How could that possibly be fun?

Last week in our Tech Leader Mentoring Group we discussed our team’s underperforming activities.  All teams have them (because no individual or team is perfect), yet we don’t often stop and look for them.  This week we did, and we came up with some great ones, including estimation points, team retrospectives, and one-on-one meetings.

Now let me clarify: these activities aren’t wasteful, but the group members didn’t feel they were “living up to their full potential.”  Another way to put this: if someone canceled one of these activities no one would miss them.

Ian wrote me back this week telling me that he’d raised this topic with his team, and they had a fruitful and enjoyable discussion where even more items were identified.  I was a bit surprised at the word “enjoyable.”

How could a discussion of problems be enjoyable???  That’s exactly how he described it.

Let’s turn the question upside down.

Pretend it’s your job is to design a team culture where underperforming activities are kept hidden from sight.  
How could you create that kind of environment?