One of my favorite snacks is a bowl of mixed nuts.
It reminds me of software teams.
The bowl is a container, holding them all together. All the nuts are in the bowl for the same purpose – my evening snack. My bowl only has nuts, nothing else. In this, the contents are similar.
But the nuts in the bowl aren’t all the same; in fact, they have differences. Some differences make a difference, and some do not.
The size of each nut doesn’t matter to me, but I do prefer to have many different types of nuts in the bowl.
My preferences also create differences; cashews are my favorite, but brazil nuts get left behind.
Now sometimes I eat one nut at a time. But I enjoy it more when I eat them together.
Eaten together produces new flavors that are different from eating them individually. I love cashews and walnuts together, but hazelnuts and walnuts create a weird taste for me.
The exchanges of flavor create new combinations, some of which I like, some of which I dislike.
You may feel differently. You might enjoy Brazil nuts, or maybe you dislike the flavor of cashews and walnuts.
That is okay – there is no naughty or nice with nuts — just different tastes.
Questions
What similarities do you see between your team and a bowl of mixed nuts?
What containers, differences, and exchanges do you see?
What new thing could I add to my bowl to something wonderful?
Write back your ideas, and I’ll send a compilation to the list. 🙂
Marcus