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No team is perfect.

Working on a team that is in a bad place can be draining, demoralizing, and even toxic.

A few times in my career, I've been part of teams that were struggling to find their footing - and once or twice, I've seen it turn around. There's no cure-all for a bad work culture, but in my experience, the catalyst for change is often _remarkably_ small.

Something I didn't realize until I had been working for _years_ is that **every person on a team contributes to its culture**. _You_ have the power to shape the environment you work in, and the people you work with.

You probably have a sense of what the _perfect_ team would look like for you. The right balance of autonomy, intellectual challenge, and camaraderie is different for everyone, and it's important to recognize that your ideal team might not be the same as someone else's.

I believe that building a great team is not far off from the golden rule: be the teammate you wish you had, and others will follow suit.

## Embrace the Positives

In crafting a thriving team culture, it's invaluable to draw from the positive aspects of past experiences. Think about the best team you've ever worked with - what made it so great? Borrow bits and pieces from that experience, and remix them to fit your current team.

Here's a couple examples that have worked well for me:

### Gratitude

Cultivating a habit of expressing gratitude can profoundly lift team morale.

Praise resonates differently with each of us - some prefer public acknowledgment, while others appreciate a private thank you. It can take some time to figure out what works best for the people you work with, but no matter what, expressing gratitude is always a good idea.

Being openly thankful for your teammates' efforts fosters a positive environment and encourages everyone to contribute enthusiastically. Take the time to show your teammates the things you genuinely appreciate about their work and presence on the team; that extra bit of love feels great, and selfishly, it feels good to give it too.

This can be particularly tricky to do when you're feeling overwhelmed or stressed, but it's in those moments that a little bit of gratitude can go a long way.

### Weekly reflections build empathy

At Craftwork, we've adopted the practice of a weekly _5:15s_ reflection, a piece of work culture cribbed from my time at Stripe. Each week, every team member journals about what they accomplished that week, they challenges they faced, and goals for the coming week.

This reflection is time-boxed: they take fifteen minutes to write, and they should take no longer than five minutes to read.
The result helps strengthen our understanding of one another's experiences, ensuring that no one's efforts or struggles go unnoticed. They also serve as a handy reminder of personal accomplishments and growth during performance reviews.

It forces self-reflection, and gives us each the opportunity to see behind the curtain a little bit; with 5:15s, we often get to hear more more aspirational and candid thoughts than we would in a typical work chat. It helps connect us better as complex, living & breathing humans; rather than semi-distant colleagues smashing code into a computer week after week.

---

## Fuck the Negatives

Adopting additive team behaviors is just as important as elimination of negative ones.

When was the last time you rolled your eyes or heaved a sigh at work? This is _probably_ a sign of something that's ripe for improvement.

Whether it was a lack of transparency, ineffective communication, or even a culture of overwork, recognizing these pitfalls is the first step in eliminating them. For example, if weekly meetings have always felt unproductive, consider replacing them with more efficient communication methods like brief daily stand-ups or targeted updates through team communication tools.

Encourage your team to be vocal about what isn't working, and be proactive in making changes that foster a more positive and productive environment. This not only improves current team dynamics but also prevents the repetition of past mistakes.

It's a great idea idea to do some introspection, too.

I've worked hard to jettison habits of my own that make me less fun to work with. A wide spectrum of behaviors from procrastination to communicating poorly when I'm stressed out, to recognizing when I just need more sleep. I'm far from perfect, but chiseling away at the these things has (hopefully) made me a more effective teammate over the years.

## Be the Change

Here's the thing: every job will involve doing things that aren't strictly fun. In a sense, that's _probably_ why your job is a _job._ But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy and improve the people you work with, or the environment you work in.

To truly transform your team, **start by being the type of teammate you would want to have**. Embrace the give-and-take of support, ensuring you're as reliable and approachable as you expect others to be.

The most important team I've ever been a part of is my marriage, and the best marriage advice I ever received was pretty simple:

_Always over-contribute. If both partners are always trying to give more than they take, you'll both be happy._

I believe this holds for nearly all relationships - including those with your coworkers. Put yourself out there, be a catalyst for change, and grow with your teammates as you build the team you want to be on.

---

## Tiny Improvements from around the internet

### Oddly satisfying spacing

📐 A design agency called Chainlift has been putting out [explainer videos on design theory](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ElrcTtAxzA) that are juicy and jam-packed with nuggets that will make your apps look and feel better. I've done plenty of shouting about why devs and founders should care about design - this series is a great way to learn how some seriously _simple_ rules can make a massive difference in your work.

### Beautiful tutorials for music producers

📼 [synthet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t3Ep4e_dyE) is a fast-growing YouTube channel that has been creating ~1min videos that teach power-user features for producers of electronic music using a tool called FL Studio. I'm not a music producer, and I'm _really_ not a fan of EDM, but these are some of the most engaging, thoughtful, and memorable tutorials I've ever seen. Why? No spoilers here - click through and spend a few minutes taking it in.

### Tunes is fantastic at the arts

🔢 Here's another music-themed rec for you: Charles Cornell did an incredible breakdown of the surprisingly complex musical structure of a song used on Sesame Street to teach children how to count. Titled [This Song Teaches Counting But Is INSANELY Hard To Count](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMtGImlEmu0), it's a great example of how easy it can be to miss the beautiful details that went into something many of us have seen billions of times.

Simple Habits for a Happier Team

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## This is how my day went last Thursday:

**08:00am** - hop on a zoom call with a teammate to discuss Twitter's developer conference, Chirp, which had been canceled the night before. We were scheduled to give a tutorial on building SaaS apps at the event.

**08:05am** - While still on the phone, an email landed in my inbox, from Stripe's CEO Patrick, announcing that there would be a round of layoffs that day.

**08:08am** - While _still_ on the phone, another email hit my inbox. Subject line: "Mike, your role at Stripe".

 
 
That was it. I got laid off.
 
 

If you're new here, it's likely because you saw my tweet later that same day:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" align="center">
 
 🚨 I was laid off from my job at Stripe this morning. I will always look
 back on my time at Stripe DevRel fondly. Time to unwind and decompress. If
 you are a newly-former Stripe, DM or email hello@mikebifulco.com. I'll do
 whatever I can to help you find your next job.
 
 &mdash; Mike Bifulco (@irreverentmike) <a href="https://twitter.com/irreverentmike/status/1588197009315442688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2022</a>
</blockquote>
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The timeline above outlines a vast simplification - to give you some idea of what happened in my world last week, here's a few high-level events:

- **Monday**: I enjoyed an emergency dentist appointment after a crown come off my tooth during a weekend trip to Philadelphia.
- **Tuesday**: Went to [All Things Open](https://allthingsopen.org/) in Raleigh, NC, and gave a talk about [Markdoc](https://markdoc.dev) to 50 devs.
- **Wednesday**: Drove home to Charlotte, to pack for the next day's trip to the [Caribbean Developer Conference](https://cdc.dev) in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
- **Thursday**: Ya boy got fired. lol. In the afternoon, I boarded a jet to Punta Cana with my wife, and shortly after arriving I fired off the tweet above.
- **Friday**: With the help of my incredible better half (Natalie 🫶), and steady stream of Piña Coladas, I responded to a trillion messages from people who had seen my tweet.

My dudes - it was a wild-ass week.

As I write this, it is almost exactly one week later. I've managed to untangle most of my brain by now, and have heard from a _massive_ number of people who reached out to me with love and support. I have probably sent hundreds of replies by now, and I'm extremely grateful for each and every one of you who reached out, RT'd, and subscribed to this newsletter.

Seriously -- Tiny Improvements has _doubled_ in subscriber count since last week!

## On moving on & momentum

You can't control everything in life, but you can control how you react to it. I am extremely grateful for the experience I had - my team at Stripe was truly unique, and indescribably talented. I'd tell my colleagues that working with them was like having lightning in a bottle.

I still feel that way, but it's time to move on.

I was pleasantly surprised to see my tweet getting so much attention. It's the most viral thing I've put on the web to date, and I'm trying to use that attention for good. Since getting laid off, many people have reached out to me who are hiring for super interesting jobs. I've been maintaining a list of these jobs, and will continue to keep it up for as long as I can manage.

**If you're looking for a job**, or know someone who is, check out [@irreverentmike's job list](https://airtable.com/shrbIYV7uOCfQDeGR)

**If you're hiring**, please DM me on twitter [@irreverentmike](https://twitter.com/irreverentmike) or [submit a job directly through this form](https://airtable.com/shraftW1575L6nGED).

## What's next for me

I am endlessly thankful for the great network of people I have in my life. Friends, family, former colleagues, and complete strangers have reached out about job openings. I'm thrilled to say that my next job is lined up already. I'm excited to share more about that soon.

### Now back to your regularly scheduled newsletter...

As you can imagine, this dispatch of Tiny Improvements is fairly atypical. Generally, this newsletter caters to people building great products - I'm a designer and front-end developer at heart, and a serial SaaS builder.

Generally my newsletters include a couple paragraphs diving into a topic like [design for developers](https://mikebifulco.com/newsletter/design-rules-everyone-should-know), or [managing burnout](https://mikebifulco.com/newsletter/burnout-and-stress), a photo or screenshot from my week, and links to a few interesting & helpful tools for getting things done.

If that sounds like something you'd enjoy, I'd love it if you stick around.

If you know anyone else who might benefit from my writing, please forward this to them, or send them off to [mikebifulco.com/newsletter](https://mikebifulco.com/newsletter) to subscribe. Thank you!

Here's hoping this next week is extremely un-interesting. ✌🏾

#mental-health: 2 posts tagged

Simple Habits for a Happier Team

What it's like to get laid off and go viral on the same day