What makes a team a great team?
In this episode, I’m joined by Chris Foley, Principal Systems Design Engineer at Red Hat and sports coach. We explore a question that sounds simple but opens a lot of doors: can software teams learn from sporting teams?
We talk about what sporting environments make very visible: clarity of roles, momentum, training versus performance, and how teams build confidence and recover from setbacks. Then we translate those ideas to software teams: releases, demos, bugs, stakeholder pressure, and the daily reality of cross-functional delivery.
In the conversation we explore:
what role clarity looks like when teams become cross-functional
how momentum gets triggered in software work, and how to build on it
how negative momentum starts and how teams can stop it early
why leadership needs to be fostered across the board
what “teams win games” really means in engineering
how to “keep score” in software without fooling ourselves
the power of positive reinforcement and small challenges
what sport teaches us about training intentionally, not only performing
playing to the team’s strengths, not only fixing weaknesses
the importance of communicating at the right level with stakeholders
If you lead or coach teams, this one offers a practical way to look at team dynamics, progress, and performance through a different lens.
Find all the references to the episode in the companion post.
