Module 3 · Lesson 3.6

Where does your interface sit?

Place your own interface on the continuum, and check how much of it rests on particular people.

Lesson 6 of 6About 7 minutes

Key idea

Place the interface by how it works in an ordinary week. Then check whether it rests on belief or on evidence.

In this lesson

Step 1: place the interface with the survey statements
Step 2: check how much rests on people
Step 3: your private note, carried forward to lesson 6.1

In lesson 1.4 you named one interface in your own work that costs you time or rework. Now look at it through the Continuum of Collaboration. Be honest about how it works on an ordinary week, not on its best day, and about whether it carries enough weight to deserve more structure.

This is a private note. Nobody else sees it. It is carried forward to lesson 6.1, where you will use it with your note from lesson 1.4 to choose the structure your interface needs.

The statements come from Expertivity’s C6 Collaborative Maturity Survey.

Step 1

Place the interface

Choose the statement that best describes how your team and the other party typically work together today, not how you would like it to work.

StageChoose a statement.

Step 2

Check how much rests on people

Rate each statement from 1 (never true) to 5 (almost always true).

Beyond passing information along, we don’t have much ongoing engagement with this team.

Our arrangement with this team depends mainly on the specific people currently in the roles.

We usually only find out the arrangement has stopped working after it causes a problem.

TotalRate all three statements.

Step 3: your note

Pause and think · your notes

Your private note on the interface you named in lesson 1.4. It is carried forward to lesson 6.1.

1. Which statement did you pick, and which stage does it place the interface at? What tells you that? Give one recent example.

2. Is the interface important and recurring? If it goes wrong, what does it cost in time, money or client trust, and how often does it come up?

3. Given your answers, is it under-engineered, over-engineered or about right? What is the one sign that convinces you most?

4. What was your total for the three statements? Where does the way the interface works today depend on belief, such as one person’s goodwill or knowledge, rather than evidence the organisation could keep if that person moved on?

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How Alex would answer

Be honest about the ordinary week. An important, recurring interface with a total of 9 or more is the clearest case for the structure you will choose in Module 6.

You have finished Module 3

Next is Module 4, operational definitions: what they are, how to negotiate one with the people on the other side, and what your meetings tell you about where definitions are missing.

Your progress

Back: Check 3.5

Next: Module 4

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