InfoQ Homepage Social Skills Content on InfoQ
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Avoid Being an "Ivory Tower" Architect: the Relationship between Architects and Their Organisation
In a recently published episode of Armchair Architects, the speakers discussed the relationship between software architects and the rest of the organisation. They detail how a successful architect can impact others by switching between going into the trenches and zooming into a tree and then being able to zoom out and estimate if that tree still fits into the forest.
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Improving Retrospective Effectiveness with End-of-Year and Focus Retrospectives
Doing end-of-year retrospectives can help to improve the effectiveness of agile retrospectives, by focusing on the actions done and the formats used. To increase the impact of retrospectives we can alternate between “global galactic” and focus retrospectives.
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Learnings from Applying Psychological Safety across Teams
Applying ideas from psychological safety can enable people to speak up in teams about what they don't know, don't understand, or mistakes they have made. Trust and creating safe spaces are essential, but more is needed. People need to feel that they will not be punished or embarrassed if they take interpersonal risks.
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Building High-Trust and High-Performing Teams at Shopify in a Remote World
Jesse McGinnis spoke at QCon San Francisco on building high-trust and high-performing teams at Shopify in a remote world. He started by pointing out his talk on high-trust teams in a remote world.
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Promoting Empathy and Inclusion in Technical Writing
Empathy is the first step in practicing sustainable, genuine inclusion. If persons or groups of people feel unwelcome because of the language being used in a community, its products, or documentation, then the words can be changed. Identifying divisive language can help to make changes to the words that we use.
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How to Become a Staff-Plus Engineer
If you are interested in becoming a staff-plus engineer, take time to explore your values and start discussing your career goals and ambitions with your manager. You can engage with engineering communities to develop your skills. Staff-plus engineers are able to lead tech people, where getting things done goes beyond their individual capacity to grow and mentor others.
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How Getting Feedback from Angry Users Helps to Develop Better Products
Every time you change something in your product, angry users can show up. These users are engaged and they care about your product. Listening to them can help you find golden nuggets of user insight to improve your product.
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Trust-Driven Development: Building Cognitive and Emotional Pillars
Trust-driven development uses authenticity to build a safe environment for people to operate. To build trust we need to focus on two main pillars of trust – cognitive and emotional. We need to be brave, have courage, and give people access to our authentic selves.
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Becoming an Effective Staff-Plus Engineer
To increase your effectiveness as a staff-plus engineer, it can help to develop your communication, listening, technical strategy, and networking skills. Blanca Garcia Gil presented Five Behaviours to Become an Effective Staff-Plus Engineer at QCon London 2022 and will present at QCon Plus May 10-20, 2022.
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Remain in Tech by Becoming a Staff Plus Engineer
Engineers who want to remain focused on tech can follow the path toward a staff plus engineer. Staff plus engineers enable others to have impact. Bringing the people along can be hard; you need to work on your communication and influential skills. Nicky Wrightson presented The Secret Strategy for Landing That Staff Engineer Role at QCon London 2022 and will present at QCon Plus May 10-20, 2022.
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How Testers Can Contribute to Product Definition
Utilizing the tester’s feedback during product definition and design is valuable for the business. Listening to the organization's needs, understanding the business goals, and customizing the test process by incorporating different skills and practices is one way testing can begin while the product is still "on paper".
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Engaging All Generations with Adaptable Reward and Recognition Systems
Reward and recognition systems should be adaptable, agile, and take contexts into consideration. All generations want three things - to be respected, rewarded and recognised for their work. The motivation and the form factor of the rewards are what differ for the generations. You need to be creative and keep reward and recognition systems fresh, and tailor them to teams.
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Developing Testing Skills outside of Working Hours
Gamifying your way of testing, joining online testing communities of practice, and virtual traveling; these are examples of activities you can do outside of working hours that can make you a better tester. You can practice continuous learning with other testers in the world, and then implement things you learned at your workplace and share them with your team to improve ways of testing.
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Growing Personal and Organisational Courage
Courage is vital for organisations if they want to thrive in today’s complex world as it will create the right conditions for the highest possible levels of creativity, adaptability and productivity. We all have the power to lead with courage, no matter what our role is.
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Taking Advantage of Attitudes for Building Products
Attitudes like cynicism, skepticism and optimism impact how we develop products. Being aware of attitude matters, as it can block development or lead to building the wrong product. InfoQ interviewed Gwen Diagram about cynicism, skepticism, and optimism, the impact developers can have, and dealing with attitudes in teams.