Lately I’ve read a few articles about things like ‘founder-mode’, about how to think and act like a founder, that I would describe as ‘getting things done mode’, not being hampered by corporate structures. Today I read an older article about how to abstract a company away from the software developers so that they can free up their minds for software.

I’ve read articles that say the opposite too, that developers need to learn the business. I’ve read that productive teams are teams that feel safe. I’ve heard, and witnessed, companies trying to get their developer teams to bond with each other by sending them to retreats, and all manner of extra-curricular activies. I remember even playing games online with team-mates during COVID-19. I’ve read articles about companies that reject all the team bonding, and just go home at the end of the day.

By now I’ve spent thousands of hours doing things like ‘Agile’ and ‘Scrum’, These are all methods to get things done too.

All of these things, these ideas, can be ruined by someone, a developer, a manager, or really anyone not caring. Not caring about the user’s experience, the security of a system, not caring if something is done when it needs to be. Team productivity can be destroyed by people on the team not caring about each other, about the next person who has to read their code, documentation, or understand a system.

It’s hard enough to get things done when people do care about the thing needing to be done.

I don’t think there is a trick to getting people to care, no business strategy, you can talk some people into caring sometimes, inspire them, but not always. This might all feel like a negative opinion but I guess the best thing you can do is to care yourself.