A good Five-Minute Win:
- Is concrete and finishable. Not "make progress on X" but "finish X";
- Connects to something that actually matters;
- Is visible. The team knows when it is done.
Some examples:
- "Let's close out every task sitting at 90% done before we do anything else"
- "Let's clean up the project board so we can see what we are actually working on"
- "Before this meeting ends, each of us names the one thing we will finish today. Just one."
⚙️ One more thing. Bring in Working Genius. ⚙️
If you have done the Working Genius assessment, you know what I am about to say. If you have not, it is a team assessment that identifies what energizes each person at work (their Geniuses), and what drains them (their Frustrations).
Here is the question worth asking when you're noticing a momentum drag:
Is a Frustration getting in the way of people getting their work done?
Because sometimes work does not get done because it is hard. And sometimes it does not get done because it is sitting squarely in someone's Frustration zone, and nobody has said it out loud yet.
Name it. That is the move.
- It is not an excuse,
- It is not embarassing,
- It does not let you off the hook.
- It is just the truth.
We are excellent professionals. We can do hard things. Walking in with eyes wide open - and knowing where the Frustrations live - is half the battle. The other half is doing it anyway, together.
"Is anyone carrying something that sits in their Frustration zone this week?"
Ask it. See what happens.
Try it. Let me know how it goes.
