These are some cultural behaviours & artefacts that I have learnt to value over the past decade working in the Software development industry.

I use them as feelers to measure how dysfunctional(or efficient) a particular Team or team leader is and what could possibly be done about it ?

I also use them to keep myself and my organisation honest !

How would you answer these questions from your experience in your current team &/ organisation ?

• what do you hear more ? “I have never tested this before, this is not my area of code” vs “Lets give it a go…I will go & find out”
• do you get together often to celebrate success ?
• do you get together often to self reflect on failure ?
• is the “box” questioned ?
• does everyone in the team knows “WHY we are doing this project ?”
• do you reward knowledge sharing ?
• do people feel loved back ?
• do people pair ?
• do people crowd around critical problems?
• do people often palm off problems to “experts” ?
• do people take responsibility only when it is mandated?
• can people say no ?
• do people say no ?
• are they heard ?
• do peers recognise peers publicly ?
• how are bug escapes reacted to ?
• is accountability executed or individuals ?
• what were we doing last year ? what are we doing this year ? do I know what will I be doing next year ? do you ask this often ? do the Team ask this often ?
• do people pursue problems ?
• do you slow down to be able to speed up later ?
• do you run capability projects ?
• are people efficient at eating mammoths ?
• do you get more opportunities to fail ? (after a failure)
• do general facilities get better with hierarchy?
• do you have a training budget ?
• do you have an entertainment budget ?
• are jerks allowed ?

P.S. This post is inspired from Lou Gerstner’s (the legendary IBM CEO) quote….

“I came to see in my time at IBM that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game – it is the game. In the end an organisation is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.”