Just because it’s easier to be negative doesn’t mean we should be.

Continuing on the theme of working with over 100 teams, across in Project and Contracts Management,  Agile, Product and Delivery there’s one pattern that keeps repeating.

Hint: It relates to the “Lessons Learned” in PRINCE2 or retrospectives – the continuous improvement phase.

Teams tend to focus heavily on “what didn’t go so well.”

While inspecting and adapting is crucial, I often remind teams to equally focus on what 𝒅𝒊𝒅 go well.

Why?

Because we want to turn those positives into repeatable habits.

Our brains have a natural bias towards the negative (it’s called “negativity bias”), so we need a nudge to reinforce the wins and help us overcome the negativity bias.

Research from Carol Dweck on growth mindset aligns with the importance of focusing on successes, not just failures.

Her work shows that reinforcing positive outcomes can help us to overcome negativity bias. It encourages a mindset that values learning from both wins and setbacks, promoting resilience and an innovative approach to problem-solving.

Maybe that “thing that went well” was a one-off experiment.

Let’s understand 𝘄𝗵𝘆 and 𝗵𝗼𝘄 it worked so that we can make it stick.

Talk about and recognise your what when well.

So whenever we teach product management training, agility training or even in our day to day work with teams and leadership, we always remind people to celebrate the good.
It’s the way we can overcome the negativity bias and turn best practices into second nature.

Need some support with your product and delivery teams?
Get in touch with us for a free consultation.