Drawing Motivation for Software Development Teams from Unlikely Places
Metaphors are a good way to help people understand a complex situation. But if people don't understand or are alienated by a metaphor, it won't work. Sports metaphors often are used to motivate a team, and while some people might not be well versed in sports lingo, software development and many sports both involve teams, so there may be something to the right metaphor.
I started thinking about this when I was following the 2015-16 New England Patriots season. The team lost the AFC Championship Game, but throughout the season they seemed to be doing remarkably well in spite of losing some key players to injury. This adaptability is also a hallmark of cross-functional teams with T-shaped skills, so I wondered if there might be lessons here. In an interview in the Harvard Gazette, Harvard Business School professor Carl Kester discusses how we can benefit from emulating some of Patriots coach Bill Belichick’s management principles.
Kester explains that Belichick brings a clear vision to each game and communicates it well. Without a clear vision, a team can't make good decisions when challenges arise. This isn't just true for sports; in Turn the Ship Around, David Marquet discusses the importance of a well-communicated common vision in being able to work effectively on a submarine.
Kester also talks about the important of "actionable preparation," which is "a lot of analysis, so you really understand your opponent well and your own strengths and weaknesses well, and then lots of rehearsal." This sort of preparation helps the team react quickly and appropriately to expected situations, as well as make the right judgment when the unexpected comes up. Marquet makes a similar point, giving examples where his sailors followed their training yet did things inappropriate for the situation at hand, which he remedied with drills.
The last quality of Bill Belichick that Kester calls out is the ability to manage risks and make changes at an appropriate time. While he makes mistakes, "he tends to avoid making the really, really big mistakes that will cost you the game or might even cost you the season."
Risk management, shared vision, and preparation enable another important aspect of a successful team: delegation. Kester explains, "Delegation only works consistently well if you’ve got great people around you." Kester described Belichick as "someone who really does understand that when you have the talent there, empower them, support them where you can, nudge them if they need it, but otherwise let them go." This sounds like a good idea for any kind of team.
Football or a submarine command don't seem like natural places to draw inspiration about how to manage a software development process. But drawing inspiration from any environment where a team of people needs to work together under pressure to deliver something can't be a bad thing.
In what non-software situations have you found inspiration? Have you heard stories from other domains that seemed inspirational at the time but later felt irrelevant? What makes a good metaphorical story?
