Sunday, October 14, 2018

BasketBall is LIFE - A single player cannot win championships: neither your company


This year 2018 there was a great FIFA World Cup, France end up with an amazing team.  In the other end we saw Argentina not quite making it even with Messi or Ronaldo having games that It was nice to see the individual performance, but still didn't cut it! It didn't make Portugal champion.

LeBron James looses 4-0 NBA finals? 
How so? The other players are fantastic, he might currently be the best basketball player in the world. 


Why? 

The world is yelling us all aloud:

You need a Tribe! A Culture!


Why schools still focus on academic individual performance?

You can try to do things yourself every once in a while, not too often.
When you do it, make yourself accountable of not moving the energy around, It's the team that creates the impossible product, the enjoyment of wanting to be part of that tribe, part of that journey.

Working with rockstars or being one is a great opportunity to explain this metaphor.  A team needs to scale beyond a single skillful individual.  Magic will never come from a single contributor, no matter what position or payment is involved.

Miracles happen when every team mate tries to make others better than its own self.

Thursday, October 4, 2018

BasketBall is LIFE - Move the ball


The more teammates touch the ball the more impactful energy is around the court, the defense get tired and confused, our team is engaged and there is a good karma in the field.
Each pass means:

  • I trust you
  • I need your help
  • Your skills makes me look for you
  • I care for the team, not just this shot

For the other team is the complete opposite, their physical and mental energy comes down, It's a very challenging battle.

The same thing happens in companies, either super stars take a direction and move forward or teams engage to experiment and count in each other.  It might be the right/wrong direction team or single person push, still the behavior and championships rely on the execution of the team.

A great example on the software development field is code reviews.  They might sounds like you don't trust a single individual, but It's the complete opposite.   The team cares about what you do, let us be part of it.   Every time you comment you pass the ball and the team outcomes become richer, the ball moves, you pass it because

  • you may fail the shot?
  • because you don't want to take risk?
  • you don't care?

No !!!

You pass it to have fun, do nice plays, make it easy, get the other team tired and win championships not only one play.   Same thing with code reviews: share knowledge, pass the energy of your code, explain, receive feedback and enjoy the journey as a team!

Focus in the team energy, because that's what creates miracles in the court and kickass software!