[zaphar]

By your definition no team is well-functioning all the time. There will always be a point where there is a deadlock. And if no one on the team has been empowered by the organization to break that deadlock then it will fall to some one who is not familiar with the problem and lacks context. This is fundamental to working on a team and it is why almost universally every team in any context has a "leader".

While it's true that for the most part a well functioning team will hash them out without a Tech Lead having to break a deadlock. It's also true that a deadlock is nearly inevitable at some time in the teams future.

[bryanlarsen]

> There will always be a point where there is a deadlock.

I've been on teams where this has never been the case. There are temporary deadlocks and disagreements, sure. But they always resolve via consensus somehow. Good leadership, horse trading, more investigation, experiments. Heck I even remember an incident where we resolved a disagreement with a coin flip. We realized we were bike shedding and just ended it.

The point is that if you resolve a deadlock but after the deadlock there is still somebody that is dissatisfied with the outcome, you don't have a well functioning team.

[zaphar]

Anecdotes are always a terrible way to prove a point. I suspect that your examples are probably the kind that prove the rule. You may have been on teams where deadlocks didn't happen for your tenure. But did they happen before or after your tenure? A tech lead is like health insurance. It's not there for when you aren't sick. It's there for when you are. and it's usually too late to get it when you are already sick.