NDC Porto 2024: Hearing and Being Heard – Getting the Entire Team to Speak

Many of us have been on teams where the same few people speak every meeting – likewise, another same few people very rarely ever speak. Often, we fall into one of those categories ourselves.

Unfortunately, research has shown that uneven communication among a team is an indicator of lower performance. Even individual IQ of team members has less impact on team performance than how well the team communicates! Regardless of what technical improvements we strive to make as a team, our performance will suffer if we fail to learn how to communicate effectively as a single unit.

I’ll cover some reasons why some of us talk much more or less than others on our teams, as well as the effects that can bring. From my experience as a developer and a coach, I’ll also go over some practical actions to take to encourage all individuals to share their opinions, and why it’s beneficial for the entire team when that happens, regardless of each individual’s role.

This talk will be given by Lean TECHniques’ Professional Software Consultant and Microsoft MVP, Daniel Ward, at NDC Porto 2024. Learn more here.