Of course the past experience of our team members is invaluable. But we need to be actively researching what effective teams are doing nowadays.

Yet often we focus on the importance of those great ideas and seem to forget about the work that is required to spread them around. Although we aren’t going to tell you to swear off smarts altogether, we are here to suggest that maybe it’s time to reconsider the role that social people play in cultural growth and the diffusion of innovation.

But just know, their work and sacrifice is the thing that got you six. And maybe immediately go over to dap them up.

“That sucks” is negativity. “That sucks, here’s why, and here’s how to fix it” is criticism, ​ Someone with an informed, critical opinion is, in my experience, far less likely to be negative than someone not as informed. If anything, critical thinking adds dimension to an appreciation of the world around you.

Here’s the thing: the hero is the most damaging person on a team, particularly on a team that’s supposed to be writing high-availability or otherwise mission-critical software. ​ The hero is a human patch. ​ When a team can rely on a hero, they don’t need to grow and learn collectively. They don’t need to get better. They can coast along, which serves no one in the end. ​ You’re clearly managing someone highly motivated, but you need to shape that motivation into something more constructive.

Of the early Stripe lore I’ve encountered, my favorite is that it managed to accomplish a tremendous amount with a small team because folks moved so rapidly from one project to another project that, leaving an afterimage behind them, it appeared that they were everywhere simultaneously.

Many years ago, my coach Jerry Colonna from Reboot taught me the idea of a “red / yellow / green” check-in. In a nutshell, it’s a practice where meeting participants kick off a me…

An important thing I learned upon leaving Slack: there were pockets of deep appreciation for me, everywhere.