4 Comments

Let's imagine a team performs exceptionally and one of the folks in the team gets promoted, while the others don't. Could that be considered an individual incentive?

Expand full comment

Yes. There is some deep stuff to dig into regarding ratings versus promotions. Why the distinction? Why not divide it in 3 instead of 2? What are the upsides and downsides of each as experienced by the organization and the IC? So. Many. Questions.

Expand full comment

Kent - thanks very much for sharing these ideas, I'm able to reflect on past experiences with a different perception.

Your last bullet point may have alluded to this complexity... But it would be interesting to get your take on how this expands in large organisations when you have interactions with multiple managers with potentially different incentives. E.g. at one time you might have a project manager, product manager and more of a people manager like in your current example.

Expand full comment

Nimrod's observation is key. People are complex. Social interactions are complex. Team dynamics are complex. I find the work being done by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais is really useful in this regard. Consider things like Conway's Law, Cognitive Load, Dunbar Number, and socio-technical architecture in team structure and dynamics. Here's their github repository https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-Topologies-Community-Materials

Expand full comment