Quotes About Teamwork

One doctor makes work for another.

The darker the film, the more vital everyone's sense of humor is on set.

Written documents should complement the code and the talking.

They forgot about all of their differences and all of their frustrations, because the ones who had won the game represented all of the people of Philly.

herding cats and shoveling smoke.

Ronald Reagan had a plaque on his desk that said "There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he does not mind who gets the credit.

There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he does not mind who gets the credit.

Second-baseman Eddie Stanky spoke for the whole team when he shouted at the opposing dugout: "Listen, you yellow-bellied cowards, why don't you yell at somebody who can answer back?

When blame inevitably arises, the most senior people in the room should repeat this mantra: if a mistake happens, shame on us for making it so easy to make that mistake.

HYPERGROWTH FOR A COMPANY ALSO REQUIRES HYPERGROWTH OF THE PEOPLE INSIDE IT.

I recommend several tactics for escaping the Five Blames. The first is to make sure that everyone affected by the problem is in the room during the analysis of the root cause.

In my experience, whoever is left out of the discussion ends up being the target for blame. This is just as damaging whether the scapegoat is a junior employee or the CEO. When it's a junior employee, it's all too easy to believe that that person is replaceable. If the CEO is not present, it's all too easy to assume that his or her behavior is unchangeable. Neither presumption is usually correct.

Compared to a lot of startups, the Grockit team had a huge advantage: they were tremendously disciplined. A disciplined team may apply the wrong methodology but can shift gears quickly once it discovers its error. Most important, a disciplined team can experiment with its own working style and draw meaningful conclusions.

Process is only the foundation upon which a great company culture can develop.

On the surface, Five Whys seems to be about technical problems and preventing mistakes, but as teams drive out these superficial wastes, they develop a new understanding of how to work together. Tony put it this way: "I daresay that I discovered that the Five Whys transcends root cause analysis by revealing information that brings your team closer through a common understanding and perspective. A lot of times a problem can pull people apart; Five Whys does the opposite.

Did they hire superstar entrepreneurs from outside the company? No, they assembled a team from within Intuit. Did they face constant meddling from senior management, which is the bane of innovation teams in many companies? No, their executive sponsors created an "island of freedom" where they could experiment as necessary. Did they have a huge team, a large budget, and lots of marketing dollars? Nope, they started with a team of five.

Enable and empower teams to make fast and courageous decisions.

The way out of this dilemma is to manage the four kinds of work differently, allowing strong cross-functional teams to develop around each area. When products move from phase to phase, they are handed off between teams. Employees can choose to move with the product as part of the handoff or stay behind and begin work on something new. Neither choice is necessarily right or wrong; it depends on the temperament and skills of the person in question.

As is typically the case in large-batch development, both groups had been willing to sacrifice the team's ability to learn in order to work more "efficiently.

Another vital factor was the development of a leadership style and set of cooperative customs that could allow developers to attract co-developers and get maximum leverage out of the medium.

informal user group. High-performance windsurfing involves acrobatics such as jumps and

Later, I collaborated with a number of wonderful co-authors, all of whom are friends as well: Stan Finkelstein

Unfortunately the few employees who are consistently poor at keeping agreements often have the ability to convince you that it's somehow your fault they're not succeeding.

Effective delegation is the single most powerful way for you to build trust in your employees' abilities.