Binder

How teams run

The mechanics of getting software orgs to function. Cadence, writing, attention, and the anti-patterns that wreck teams.

Teams don’t run on time, they run on attention - what your calendar is full of is what gets done. Cadence determines the operating tempo: daily is executive, weekly is supervisory, monthly is once-removed. The job is to make work visible through artifacts that can be reviewed and argued with, and to write more than you talk - meetings cement misunderstandings, writing forces clarity.

The anti-patterns are reliable. Agile became a program and the philosophy got buried under ceremony, while engineering used the process to consolidate power. Captive IT shops optimize for internal stakeholders and lose the discipline of an actual market. And snowflakes - one-of-a-kind custom implementations - are sclerosis disguised as flexibility.