The Over-Corrector
Jump in at the first sign of trouble. Great facilitators don’t let teams make mistakes.
Commonly affects: Facilitators new to the role, experienced architects who struggle to let go.
The Anti-Pattern
The moment a team takes a wrong turn, swoop in with corrections. Suggest the “right” technology before they’ve had a chance to evaluate options. Redirect their design when it starts drifting from what you had in mind. After all, time is limited why let them waste it learning from mistakes when you can just tell them the answer?
Why It Feels Right
You can see the dead end they’re heading toward, and it feels irresponsible to let them walk into it. The clock is ticking, and a wasted 20 minutes on a bad path means less time for a good solution. Your job as facilitator is to help, and helping means preventing mistakes right?
The Catastrophe
Teams never develop their own architectural instincts because someone else catches every misstep before they feel the consequences. The kata becomes a guided tour rather than an exploration. Teams that get corrected early produce “correct” designs they don’t truly understand or believe in. During the presentation, they can’t defend their choices because the choices weren’t really theirs.
Worse, teams stop taking risks. If the facilitator is going to steer them anyway, why bother proposing bold ideas?
The Rescue
Calibrate your involvement based on three factors:
- Time remaining. Early in the kata, let teams explore freely even down wrong paths. As time runs short, it’s fair to nudge more directly so they have something to present.
- Stage of the exercise. During problem exploration, stay hands-off. During design convergence, gentle hints are appropriate. During presentation prep, help them focus.
- Team maturity. Experienced architects need less guidance and more room to experiment. Less experienced teams may need earlier signposts but still not answers.
The goal is for teams to own their mistakes and their solutions. A team that hits a wall, backtracks, and recovers learns more than a team that was steered around every obstacle.