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destroy-a-team_mixdown

Jared Stephens11min

Speaker 1

00:07

Hello, and welcome to making digital The show where we talk about design, development and product and how they come together to make digital goodness. My name is Jared Stephens and I'm joined once again by my fabulous co host, Jeremy Carney Say hi, Jeremy.

Speaker 2

00:26

Hi, Jeremy. And thanks for calling me fabulous. That was a that was a nice shift.

Speaker 1

00:32

Yeah, yeah, to keep things fresh, you know. So, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to throw us a curveball today. Jeremy and I had a topic planned. And he doesn't know this. But I'm about to change the topic, because we just got a very important email from the design community.

Unknown Speaker

00:51

I mean, the whole design community,

Speaker 1

00:53

yes, every single one of them co signed this letter. No, Jeremy. Not everyone. I just felt like it was an important topic that I think we are uniquely qualified to address. So I want to address this email on today's episode.

Speaker 2

01:12

Okay, but hold on, why an email, it seems like a slacker zoom would have been more 2021. Like,

Speaker 1

01:20

what am I not like, hey, they are communicating with me. And they know that I don't get into all these fancy new technologies the way that you do. Also, you're focusing on the wrong thing. The point is that someone actually listened to us and wants our feedback on something. And I think that we should give them that feedback.

Unknown Speaker

01:40

So community,

Speaker 1

01:41

yes, the entire design community needs to know. So here's what they're asking about. Apparently, someone has realized that there are a lot of really crummy design teams out there. And product teams in general. And they have come to us and asking us why there are so many teams that have just disintegrated, that are just crappy, that are just falling apart. Apparently they think that we are uniquely qualified to, to answer that question. Maybe it's because we've destroyed our fair amount of teams in our in our lifetime. But with our combined years of experience in this industry, and our keen observational skills, I think that we can give them a solid answer to this question.

Speaker 2

02:30

That's fair. I don't know if it's a compliment or an insult. But I think that's fair.

Speaker 1

02:34

So today, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to teach you how to destroy a design team in five easy steps. Are you ready? Let's do this. All right, that's my game, they're the number one thing that I think that you can do to quickly and surely destroy your team is to take only credit, and leave only blame. That means anytime that you are presenting, anytime that you are creating, all of the credit needs to be taken by you, as the leader or as the key designer on the team. Don't let anyone else take credit. And if anyone critique your work, or if anyone has something to say that is contrary to the narrative that you were trying to push, you lay the blame elsewhere, you leave blame with everyone else and take the credit for yourself.

Speaker 2

03:34

Yeah, absolutely. And on top of that, don't let your team talk to stakeholders or anyone else, that influence that you have hoarded, hold it tight, and make sure that everyone knows the year the person who is responsible for all of the success of the team. Nothing that goes wrong. Not at all. But all of the success.

Speaker 1

04:01

Yes and no good can come from sharing your influence with anyone else. Absolutely.

Speaker 2

04:06

Right. Right. I'm going to take the next one, which is tolerate toxic people, why not? We've all had them on our teams. Sometimes they can be extremely talented, sometimes they they might not let them be there. You know, no reason to push back. There are different types of toxic people. They're the intentionally toxic, they're the ones that might be there because someone one of their relatives, you know, got them the position and you can't really fire them. So they're not intentionally toxic, but they're toxic to the team. Then you've got the ones that make underhanded comments and you know, then flip it on and try and be positive when you call them out on it, tolerate it, let it let it kind of hang out and see what it does. Yep,

Speaker 1

04:54

let it fester. And when other team members bring it to your attention, ignore them and say hey, just Deal with it do your job. Yeah, yep, absolutely, that is a great way to destroy a team. The third one that I was thinking about is that you come into a situation. And maybe at the beginning of the year, you set a goalpost for your team and you say, this is what we're aiming for. And then intentionally change that goalpost every few weeks or every few months. Never let them get close to it. Because if you let them get close to it, they're going to start to feel a sense of success and accomplishment. Always move the goalposts.

Speaker 2

05:34

Right, and you never want them to have organizational clarity. Like you want to keep them on their toes. This is what makes us grow as designers keep, you know, keep them on their toes, rob them of that clarity, and make sure that they don't know what their job is.

Speaker 1

05:51

Absolutely, absolutely. Number four is my favorite. Ignore the space time continuum. Now, this one's not as evident at the outset. But as a leader, there is a certain amount of time that you need to, to set for your team and a certain amount of space that you need to get them that you need to give them make that make that time as long as possible. I send them emails in the middle of the night that says, you know, don't I don't expect a response right now. But the key is here. If you're, if your leader is sending you an email at 3am, they actually are expecting a response. And the first person to reply to that email is the winner.

Unknown Speaker

06:41

So absolutely, it's a competition.

Speaker 1

06:43

Yes. So you as the leader need to send emails at all times of the night. And then when it comes to the space continuum, you want to be all up in their space, you want to know every single thing that they're working on, you want to know, you want to know who they're talking to, you want to know what their deliverables are, and when they're going to be delivered. And if they're a microsecond, late, you want to know that.

Speaker 2

07:06

And that transitions really well into our next point, which is focus on butts, in seats. I'm glad that I caught that our notes just said focus on butts, but focus on butts in seats, like you need to judge your team solely by if they're at their desk, or if you can see them on slack. Because that's the true measure of productivity. It's the 2021 version of micromanagement. Just knowing that people are in front of their computer, lets you know that they are being productive, and that they're working. Yeah, on top of that, like culture. Like we hear people talk about it all the time. Like workplace culture, it's important important. It's not for workplaces, just do your job. Make sure that your team just does their job. They don't need anything beyond that. Right? You

Speaker 1

08:02

don't need to know anyone. You don't need to understand them or empathize with them. Just do the things that your leader tells you to do. And don't question.

Speaker 2

08:13

don't celebrate. Yeah, don't celebrate the things that you do. It's your job. Right, your job don't like, I mean, who needs to be patted on the back or told that they're doing a good job?

Speaker 1

08:26

Absolutely. And definitely don't expect me as a leader to do anything for you. If you hit the goalpost, that I set that I've been intentionally moving, I'm going to be mad, because that means I haven't moved the goalposts enough and you hit it, and no one wants that. No, no, you know,

Speaker 2

08:44

the last piece of this is don't acknowledge work life balance, and that there are things going on outside of their office or the zoom screen or wherever that is, don't acknowledge the sacrifice that your team puts in, because it's their job. It's their job to sacrifice for

Speaker 1

09:03

their job. Right. And they should care even more than you care about reaching the mediocre success that your team is capable of.

Speaker 2

09:14

And I love that bar of right in the middle mediocre, or even just a little lower than that. Yeah, I think is a good place to aim.

Speaker 1

09:23

So there it is, folks, those are our five Surefire ways to destroy a team in as little time as possible. Hopefully you learned something in this short episode about how to destroy your teams. If you didn't, we are offering a one time free offer for one on one consultation on Team destruction. All you have to do is reach out to us on social media and we will get that scheduled.

Speaker 2

09:50

Okay, okay. Okay, like I can't do this anymore. Obviously, we're just kidding. Don't do any of these things. This whole episode was an extended metaphor on Know what not to do and things that we've seen done time and time again, by bad leaders and bad teams. So, it it was a, it was an extended metaphor. Yeah. Like this. Oh, this was the opposite. Okay.

Speaker 1

10:17

I guess I guess it I guess it wasn't an extended metaphor. Okay, well, then, that's a wrap. I guess that's our short episode for today.

Speaker 2

10:30

We're gonna have to talk about this later. But I gotta mention. Thank you for listening. We really love seeing more and more listeners every week. Please go visit our website, making digital podcast calm. And we are making digital podcasts on most social platforms. And please give us a like, subscribe or a comment on our platform. We'd love to hear from you. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1

10:58

Yes, and if you are on Apple podcasts or iTunes or whatever they're calling it these days, or on Spotify, or whatever podcast platform you're on, we would really appreciate a rating or review if you find this helpful at all. But until next time, my name is Jared Stephens and I am Jeremy Carney and together we are making digital.

Unknown Speaker

11:27

You said it first. Yes.

Speaker 1

11:32

The views and ideas expressed on this podcast are our own and do not represent those of any previous present or future employers

Unknown Speaker

11:38

or spouses or family.

Unknown Speaker

11:40

Peace out.

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