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> I just fail to see how one can build anything if priorities change on a daily basis. I experienced something like this in a startup where I was one of five e

> I just fail to see how one can build anything if priorities change on a daily basis. I experienced something like this in a startup where I was one of five engineers. We were lucky to have individual offices at the end of a hallway. The CEO would walk down the hall a couple of times a week, stopping in each office, and change priorities on us. He had no idea how disruptive it was and always laughed when we told him. Eventually the CEO saw that we were making very little progress, but attributed it to lack of engineering management rather than priority churn. He was absolutely right, because part of management is managing up. Luckily he hired someone who was great at that. The new manager spent time talking to each of us about our frustrations and then watched everything for a few weeks. He then realized that the priorities were going in circles - every few weeks the CEO would get back to the priorities from a few weeks earlier. So, whenever the CEO changed the priorities, the manager would say "we're on it" and not tell any of us. It took us a while to figure it out, but he'd also stall our releases until the "new" priorities lined up with what we were ready to release. Both productivity and morale sky-rocketed. And the CEO was happier than ever. I worked with the same manager in two other companies in subsequent years - I never felt as productive under anyone else.

andrei_says_ 3y ago
Thank you for sharing this. As I gain experience I see how important managing processes, requests and expectations is. The software and systems we build are a part of organizations and people with their personal agendas expectations and patterns. Seeing how everything is connected (all at once ;) is an incredible superpower, a true “Whoa” Neo moment. I am starting to apply my engineering skills to people and organizations, in the best meaning of the word - by seeing what they need, honoring what they are, approaching them with best intentions and clarity.
marktani 3y ago
Your comment made me smile. The manager seems smart and nimble, props to them!
lowercased 3y ago
> The CEO would walk down the hall a couple of times a week, stopping in each office, and change priorities on us.... Eventually the CEO saw that we were making very little progress... I'm flummoxed as to how someone can not see this. Can you not run a little thought experiment on yourself, like... "How much could I get done if every 3 days, I told someone to stop in the middle of their 4 day task and do something different?" It's not 'management rocket science', it seems it's just basic human behaviour. If every couple of days, someone kept giving the CEO new/different tasks, would he ever expect to be able to get anything done? How can you not see the root cause of such a plain-as-day problem? Willful ignorance?
- ajb 3y ago
  Because that's not how the CEO's job works - his job is to keep a bunch of plates spinning, and switch quickly to the one that's about to wobble off its pole. Sales is similar. If your CEO came up via sales, it's hard to believe that other professions need to work differently. I tried to convince a CEO of this once and he initially just got angry, then started to parse it as my personal need that he might need to make allowances for due to neurodiversity or something. That all his engineers might work better if they could focus on a task for more than a day was too far outside his world view to be believable to him. And this wasn't a stupid guy, no matter what it might sound like.
  - solraph 3y ago
    > And this wasn't a stupid guy, no matter what it might sound like. He might not lack intelligence, but a CEO unwilling or unable to understand the other people work in a different way to him /is/ stupid. CEO is management, and (effective) management means well... managing the various people, resources, and other restrictions to achieve the goals at hand. Being pissy that people and the universe don't work they way they want is immature and/or incompetent.
    - kcplate 3y ago
      > CEO is management I disagree, a CEO is not management in the sense you are describing. Being a CEO is more about decision making and direction setting for the organization holistically to maximize the value to the shareholders of the org. Depending on the size of the org, management might be a task they perform, but in larger orgs, CEOs rely on managers to manage.

andrei_says_ 3y ago

Thank you for sharing this. As I gain experience I see how important managing processes, requests and expectations is. The software and systems we build are a part of organizations and people with their personal agendas expectations and patterns. Seeing how everything is connected (all at once ;) is an incredible superpower, a true “Whoa” Neo moment. I am starting to apply my engineering skills to people and organizations, in the best meaning of the word - by seeing what they need, honoring what they are, approaching them with best intentions and clarity.

marktani 3y ago

Your comment made me smile. The manager seems smart and nimble, props to them!

lowercased 3y ago

> The CEO would walk down the hall a couple of times a week, stopping in each office, and change priorities on us.... Eventually the CEO saw that we were making very little progress... I'm flummoxed as to how someone can not see this. Can you not run a little thought experiment on yourself, like... "How much could I get done if every 3 days, I told someone to stop in the middle of their 4 day task and do something different?" It's not 'management rocket science', it seems it's just basic human behaviour. If every couple of days, someone kept giving the CEO new/different tasks, would he ever expect to be able to get anything done? How can you not see the root cause of such a plain-as-day problem? Willful ignorance?

ajb 3y ago
Because that's not how the CEO's job works - his job is to keep a bunch of plates spinning, and switch quickly to the one that's about to wobble off its pole. Sales is similar. If your CEO came up via sales, it's hard to believe that other professions need to work differently. I tried to convince a CEO of this once and he initially just got angry, then started to parse it as my personal need that he might need to make allowances for due to neurodiversity or something. That all his engineers might work better if they could focus on a task for more than a day was too far outside his world view to be believable to him. And this wasn't a stupid guy, no matter what it might sound like.
- solraph 3y ago
  > And this wasn't a stupid guy, no matter what it might sound like. He might not lack intelligence, but a CEO unwilling or unable to understand the other people work in a different way to him /is/ stupid. CEO is management, and (effective) management means well... managing the various people, resources, and other restrictions to achieve the goals at hand. Being pissy that people and the universe don't work they way they want is immature and/or incompetent.
  - kcplate 3y ago
    > CEO is management I disagree, a CEO is not management in the sense you are describing. Being a CEO is more about decision making and direction setting for the organization holistically to maximize the value to the shareholders of the org. Depending on the size of the org, management might be a task they perform, but in larger orgs, CEOs rely on managers to manage.