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Culture & Methods

Culture & Methods Trends Report March 2021

The most significant impact on culture and methods in 2021 is the disruption caused by COVID-19. We look at what's needed for good remote and the impact of bad remote, how management practices are evolving, and the importance of people skills for technologists. Paying attention to ethical issues, diversity and inclusion, tech for good, employee experience and psychological safety are important.

Shane Hastie Ben Linders Shaaron A Alvares Douglas Talbot Craig Smith Rafiq Gemmail
on Mar 05, 2021
Culture & Methods

Sociotechnical Implications of Using Machines as Teammates

AI has become more than just a tool; it is now meriting consideration as an additional teammate. While this increases a project’s efficiency and technical rigor, AI teammates bring a fresh set of challenges around social integration, team dynamics, trust, and control. This article provides an overview of sociotechnical frameworks and strategies to address concerns with using machines as teammates.

Caitlyn Caggia
on Mar 03, 2021
Culture & Methods

Who is on the Team?

Ahmad Fahmy and Cesario Ramos take the changes to the new Scrum Guide as an opportunity to explore what it means to be "on a team." They draw on research to create an ACID test to differentiate who is on the team and who isn't. They discuss different mental models around the idea of a team with the hopes that you take this opportunity to discuss and elevate the roles within your organization.

Cesario Ramos Ahmad Fahmy
on Feb 12, 2021
Culture & Methods

Improving Organizational Agility with Self-Management

This article presents "self-management" as a possibility to natively support agility to plant seeds and let both institutions and people thrive and benefit from it. Agility may go hand-in-hand with self-management as a way to shift mindsets and open a conversation to really find new ways of working in organizations.

Massimo Lavelli Pietro Antolini
on Feb 10, 2021
Culture & Methods

Adaptive Frontline Incident Response: Human-Centered Incident Management

The third article in a series on how software companies adapted and continue to adapt to enhance their resilience zeros in on the sources that comprise most of your company’s adaptive resources: your frontline responders. In this article, we draw on our experiences as incident commanders with Twilio to share our reflections on what it means to cultivate resilient people.

Emily Ruppe Ryan McDonald
on Feb 05, 2021
Culture & Methods

Breaking the Taboo – What I Learned from Talking about Mental Health in the Workplace

Mental illness is a topic that does not get discussed openly very often. Many people concerned hide their own history for fear of being stigmatized, especially in the workplace. This is a story about how speaking openly about mental illness, even with your boss and co-workers, can help yourself and others. The author shares with you what she has learned from breaking the taboo.

Sophie Küster
on Jan 28, 2021
Culture & Methods

Learning from Incidents

Jessica DeVita (Netflix) and Nick Stenning (Microsoft) have been working on improving how software teams learn from incidents in production. In this article, they share some of what they’ve learned from the research community in this area, and offer some advice on the practical application of this work.

Jessica DeVita Nick Stenning
on Jan 27, 2021
Culture & Methods

Meeting the Challenges of Disrupted Operations: Sustained Adaptability for Organizational Resilience

The first article in a series on how software companies adapted and continue to adapt to enhance their resilience starts by laying a foundation for thinking about organizational resilience. It looks at what organizations can do structurally during surprising and disruptive events to establish conditions that help engineering teams adapt in practice and in real time as disruptive events occur.

Laura Maguire
on Dec 31, 2020
Culture & Methods

Moving from Agile Teams towards an Agile Organization

For organizational agility, we need to improve the system for teams and individuals to thrive, instead of expecting them to change and fix the culture. This article explores some elements from a systemic point of view that are essential to create the right conditions for moving from agile teams towards an agile organization.

Fernando Guigou
on Dec 14, 2020
Culture & Methods

Dealing with Remote Team Challenges

Remote working provides challenges such as providing equitable access, ensuring adequate resources and tooling, addressing social isolation and issues of trust. Remote-first and truly asynchronous teams tend to consistently perform better. In the future, organisations will continue to have remote on their agenda. Fully realising the benefits of remote teams requires trust building and intent.

Ben Linders Jeremy Lu
on Dec 09, 2020
Culture & Methods

Q&A on the Book The Power of Virtual Distance

The book The Power of Virtual Distance, 2nd edition, by Karen Sobel Lojeski and Richard Reilly, describes the Virtual Distance Model and provides data and insights from research that can be used to lower Virtual Distance when working remotely together. By doing so, organizations can see quantifiable improvements in both business goals and human well-being among employees.

Ben Linders Karen Sobel Lojeski Richard Reilly
on Dec 02, 2020
Culture & Methods

Q&A on the Book Virtual Teams Across Cultures

The book Virtual Teams Across Cultures, by Theresa Sigillito Hollema, examines what makes multicultural virtual teams tick – why they’re different and how to unlock their potential. This book is a comprehensive guide for reflective leaders who want to bring out the best in distributed, culturally diverse teams.

Ben Linders Theresa Sigillito Hollema
on Nov 18, 2020