On a positive note, we just had a sprint retrospective today and the entire team gushed with praises for each other and we all agreed that team morale is great, and that we are accomplishing great things despite all the challenges we had been facing recently. I attribute this to a few things I’ve observed. First, we do have some extremely dedicated engineers who lead by example rather than granted authority. This garners huge respect for those members and makes everyone work that much harder so that they don’t disappoint anyone. Second, we have extremely positive non-technical members (PO, TL, SM) who are very encouraging, respectful, and willing to go to bat for anyone. Thus, we feel empowered and trusted. Third, we course correct, a lot. If there are problems and/or mistakes, we own up to them and focus on the solution. We face problems head-on instead engaging in finger-pointing and deflection. It’s honestly the best team I’ve ever worked with, and I will be sad when that has to end. I’ve worked on extremely toxic teams where all of the above what the exact opposite of what I just described and it usually ends in failure (through attrition, project realignment/cancellation, etc.). Oh, and the source of the toxicity is usually ONE person, but it spreads like a disease.