3 ms·

I honestly wonder if it IS possible to know roughly how a company works and be able to make tactical improvements throughout. This is dismissed as micromanaging

I honestly wonder if it IS possible to know roughly how a company works and be able to make tactical improvements throughout. This is dismissed as micromanaging, and most people lack the curiosity necessary to accomplish it, but could a CEO/CTO actually have a good enough understanding to make changes throughout an organization and fix the dumb things that every employee knows but doesn’t have the authority to change? I suppose most executives and management spend a ton of time in meetings and not making such tactical decisions, but I do wonder if it is possible. I’m reminded of SpaceX, who is run by Gwynne Shotwell and Elon Musk. Gwynne keeps the whole business machine running and manages existing programs so well that Elon has the bandwidth to dig down to a fractal level and address a lot of the weird issues & bottlenecks that everyone knows about while leading new programs extremely fast. Or at least, that’s the story (doubtless the CEO meddling has negative effects, too, but overall seems to work at least as well as traditional organizations that big). Also, maybe that can only happen in a business like SpaceX which is filled with a bunch of fantastic workers who are just really driven to make things work at all levels.

cecilpl2 5y ago
I too thought of SpaceX while reading your first paragraph. I've heard Elon Musk described as a "nanomanager".
- someguydave 5y ago
  I bet he plays the “bring me a rock” game with all of his reports.
  - ghostpepper 5y ago
    What game is this? I'm not familiar with it
    - johngalt 5y ago
      https://www.jrothman.com/pragmaticmanager/2002/01/volume-5-number-2-project-toolbox-recognizing-the-bring-me-a-rock-schedule-game/ https://www.jrothman.com/pragmaticmanager/2002/01/volume-5-n...
  - Robotbeat 5y ago
    Really? Is that an argument for “bring me a rock” being a successful strategy? SpaceX Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vs Vulcan and New Glenn and Ariane 6. SpaceX Starlink vs OneWeb. SpaceX Dragon Crew vs Boeing Starliner. SpaceX Starship HLS vs Blue Origin HLS.
phaedrus 5y ago
This is similar to the premise behind my "software archeology" tool idea. While working as a lowly developer at a medium-large company, I kept finding case after case where badly coded software was doing dumb/wasteful things, but I lacked the authority to fix problems from a systems perspective. I fantasized about what if there were some kind of internal company web app, a portal or dashboard, where people at the highest levels, if they cared (I am not even if sure they did), could drill down to a "fractal level" (as you called it) and see what the software is actually coded to do, presented in a way that makes sense to a non-programmer/higher-level understanding. The elevator pitch for this kind of IT product would be: "Software runs your business, and you don't know how it works." Unfortunately I never could figure out how to actually turn this into a real thing. None of the common approximations of software (modeling) do a very good job of capturing subtle aspects or of being more understandable than the code itself. The one conclusion I did come to is that it would have to be something where low level developers interpret and model the code to digest it for whatever format the portal uses, and not some kind of automated distillation or analysis of the code.
- CPLX 5y ago
  This is a genuinely great idea. I think it might in fact be impossible but if you ever figure it out you'll win all the marbles.
- greazy 5y ago
  Agreed this is a great idea. But imo you don't need such high resolution. Your target customers might end up being other programmers or managers though.
bonoboTP 5y ago
When you get down to it, many apparently "dumb" things are about power and status and political arm wrestling and compromise among departments.
readlikeasloth 5y ago
Why does it have to be the CEO? My first association was that Winston Wolfe character from Pulp Fiction. Wouldn´t it be neat if companies had that kind of fixer who you could call for the real hard problems? Like problems that arise from the structure of the organization and cannot be fixed on a micro level. Asking half joking, half serious.
- jaggederest 5y ago
  That's who I aspire to be, but my batting average isn't that fabulous, maybe .200, and it's really difficult to sell to people, because you have to catch it right on the cusp of being a recognizable problem. So people are inherently skeptical, and by the time it becomes obvious that they need some outside heavy hitter, it's too late for that strategy to be effective. I'd really like to systematize it, to be known as the solution for that kind of problem, but that's a different skillset than actually solving the problem, of course.
- jspiral 5y ago
  i have a bit of a reputation for doing this, and a few personal relationships with business leaders who have tapped me for these kind of projects. in the end its kind of dysfunctional every time because various people in the org own the relevant responsibilties already and you are basically micromanaging them against their will as a prelude to termination or reorganization. its not like the solutions are usually that hard to figure out, it's always a problem with people and their incentives ultimately. the fixer role is basically to give confidence to the CEO that disempowering certain people is safe and there's a path out.

cecilpl2 5y ago

I too thought of SpaceX while reading your first paragraph. I've heard Elon Musk described as a "nanomanager".

someguydave 5y ago
I bet he plays the “bring me a rock” game with all of his reports.
- ghostpepper 5y ago
  What game is this? I'm not familiar with it
  - johngalt 5y ago
    https://www.jrothman.com/pragmaticmanager/2002/01/volume-5-number-2-project-toolbox-recognizing-the-bring-me-a-rock-schedule-game/ https://www.jrothman.com/pragmaticmanager/2002/01/volume-5-n...
- Robotbeat 5y ago
  Really? Is that an argument for “bring me a rock” being a successful strategy? SpaceX Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vs Vulcan and New Glenn and Ariane 6. SpaceX Starlink vs OneWeb. SpaceX Dragon Crew vs Boeing Starliner. SpaceX Starship HLS vs Blue Origin HLS.

phaedrus 5y ago

This is similar to the premise behind my "software archeology" tool idea. While working as a lowly developer at a medium-large company, I kept finding case after case where badly coded software was doing dumb/wasteful things, but I lacked the authority to fix problems from a systems perspective. I fantasized about what if there were some kind of internal company web app, a portal or dashboard, where people at the highest levels, if they cared (I am not even if sure they did), could drill down to a "fractal level" (as you called it) and see what the software is actually coded to do, presented in a way that makes sense to a non-programmer/higher-level understanding. The elevator pitch for this kind of IT product would be: "Software runs your business, and you don't know how it works." Unfortunately I never could figure out how to actually turn this into a real thing. None of the common approximations of software (modeling) do a very good job of capturing subtle aspects or of being more understandable than the code itself. The one conclusion I did come to is that it would have to be something where low level developers interpret and model the code to digest it for whatever format the portal uses, and not some kind of automated distillation or analysis of the code.

CPLX 5y ago
This is a genuinely great idea. I think it might in fact be impossible but if you ever figure it out you'll win all the marbles.
greazy 5y ago
Agreed this is a great idea. But imo you don't need such high resolution. Your target customers might end up being other programmers or managers though.

bonoboTP 5y ago

When you get down to it, many apparently "dumb" things are about power and status and political arm wrestling and compromise among departments.

readlikeasloth 5y ago

Why does it have to be the CEO? My first association was that Winston Wolfe character from Pulp Fiction. Wouldn´t it be neat if companies had that kind of fixer who you could call for the real hard problems? Like problems that arise from the structure of the organization and cannot be fixed on a micro level. Asking half joking, half serious.

jaggederest 5y ago
That's who I aspire to be, but my batting average isn't that fabulous, maybe .200, and it's really difficult to sell to people, because you have to catch it right on the cusp of being a recognizable problem. So people are inherently skeptical, and by the time it becomes obvious that they need some outside heavy hitter, it's too late for that strategy to be effective. I'd really like to systematize it, to be known as the solution for that kind of problem, but that's a different skillset than actually solving the problem, of course.
jspiral 5y ago
i have a bit of a reputation for doing this, and a few personal relationships with business leaders who have tapped me for these kind of projects. in the end its kind of dysfunctional every time because various people in the org own the relevant responsibilties already and you are basically micromanaging them against their will as a prelude to termination or reorganization. its not like the solutions are usually that hard to figure out, it's always a problem with people and their incentives ultimately. the fixer role is basically to give confidence to the CEO that disempowering certain people is safe and there's a path out.