Team-Dynamics

Software engineers love design patterns. Factory, Observer, Strategy-we have names for recurring solutions to recurring problems. Management has patterns too. Not organizational structures or methodologies, but specific, repeatable practices that work across different contexts. Here are patterns I’ve seen work in startups, scale-ups, and enterprises. Pattern 1: The Written Decision Record Intent: Make decisions visible, reversible, and learnable. Context: Teams waste time relitigating old decisions, or worse, making decisions without knowing why previous choices were made. ...

In the early 1990s, British anthropologist Robin Dunbar made a curious observation while studying primates. He found a correlation between the size of a primate’s neocortex (the brain region handling social relationships) and the size of its social group. Chimps, with smaller neocortices, lived in groups of ~50. Gorillas: ~30. Humans, with the largest neocortices, should be able to maintain stable social relationships with about… 150 people. That’s it. Not 500. Not 1,000. 150. ...

We were going to launch the feature on Tuesday. Everyone on the team knew it wasn’t ready. The code was buggy. The UX was confusing. We hadn’t tested the edge cases. One of our engineers literally said in standup, “I’m not sure this is going to work well,” but immediately followed it with, “but I guess everyone else thinks it’s fine.” The PM wanted to hit the deadline. The CEO was excited about the demo. The team had momentum. So we all nodded along. ...