I continue to be unimpressed by articles on teams, team building in Hackernews. This article is another one. It seems more like sales and marketing article, and as a sales and marketing writeup, it is a very thin veneer with foggy bits of truth that doesn't move the bar at all.<p>If you want to quit messing around with fog and "hit it" right, directly, and fundamentally, then buy two books:<p>- Human Element: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Human-Element-Productivity-Self-Esteem-Management/dp/1555426123/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=human+element+books+schutz&qid=1607535030&sr=8-1" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Human-Element-Productivity-Self-Estee...</a><p>- Total Quality Management the Japanese Way:
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/What-Total-Quality-Control-Management/dp/013952441X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=total+quality+management+the+japanese+way&qid=1607535069&sr=8-1" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/What-Total-Quality-Control-Management...</a><p>That's what? Not even $10 total for used copies. Can't beat that! Here's why these are good books:<p>The Human Element book cuts through all the crap on teams, on why they work, why they don't. The central thesis: Teams are broken by individuals. Individuals are broken when they engage in defensive, fixed, unchanging behavior. And that modality happens when the context in which the individual works hits their self esteem negatively. If the individual lacks self-awareness their coping behaviors and ability to learn, change is significantly reduced. Then what behavior you'll see will make things worse. This ought to strike you as real: a manager's worse assignee is a person with whom they've had "the talk" but things don't change. Human Element is also extremely operational in nature: it provides a toolset to do, to engage, to measure, to check, and to move on beyond stuck. Once you get this, you'll be far better able to place the OP's piece in context to greater effect.<p>On the Ishikawa book (TQM the Japanese way) don't get too focused on "Japan", although during the 80s/90s Japan was kicking butt. In Japan the highest award for organizational and quality excellence is the Deming Award. Deming was an American who was well received in Japan. So what's at work here really are universal truths for all human organizations. It deals with teams in the larger context of human organizations. In software company culture is all the more important. TQM's focus is what quality means. Quality like "international relations" or "global economy" immediately comes with notions on what it means. But when you drill in to it, the certainty turns into its own kind of fog. This book helps you press your understanding to getting down to fundamentals that companies will never outgrow.<p>Both books are short reads. And very information packed. The TQM book was extremely well translated from Japanese; I applaud the translator. Ishikawa would be considered an industry leader, and an excellent example of a manager with Drucker know-how but real, on the job experience in manufacturing.