Team Topologies Book Club: Chapter 1 Discussions

I love books. I love reading books about work. I especially love discussing books related to work with my colleagues, so I frequently run and participate in book clubs at work. I’m currently running a book club with the book Team Topologies by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais, and I thought I’d share the discussion questions I’m using for the book club. Here are the questions for chapter 1:

1. What are the takeaways you have from this chapter?
2. What ways have you seen our company’s org chart mismatch our communication structures?
3. What are examples you’ve seen of missing dynamic and sensing aspects of traditional organization design?
4. How are we doing with regard to the five rules of thumb for designing organizations?
   1. Design when there is a compelling reason.
   2. Develop options for deciding on a design.
   3. Choose the right time to design.
   4. Look for clues that things are out of alignment.
   5. Stay alert to the future.
5. What are some examples you’ve seen of Conway’s law in action at our company?
6. What are some examples where teams at our company have had to deal with excessive cognitive load?