Smart People Aren't Enough

Smart People Aren’t Enough

How teams do it differently – and better

Markus Silpala @msilpala


-Theodore Roosevelt

“The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he

wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”

Markus Silpala


Smart People in Software

Figure out the code base fast

Locate the place to make a fix or feature fast

Make the change fast

Move on to the next thing fast

Do this all independently


“Team”

versus

Collection of Individuals


What makes a “team”

Collaboration

Sharing

Resilience (as a group)

Greater than the sum of its parts


Book: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Trust

Conflict

Commitment

Accountability

Results


The Wisdom of Teams

Small number of people with

Complementary skills

committed to

Common Purpose

Common Performance Goals

Common Approach

held Mutually Accountable


Team Performance Curve

source: The Wisdom of Teams, Katzenbach & Smith, Kindle edition


Some ways to “teamify”

Give them a clear performance goal (chartering)

Let the team select their way of working

Spread ownership (pairing & anti-silo rotation)

Share info daily (stand-ups)

Review progress and practices often (retrospectives)

Let the team control its membership (hiring)


Books: Liftoff and Agile Retrospectives


Unorthodox Approaches

Promiscuous Pairing – Arlo Belshee, Agile2005

Mob Programming – mobprogramming.com

Core Commitments and Protocols – liveingreatness.com

http://liveingreatness.com


In Short:

Smart people are great, but a great team is better (usually)

Clear goals and approaches > team-building

Agile Chartering, Retrospectives, and Stand-ups get you a lot of the way there

But: they need to be real, not rote

Lots of options exist – try some on your team!


Thank You!

[email protected]