The High Five!

This episode explores the staggering statistics behind leadership mediocrity and discusses why so many managers fall short. We dive into actionable ways to align team goals, share a real story about the power of Teamangle Conversation Cards, and preview our upcoming free Teamangle webinar on December 12. Plus, we sprinkle some lighthearted banter about gym zombies and Brett’s Spotify Wrapped.

The Review

We discuss Greg's post, Leadership’s legacy problem—and how to solve it, and unpack why 82% of managers struggle with leadership and discuss ways to address the legacy of poor leadership. From aligning team goals to creating accountability frameworks, we highlight how leaders can improve. Plus, we share a real-life example of how Teamangle Conversation Cards helped a team overcome misalignment and foster productive conversations.

We also published two Teamangle articles this week:

• How to align goals for team success
• The power of shared goals: how one team unified around a common purpose

The Ask

If you’ve enjoyed the podcast, join us for our free Teamangle webinar on December 12 at noon ET. Here’s how you can help:

1. Register now to gain practical strategies for better communication, collaboration, and culture.
2. Share with a friend or colleague who could benefit from building stronger teams in 2025.

Let’s make 2025 your team’s best year yet!

The Hit List

Brett’s Picks:

• Listening: My embarrassing Spotify Wrapped.
• Reading: Pantone’s color of the year 2025

Greg’s Picks:

• Listening: David Bowie’s 1. Outside.
• Watching: The Penguin
• Reading: The General Intelligence Tsunami, Arena Magazine

The High Five

This week’s high-five goes to our growing audience! Thanks to all who are signing up for the webinar, joining our email list, and connecting with us on LinkedIn. Your support keeps us inspired and excited to bring you even more great content!

From Thanksgiving vibes to the memories that make us smile, we’re diving into the holiday vibes, exploring how you can turn your family gathering into a fun team-building experience. team-building experience. Plus, we’re launching our free Thanksgiving Conversation Cards game—perfect for family bonding and keeping the peace at the dinner table. Oh, and we’ll be TikToking all about them this weekend, so stay tuned! Get ready to laugh, reflect, and maybe even download something your family will actually enjoy this year.

The Review

Here’s what’s on the table:

Turning Thanksgiving into a fun family-building experience

• Discover our free Thanksgiving Conversation Cards game—a fun spin-off from the original set we designed to help teams align and thrive. This one’s for family bonding, not work emails.
• How we came up with the idea and how we're so excited about making stuff!
• What’s our favorite card?

The Ask

Do us a favor—share our Thanksgiving Cards far and wide! Seriously, let everyone know. Put it on your Facebook, and don’t worry when your Aunt Sheila can’t find the download button. Just tell her to email us.

The Hit List

Brett:

• Listening: The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess by Chappell Roan (plus, check out her NPR Tiny Desk Concert)
• Reading: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
• Watching: Game of Thrones (finally)

Greg:

• Listening: Music from the 90s like Tribe Called Quest
• Watching: Bad Monkey
• Reading: Do Hope

The High Five

This week, we’re high-fiving gratitude.

The best teams—and families—offer gratitude to one another. It feels good, strengthens relationships, and builds trust. So this Thanksgiving, take a moment to say thanks. You’ll be surprised how far it goes.

Happy Thanksgiving from Same Team Partners! 🦃 🍷 🥧

In this episode of The High Five, Greg dives into his new project, Unseen, exploring the growing issue of loneliness and how it affects us all. Meanwhile, Brett reacts to a thought-provoking Behavioral Scientist article on "bursty communication," sparking a lively discussion on remote work, collaboration rhythms, and why the “watercooler” metaphor needs a reboot. Plus, a look into this week’s Teamangle posts and exciting updates about the first-ever Teamangle webinar!

The Review

Here’s what we covered this week:

• Another take on remote work: burstiness is the new watercoolerBrett reacts to an article from Behavioral Scientist, challenging the idea of the "watercooler" and offering a fresh perspective on remote team dynamics:
  • Why "the watercooler" was never where work happened.
  • How "burstiness" fosters focus and collaboration in remote teams.
• Teamangle Blog Highlights:
  • Feedback that fuels growth: How one team’s open dialogue changed everything
  • Clarity through confirmation: how feedback loops improve team communication

The Ask

We’re hosting our first-ever Teamangle webinar on December 12 at noon ET! Join us to learn about aligning, adapting, and achieving with your team. Register now!

The Hit List

Brett

• Listening: Live Through This by Hole
• Watching: Nobody Wants This on Netflix

Greg

• Reading: The Physicist and The Comedian: Finding Your 12 Feynman Problems & Leveraging Martin Short’s 9 Categories to Be More Productive
• Reading: Designing DX

The High Five

This week’s high-five goes to us—for sending out email campaigns about Teamangle to all our contacts. It felt a little weird, but hey, this is business. Hate the game, not the player!

This week’s episode is full of fun stories, big updates, and practical tips for improving communication for your team. We cover everything from fiery mishaps to the wild world of icebreakers, all while diving into how brevity's power can change how teams communicate.

The Review

This week, we dive into the power of concise communication and why “less is more” can make all the difference. Key points include:

• Be Direct, Be Effective: Brett explains how being specific and clear—like setting deadlines and outlining outcomes—can prevent miscommunication.
  • Examples: Avoid vague phrases like “as soon as possible.” Instead, say, “Please complete this by Friday at 3 PM.”
• When Icebreakers Attack: Inspired by Greg's conversation with a friend, we discuss how icebreakers can be awkward, even anxiety-inducing. Brett’s “Golden Girls guy” moment is a fun example of how icebreakers can sometimes backfire, but we also share a few favorites that actually work.

This week, we published and are talking about:

• Why less is more: How brevity transformed communication in a busy team
• Be direct, be effective: How specificity and conciseness improve communication
• When icebreakers attack

The Ask

Download our first playbook, Your Team Work, Reimagined. This guide introduces the Teamangle framework for diagnosing and enhancing team alignment in communication, collaboration, and culture. It’s packed with insights and a self-assessment tool to help leaders unlock their team’s full potential. Download, read, and share it!

The Hit List

Brett

• Listening: SABLE, by Bon Iver
• Reading: The Onion Just Bought Alex Jones’ Infowars—No, Seriously
• Watching: It’s Florida, Man

Greg

• Listening: Low End Theory by Tribe Called Quest
• Reading: The Freaks Came Out To Write by Tricia Romano

The High Five

High five to Rhythm—we’re finally in sync, hitting our stride, and it feels great. Here’s to finding your rhythm and making it work!

This week’s episode is packed with insights, updates, and reflections on hybrid work, our Teamangle content strategy, and more.

We start with Brett’s story of waiting 3.5 hours in line to vote, giving him plenty of time to fill out our Election Day Burrito Bingo card, a fun project we pulled together Monday night.

The Review

This week’s topic focuses on the practicalities of hybrid work and why it shouldn’t be considered revolutionary—it’s just common sense. Brett shares his thoughts on a recent HBR article about Trip.com’s A/B testing of hybrid work, questioning the ethics and practicality of treating work modes as experiments. The conversation also reflects on previous experiences with hybrid work, where flexibility was embraced long before today’s technology made it even easier.

This week, we published and are talking about:

• Why hybrid work isn’t revolutionary—it’s just common sense
• Clear goals, clear results: defining your communication purpose
• Election Day survival guide: 10 ways to actually stay focused (or fake it) at work

The Ask

We need your help spreading the word about Teamangle! If you know people who could benefit from Teamangle or have connections in the podcast world, reach out. We’d love the chance to talk about our insights and impact on other platforms.

The Hit List

• Brett
  • Listening: The Cure, Songs Of A Lost World
  • Reading: Your Duty Remains The Same
• Greg
  • Listening: Underworld, Strawberry Hotel
  • Reading: Freak Kingdom: Hunter S. Thompson’s Manic Ten-Year Crusade Against American Fascism by Timothy Denevi

The High Five

High fives all around this week for Teamangle! The platform is solid, our offerings are ready, and we’ve got our game faces on. Here’s to an exciting launch and helping teams achieve their best year ever. LET'S GO!

The 2024 Halloween episode is live (we recorded last night before the trick-or-treaters could come and ruin our recording).

We start with a "scary" story from Brett's recent post, Work Horror Stories: The Spookiest (and Funniest) Scares From My Career 🎃👻, and then High Five on the first PM for Humans Book Club and the fact that we finally just ordered the Teamangle Conversation Cards so you can hopefully get yours soon!

Then, we get to the critical stuff in The Review: Same Team Partners publish three new articles weekly, every week, starting now! This week, we published and are talking about

• How knowing your audience will transform your team
• Mastering clarity in communication: How to know your audience
• Creating space for connection: the key to a thriving team culture

The Ask

Sign your team up for the Teamangle Diagnostic!

Teamangle equips you to lead your team to its best year ever. Our diagnostic tool goes beyond surface-level insights, pinpointing real issues with team alignment in communication, collaboration, and culture.

We don’t just deliver a report—we give you practical playbooks, workshops, and action plans designed to tackle challenges head-on. It’s team alignment with purpose, helping you create a connected, unstoppable team. Get the insights you need to make 2025 your best year ever.

Availability before end of year is limited, so book it now.

The Hot List:

Brett:

• Reading: Even Most Men Are Turned Off by Bro Cultures
• Listening: Mk.Gee, Two Star & The Dream Police

Greg:

• Reading: State of the Design Job Market 2024
• Listening: Hooverphonic: Blue Wonder Power Milk

The High Five

Go Dodgers! Go editorial calendar! Go Joshua Bullock! High Fives all around!

Thanks for listening and we hope your Friday Halloween candy hangover subsides soon.

In this episode, we reflect on how the end of Happy Cog Austin eventually led to the creation of Same Team Partners and the launch of Teamangle. We each share our perspective on the emotional journey that began with the closure of the Austin office, eventually sparking a new chapter of helping teams thrive.

Brett dives into his keynote at the 12th annual Digital PM Summit, where he introduced Teamangle—a framework built on communication, collaboration, and culture. Tune in to hear how the lessons from those early days shaped Teamangle and why the PM community resonated with tools like the Teamangle Conversation Cards.

The Ask

Remember the Fyre Festival? It was supposed to be a luxury event, but it became a viral disaster due to a complete breakdown in communication and planning. Teams didn’t talk to each other, promises weren’t realistic, and the whole thing collapsed. The lesson? If your team’s communication, collaboration, and culture are off, it can all fall apart. That’s why there’s Teamangle—the tool to help spot and fix those cracks before it’s too late.

Teamangle gives you a clear view of how your team functions, using data and insights to uncover problems in communication, collaboration, and culture before they become significant issues. With easy-to-use conversation tools and workshops, Teamangle helps teams work better together and ensures you don’t end up with your own disaster.

Want to make 2025 your team's best year ever? Check out Teamangle today.

The Hit List

Brett:

• Reading: Japan’s Jimi ‘Mundane’ Halloween Costumes of 2023
• Listening: Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat by Charli XCX
• Published: How and When to Say No to a Project

Greg:

• Reading: Alphabet in Motion
• Wearing: Los Angeles Dodgers '47 Royal/White Trawler Clean Up Trucker Snapback Hat
• Listening: Cocteau Twins: Heaven or Las Vegas

High Five!

This week, we're high-fiving about the completion of another Teamangle diagnostic. If you're interested in learning more, get in touch. We'd love to help.

This week on The High Five, we dive into the power of identifying team communication preferences for better collaboration through the lens of Brett's most recent Same Page post, Identifying team communication preferences for better collaboration.

Every team member brings a unique style to the table, and understanding these differences can unlock trust, productivity, and alignment. Brett explores key takeaways from Mark Murphy’s four communication styles framework, with insights on how tailoring communication leads to smoother teamwork, fewer misunderstandings, and better results.

But first, a quick look at recent happenings! Brett just returned from the Digital PM Summit, where he showcased Teamangle and handed out a “There is no AI in Team” shirt—right after an AI-themed presentation. Plus, the Teamangle cards are officially ready to order!

The Ask

Download Your Team Work, Reimagined, our free playbook, at our website. Discover the new Teamangle framework, tools, and insights to start transforming your team today.

The Hit List

Brett:

• Listening: The Smiths playlist on Spotify
• Watching: Monsters on Netflix
• Watching: Simon Sinek & Trevor Noah on Friendship, Loneliness, Vulnerability, and More

Greg:

• Reading: Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver BurkemanS
• Watching: Slow Horses Season 4

High Five!

• Project Management for Humans Book Club launches next week—only two seats left!
• Made progress on our next program, Open Practice.

Tune in now to learn how identifying communication preferences can take your team to the next level—and don't forget to grab your free playbook! 🎧

It's no secret that these are tough times for creative teams. They're being pushed to do more with less. Many are operating under tighter budgets, fewer resources, and higher expectations. Yet, despite these pressures, few teams are evolving their practices or processes to match the demands of this new reality. We've been there, and this week, we're discussing Brett's most recent post on Same Page, Navigating challenges for creative teams in 2025.

Brett is a storyteller this week. First is his experience at a haunted prison, followed by a scarier story about when the entire UX department was cut from Happy Cog, and they had to pick up the pieces. We tried to remember the details, which we probably got wrong, but the lesson was to take care of the team first and then worry about process changes.

That's partly why we developed the Teamangle, a tool to diagnose and address the heart of team performance: communication, collaboration, and culture challenges.

The Ask

Download our new playbook, Your Team Work, Reimagined.

The Hit List

Brett

• Speaking, Oct 14: Digital PM Summit
• Listening: Bakesale by Sebadoh (the song Skull)
• Work-related stress tops employers' health and wellbeing concerns

Greg

• Listening: Blue States: Your Girl
• Reading: State of Business Communication by Grammarly

High Five!

We're so stoked about launching Teamangle. We hope you'll check it out and share it with your networks.

Big news this week on The High Five! We're preparing for the official launch of the Teamangle, a team diagnostic to help uncover, diagnose, and solve challenges in the areas of communication, collaboration, and culture.

We're so excited about this launch, and while nothing is live yet, we've had tons of positive conversations with folks about the work we've done so far. Greg wrote Introducing our new team development and leadership framework, the Teamangle to start discussing the concept and dives into how and why we created Teamangle. Brett shares all of the upcoming Teamangle products and opportunities we have lined up for you. We hope you can feel the excitement!

The Ask

Subscribe to our site at sameteampartners.com so you can receive content updates, and of course, the launch of the Teamangle next week!

The Hit List

Brett:

• Speaking, Oct 14: Digital PM Summit
• Reading: Why Gaming Is Good for the Workplace

Greg:

• Listening: Junior Varsity - Cross the Street
• Watching: Bad Monkey

The High Five

Writing and content marketing! Get ready for all the Same Team Partners content coming your way!

Have a wonderful week.