288: Embracing Dynamic Teaming for Improved Collaboration and Efficiency

Teams can add or remove members with their consent, and members can join or leave teams with reasonable notice

Thank you for reading Snippets of Text. Snippets from media about tech, programming, parenting, and more. This is a preview of a post available exclusively to paying subscribers. You can get unlimited access to all articles by purchasing a subscription.

Thank you for checking out the free preview of Snippets of Text. Please consider subscribing to the paid version if you find my work helpful. This will allow me to dedicate more time to developing new ideas to share with you.

Current Work: Embracing Dynamic Teaming for Improved Collaboration and Efficiency

Teams can add or remove members with their consent, and members can join or leave teams with reasonable notice. Additionally, members can manage their bandwidth, meaning they can hold many roles. This approach is known as dynamic teaming. There is no formal process here; it's a search for a two-way fit. Managers may hesitate to try this approach because structure is often a proxy for power. Instead of living in a fixed place in the org chart, they can live in many, a mix of roles where their influence is direct rather than indirect. Positional power is traded for reputation. They can find joy in the work again by getting closer to the job. We often want speed and innovation, but we run from risk and inhibit our best people. We claim to work in teams but don't trust one another. We know how we work isn't working, but we can't imagine an alternative. We long for change but need to figure out how to get it. We are addicted, despite ourselves, to the siren song of bureaucracy. Yet, people can be trusted and trust one another to use judgment and do the right thing.

Creating a team charter helps answer critical questions about the team's purpose, values, and working style. It also helps coach team members, improve communication, and give and receive feedback. One of the simplest ways to strengthen relationships within the team or community is to show appreciation for one another.

Agile methodology prioritizes the people involved in software development and their user interactions. To achieve this, Agile teams should have minimal to no separation. This can lead to problems where framework team members lose touch with application needs, resulting in incorrect code. Yet, this back-and-forth communication can lead to less team collaboration and cause delays. Teams that create the code should handle maintaining it, as they had the initial need for it. It's essential to understand technology, but it should come at a reasonable cost to the company. Pursuing projects that impact the business is the most critical aspect of software development.

Trust is the confidence that your peers have good intentions and aren't out to harm you. Teams that trust one another are comfortable being vulnerable and can admit mistakes and weaknesses. Teams should practice exchanging feedback in structured environments. In these safe environments, they can identify strengths and weaknesses without repercussions. Functional teams engage in ideological conflict. With trust, they know feedback isn't meant to damage a person but rather to improve them. Teams should seek out sources of conflict instead of avoiding them. High-performing teams hold each other accountable to high-performance standards. This means publishing team goals and standards and instituting regular process reviews. Great teams are focused on team results, not individual milestones. This is possible because individuals know their peers will call them out if their poor performance hurts the team.

I invite you to upgrade to a paid subscription. Paid subscribers have told me they have appreciated my thoughts & ideas in the past & would like to see more of them in the future.