Fostering internal communities
Some of the most important things I’ve done at work weren’t in my job description.
Almost every employer I’ve worked for has had an informal internal community of developers that met on a regular basis and talked about technology. These have generally taken the format of a Lunch-and-Learn: we all have a lunch break we’ll take during the day, so why not get all the developers together and eat lunch during a presentation given by a colleague?
It was a way to learn from and teach your peers. Sometimes we talked about a new internal framework that one group offered to others. Sometimes we talked about new technologies that we were playing with, either formally as part of a company technology pilot or informally on a pet project.
What we were actually doing, though I didn’t recognize it at the time, was organizing a tiny internal conference held weekly, biweekly, or monthly with a single, hour-long presentation slot. That internal conference was a de facto internal dev community. Before I discovered community conferences, these internal groups were all I had to keep my technology enthusiasm up, because my peers and I never got to go to the big industry shows, either for seniority or budget reasons.
These programs are enormously beneficial for employees, and if you belong to a group like this, you already know that. What you may not have considered is that even while benefiting the employees, the employers also reap great benefits. I’m going to share what I’ve found with you so that you may ensure your organization knows how you’re helping them be successful with a little extra effort and enthusiasm on your part. A good deal of what I share below is directed squarely at technology management; it may be in your best interest to share either this article or its insights with your chain of command.
Benefits to the business
An organization lucky enough to have an internal development community accrues solid benefits. Understanding these benefits can improve the chances of starting and sustaining an internal group.
Free training — I constantly hear from the community that employees want more training. They constantly struggle to get the kinds of training they believe they need, not just to do their jobs, but to have satisfying and growing careers in the industry. Having an internal development community meets some of that demand. If employees spend their lunch occasions educating each other, they’re showing an interest in their own development, not waiting for an organizational handout.
Morale boost — Being lonely in an organization is tough. If you’re the only developer assigned to a business unit, having this community could make the difference between you being isolated or feeling plugged in. It can be the difference between knowing what’s going on in the larger tech world and scrounging for scraps of information online.
Cross training — One way to educate employees on what other teams do and how they work is to actually rotate them onto different teams. Some organizations aren’t structured to put employees on loan to other teams temporarily, however, so getting together to talk about technology can be another great way for employees on different teams to discover each others’ stacks, projects, and processes.
All this communication and cross-training happens free or nearly free to the business. Employees may take a work hour or two between project tasks to put together presentations or read up on a topic, but if your employees are trustworthy, they know how to manage their time. If you don’t trust your employees… well, you have a very real, different problem that needs to be solved first.
Recognize internal cross-talk as positive opportunities
If you’re a manager or team leader, one scenario you might overhear from your team might be “Oh, you use the brackets editor for HTML? Oh, well, I started using VS Code and the python syntax highlighting turns out to save me a lot more time than I thought. You might consider trying it.”
Unfortunately, employee discussions don’t always come out sounding so positive. These conversations about technology may come across as venting if overheard. The previous discussion might actually come out more like this: “Ugh, our boxes are so locked down that we can’t even install free tools. You guys are super lucky to use VS Code.” It may sound like leaf-node employee snark, but don’t dismiss it as such. It’s an opportunity for organizational improvement.
Here’s what they’re really saying: “I believe new technology makes us more productive and continuously improves. I want to be productive for my employer, and any that might come after. I want to maximize my productivity and happiness. Why doesn’t the organization doesn’t think it’s important to proactively keep our skills up to date? It can only be a net benefit to the organization.”
When team members talk to each other, they know who’s doing agile delivery and who’s stuck in the waterfall era. They know who is testing the new technology for productivity improvements and who isn’t. It can come across as jealousy between teams, and maybe it is, but it can be understood differently. If you overhear this kind of conversation, see it as an opportunity for you to be a fast-follower and leverage a new tool or process without a) having to convince anyone to let your team be the guinea pig or b) actually being to be the guinea pig, as the early adopter on any new technology, be it widget or platform, accrues some risk that their project won’t go as planned.
The company and your teams benefit when employees are encouraged to discuss the practice of their craft.
Set internal groups up for success
These internal communities can be tough to start and keep going. If one spins up in your organization, help it out. Often, it’s a strong interest for a motivated team lead or small group of folks for a while, but if it remains unsupported by the organization, it can wither and die off. How can management support these internal communities and ensure their benefits accrue to the organization indefinitely?
Where I’ve seen these internal communities continue long term, it’s because some member of the management team sponsors the group. Whether the group forms from the top down or the bottom up, there needs to be a connection to the formal management chain, even if the group is an informal group. Having explicit sponsorship from management ensures that there’s an implicit incentive to participate. Sometimes all the group needs as support is the understanding that the technologists are going to be tied up in a meeting room on specific days over lunch. Give your technologists permission to collaborate, and watch the benefits accrue.
Having explicit sponsorship from management ensures that there’s an implicit incentive to participate.
Once the organization sanctions the group, let these internal communities self-organize, led by a team lead in one department. Hold the leader accountable to scheduling and running the meetings. Make it part of their job description. If that person leaves the company, tap a new person to lead the group. Embed the legacy in the organization to keep the company growing technically for years to come.
Through management buy-in, you can accrue the community benefits indefinitely. Ultimately what you want is an internal team that supports itself with minimal oversight and maximum community benefit.
What if I’m not a manager or team lead?
If you are a developer, what can you do from your seat? Quite a lot, actually.
If your organization has a Lunch and Learn program or a book club already established, participate. Show up to support them, and learn. If you can, volunteer to present. These internal programs always want people to give presentations and participate.
If your organization doesn’t have such a group, start one. It doesn’t have to be any more than a “hey, let’s talk shop-but-not-shop” group on just one team. Set aside a day a week to informally talk tech beyond your organization. Talk about techie hobbies. Work your way up to formal presentations. Or don’t. Come with an Open Spaces mindset and decide topic(s) on the fly.
You live technology day to day. Enjoy it. Share it. We’d love to hear how internal communities live in your organization!
