Inspire Teamwork
I don't know what her name is, but she's got good stuff to say. I read her post this morning about self importance and thoroughly enjoyed it. So much, in fact, that I sent it to a co-worker.
Next time, I won't belittle my collegue behind his back because he didn't use a stringbuffer instead of a string when he was concatenating, I will just send an email to the whole team, copying the section from "effective programming", articulating innocently but clearly how the strings work compared to stringbuffers, believe me, I know, i will feel whole a lot better. And when someone comes up to me with an idea, I will listen like my life depends on it, I will show my fear of not getting it, ask a stupid question or two and I will applaud them for their courage in sharing their ideas despite the fear of being ridiculed, I will work with them through their idea/hypothesis, no matter how much i might think it is stupid or impossible to achieve. We will arrive to that point together, but in the process, each one of us will connect, in a way where mutual trust is established, where we feel safe and be as stupid or as brilliant as we can be. And I guarantee you that we will be brilliant, because I have never seen an environment more fun to work or productive than that of a team of peers who understand, trust, respect, and and are humbled by one another.
I actually took her message to heart this afternoon and involved my co-workers with my ConvertUtils problems I was having. Simply discussing it with them helped me solve my problem. Communicate. Openly. It will make your job more fun - it did mine. We are already collaborating more from a little inspiration.
Posted by Lance on January 16, 2003 at 08:26 PM MST #