“Can we all get along?”How to stay happy and sane working in a team

Julia Malyk, Stephan Stipdonk AmsterdamUX, 5 October 2016

Who are those people?And what are they talking about?

Culture clash Yang Liu, East Meets West

Saving face

Saving face

Cultural clash: Takeaways

● Be authentic and humble

● Grab luck with both hands

● Be patient, flexible and serendipitous

● Make a positive out of a negative

● We had this closed provincial culture

● Running gag: Dayton is center of the

universe

● Joke was on us, but we fixed it

Talking the talk

Source

Source

Talking the talk

SourceI think your design is ugly

Talking the talk: Takeaways

● Not to get defensive right away

● Ask why

● Consider other person’s thinking and

intentions behind it

● Try not to take it personal (it can be hard!)

● Find something useful in the feedback (for

yourself or the project)

● Say how you feel if the situation allows

Talking the talk: Takeaways

● Dig in

● Can be just a matter of taste or personal

opinion

● Designers might not value the dev

feedback

○ Get / give quality feedback

○ Valid arguments

● Other perspectives are important

Just business

Just personal

Always Personal

Never Business

Just business: Takeaways

● Often you don't have little influence

○ Don't take it personal

○ Comes with working in a big organization

● Always get something out of it

○ Personal growth

○ Skills

○ Experience

○ Meeting different people and cultures

● Politics are part of the game

○ Accept it, understand it

○ Try avoid to be part of it

● "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's

about the future." Niels Bohr

Just business: Takeaways

● People with influence can get in the way

● You should learn from the failures

● Taking part in political games is optional

○ But if you want it, you have to know the

rules!

Team building

Source

Team building

Source

Team building: Takeaways

● Try to get in the same place as much as

possible

● Change of scenery helps building

relationships

● Personal bond → good work relationship

→ good quality product

● Team building activities are just fun :)

● Bonus:

○ Drinking improves your foreign language skills

Summary

Summary● Teamwork is about people

● But company interests matter, too

● Keep politics in mind

○ You don’t have to get involved, though

● Communication skills are essential

○ Ask questions

○ Try not to take it personally

○ Think about the end goal

● Cultural differences should be taken into

account

● Personal relations can improve work

relations and quality of the product

Thanks!Julia

http://juliamalyk.com

Stephan

https://nl.linkedin.com/in/stipdonk