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I find analogies to physical systems help me generate "non-obvious" questions. What are some ways to break up a physical thermocline? 1. Mixing and turbulent
by xelxebar 5y ago
I find analogies to physical systems help me generate "non-obvious" questions.
What are some ways to break up a physical thermocline?
1. Mixing and turbulent flow between layers;
2. Radiators that transverse layers;
3. Redistribution of heat source.
What might these look like when translated into a business "thermocline"?
1. Break up the management hierarchy and distribute responsibility in a homogeneous, egalitarian way;
2. Make sure that at every meeting, no matter the hierarchy level, members from all levels are present;
3. Make management also deal with low-level GitLab tasks on a frequent basis.
Whether the above proposals actually work is big question; however, thanks to the physical analogy, the pretty much immediately came to mind. When ideas come cheap, it's easier to keep discarding them until a truly good one comes along.
- AlbertCory 5y agoPerhaps. Although someone at a company no longer in business told me about an active attempt to fix this problem by doing what you call (1) Mixing and (2) Radiators. There was a goal of August for the software project. In practical terms: top management made a serious effort to ask the engineers when the project would really be done, and without the presence of middle management. The consensus was, overwhelmingly, January. When this was shared among the top managers, they voted to keep the August deadline. Because they were committed to it. If you're guessing that it really finished in January, you must have heard this story before :) The moral is, you can expose them to accurate dates, but if they refuse to hear it, there's nothing you can do.
- euroderf 5y agoAt least three levels present, so that no matter which direction the man-in-the-middle is bending the truth, one of the other participants knows.