Tell and suggest culture are different ways in which people communicate their thoughts and ideas, but when left unchecked, these differences can cause the suggesters on your team to feel steamrolled — especially when combined with other workplace power dynamics.
Read MoreIf your new workplace is just a mismatch, but there’s nothing truly wrong with it — such as being a big organization when you prefer small ones, or using Ruby when you prefer PHP, or doing Agile when you hate meetings — then it’s probably not worth trying to change things. And if you find yourself in a place that’s cartoon-villain-level bad, where the product is a puppy-kicking machine and managers drink fresh unicorn tears during meetings, then you should probably just run for the nearest exit. But what if you find yourself at a place that’s a bit dysfunctional, but you think it has the potential for improvement?
Read MoreA key aspect of resilience engineering is being able to adapt to unforeseen circumstances. For a culture or organization to be resilient, it needs to be able to change as well. The attitude of “we’ve always done it this way” is harmful whether it is applied to technology or culture.
Read MoreWe need to start referring to these types of skills as "core" skills rather than "soft" skills, because they are the core of successful, mature engineering. We need to stop viewing them as nice to have and start seeing them as mandatory, and we need to stop hiring and promoting people who don't have them. Tolerating antisocial, biased, or abusive behavior from people just because they can write good code does this industry and everyone in it a disservice.
Read MoreIt can be a challenge if you're starting with or coming from a "blame and train" or "blame and shame" culture to a "blameless" or "blame-aware" one, but the focus on desired outcome and how people can work together to help resolve a situation in the moment as well as make the systems involved better equipped to handle situations in the future, can do wonders for system and organizational resilience.
Read MoreI wanted to make sure I was being mindful and deliberate about how I interact with the people around me. Am I choosing to act in ways that I know will be beneficial to my coworkers? It takes time to develop trust and empathy in a new group, but there are a couple questions you can ask yourself to help understand how to better work and interact with the new people around you.
Read MoreGiving and receiving feedback can both be quite tricky - these are the squishy, interpersonal, feelings sorts of things that we're not necessarily the best at. But these interpersonal skills are part of what differentiate mature or senior engineers, so it's important that we practice them whenever we can.
Read MoreIn meetings, conversations, and conferences, time and attention are finite resources. I would love for people who have had so many opportunities to speak already given to them to think about what they are taking away from our collective conversations by continuing to dominate them, and to maybe take a step back and suggest someone else for that opportunity to speak instead.
Read MoreThink about the meetings that you’re in, the tables that you sit at, and I want you to count how many of the people sitting at those tables are people like you. And then ask yourself what you can do to make the tables you sit at more inclusive of and welcoming to people who aren’t like you.
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