DEV Community

Discussion on: Smells like Team spirit

Collapse
 
cotcotcoder profile image
JeffD

When I read the word "team" I think first about sport and firefighters (and restaurant cooks). The best advice we can get comes from theses domains (safety, military, ...) I'm sorry but I don't have any english book reference.

Let's assume your team should make a video game.

Correctly maintain the team:

  • A common goal: everyone SHOULD have the same goal: "develop the game", they must believe in this game and love this game. To success you should make sure the game bring every thing the team want (nice technology, fun, ...). So print some sticker and developp the pride to be on this team.
  • "A team, not people": when a problem happens it should be the problem of everyone, not only the guy who writted code. This could be developped using code review and pair programming.
  • A challenge: every release should be seen as a challenge, turning work into game is a good way to reduce stress.
  • Resolve problems early: listen the team and detect when people start clashing. Let them go for a walk and then listen each of them and try to prove "one needs the other".
  • Award: for every big step (like a release of your game) you have to celebrate it, buy a cake, bring beer or do something else but celebrate.

Establish a good mood:

  • Trust: don't hide something with your team, be transparent, avoid private mail and slack messages.
  • For every scrum sprint (for example) take time to say "Nice work my team you're the best" and say for each person what you appreciated during the period.
  • Get some time out of the work: a basketball match, pool or just restaurant, take some time to speak about something else, make some joke, have good time.
  • (Penalty): have a fun way to punish you team, the most common is a moneybox where you drop 1$ for every mistake. This money could buy some food/drinks.

Motivate an iOS developper to build Android App:

  • No idea sorry :$
Collapse
 
k1pash profile image
Christopher Toman • Edited

Wow, lovely read. Thank you very much for your reply, it was more then helpful.

Poor Paul tho, he's stuck with Android apps for good.

I guess Paul is just low self-esteem, so by talking to him, it would sort of work. I had many times my temperament hidden until someone openly spoke about the technology or the issue.