They feel it's unfair because the group is still not working as a collaborative unit in which everybody does their part. The way for that form "elite" programmer to get their bonus is to work to bring everybody else up to their level. They've probably been working in "super hero" mode for so long that they still imagine they must be doing the work personally, instead of helping others do it. A high-level manager needs to sit down with them and explain the new situation. If they are unwilling to do that, they are not an asset, so have HR actively help them find another job either inside or outside of the organization. Individual "heroes" are a liability on a team. They tend to form bottlenecks and hoard knowledge, and prevent the team from being a real team.
One way you can drive the culture into the new way of thinking is to have the team(s) adopt Mob/Ensemble programming _under the guidance of an experienced coach_. One organization I worked with did that for the entire engineering department (~2,000 developers). It was not optional. Sure, they lost some people, but they were willing to absorb the losses to increase overall productivity for the entire organization-wide software-development system. I trained several teams, then they rented a basketball court, set up a couple hundred tables, and brought everybody else up to speed, with the people I had trained serving as walking coaches.
It will always be the case that some people will be unhappy with any real change—usually the people who benefited most from a privileged position in the old system. It's also natural to lose those people as they seek an environment closer to the one they used to have. It's just part of any organizational change.
I agree with you. Firefighters and heroes is a sign of poor team cohesion. I am also looking into group reflective practice to get people learn from each other and gain insights. Especially for remote first teams.
Won’t some people feel that it is unfair to reward the whole group and how do you handle this reaction?
They feel it's unfair because the group is still not working as a collaborative unit in which everybody does their part. The way for that form "elite" programmer to get their bonus is to work to bring everybody else up to their level. They've probably been working in "super hero" mode for so long that they still imagine they must be doing the work personally, instead of helping others do it. A high-level manager needs to sit down with them and explain the new situation. If they are unwilling to do that, they are not an asset, so have HR actively help them find another job either inside or outside of the organization. Individual "heroes" are a liability on a team. They tend to form bottlenecks and hoard knowledge, and prevent the team from being a real team.
One way you can drive the culture into the new way of thinking is to have the team(s) adopt Mob/Ensemble programming _under the guidance of an experienced coach_. One organization I worked with did that for the entire engineering department (~2,000 developers). It was not optional. Sure, they lost some people, but they were willing to absorb the losses to increase overall productivity for the entire organization-wide software-development system. I trained several teams, then they rented a basketball court, set up a couple hundred tables, and brought everybody else up to speed, with the people I had trained serving as walking coaches.
It will always be the case that some people will be unhappy with any real change—usually the people who benefited most from a privileged position in the old system. It's also natural to lose those people as they seek an environment closer to the one they used to have. It's just part of any organizational change.
I agree with you. Firefighters and heroes is a sign of poor team cohesion. I am also looking into group reflective practice to get people learn from each other and gain insights. Especially for remote first teams.