Little Things Mean a Lot

You may gather that I've seen a lot of disasters in my day, but I've also seen things that were effective. Not surprisingly, the common thread among them is commonality. In other words, to build a team, you have to build on shared ground. (This is true in all cases; it's just that the IT department shares less common ground with other departments.) Here are a few little things that can go a surprisingly long way.

• You think Kirk vs Picard is the ultimate geek debate? Try Mountain Dew versus Dr Pepper. I've heard far more conversations about caffeine, sugar and artificial sweeteners than I have about any TV show. Does this mean that you need to provide free drinks? Not necessarily, though that's a cheap way to generate goodwill, as will providing IT with its own stash area.

• Free food is another cheap bonding mechanism. I'm sure there are programmers who don't like pizza, but I've never met one who admitted it. I don't quite understand why, but the only other group I've run into that responds to free food in the same way as programmers is musicians.

• It should come as no surprise to anyone that IT folk are idiosyncratic in terms of the hours they keep and the clothes they wear. Of course, some (especially larger) companies are more conservative with what they allow, but you can be a hero of sorts by allowing whatever freedoms-from-conventions you can to your crew.

• Passing around links, songs or videos, while seemingly trivial, creates a common "culture". Again, keep your eye on the final product. A bunch of tech guys sitting around joking may seem like a waste, but it might just mean that things are going really smoothly.

• Respect the team's oddities. For example, I prefer to work in low natural light or the dark. This isn't unusual among programmers, though very often I've found them reticent to turn off lights because some executives seem to think they're filling a parental role. ("You'll ruin your eyes!")

In some cases, this is vital. One guy I worked with had serious concentration issues that he handled by constantly listening to TV or music through headphones while he worked. Your crew's productivity depends on you being able to shield them from irrelevancies.