Marcio Marinho

Last week I passed through a very nice experience, so, I couldn’t hold my self about the desire to share it.

Out team needed to build something really new and a bit though, also we have a very mixed skill sets in the team, furthermore we had to bring awareness to everybody about what should be done and how, but we had no easy way of doing this. The solution couldn’t be better, we defined two sessions of what I called “team design/programming”, where we locked ourselves into a room, using a notebook and a 50″ TV, this way everyone could see what was happening. We started presenting the goal of that session, what we would look for, what to build, the platform we’re aiming and so on.

After that we started coding and all of us could code a bit, fix, re-factor, bring new ideas, ask questions, discuss and help. That was really an amazing experience, in despite of the fact that sometimes someone wanted to dominate the notebook ( that includes myself ). The bottom line of these sessions was a well defined platform, everybody having the knowledge about what we did, why, how, the ability to provide support to other teams, and now we have these new skills into the team. That was really astonishing.

Change is always something stressing at some level, because there is uncertainty, energy must be spent to adapt, react, change minds, learn new skills and so on. I’ve passed through the experience of move from companies and also moving from different teams inside the same company, and I learned something very useful about it.

It’s a very simple rule of making the newcomer comfortable with the new environment, making things clear and easy to him/her, give them time to breath and perceive the environment. Also, the team should be supportive to this new person, because the adaptation will be at the speed of light in comparison of any other kind of environment.

Mentoring and Coaching are two indispensable duties that must be part of the regular life of any professional. It’s very nice when we achieve the next degree, when we get a promotion, a salary raise or any other kind of move towards our career. So, it’s nice as well to help people on that !

That’s why mentoring and coaching are so important, because doing so we can help people to achieve the next level in their profession, and in their lives. It’s very important that we share our experiences to the others, because it will give us the opportunity to grow up together.

I’m saying these things because I have this experience on my own life. I had some good mentors and coaches, and they made me grow a lot, and I remember them almost everyday. Maybe, if I hadn’t met them, I probably wouldn’t be able to achieve what I did.

So, the tip I wanna leave here today is that : DON’T retain your knowledge, SHARE IT !!! We should always bear in mind that we must be ready to coach and mentor people whenever is possible, and whenever they need, trying to push them to the next level, and of course be ready to be someone’s else padawan as well

The truth is that, we receive on the same rate as we give. So, giving more knowledge we’ll receive more knowledge, pushing and helping people to their success we’ll be pushed to our success as well.