SWLW #460: The Builder’s High, Tools for getting groups to work well together, and more.

Heya,

As always, below you can read my best findings for the week -
 

This Week's Favorite

​​The Builder’s High
4 minutes read.

Every time I build something, may it be an internal project at work (e.g. https://dojo.engineering) or some side project (e.g. https://managerreadme.com) I have a huge smile on my face. Whatever you enjoy building, writing, teaching, making. Do it. Create value. Thank you, Michael Lopp, for the inspiration. I'll be working on a few mockups this weekend.

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Culture

“I’m Sorry, but We Had to Cut Down the Scope to Make the Deadline.”
1 minute read.

My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face, even in this difficult time.

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What I've Learned From the 16 Engineers Who Turned Down Job Offers at Our Startup
5 minutes read.

Building a pipeline and knowing how "close" candidates is a critical skill to develop. Maybe today more than ever, with the market in such a big demand for talent. Julia Enthoven shares her experience and insights. Analyze your numbers. Is there something you'd consider doing differently now? What works well for you? Can you take even a step further and exploit it to create a bigger impact?

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The Effects of Remote Work on Collaboration Among Information Workers
15 minutes read.

Microsoft conducted a research during the pandemic to understand the impact of remote work: "Our results show that firm-wide remote work caused the collaboration network of workers to become more static and siloed, with fewer bridges between disparate parts. Furthermore, there was a decrease in synchronous communication and an increase in asynchronous communication. Together, these effects may make it harder for employees to acquire and share new information across the network." -- The results are not surprising. I shared it with a few friends, and all of them felt the same. To make "remote work" become the new default, there is a lot of work to be done on the tools we use and the norms we have when it comes to collaboration.

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Coordination Models - Tools for Getting Groups to Work Well Together
7 minutes read.

I took some time to explore Jade Rubick's posts about the Coordination models he presented in this post. It made me read about some of the patterns Jade experienced, learn a better framing he suggested, and think about what I've seen working. Explore.

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Peopleware

How to Influence Without Authority
7 minutes read.

I love the framing of "Introducing Atlassian’s three influence plays." This was written from a perspective of a Product Manager, but it can help everyone increase their impact while building trust with others. Share the post with your teammates and discuss your takeaways.

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Learning Is a Skill. Here's a Tactical Approach to Learning Anything (Thread)
5 minutes read.

An amazing high-value "learning on to learn" thread by Sahil Bloom (follow him on Twitter). Is there an area you can explore Sahil's method in the next 30 days?

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Conventional: Comments - Comments That Are Easy to Grok and Grep
5 minutes read.

I don't think we should optimize comments for machines. Comments are for humans to create trust, via empathy and concrete guidance, and help the team grow together. The structure allows looking at the big picture (e.g. parsing it and pushing to something like ELK): trends and insights. It also helps to carefully and explicitly draw a line of where you want to provide a recommendation versus making an ask.

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And finally, inspiring tweets...

@chrishlad: On Arguments: “What proof would it take to change your mind?”. If they can’t give you an answer, then stop wasting your time.

@rakyll: I don’t fixate on technological choices, I focus on the capabilities we want to build.



p.s. if you're interested in joining SWLW's Slack channel, simply reply to this email and let me know.

If you're leading a team, consider writing your Manager README (it's free) or getting my e-book and interviews Leading Snowflakes: The New Engineering Manager's Handbook. You can also support me and my work by becoming a SWLW Patron. Thank you ❤️




Keep reading, keep learning.
-- Oren Ellenbogen.