Respecting Other People

I think one key ingredient in forming a working team is the respect of other people. People may have different skill sets and they may live in different countries. For as long as we see each others as individuals and equals, we can achieve great results.

I think some people, and maybe more often people with academic backgrounds, have a tendency to look down on others. With distributed or virtual teams this is even easier than in normal teams, since you don't have to see the others face to face so often. It is easier to start thinking about "us" and (or even versus) "them".

I would place respecting individuals and trust as the top characteristics to look for in people who are supposed to work in multinational distributed teams. And of course willingness to learn. But that's probably a must have in knowledge work anyway.

I think in a Scrum Team the Scrum Master should be the champion of these values. Constantly showing example of respecting others. Architects or newly graduates, it doesn't matter. Everyone in the team brings their contribution and help pursuit the common goal. And everyone deserves their place.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.