The quiet stand-up: a software team in Lahore

The case (fictional)

A nine-person mobile app team works at a software company in Lahore. Six months ago the company was bought by a Dubai-based group, and a new team lead, Kamran, was transferred in. Before that the team worked informally. Now there is a daily stand-up in English, recorded and sent to Dubai, and each developer's "bug count" is shown on a leaderboard.

Since then, two releases have been missed and bug reports have risen. Meetings are quiet; people say "yes sir" and then do something different. Junior developers message each other on WhatsApp to work out what Kamran meant rather than asking him. Two senior developers have resigned, and both exit interviews mention a "blame culture". A designer says that when she raised a risk to a deadline she was told, "Don't bring problems, bring solutions."

Kamran says the team "lacks ownership". He stays late fixing other people's code himself. An engagement survey shows very low scores on "I can raise problems without fear". HR proposes a team-building trip to Murree.

The team still helps each other informally and is proud of an app that is highly rated in the store.