Those who know me well know that I am a Critter and an avid Table Top Role Playing game fan. For those that don't know about Critical Role, it is a live D&D game featuring professional voice actors. The aspects of the game have many similarities to being on a development team, except that the team is really good at interpersonal interactions.
In the words of Matt Mercer.
That's the magic of role-playing games. You get to create something like you that's in some ways like you a little more aspirational. Then by living in that space, kind of make steps that are a little more like that aspiration. That's my life. I'm much of a functional human being than I would have been as a younger, nerdy, introverted kid because through role-playing games, I learned to be a little bit outside of that shell incrementally.
I adored the retrospective from this summer's campaign, Exandria Unlimited. It's truly a paradigm to model for a positive team project wrap-up.
They are so respectful, so insightful, and so graceful with how they interact. Watching them is truly inspiring. Of course, as actors, they are refined at what they do, but I think developers can learn a tremendous amount about emotional intelligence by watching this retrospective.