The hottest Teamwork Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Business Topics

TBM 277: Bring Back Fun

The Beautiful Mess • 1236 implied HN points • 12 Mar 24
💼 Business Work Culture Tech industry Company dynamics Productivity Teamwork
  1. Working with interesting people in a fun environment can make solving challenging problems exciting and rewarding.
  2. Many people in product making industries find joy in solving fun problems with diverse and engaging teams.
  3. The current tech landscape is becoming more serious and competitive, with a focus on efficiency, but there is a strong desire to bring back fun, creativity, and collaboration in workplaces.

How to grow from a mid-level to senior Data Engineer

SeattleDataGuy’s Newsletter • 694 implied HN points • 14 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Data Engineering Software Engineering Learning Teamwork Leadership
  1. To grow from mid to senior level, it's important to continuously learn and improve, share new knowledge, work on code improvements, and become an expert in a certain domain.
  2. Making the team better is crucial - focus on mentoring, sharing knowledge, and creating a positive team environment. Think beyond individual tasks to impact the overall team outcomes.
  3. Seniority includes building not just technical solutions, but solutions that customers love. Challenge requirements, understand the business and product, and take initiative in problem-solving.

How Leaders Can Make the Open Door Policy, Inclusive

Thinking Through • 750 implied HN points • 09 Jan 24
💼 Business Leadership Diversity Inclusion Teamwork Psychological safety
  1. Two things must be true for someone to take advantage of an open-door policy: self-confidence and psychological safety.
  2. Psychological safety in a team means feeling okay to take risks, express ideas, ask questions, and admit mistakes without fear of negative consequences.
  3. To build a psychologically safe environment, leaders can practice candidness, sharing mistakes, inclusive language, encouraging team input, and teaching team members to grow.

When Orgs Become Siloed

Suzan's Fieldnotes • 98 implied HN points • 09 Feb 24
💼 Business Leadership Organizational Culture Teamwork Management
  1. Leadership is a shared experience, not an individual effort. A siloed leadership team can lead to a siloed organization. To shift organizational behavior, start at the leadership layer.
  2. Signs of a siloed culture include individualism, rise of 'poop umbrellas', influence behind closed doors, and apathy turning into fear. These signs can lead to missed business goals and a slipping company culture.
  3. Siloed cultures often form unintentionally due to tough market conditions, organizational changes, focus on individual parts instead of the system, and lack of intentional culture. Realignment starts by rallying the team around shared objectives, identifying desired team culture, and rewarding desired values.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

8 Ways Organizational Culture Kills Agility

Ageling on Agile • 78 implied HN points • 11 Feb 24
💼 Business Organizational Culture Agility Management Teamwork
  1. Implementing Agile in an organization goes beyond just claiming to be Agile; it requires a cultural shift.
  2. Having a hierarchical structure, lack of learning culture, and siloed responsibilities can hinder an organization's agility.
  3. Organizations valuing output over outcome, prioritizing individual efficiency, and fostering HIPPO culture undermine Agile principles and hinder effectiveness.

Scrum - use the good parts too!

Nikola’s Substack • 1 HN point • 20 Apr 24
💼 Business Management Productivity Teamwork Project management Leadership
  1. Consider streamlining meetings in Scrum - fewer, more effective meetings can be beneficial.
  2. Simplify story points and estimations in Scrum by setting straightforward guidelines to avoid confusion and enhance planning.
  3. Maintain the core strengths of Scrum like sprint structure and the Scrum Master role, while adapting them to best suit the team and project needs.

high drama over the krka

derailleur • 943 implied HN points • 18 Jun 23
🎾 Sports Cycling Competition Emotions Teamwork Victory
  1. The Tour of Slovenia's fifth stage featured high drama over the Krka river.
  2. The top contenders in the race were separated by mere seconds, making the competition intense and close.
  3. Matej Mohorič won the stage, honoring a fallen cyclist and emphasizing the importance of cherishing every moment in cycling.

What I really miss in retirement

Ben’s Blog 🏉 🧠🧑‍💻 • 40 implied HN points • 13 Feb 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Retirement Mental health Community Teamwork Happiness
  1. Being part of a team striving towards a common goal brings a sense of purpose and fulfillment in retirement.
  2. Belonging to a community or family and contributing to something greater than oneself is vital for health and happiness.
  3. Connecting with others and slowing down to be part of a team can lead to long-term satisfaction, unlike pursuing individual success hastily.

3 areas to drive clarity for sustained high-performance in teams

Effective Software Leads • 39 implied HN points • 03 Jan 24
💼 Business Management Leadership Teamwork Planning Communication
  1. Driving clarity of purpose, direction, plan, roles, and boundaries leads to sustained high-performance in teams.
  2. Clarity of purpose is essential for motivating and guiding team members towards a common goal.
  3. Having a clear plan and understanding of roles and responsibilities are key for effective team performance.

Psychological Safety

Fish Food for Thought • 16 implied HN points • 31 Jan 24
💼 Business Teamwork Data-driven Decision Making Psychological safety Human Interaction Collaboration
  1. Psychological safety is crucial for team success, more than individual skills or composition.
  2. Google's Project Aristotle highlighted the importance of emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills in successful teams.
  3. Data-driven decision-making is essential, but human elements like trust and open communication are critical for team success.

Managing Inside Growing Companies

Lessons • 176 implied HN points • 21 Feb 23
💼 Business Management Leadership Startups Growth Teamwork
  1. Managers inside growing companies need to accept that change is constant, and it's important to focus on facilitating the process of finding solutions rather than having all the answers.
  2. It's okay for managers to acknowledge and accept the things they cannot control, and instead, focus on what they can control to set their team up for success.
  3. Helping people on your team grow and learn is a crucial aspect that managers can control and should prioritize in a growing company environment.

How To Run An Offsite

Build To Scale • 59 implied HN points • 03 Oct 23
💼 Business Management Strategy Leadership Teamwork Creativity
  1. An effective offsite meeting should have a clear purpose, such as planning for strategic changes, setting priorities, or working on challenging problems creatively.
  2. Include the next-level up-and-coming leaders in executive offsite meetings to have a broader impact and develop managerial talent.
  3. To tackle hard problems, gather a diverse group of people from different areas within the company to brainstorm solutions, as fresh perspectives can lead to creative breakthroughs.

How to Run a Data-Driven Engineering Org Without Being a Performance Tyrant

Dev Interrupted • 88 implied HN points • 22 Jun 23
💼 Business Management Data-driven Leadership Teamwork Productivity
  1. Stack ranking is natural human behavior, but it may not be suitable for engineering teams.
  2. Data-driven does not mean stack ranking; software development teams are more like bands where everyone depends on each other.
  3. Avoid data-driven leadership anti-patterns by knowing your 'why', measuring more than individual stats, and not relying on easily available metrics.

The Inspiring Team Spirit Behind Apple TV's Ted Lasso

PeopleStorming • 79 implied HN points • 27 Jun 23
🎭️ Culture Inspiration Leadership Diversity Collaboration Teamwork
  1. Passionate and dedicated individuals inspire and unite a team to achieve remarkable outcomes.
  2. Promoting humble leadership and recognizing the contributions of team members is key to fostering a positive work culture.
  3. Encouraging diverse contributions and allowing individuals to explore different roles can lead to unexpected strengths and richer results.

Building more Psychological Safety on teams using the power of fish!

PeopleStorming • 39 implied HN points • 03 Oct 23
🎭️ Culture Teamwork Psychological safety Workshops
  1. The Stinky Fish exercise is a tool to help teams surface worries and fears in a safe space, promoting open dialogue and confronting concerns.
  2. The exercise, rooted in cognitive behavioral therapy, can be used at the start of projects to create psychological safety in the team.
  3. Steps include providing context, allowing team members to jot down 'Stinky Fish', sharing in a circle, and emphasizing the value of open communication for team success.

As an engineering leader, you’re not managing a cruise ship. You’re managing a flotilla.

Developing Leadership • 78 implied HN points • 07 Apr 23
💼 Business Leadership Management Teamwork Communication Collaboration
  1. As an engineering leader, don't treat your organization like a cruise ship, but rather like a flotilla of multiple boats working towards a shared goal
  2. Approach your organization as the admiral of the flotilla, allowing each team to move independently but aiming for overall success
  3. Encourage communication and collaboration between teams, so they can leverage their unique strengths to achieve more collectively

Shape of "Trust" - Pt 3: Roads - When Teams Lack Trust

Building Rome(s) • 7 implied HN points • 13 Jan 24
💼 Business Teamwork Leadership Communication Trust Conflict resolution
  1. Trust is vital for effective teamwork, based on collaborative problem-solving, honesty, respect, mutual support, and open communication.
  2. Undermining factors of trust among teams include ego, politics, incompetence, and failure of leadership.
  3. Technical Program Managers (TPMs) can address challenges by promoting humility, managing relationships, identifying struggles, and advocating for transparency.

Saying No to Drama, Disorder, and Failure: Creating a Great Leadership Team

The Leadership Lab • 59 implied HN points • 29 Jan 23
💼 Business Leadership Teamwork Communication Effectiveness Coaching
  1. Improving consciousness, connection, and effectiveness are key for creating a great leadership team.
  2. Being conscious helps improve connection and effectiveness by focusing on truth and taking responsibility.
  3. Working on connection involves improving communication, getting to know team members deeply, and understanding motivations.

"My favorite colleague"

The Daily Developer • 19 implied HN points • 04 Aug 23
💼 Business Professionalism Communication Teamwork Leadership Self-Improvement
  1. Describing someone as your favorite colleague is a significant compliment as it reflects trustworthiness, professionalism, and skill.
  2. Proactively updating colleagues on your progress can elevate how they perceive you, improve your preparedness, and set a good example for the team.
  3. Taking the initiative to communicate with your team members will not only earn you more respect but also enhance collaboration and productivity.