Engineering Basketball
Engineering is a team sport. That might sound strange but hear me out. At its core, engineering is about a group of people coming together as a team to achieve a goal. Namely to build a piece of technology. Each team member contributes their unique skill and ability to the effort; their passion and experience. To succeed, the team must form a whole that is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Close cooperation and communication are essential. As are diversity of skill and discipline. Success can only be achieved by teams with the right group of people working together effectively.
Basketball is also a team sport. A group of players form a team to achieve a goal. In this case to put a ball in the basket more often than the other team. To do this well, it requires a mix of diverse talents, skillsets, and personalities. The team has to work together and become more than a collection of individuals. And winning teams do this at a very high level.
If engineering and basketball are similar at an abstract level, maybe they are similar in other ways. Maybe there are parallels in how successful engineering and basketball teams communicate. Maybe skillsets and personality types that make up great basketball teams could be applied to engineering teams. Maybe basketball rituals can tell us something about how to create close-nit teams. Maybe there are lessons to be learned from successful basketball organizations and their structure, cultures, and values.
This blog will be an exploration of the similarities between engineering and basketball. And how basketball principles and culture, rituals, mechanics, perspectives, and terminology may be applied to engineering practices to improve team collaboration, communication, motivation, and efficiency.
In the meantime, tell your friends!