Monthly Archives: September 2020
Poor communication red flags
A “code smell” in software dev is a case where it may not be perfectly clear what is wrong with a section of code or a design, but … there’s definitely something, and the team should dig into it before going ahead. There are similar red flags that communication in your team isn’t happening as it should — and you should take a closer look, whether you’re leading the team or not.
Peter Senge’s focus on systems thinking is very relevant here (see “The Fifth Discipline”; a classic). A team (and a company) is a complex system that’s not self-correcting/improving by default; if you just leave your communication culture to develop on its own, this system will lose energy & focus to random communication failures, and break down dramatically under strain — i.e., at the worst possible time.
Here’s a list of 8 red flags that your team isn’t communicating effectively — see which ones you recognize, and we’ll review some strategies to address them.
1. You’re nearing a secret tipping point
There’s a growing problem; when it hits a tipping point, then you’ll take some irrevocable, probably harmful action.
What?! That’s the 2nd time this week he’s gotten into some kind of pissing match with his team lead. I don’t know what’s gotten into him lately, but this is the last straw; he’s got to go.
Building effective distributed teams: series intro
Audience: Anyone leading or working on a distributed software development team keen to become more effective, motivated and fulfilled.
I’ve spent the last decade working full-time+ on a fully-remote healthcare startup, and stepping away of that particular mad plate-spinning exercise has been surreal. I originally joined the company straight from my own ed tech solo startup, so really, it’s been a very long time since I’ve been able to wake up in the morning without that threatening cloud of so many things to do!! 😱 looming over my head.
Untangling a hard problem triggers an urge to help others avoid it, and so I have scores of essays & articles that I’ve started over the years, but then set aside for more urgent tasks. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been taking time to read & reflect, firstly, and to revisit some of those notes.
Topics are all over the place, circling around remote software dev & management (my life for 17 years, now), branching off into other topics that interest me (technical or not).
But I’ll start with the most important one: building effective remote dev teams, founded on psychological safety & robust human feedback loops.