The hottest Teamwork Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Business Topics

7 Estimation blunders

Ageling on Agile • 39 implied HN points • 24 Oct 24
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Estimating work is hard, especially for complex tasks. It's okay to acknowledge that some work can't be easily estimated and to focus on learning instead.
  2. Teams often have different opinions on estimates, which can lead to valuable discussions. These conversations help everyone align on the work and understand each other's perspectives.
  3. Estimates shouldn't be treated as strict commitments. If people outside the team are pushing for deadlines based on estimates, it's important to push back and clarify that estimates are just rough calculations.

The Unreachable Engineering Managers

Leading Developers • 141 implied HN points • 17 Feb 26
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Managers who are hard to reach become real bottlenecks because they hoard context and decisions, which delays work or forces suboptimal choices.
  2. Being responsive is part of the engineering manager job — prioritize unblocking others by answering quickly and checking key channels regularly.
  3. Use systems and delegation to scale availability: mute or reorganize channels, create focused discussion groups, and give engineers ownership so you aren’t the sole decision source.

So You Want To Become an Engineering Manager

Diary of an Engineering Manager • 539 implied HN points • 08 Aug 24
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Make your career goals clear by sharing your intent with your manager. Talking about your desire to become an engineering manager will help you get guidance and support.
  2. Focus on developing crucial skills like self-awareness, people skills, and project management. These skills are essential for leading a team effectively.
  3. Look for growth opportunities within your current company or elsewhere. Being prepared is important, but finding the right chance to step into an EM role is key.

Taking just one step too far

Leading Developers • 84 implied HN points • 24 Feb 26
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Pushing a little beyond normal social or organizational boundaries often gets things done and can lead to better outcomes than staying overly timid.
  2. Deliberately testing that extra step helps you learn where the real limits are, because different people and orgs tolerate different levels of push.
  3. Keep it to just one extra step, watch reactions, learn from feedback, and preface risky moves so you can dial back quickly if needed.

You just don't understand

Respectful Leadership • 326 implied HN points • 23 Jan 26
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. People can seem to be talking to each other while actually talking to different people, so their words line up but there’s no real understanding.
  2. Meetings can create a false sense of agreement when participants use the same words but mean different things.
  3. Superficial or misaligned communication leads to awkward, partial results and leaves people frustrated.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Scrum Is No Excuse To Avoid Accountabilities

Ageling on Agile • 99 implied HN points • 03 Oct 24
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Scrum helps teams work better, but it doesn't mean people can ignore their responsibilities. Everyone needs to step up and be accountable.
  2. Self-management in Scrum isn't just about freedoms; it also includes taking on duties and being responsible for their work.
  3. It's important for everyone in a Scrum team to communicate clearly and understand what is needed to succeed, especially regarding project timelines.

What Is Being An Engineering Manager Like

Diary of an Engineering Manager • 119 implied HN points • 05 Sep 24
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. An engineering manager's role is more about teamwork than just giving orders. It's important to work together and support each other.
  2. The manager's job is like being a driver on a road trip. They navigate and ensure everyone is comfortable and safe along the journey.
  3. Being an engineering manager doesn't mean being smarter than everyone else. It means having different responsibilities while being part of the team.

Who does what and how to support them

Leading Developers • 125 implied HN points • 20 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Teamwork
  1. Match resources to missions by balancing immediate company efficiency, engineers' growth and challenge, and the team's long-term durability and flexibility.
  2. Build a simple knowledge map of tech, systems and soft skills to spot single points of failure and to surface clear development opportunities.
  3. Support people based on task-relevant maturity — how experienced they are with the specific task — not just job title, and reduce inertia by lowering activation energy with small, deliberate steps when rotating ownership.

The Ownership Problem: Why We Get Territorial And What To Do About It

The Caring Techie Newsletter • 13 implied HN points • 24 Feb 26
🎭️ Culture Teamwork
  1. Territorial behavior is treating parts of the work as yours to protect instead of yours to share; it shows up as shutting down ideas, hoarding knowledge, and funnelling decisions through one person.
  2. It usually stems from lack of trust, fear of losing control or job security, past bad experiences, or simply being overwhelmed.
  3. You can counter it by leading with curiosity, doing your homework, including owners early, and—if you’re the territorial one—engaging ideas, asking questions, being principled when you say no, and naming what you actually need. Unchecked territoriality slows teams and will be costlier as AI and generated code blur ownership.

Bayer Leverkusen's Fairy Tale Season

Original Football • 279 implied HN points • 10 May 24
🎾 Sports Teamwork
  1. Bayer Leverkusen had a remarkable season with 49 consecutive games undefeated, solid teamwork, and late dramatic goals.
  2. Xabi Alonso, Leverkusen's coach, played a pivotal role with his tactical brilliance, leadership, and experience.
  3. Leverkusen's success is attributed to resilient players, Alonso's positive influence, and the team's strong unity.

A Scientist’s Guide to Debugging Engineers

Leading Developers • 81 implied HN points • 23 Dec 25
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. An engineer's emotions and nervous system strongly shape their focus, productivity, and decision-making; feelings are useful signals that need attention.
  2. Small, concrete changes—like daily focus blocks, planning smaller scopes, and committing to finish what you plan—can break bad habits and rebuild confidence and reliability.
  3. Managers should listen for feelings and create psychological safety so engineers can share stress and fears; when leaders acknowledge those concerns, quality and productivity improve.

No more Theatre: How I embraced failure as an Engineering Leader

🔮 Crafting Tech Teams • 139 implied HN points • 20 May 24
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Leaders need to embrace failure and turn it into a learning opportunity without fear of judgment.
  2. Teams require leaders to set clear boundaries, values, and expectations to create a psychologically safe environment.
  3. Continuous delivery in engineering leadership involves delivering faster, reducing stress, fostering a positive environment, and supporting team growth.

People Over Process

Rethinking Software • 299 implied HN points • 01 Aug 25
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Focus on the individual members of your team, not just their roles or tasks. Remember each person's strengths and needs.
  2. Before adding processes or policies, consider what your team truly needs to succeed. Tailor your approach to support them personally.
  3. Regularly strip away distractions and revisit what matters most: the people on your team and their shared purpose.

The Captain Class

Software Design: Tidy First? • 1082 implied HN points • 01 Nov 24
🎾 Sports Teamwork
  1. Great sports teams have successful captains who share important traits. These traits include perseverance, pushing boundaries, and doing hard work for the team.
  2. Captains are key to strong teamwork because they communicate well and can handle tough conversations. They help keep the team focused and motivated.
  3. Organizations should recognize and support the behaviors that good captains display. This support helps teams improve and succeed together.

Looking for problems instead of solutions

Sunday Letters • 99 implied HN points • 27 May 24
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. It's important to focus on solutions rather than just identifying problems. Always looking for issues can slow down progress and creativity.
  2. Effective people know when to take action, even if they don't have all the details. It's okay to jump into something and learn as you go.
  3. When you have concerns, think about whether they are relevant now or just distractions. Finding solutions should be your priority to keep moving forward.

Decision-making

Lessons • 550 implied HN points • 27 Jun 23
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Different situations require different styles of decision-making.
  2. Organizations benefit from being methodical in selecting decision-making styles.
  3. Having a structured decision-making system can improve efficiency and clarity.

high drama over the krka

derailleur • 959 implied HN points • 18 Jun 23
🎾 Sports Teamwork
  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.

2024 NBA Finals Leadership Lessons

DruGroup • 79 implied HN points • 04 Jun 24
🎾 Sports Teamwork
  1. Success can lead to complacency. When teams or leaders get too comfortable after success, they often fail later on. It’s important to stay humble and keep pushing forward.
  2. Failure can be a stepping stone to success. Just because something didn't work out before doesn't mean it can't succeed later. Learning and adapting can turn past failures into future wins.
  3. Having great team players is key to winning. In basketball, no one can do it alone. It's important to recognize and appreciate the role of all team members in achieving success.

Meet more of the Clipboard Sales team

Creating Value from Nothing • 53 implied HN points • 26 Nov 25
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. The Clipboard team values real connections, giving employees a lot of freedom and support to build relationships with clients. Strong leadership is present in the field, not just behind a desk.
  2. Employees at Clipboard experience fast growth and ownership in their roles, allowing them to take on responsibilities quickly. This makes their work exciting and fulfilling, creating strong team bonds.
  3. There’s a positive company culture focused on learning and impact, where feedback is welcomed. This environment helps employees tackle bigger challenges and feel proud of the difference they make in people's lives.

The Intensity Dial: Knowing When to Escalate and When to Back Off

The Caring Techie Newsletter • 12 implied HN points • 28 Jan 26
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Treat communication like an intensity dial — shift between gentle support and direct urgency depending on the situation instead of always being soft or always being blunt.
  2. Being too soft lets problems fester and breeds passive-aggressive resentments, while being too intense too early embarrasses people and shuts down trust.
  3. Escalate deliberately in small steps: make the impact and stakes clear, give the other person a fair chance to fix things, and set deadlines or escalation paths using simple diagnostic questions to choose the right level.

Nevermore

Secretum Secretorum • 454 implied HN points • 21 Jan 25
🎾 Sports Teamwork
  1. Sports can evoke strong emotions and create alternate realities in our minds. After a tough loss, it can be helpful to imagine a better outcome.
  2. There are words or ideas that can deeply affect us, either breaking us down or helping us heal. It's important to recognize both the harsh truths and the potential for recovery.
  3. In life, teamwork and understanding are crucial. Just like in sports, everyone plays a role, and being supportive can help everyone move forward together.

Vitamin C for Engineering Teams: Building Resiliency through Compassion

The Healthy Engineering Leader • 39 implied HN points • 20 Jun 24
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Compassion helps build strong and resilient teams, especially during tough times. Just like Vitamin C boosts our health, compassion boosts team spirit.
  2. Good communication is crucial for leaders. By talking openly and listening to team members, leaders can create a safe space where everyone feels valued.
  3. Giving teams time and freedom to recharge can make a big difference. Leaders should encourage breaks or fun activities to help everyone cope with stress better.

TBM 323: Quick Tool Tips

The Beautiful Mess • 542 implied HN points • 21 Nov 24
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Make tools fit your needs by trying them out and getting feedback. This way, you can avoid forcing your team into a system that doesn't help anyone.
  2. Involve all kinds of team members in decisions about tools. If you only ask certain roles, you might miss out on important ideas and needs from others.
  3. Start simple before automating. Test simple methods first to see what works, then build on those ideas rather than jumping straight into complicated solutions.

Make Friends at Work

Perspectives • 5 implied HN points • 06 Feb 26
🎭️ Culture Teamwork
  1. Work can be a place to build deep, lasting community; coworkers often become friends and teammates who matter beyond the job.
  2. Friendships at work grow through small, regular acts: be generous, invest in coffee or quick check‑ins, and let people see you as a whole person.
  3. Tend relationships over time and be the person who convenes — stay in touch after people move on, celebrate them, and organize get‑togethers to create lasting support and opportunities.

Does Locker Drama Matter?

House of Strauss • 15 implied HN points • 08 Jan 26
🎾 Sports Teamwork
  1. Stories of locker-room drama get a lot of attention, but once they’re widely reported the betting market usually prices that information in.
  2. Early rumblings are hard to measure and often make bettors nervous, even though it’s unclear how predictive they actually are.
  3. Many people believe strong team chemistry is important for winning in tough moments, but real cases show mixed outcomes so it’s not a reliable guarantee.

The Cultural Characteristics of Fast-Paced, High-Performance Teams

Voohy Leadership Insights • 2 HN points • 15 Sep 24
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Teams work best when all members collaborate to solve problems together. It's important for everyone to see problems as shared challenges.
  2. Recognizing and valuing each team member's contributions helps build trust and improves teamwork. This makes it easier to work through complex tasks.
  3. Diverse skills within a team can lead to great ideas, but can also cause confusion. Leaders should encourage collaboration and shared problem-solving to bridge these gaps.

Putting the I in Team

In My Tribe • 364 implied HN points • 02 Dec 24
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Teamwork relies on everyone doing their part. If some people don't contribute, it can hurt the whole team's chances of success.
  2. Hiring people who are responsible and committed can help encourage teamwork. When employees feel connected to their mission or colleagues, they're less likely to slack off.
  3. Measuring how well employees cooperate can improve teamwork. Giving clear examples of what good teamwork looks like can help everyone understand how to contribute.

The Most Important Job of a Leader

Timeless & Timely • 216 implied HN points • 15 Feb 23
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Effective communication requires effort and intentionality.
  2. Clearly communicate the vision to guide the organization.
  3. Key elements for great communication include engagement, consistency, simplicity, active listening, storytelling, and aligning words with actions.

When Orgs Become Siloed

Suzan's Fieldnotes • 98 implied HN points • 09 Feb 24
💼 Business Teamwork
  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.

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

SeattleDataGuy’s Newsletter • 694 implied HN points • 14 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Teamwork
  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 Teamwork
  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.

Managing Inside Growing Companies

Lessons • 176 implied HN points • 21 Feb 23
💼 Business 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.

RDEL #25: How can engineering managers improve the OKR and goal setting process?

Research-Driven Engineering Leadership • 99 implied HN points • 15 Jan 24
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Improving the OKR process can enhance team development by focusing on effective goal setting methods.
  2. Investing in data quality and transparency and promoting communication can address challenges in working with others and ensuring alignment on goals.
  3. Striving for consistency, promoting learning communities, and guiding teams in OKR implementation can lead to successful adoption and use of OKRs across the organization.

Simple phrases to make your TDD pairing more enjoyable

🔮 Crafting Tech Teams • 79 implied HN points • 14 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Teamwork
  1. Communication during pair programming is a skill that can be learned and improved. Adapt to better communicate with your team.
  2. In Test-Driven Development (TDD), not only technical aspects matter, but also how the team interacts. Share code, responsibilities, and voice disagreements effectively.
  3. Consider subscribing to publications like Crafting Tech Teams for more insights into improving team dynamics in TDD.

Why things just work around some EMs

Leading Developers • 65 implied HN points • 05 Aug 25
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Proactive engineering managers don't wait for things to happen; they take action on their own. This means making decisions and driving changes even when it's not their direct responsibility.
  2. They ask themselves important questions about their role and the impact they have, such as whether they actively seek feedback and build relationships across the company.
  3. The best managers take ownership of their team's results and aim to improve the overall success of the company, not just focus on technical issues.

TBM 215: Shallow vs. Deep Alignment

The Beautiful Mess • 991 implied HN points • 20 Apr 23
💼 Business Teamwork
  1. Alignment is about cultivating a collective sense of purpose and direction
  2. Deep alignment involves embracing multiple, sometimes conflicting, values and truths
  3. Participating in the continuous journey of alignment takes work, vulnerability, and safety