There’s this beautiful Catalan tradition named “Human Towers” or Castells. Yup! Your insight serves you well! It consists of the assembling and disassembling of human towers, that is, towers made out of humans. It requires strength, skill, balance, courage, and vast amounts of teamwork. To me, folks in a Castell are very much like the Avengers.
Also, yes! You guessed it! Castells are like projects. I will elaborate briefly, but do you want to see Castells in action before that? Your wish is my command:
A strong base and a robust architecture
Ok, you saw it. The Castell (and the project) will likely fail without a foundation to support it. In a Castell, this foundation is the pinya, and it is not a bunch of random people that happen to be there! The foundation is efficiently arranged so that it can bear the weight of the tower, and if the tower is going to be high, two additional base layers (folre and manilles) will be added to the structure.
Some things come to mind:
First: if you work in technology, please mind your platform teams. They are your foundation, pinya, folre, and manilles. They are at the core of what you are building. They work hard to bear your project’s technical weight and are often overlooked and misunderstood. Please go to your platform teams now and give them a (virtual?) hug.
Second: the project foundation can also be seen as all the planning and preparation any project requires. If you are doing waterfall or hybrid, this is a given: pre-planning will be intensive, and the project’s success will very much depend on how well you plan: Who are your stakeholders? What are the requirements? Which engineers will work on those requirements? What is the schedule? What is the communications plan? What is the release plan?
If you are being agile (note, be agile, not do agile), you won’t prepare a detailed plan in advance. You will probably start small and fast, and learn as you go, adapting based on learnings and customer feedback. While it is true that the metaphor weakens here, you may want to see your MVP as your foundation. The MVP is the very first thing you build that has business value. As your customer gives you feedback and you keep iterating on your MVP, it becomes a solid foundation for the team to increment on.
Leadership, guidance, and motivation
When making a castell, a leader on the floor (cap de colla) orchestrates the build. The cap de colla guides the team on who must start climbing and when. They also motivate and encourage the team. Folks in the tower don’t know the full extent of what is happening, but the cap de colla does, and will ensure that everyone is in the correct position and, most importantly, is safe.
I know, I know… the last thing we want in a project is people who only act when they are told to, but bear with me here when I focus on leadership, guidance, and motivation. The cap the colla will guide on what to do and encourage the team to keep going, especially if they are in pain and struggling with balance and weight.
Projects are guaranteed to go through rough times. It is not a question of “if” but of “when.” Good leaders show their true colors when things go south and the team is in pain and struggling. Good leaders inspire with enthusiasm and passion.
I guess I don’t need to say that you, my friend, if you are project, program, or product manager, need to be an outstanding leader. You need to inspire and guide others towards a shared vision while also promoting trust, accountability, and growth within the team.
Bonus track: castells always come with music (música de gralla) that also guides and motivates the team, providing rhythm that peaks when the castell is up. Music is fun, so remember: when managing projects, always (ALWAYS!) have fun with the team.
The Castell is not done when the smallest kid crowns it (not yet)
Let’s say that the MVP is the act of crowning the Castell. That happens when the smallest kid climbs to the very top and waves. Crowning a Castell is a feat by itself, but glory is complete only when/if the team also disassembles the tower.
How does this translate to us? After every iteration, phase, or launch, we need to reflect on what worked and what didn’t. Take time to learn, inspect and adapt. This is important, don’t skip it. You are not done until you introspect and apply your learnings!
Anything else? Yes! If, for whatever reason, the team had to introduce technical debt, you are not done until you address it. It is very tempting to move to the next new and shiny feature rather than clean up after ourselves. Don’t do it! While addressing technical debt doesn’t add immediate business value, you are damaging your technical foundation if you don’t do it. Remember when we said that without a solid foundation, your castell would crumble? Your future features are in danger if you don’t address technical debt.
Sh*t happens - Manage risk!
Human towers often collapse. Bad injuries are rare, but no castell is attempted without an ambulance near the site. Also, kids wear helmets to avoid head concussions.
This is basic risk management like in any other project: in this case, risks are accepted (if you fall, you fall) or mitigated (helmets, ambulances). Sometimes risks are avoided: if the cap de colla sees structural problems that may put team members in danger, they will request that the castell is dismantled.
Something not directly related to risk but extremely important: in your project, folks need to feel safe, and I am not talking about physical safety (which is also important, to be clear). Team members need to feel safe to experiment, fail, and speak up. As a leader, you, dear project manager, need to foster a healthy work environment where all team members feel emotionally and psychologically safe.
In a nutshell: teamwork
If anything, castells require teamwork. The tower won’t build if team members don’t help each other. The Castell can’t go up without people working together, and the tower won’t succeed if team members don’t support each other physically and mentally.
While physical contact on a human tower would be highly inappropriate in an office environment, team members must help and support each other when working on a project. They must work together, frequently under pressure and seeing the other team members’ best and worst. Most of the time, it’s inspiring and rewarding; sometimes, it is remarkably hard.
But remember: almost always, it is worth it.
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