Sublime

But if we can swallow our pride for just an instant and view the problem as though it were ours alone, we might actually get something done about "pollution."

Part IV: Beyond the Basics.

One of the most dangerous transitions that a company makes is going from fewer than ten team members to more than twenty in a short time. During this time, communication and productivity usually break down. The system of group organization that existed when the company was all sitting in the same room together suddenly no longer works when team mem

This marvelous Theorem, grasped in a once-in-a-lifetime flash of intuition by Tom Rohe of Bremerton, Washington[xli], will serve as our introduction to the grim topic of Systems-exploitation: DESIGNERS OF SYSTEMS TEND TO DESIGN WAYS FOR THEMSELVES TO BYPASS THE SYSTEM We pause only briefly to validate it with a well-known example from Government: E

"There's two kinds of people in the world, those that do work and those that make work for others to do. Keep away from the make-workers and you'll do all right."

Conflict arises when our espoused values do not match up with actual practice. This is where modeling the behavior we hope to see in everyone is most important. There are no formulas, instructions, or rituals that will work for everyone. Each of us needs to take time daily, maybe even several times a day, to reflect on our own actions and decide if

All roads lead to design.

There are several good books that contain sections on communications within teams, including The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering [Bro96] and Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams [DL13]. Make it a point to try to read these over the next 18 months. In addition, Dinosaur Brains: Dealing with All Those Impossible People at Work

IF PEOPLE REALLY HAVE THEIR LIGHTS ON, A LITTLE REMINDER MAY BE MORE EFFECTIVE THAN YOUR COMPLICATED SOLUTION.