Before adding a new process / working agreement…

Look for these warning signs and antipatterns:

• Good for the part, but not the whole?
• Addresses symptoms, not problem?
• Treats problem as local when global? Global when local?
• Makes work (and the flow of work) less visible?
• Solves multiple needs suboptimally vs. better spot solutions?
• Makes identifying key constraint(s) more difficult?
• Obscures economic trade-offs?
• Fundamental attribution error? Over-indexes on individuals
• Efficiency at the expense of efficacy?
• Predictability at the expense of beneficial variability?
• Trace-ability at the expense of outcomes?
• Limits flow/quality of information? Lengthens feedback loops?
• Limits valuable conversations/interactions?
• Difficult to observe/sense impact?
• Intentionally opaque to avoid harmful micromanagement?
• Not valuable to customer? Not valuable to team?
• Removes a valuable forcing function?
• Reduces decision transparency/quality?
• Not safe to fail? Wide blast radius. Non-reversible.
• Reduces psychological safety?
• Trust proxy?
• Proxy metrics?
• Drives a wedge between groups/individuals?
• Perverse incentives?
• Driven disproportionately by short-term needs?