that this study has a counter study that debunks the results. Fortunately, the debunking is for reasons that do not impact the validity of the framework. If it helps, think of this framework as a thought experiment because it is very fitting for work that spans extended periods of time.
Now what?
I find that combining these two lenses of being “in flow” & working on “a radish or a cookie” helps to uncover important insights, both for oneself and as a people leader for the team.
Take a few minutes and think back about your work in the last 6 months.
- Think of things that you consider were cookies. Why? Were you in flow? Did you have most of the skills to perform the work, but some of it was challenging enough to learn new skills?
- Think of things that you consider were radishes. Why? Was it boring and tedious? Or maybe it was frustrating and you couldn’t make any progress? Were you out of your comfort zone to the point of experiencing anxiety?
Note that the above is a very specific aspect of doing a “5 whys” root cause analysis. If the answer isn’t an in\out of flow, that is still ok and does not make it any less true. Knowing and understanding the reasons behind what you are passionate about and what you dislike is the key to improving your self awareness.
Bonus points
I would strongly recommend sharing BOTH lists in your next 1:1 with your manager. Here are a few reasons:
- Showing self awareness is a great quality that your manager will surely appreciate.
- You might be surprised to learn that they are not mind readers either. It’s very likely that they don’t know which tasks you enjoyed and which you persevered through.
- It’s funny how someone’s radish can be another person’s cookie and vice versa. We all have different passions. You might hate fixing bugs while your team member is struggling with rewriting a piece of tech debt. Any manager will obviously try to optimize for everyone’s cookies once they know.
One last suggestion. Come back to this analysis every once in a while and keep your lead informed as well. Today’s cookie can easily become tomorrow’s radish — as with time, everything is sure to go into the boring section.
