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0 pointscrazygringo2mo ago0 comments

It has nothing to do with motivation or competence.

Teams don't just work together magically and "organically". They're made of diverse human beings, every one of us, who come from different backgrounds with different expectations about when and what to communicate and when and what not to and around what is who's responsibility when. Different levels of experience, having worked at different places with different practices, and different preferences about how to do things. This is a recipe for a hundred miscommunications and inefficiences and misunderstandings a day.

These processes exist to surface the most important things not being surfaced, and to identify and fix problems that affect the team but which nobody is understanding in full because everyone only knows their own perspective.

Again, these aren't "rituals". They're processes that are proven because they work. Including with 5-6 engineers.

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bob0012mo ago

To me you're describing a team with mediocre communication and social skills. That's common but its not all teams.

It has everything to do with maturity, motivation and competence. The best teams I've been on didn't care about these rituals because each person bridged the gap with other people. The TLs kept an eye on everything the TL and EM kept an eye on all the people side and concerns. In a startup it'd be the founders. There was mutual trust built by those in leadership roles and issues were communicated and everyone kept an eye out for them.

> They're made of diverse human beings, every one of us, who come from different backgrounds with different expectations about when and what to communicate and when and what not to and around what is who's responsibility when.

Have a meeting, align on some norms for these things and then hold people accountable to them. It's not hard. We're all adults. You don't need constant meetings to hand hold people like little kids.

crazygringoOP2mo ago

> Have a meeting, align on some norms for these things and then hold people accountable to them. It's not hard. We're all adults. You don't need constant meetings to hand hold people like little kids.

Yes... the meetings are called retrospectives.

One of the norms is called standups.

You don't need to belittle these processes as being for "little kids". That's deeply unprofessional.

Maybe there are some teams made up entirely of these 10x communicators you describe where everybody perfectly "bridges the gap" with other people. All I can say is, I've never seen it. And knowing everything I know about how easy it is for miscommunication to happen, I'm inclined to suspect that if you think you worked somewhere like that, you simply weren't aware of how much further communication and processes could have improved. After all, how could you? It's incredibly easy for us to assume that things are working as well as they could be. Until we try something like standup+retrospectives and are surprised at how much value they end up bringing.

jt21902mo ago

> Teams don't just work together magically and "organically".

This is the “employees are resources” mentality, and is common in mature companies. In a startup, however, you need to hire for individuals that will “make it rain”, and not wait around for some process or manager to tell them to communicate or do work. If your employees are not coming together as a team and figuring things out without your handholding you’ve hired the wrong people.

crazygringoOP2mo ago

People aren't mind readers.

It's not "handholding". And it's not about a "resources" mentality or wanting to "make it rain".

The best engineers can have wildly different and incompatible communication styles at first. Nobody is wrong, just different.

I don't know what to tell you, except that your approach is basically wishful thinking, in my experience.

And things like standups and retrospectives are where your employees come together as a team.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointscrazygringo2mo ago0 comments

It has nothing to do with motivation or competence.

Again, these aren't "rituals". They're processes that are proven because they work. Including with 5-6 engineers.

0 comments

bob0012mo ago

To me you're describing a team with mediocre communication and social skills. That's common but its not all teams.

Have a meeting, align on some norms for these things and then hold people accountable to them. It's not hard. We're all adults. You don't need constant meetings to hand hold people like little kids.

crazygringoOP2mo ago

Yes... the meetings are called retrospectives.

One of the norms is called standups.

You don't need to belittle these processes as being for "little kids". That's deeply unprofessional.

jt21902mo ago

> Teams don't just work together magically and "organically".

crazygringoOP2mo ago

People aren't mind readers.

It's not "handholding". And it's not about a "resources" mentality or wanting to "make it rain".

The best engineers can have wildly different and incompatible communication styles at first. Nobody is wrong, just different.

I don't know what to tell you, except that your approach is basically wishful thinking, in my experience.

And things like standups and retrospectives are where your employees come together as a team.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse