Joy and trust as ingredients of high-performance dev teams

On holiday, it’s easy to focus on important things, people around you, well-being and generally enjoying life. In the same way, at the beginning of autumn, it’s good to remind yourself what is important in working life. I summed up some important things at Wonna‘s meetup in May about Joy and trust as ingredients of high-performance dev teams. At the event, we had many discussions about goals, ways of working and how working together produces the best results. Developing software and data solutions is often not easy, but if we pay attention we can make it fun.

In my current work at Elisa, many things have been structured favourably, the right people, financing of projects and teams, and clear goals and benefits for customers. The presentation in the meetup had five areas to focus on: Meaningful North Star, Right people, Build trust, Encourage joy and Embrace learning. Each of the topics had several points, here are some of those to share. 

The importance of meaningful North Star is very understandable, clear customer and business goals help everyone. Similarly clear, is a focus on getting things done, people are happy when things are pushed into production. You need timetables and explanations of why deadlines exist. Definitions of done and good balance with delivering results and not forming technical debt bring content.

There is nothing as important as the people. I’ve made my biggest mistakes in recruiting in the past, but also my biggest successes. Recruiting is the most vital process and I’ve been lucky to find brilliant consultants and elisians. Recruiting throughout the whole time has enabled us to shape the way we are doing and what kind of skills we need with continuously evolving requirements. 

A great team is a combination of skilful people whose interests vary: some love details, some like to move fast, some are more into security, and some are talented in doing specs to broad problems and so on. Offer possibilities to create something unique with you and the team, always searching for the next level. Value freedom, letting people grow and also go if they want to, the universe is so peculiar that it will re-unite you again when the time is right. As Wonna’s Laura Snellman-Junna has said “There are two qualities that aren’t for compromise: Kindness and Geekiness”.

In the meetup, I also spoke about building trust. It’s got to do with courage, acting as the shield against evil forces, whether it’s about securing funding or protecting the peace to do development work, and also about humbleness. They all go hand in hand, and trust needs time to build. For example, prioritising work is always a balance, we can’t do a good job in it without mutual trust and open communication. Always trust the experts to be experts. 

I said that I can be fearless when it comes to company boards and directors, but that I’m humble in trying to understand the people in the teams I have the pleasure of working with every day. You can learn the most from other people in solving complex subject matters, but also when trying to be a better person in general. It’s a big community of people in my teams, in surrounding teams and across the company, but it’s also many people I’ve worked with at some point in life that keep popping into my life. It’s the face-to-face conversations most importantly, but also quick online messages and sharing. 

Sharing with your stakeholders, and within the team continuously is crucial, you know the way in dailies, plannings, refinements, task forces etc. Each member of the team has to find the right amount of sharing for themselves, especially when it comes to personal life. It’s a fine balance between opening up, and being mindful of how much people want to know. 

Apart from the development-related learnings, I shared some personal takeaways in the meetup. One was about my dear friend who died of cancer five years ago. She was the happiest and most wonderful person, and even though she was ill for two years, she lived to the fullest all the time. With her, I always felt I was accepted as I am. When she died, I was overcome with enormous gratitude, not so much sadness, but gratitude that I had been able to share life with her for 24 years. I wouldn’t have become the person I am today if it wasn’t for her. 

I come back to this quite often. It’s important to surround yourself with people who bring you joy and happiness because life is short. We have enormous power and every opportunity to influence what kind of life we ​​have and with whom we share it. You can’t change everything at once, but you can change one small thing every day. This applies also to working life, and it can be wonderful.

In the meetup I also talked about culture workshops, encouraging learning with fast learning loops, and doing things with love which is needed in great software development. If you’re interested in culture workshops, you can find out more in the previous blog, and about developing software with love I’m happy to talk for hours. Thank you all in the meetup for the great questions, and Laura Snellmann-Junna for inviting me. I appreciate this nice feedback Laura said I could share “I got a lot of compliments from Eija Moisala’s speech in our meetup. Eija is both a boisterously warm self and a determined result-maker. When she talks about nurturing top teams and shaping team culture, meeting, seeing and hearing people are balanced with ambitious clear goals – and individual freedom.” 

Thank you for reading! Please DM me here or on LinkedIn, if you want to talk more.