Brugge Blog

Software development is a team sport. Places can try to hide that fact with cubicles and individual assignments, but the fact remains that putting a system together takes a diverse group of people to pull it off: managers, developers, users, testers, writers, the list of roles goes on. But how often is thought put into how to create and maintain the effectiveness of a team? Most organizations don’t seem to be too far past the idea of team members as replaceable resources. The most common strategy is “hire the best people and put them together.”

Bob Sutton, though, describes how that is not quite right in Fight The War For Talent Right. He points to studies that show that a team that is working well together should be kept together. This is the kind of obvious conclusion that is no surprise at all to those who have been on teams, but it is quantitative results that might resonate with those who have to make more detached management decisions.

…while HR practices turn attention to individual stars, study after study shows when people have experience working together – and have learned who knows what, how to read those little signals that people send off, and can communicate ideas quickly and efficiently – their teams and organizations perform better.

I’ve had the chance to work on a few teams like that, where the cohesiveness that started on one project carries over when that same team starts on another project. You don’t need to learn who is the go-to person for database questions, or who can help figure out a weird server issue. The most elusive and valuable quality of a team is its ability to gel, to be more than just a collection of people doing their own pieces of the puzzle. When you have a team that has gelled, you want to maintain that. As Bob Sutton puts it, the team, then, should be the unit of hiring when possible.

If you are going to hire some “talent,” don’t focus on just landing that lone star – focus on hiring as much of his or her team, or network, as possible. You win the war for talent by bringing aboard talented sets of people, not talented solo acts.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that this advice is just as valid for recruiting or retaining people inside your company - keep success together and you’ll go farther, faster.