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The quote you quoted says "signed up to do a job for him", but then what you describe is people being "tasked to do some portion of a project".

Is there a difference in that? If I sign up to do a job, that's quite different to having something assigned to me. Things I sign up for are things I have chosen, based on my abilities and enthusiasms; things that are assigned to me.. well, not so much.

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That was my observation as well. I find the quality of work goes up dramatically when people are invested personally in the success of their part of it. "Signing up", to me, is about committing to that sort of investment, and it's the signal I look for to know if a team is going to be healthy. Not having that signal is a two-way street, though -- sometimes the answer is to restructure the work overall so that the pieces align better with what team members will sign up for.

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