WalmartLabs Engineer illustrates a healthy team culture

Director of Engineering at WalmartLabs, Claude Jones, illustrates principles of teamwork in a recent blog post.

In January 2017, Jones hosted a workshop for an automation tools team, which consisted of two sub-teams from California, Nevada, Colorado and Oregon.

Both teams successfully delivered against their company objectives over a 13 month period, with a “one goal, one team” incentive, aimed to promote a healthy team culture.

According to Jones, division of labour is about role clarity and how your contributions align with the goals set by the team to ensure its success.

“As an individual on a team, it is important you take time to self-reflect, understand your weaknesses, invest in your strengths, and leverage your talents towards the success of the team,” says Jones.

“As a manager of a team, it is important you understand the strengths of each member, place them in positions to be successful, and clearly communicate their role within the team so there is a consistent understanding of the division labour.”

Bringing an engineering team together

The workshop taught that simple mitigation strategy defines clear standards and processes for teams to follow, and that defining a “chemical language” can be challenging given different communication styles, unique personalities, technology and being part of a distributed team.

“Like any relationship, you need to nurture and build personal connections, such as encourage in-person meetings, be open-minded and socialise outside of work,” Jones adds.

“Teams often encounter problems that seem unsolvable, but if they have a collaborative mind-set, there will be more opportunity for success. You need to ask yourself, are you willing to work with others with an open mind to new ideas or approaches? Do you know and trust the members of your team? Are you aware of each team member’s role and the benefit they bring? Are you willing to help a struggling team member for the success of the team?”

Workshop investments show how WalmartLabs is growing more cohesive tech teams together.

Edited from web by Leah Alger

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