Collaborating in DevOps Culture

Chapter 1. Foundations of Collaboration

With the number of hours that we spend together working, it’s critical to build durable and long-lasting relationships with colleagues. This facilitates an understanding of the work an organization needs to do, and helps individuals plan for lifelong careers in the industry. The bedrocks of good, collaborative relationships are trust, empathy, and psychological safety. In this chapter, we briefly define each of these and explain how to foster them at work. We end with tips for how to promote effective, collaborative communication.

Empathy

Empathy is that ability that helps us understand how another person feels and imagine what they might be thinking, and improves our emotional connection with others. Here are the most common and effective methods for increasing empathy that can be applied in the workplace:

Listen

Active listening—really concentrating on what someone is communicating, not just passively hearing what they’re saying or planning our response—builds our empathy and gives others room to express their message.

Ask questions

Cultivating curiosity and asking questions can help us challenge our assumptions and biases. Example questions to ask yourself: What context could I be missing from that decision? What unconscious biases might I have that are affecting my opinions on this? Example questions to ask others: What led you to choose X over Y? Could you tell me a bit more about your thought process on this?

Appreciate individual ...