Obsession with famous people

I like to read quotes of famous, successful people just like the next person.

Yet, with the prevalence of these quotes, we may miss the true meaning in most of them.

Had been asked before, at my first conversation with a new team I met, “what are the best practices for software development?” Then met with awkward eyes for the response I gave: “it depends”.

We can forget, best practices are just that, best practices for the individual circumstances the person derived them from. They may not be the best practice for you and your circumstances.

Knowing them helps, for sure, widening your horizon is always good. We all learn from others, improve our own approaches based on mentors, superiors, teachers and coaches giving feedback. Telling experiences we had, what we learned from them, to each other.

People like stories, always did. It is the basis to how we evolved over the thousands and thousands of years.

It goes wrong only when you take them so seriously. When the single practice a famous person once did is the only way it can be done. The only way it must be done. I do it like this because he said so.

This may feel easy, simple, and even fulfilling and cozy, it will harm you in the long run.

Adaptation is so human capability. Applying a best practice without understanding it’s circumstances and modifying to yours is the anti-thesis of adaptation.

Look for signs, “we do daily standups, face to face, in a circle” may be a great practice for one team, especially a hotel team, working together the whole day tirelessly. It may not be the best for your team, some need to be elsewhere or can’t be at the same place, why not write a message to the group?

I am gonna be available from this time to that, going to this and this, I need this and that for me to reach this goal today. One colleague may be in a different timezone. Most of the teammates work on tasks that require focus and adept at reading and writing? Why not move the standup into a common chat channel and let them work their best way?

If something is inefficient, and you have an idea to make it better, most of the time you don’t need somebodies agreement to do better. Change yourself to the new way while being compatible with the team’s. Demonstrate improvement by showing impact. And convert them slowly.

Does not matter if you are an employee or owner, we all here doing our best. You can never go bad with trying to improve your environment.

How do you make every day better? How do you incorporate best practices without losing their core value?