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> Slow times are for experimenting with things You've led a charmed life. In my 25 years in this business, I've found that very little induces the same level
by clifanatic 10y ago
> Slow times are for experimenting with things
You've led a charmed life. In my 25 years in this business, I've found that very little induces the same level of panic in management as "experimenting" with something, especially something that you can't put a solid "business case" behind and "estimate" down to the nearest half hour.
- BjoernKW 10y agoWhich is only to be expected. Middle management is not about leadership but all about mitigating risk (Seth Godin explains this quite well in 'Tribes'). It's both a shame and moronic that often assembly line paradigms of management are applied to non-assembly line work (i.e. work that isn't the same for each iteration). What's needed is to reframe work in terms of value instead of time wasted.
- dv_dt 10y agoWhat's interesting is that if you look at history, there are different 'assembly line' paradigms of management, one which could be maybe be termed 'classic American' style (which could be argued necessitated the rise of old-school unions, leading to anti-productive standoffs between management and labor), and the 'Toyota style' which ironically was founded/seeded in Japan by Americans which could not get larger American car companies to listen at the time. The 'Toyota style' could be argued as more responsive to worker initiative and fits better philosophically with software work. (And Agile is influenced by Toyota-way thinking too, though in a mutated form..)
- cookiecaper 10y agoThe "Toyota style" has already played a substantial role in the philosophy of influential technology companies like Apple and Pixar. Steve Jobs was a known admirer of W. Edwards Deming, who created it.