About "Team Building"

discusses ways to get more out of developers. hit a nerve with me:

"At a previous employer I constantly fought for more team building. It worked occasionally ... but never enough to make an impact on the team dynamics."

Well... the eagerness of such outbreaks (as I have witnessed them in others) is so blatantly saying "this team sucks" that you would be lucky if people played along, but shouldn't be surprised if they don't. Most people are not able or willing to articulate this, but projected from my own perspective:

• they probably regard themselves quite highly, being skilled specialists in an emerging and fast-changing industry,
• consequently, they will think of themselves as independent individuals who need no "pampering" and will establish any suggestions to the contrary as a personal insult,
• needing no pampering, they will appreciate open feedback about what else or more others feel they could or should contribute to their "team", but will not react as expected to "subtle hints" or elaborate "nothing-personal" team-building exercises.

"I was trying to make a point and was sure one of the owners would approach me about expensing the party. No such luck."

I would admire the gesture, had it been out of genuine generosity with no such secret hope wishing to be mind-read because you did not permit yourself to articulate it. Ask yourself why. You wanted to make a point and I'm sure you made it---too well at that. People believed you. I suppose it was better this way: imagine they had the slightest idea of your intentions, they might have felt pressurized and might not have been able to fully enjoy the party. Maybe it was this way, maybe it wasn't---and maybe it is relieving that you cannot tell from their lack of the reaction you so optimistically expected. It might sound harsh but if you were the only one feeling like partying, it was proper that you afforded it.

Make no mistake, I'm all for the kind of enthusiasm you expose. However, I have learned that other people have their own standards (as they properly should), and there are only so many commonalities. If you cannot convince them in small ways it is useless to try it in bigger ways at such an expense---unless you really, really want to have that party, blanking out the fact that everyone else is indifferent towards the idea one or the other. Plan for moving on to a team somewhere else more to your liking, and stick it out in the mean time. Unless all this trying is personally satisfying for you in one way or another ("well *I* certainly tried my best but these guys can't be helped..." ;)

"I guess another idea (that would be hard to get approved in a small business) is the Google method of allowing people to spend 20% of their time on new ideas. Wow, what a dream."

That is probably the single best offering to motivate developers; rather than dot-com-era kicker tables or in-company spas, which pose the danger of distracting or justifying escapism from hard thinking rather than encouraging and stimulating said essential activity.