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Guillaume MOREL
Guillaume MOREL

Posted on • Originally published at gmorel.io

Cooking safety nests

Something still occurs too often:
Developers trying to conceal their mistakes πŸ’£.

Most of the time it creates no particular issue. But sometimes it can lead to incident and even service outage.

This is a fact: developers often make mistakes. This is normal since nowadays technologies are highly complex.

In order to promote Teamplay we should embrace developer’s mistakes.

Because it is clearly unavoidable and this is the best way to learn.

Our responsibility however is to reduce any negative outcome. And to detect them ASAP when they are costless.

Nearly all mistakes will be noticed one way or another.
When they are noticed:

πŸŽ‰ Ask for a homemade cookie !

Homemade πŸͺ are a humorous way to de-escalate the way mistakes are perceived. Since developers no more fear being caught doing a mistake. It leads them to be way more transparent. Therefore it produces trust.

As soon as developers embrace mistakes. And as long as you provide them the tools/methodologies to reduce any negative outcome. You will create a safety nest. When your team members no more feel in danger, this reduces their cognitive load.

Another positive outcome is that developers will then openly share their mistakes. Allowing to transfer experience to other teammates. Hence mistakes won’t be done twice.

The last positive outcome is that now your developers will dare to take more initiatives. They will be less stunned by fear.

πŸͺ will ultimately increase your team productivity.


Working remotely ? Ask them to share the picture of their work. Or find a cheap alternative.
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