Thursday, January 7, 2016

Looking ahead to 2016 ...

Today was my first day back at work, and on the long walk to work, I'm typically reflective on what I'd really like to see out of this year.

I was reminded this morning of something the late Leonard Nimoy said about explaining the popularity of Star Trek, "I think people enjoy watching this group of characters solve problems together".


It applies to both Star Trek and The Next Generation - but it also on the flip side to Bob Marshall's comments this morning (which really annoyed me in case you hadn't guessed), it is also a sign of a good team.  You are within a group of people who you enjoy solving problems with.

Last year I worked with a really good agile team - although to start with like many teams we had our dramas before we got sorted.  Just as we felt we were running well, we ran out of work for the project.  It was frustrating, but once we got there, and built up that trust, it was the kind of group you wanted to remain with.

It's the kind of environment we'd all like to find ourselves in, and indeed as Leonard Nimoy stated, a good reason why people are drawn to the positivity within Star Trek.  Although there were a few egos in play behind the scenes, on screen everyone works together well.


For example, you'd never find Kirk sitting in Sulu's seat going, "piloting this starship is easy Sulu - you just flip a few switches ... anyone could do it".


Likewise - although Chekov could operate the science station, it was acknowledged that Spock was better at it, and Chekov was a better navigator.


But no-one could really stand in for Uhura.



What's interesting is that during the series there was very little politics or in-fighting between these guys (unless possessed by an alien parasite).  This is a team which had well and truly in the performing end of the forming-storming-norming-performing spectrum.

And of course when they retold the story in Star Trek, they took the whole team as newbies, and put them through trials to form, storm, norm then finally perform.  The key to performing is having respect, and typically in such movies, it's a journey to earning that respect.

Here then it to performing in 2016 ...

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