Effective Teams – Fiery
What a 46-person team in 2001 taught us about passionate design discussions, trust, and arguments that never get personal.
In June 2001 I joined a 46-person development team at a satellite office. There were no assigned seats, so on day one it was a mad scramble for desks. That told me something about the place before anyone said a word.
My first “Design Discussion”
A few days in, I watched two colleagues argue about a design. It went on for hours: whiteboards, raised voices, counter-proposals. Then they went for tea together and came back with a solution they both backed.
The debates were passionate, but they were never personal.
Why it worked
Everyone trusted that an argument about the work stayed with the work. Nobody carried it out of the room. That trust is what let people disagree loudly and still pull in the same direction:
- Openness: any idea could be challenged, whoever it came from.
- Trust: disagreement was about the design, never the person.
- Passion: people cared enough about the outcome to fight for it.
How we carry it forward
At Pratishthan we try to build teams the same way: hire for attitude, argue about the work, and leave the room on good terms.