Success Theater …

Summary

The article discusses the concept of "success theater" in the workplace, where the appearance of success is prioritized over genuine achievements, leading to negative consequences for teams and organizations.

Abstract

"Success theater" is a term that refers to the practice of presenting work achievements in an overly positive light, often glossing over the real challenges and compromises involved. This behavior can be detrimental to a team's long-term success by discouraging honest introspection, stifling healthy dissent, and focusing on vanity metrics rather than actionable ones. The article emphasizes that while a certain level of optimism is necessary to overcome the difficulties of product development, the overemphasis on positive optics can undermine trust, reduce safety within teams, and ultimately hinder innovation. The author suggests combating success theater by leading by example, openly discussing failures and learnings, and involving teams in defining meaningful metrics of success.

Opinions

Success theater is inherently intellectually dishonest and can erode the passion of the most dedicated team members.
It insults the intelligence of team members by not acknowledging the realities of the work and the challenges faced.
The practice can lead to a culture where optics are prioritized over customer needs and satisfaction.
It creates a dual reality within an organization, where the internal understanding of success differs significantly from the external portrayal.
Success theater can mask genuine achievements, making it difficult to identify and celebrate real successes.
It discourages the measurement of actual outcomes and the detection of weak signals that could inform better decision-making.
Leadership plays a crucial role in either reinforcing or combating success theater through their actions and the examples they set.
Teams should be encouraged to develop their own definitions of success and to create metrics that are both actionable and meaningful.
A culture that rewards success theater can cause divisions within teams and fail to incentivize the behaviors that truly contribute to an organization's success.
It is important to make team members feel safe to voice concerns and to question whether certain actions constitute a genuine win for the organization.

Success Theater …

I recently posted about Feature Factories ,which got me thinking about success theater.

Up and to the right …

There’s something about the phrase “success theater” that immediately hits home. You just know what it means.

It’s hearing you hit the quarterly goal, but knowing the corners you had to cut (and the people who will have to clean up the mess), listening to someone rattle off vanity metrics that say nothing, but claim everything, or being told you’re not a team player for having some doubts about a recent “win”. It’s all optics and smoke and mirrors, and the experience sucks. To anyone who takes their craft seriously, there’s no escaping that crappy feeling.

It’s also seductive. Building stuff that people use and pay for (for real) isn’t easy. It’s fraught with all kinds of setbacks and the reality is often unfriendly. We want desperately for things to work, and need a small dose of delusion just to keep going. But …

Success theater undermines the long-term potential of your team (and organization). It:

Dampens introspection

Fosters an environment unfriendly to healthy push-back

Gnaws at your most passionate team members (feels intellectually dishonest)

Insults the intelligence of your team

Sets you up for a rude awakening

Reduces safety and trust on teams (“I have to put on a smile, or else….”)

Locks you into keeping the illusion alive at all costs (the show must go on)

Puts optics ahead of your customers

Syphons your team’s valuable creative energy

Establishes a difficult to navigate dual reality

Deals in vanity metrics not actionable metrics

Makes it hard to filter out the “real” good news

Reduces the ability to detect weak signals

Discourages measuring what is really happening

Limits risk-taking and innovation

Leans on one group (or multiple groups) to deal with the reality

That’s bad! But what can we do about it?

Lead by example. Once reinforced by leadership, success theater is very difficult to combat

Share some challenging news. Talk about missteps

When you have real wins, celebrate them like crazy. Have fun when the wins are real

Talk about failure and learning regularly (and respectfully)

Ask your team what success looks like to them. Get them involved

Ask your team to come up with actionable (and meaningful) metrics

Invite them to pick about the current metrics / units of success

Acknowledge (never dismiss) team feedback, and explain your rationale for doing or not doing something about it

Teach all team members about your company’s business model and operating assumptions. Regularly revisit those assumptions

Explain why targets/goals are what they are, and why it matters

Make it safe for someone to say things like “I’m not seeing why that’s a win ….” or “I really feel like we’re cutting the wrong corners”

Compensate/reward on performances and outcomes that matter, and that don’t cause divisions in your team. Rewarding success theater sets a terrible example

If optics matter to the external world — they usually do — have frank discussions on why that is the case, and how external messaging cannot dictate the internal dialogue