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Honest question, do you know many people who enjoy jumping into dysfunction and making it better?

by eric-hu 10y ago

sailfast 10y ago
Straight-up enjoyment? Definitely harder to find, though I think it's an important quality in a turnaround manager. You have to at least be willing to do some of that if you're an outside hire. Mainly, the OPs job sounds like it will be a cleanup / turnaround role since the past person was dismissed for poor communication and has a globally distributed team (remote teams are hard enough to manage even with good communication). The question asked by the OP indicates that they would not necessarily enjoy some dysfunction among the development teams so... maybe not the best fit unless they're willing to do some repair work. I'd be more worried about detecting dysfunction from management than from the teams that I would be leading. I know I will have the option to re-shape the team, but I will be dependent on support from management without much leverage there. Sounded like the OP knew the managers already and trusted them so not as big an issue for the OP.
napoleond 10y ago
I'm not the parent, but yes those people definitely exist. They enjoy improving human systems the same way hackers enjoy building things. And they get paid well for it.
- eric-hu 10y ago
  To me, it seems more analogous to coders who go into legacy spaghetti code repos to clean them up. I enjoyed establishing process with a team and iterating on it with a mostly functional team. I don't really care to get between drama and infighting, but I certainly see the value.
ktRolster 10y ago
do you know many people who enjoy jumping into dysfunction and making it better? It's as much fun as solving any problem. And even more fun if you get paid extra for it.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
BurningFrog 10y ago
If fixing that is your core skill, I expect you'd look for that kind of job.
- xhedley 10y ago
  I'm a product lead not a technical lead, but in that domain I prefer roles where the situation is dysfunctional. If everything is working well enough then management don't want a troubleshooter. If things are broken then there's a challenge in figuring out what's wrong, who needs to talk to who, who is making the situation worse ...
  - mud_dauber 10y ago
    I'm also a product lead. Plus, I've seen enough problem organizations over the years to yearn for a fixer-upper opportunity. It's an art.

Honest question, do you know many people who enjoy jumping into dysfunction and making it better?

by eric-hu 10y ago

Honest question, do you know many people who enjoy jumping into dysfunction and making it better?

Straight-up enjoyment? Definitely harder to find, though I think it's an important quality in a turnaround manager. You have to at least be willing to do some of that if you're an outside hire. Mainly, the OPs job sounds like it will be a cleanup / turnaround role since the past person was dismissed for poor communication and has a globally distributed team (remote teams are hard enough to manage even with good communication). The question asked by the OP indicates that they would not necessarily enjoy some dysfunction among the development teams so... maybe not the best fit unless they're willing to do some repair work. I'd be more worried about detecting dysfunction from management than from the teams that I would be leading. I know I will have the option to re-shape the team, but I will be dependent on support from management without much leverage there. Sounded like the OP knew the managers already and trusted them so not as big an issue for the OP.

napoleond 10y ago

I'm not the parent, but yes those people definitely exist. They enjoy improving human systems the same way hackers enjoy building things. And they get paid well for it.

eric-hu 10y ago
To me, it seems more analogous to coders who go into legacy spaghetti code repos to clean them up. I enjoyed establishing process with a team and iterating on it with a mostly functional team. I don't really care to get between drama and infighting, but I certainly see the value.

ktRolster 10y ago

do you know many people who enjoy jumping into dysfunction and making it better? It's as much fun as solving any problem. And even more fun if you get paid extra for it.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

BurningFrog 10y ago

If fixing that is your core skill, I expect you'd look for that kind of job.

xhedley 10y ago
I'm a product lead not a technical lead, but in that domain I prefer roles where the situation is dysfunctional. If everything is working well enough then management don't want a troubleshooter. If things are broken then there's a challenge in figuring out what's wrong, who needs to talk to who, who is making the situation worse ...
- mud_dauber 10y ago
  I'm also a product lead. Plus, I've seen enough problem organizations over the years to yearn for a fixer-upper opportunity. It's an art.