I must have been a “lazy, incompetent manager” by the words of this author. We had few-times-a-week stand ups because:
1. I suggested we do daily standups when COVID (and with it, WFH) started and review how it goes. A month or so later, checked with the team, and we decided to reduce it to 3x/week. We reviewed this later every now and then and the team decided it still works, so we kept it.
2. It was the very few times a week when everyone from the team got a sense of what everyone else is doing - and how they can help. We cheered on successes, cracked jokes, and shared information. Call me old-fashioned, but I really liked these occasions, as it gave me a sense of belonging to a group of people. And no, this was not about me, as a manager wanting to micromanage.
We were a team in one location/timezone, and this standup was one of the few things that helped feel connected. We also had multiple recent joiners with less industry experience who found the standups far more important/engaging than most others: this is also a dynamic worth noting (that will not apply to every team).
I’m not arguing that this works for everyone, not that it’s the way to go for a distributed team across 6+ time zones, like the company of the author is set up.
But assuming the world is black-and-white (“daily standups: bad, managers insisting on daily standups: incompetent”) is ignorant thinking at best; deliberately wanting to spark attention so people like me to grab a keyboard to type this out at worst.
I’m happy this team figured out what works for them: I’d encourage all teams to find your jam. And don’t assume everything else must be bad.