Wayne Haber

Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal. It’s not something you are. It’s something you do. My notes and takeaways from The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups Behaviors that demonstrate team cohesiveness are: Eye contact Short energetic exchanges (AKA no long speeches) Members talk with each other and not just the team leader Few interruptions Lots of questions Active listening Humor and laughter Attentive courtesies such as saying thank you Balanced talk time between participants Members break, explore, and then bring back information to the team Group performance depends on behavior that communicates one powerful overarching idea: We are safe and connected. They succeeded because they understood that being vulnerable together is the only way a team can become invulnerable . Three questions to ask your direct reports: What is one thing I currently do that you’d like me to continue doing? What is one thing I don’t currently do frequen...

When a major customer issue is escalated to the development team, it is natural for the team to go into high anxiety mode, over-responding to the wrong things and under-responding to the right things. Below are my key recommendations based on my experiences (based on my update to the GitLab Handbook on this subject): Talk to your development leaders and product management counterparts before making commitments to customers in real-time.   The impact of what the customer is requesting may have an impact on other commitments that you may or may not be aware of. Don't assume your customers understand your internal processes for making changes.   They want to know when it will be available for them to use. Don't assume that customers will communicate in ways that are compatible with your team's norms.  They may engage in written communication (Email, instant messenger, support tickets, etc.) differently than you do regarding the level of detail and timeliness of re...