Jon ReidAug 9, 2023

"Zoom orders workers back to the office" is funny, but there's nothing unique about Zoom doing it.

All these companies show that they don't understand how effective work is actually done, and how to organize around that. Instead, they're relying on the implicit benefits of the past where work _happened_ to be done in person (but they don't know how).

Show threadJon ReidAug 9, 2023

As I coach software teams (and do so remotely), it's pretty clear that the root problem is that folks never knew how to work together in the first place.

And I do mean "work together," not folks siloed in their little caves where you have no idea what they're up to.

Working together is a skill, it doesn't come for free. It can be learned. It can be taught.

Show threadJon ReidAug 10, 2023
An old coworker of mine replied, "Organic, spontaneous cross-organization collaboration is much harder to do when everyone is remote." Hmm. Let's dig into that a bit.
Show threadJon ReidAug 10, 2023
There are certainly benefits to being in person. But "collaboration is much harder to do when everyone is remote" isn't because people are remote. It's because people work in systems that are designed to inhibit real-time spontaneous collaboration. Examples include passing JIRA tickets around, Pull Requests, individual assignments, reviews based on individual performance, planning meetings, high Work In Progress instead of limiting WIP… The list goes on and on.
Show threadJaycieAug 11, 2023
@qcoding Preach it! Give xi an English major who can write effective documentation over a CS major who can't explain their own code any day.
Show threadJon Reid
@jaycie One of the best devs I ever worked with used to be an English teacher. She would always ask the BEST questions.
Aug 11, 2023 at 3:38amWeb
Show threadJaycieAug 11, 2023
@qcoding Exactly! Drama major xirselves (3D animation) but made a career out of self-taught programming skills.