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>When people complain it's a 'you said, he said' situation where the manipulator inevitably wins There’s no such thing as a free lunch. These types must have w

by mikrl 3y ago

>When people complain it's a 'you said, he said' situation where the manipulator inevitably wins There’s no such thing as a free lunch. These types must have weaknesses of their own. I’m growing the cynicism necessary to tolerate them, but I’d like to know more robust strategies to manage them and keep them in check. I find it hard to truly hate people, but with this type I can muster some pretty flowery invective on the spot.

ethbr1 3y ago
Unfortunately, it's a time disparity issue. Someone who politics for more time (with some aptitude) will generally beat out someone who doesn't. One of the marks in favor of being cutthroat about pre-registering KPIs and expected outcomes, and then evaluating solely based on them. In the end, I think it comes down to organizational culture. The companies I've seen with healthier executive ranks all had a very strong culture/tradition of "brook no bullshit" and shunned/discouraged up and coming colleagues from doing the same. As well as a focus on a central, objective mission (e.g. "Does this help us X?"). You still got bad apples, but their behavior wasn't nearly as pervasive as I've seen other places.
- mikrl 3y ago
  Yea I’m fortunate to have worked in more good companies than pathological ones, so maybe whatever my strategy is has worked so far.
- marcosdumay 3y ago
  > One of the marks in favor of being cutthroat about pre-registering KPIs and expected outcomes, and then evaluating solely based on them. That's the only thing off in your comment. Those KPIs are always set by politics, always have surprisingly subjective measurements, and always have unpredictable consequences that are cleared out by politics. An environment with all formal strictly set objective metrics is one of the easiest ones to manipulate.
  - ethbr1 3y ago
    The worst option, except for all the other ones. What's the better alternative?
    - marcosdumay 3y ago
      Have the KPIs, but stay aware that they aren't objective and complete measurements of individual performance, thus keeping the entire revision and verification of reported data.
      - ethbr1 3y ago
        > "thus keeping the entire revision and verification of reported data." What does that mean? The entire point of KPIs is to better solve the "subjective measures allow politicial employees to dominate less-so ones" problem, by converting it into a "defining KPIs such that gaming them produces outcomes beneficial to the company" problem. KPIs aren't objective, but they're certainly more objective than manager opinions.

by mikrl 3y ago

ethbr1 3y ago

Unfortunately, it's a time disparity issue. Someone who politics for more time (with some aptitude) will generally beat out someone who doesn't. One of the marks in favor of being cutthroat about pre-registering KPIs and expected outcomes, and then evaluating solely based on them. In the end, I think it comes down to organizational culture. The companies I've seen with healthier executive ranks all had a very strong culture/tradition of "brook no bullshit" and shunned/discouraged up and coming colleagues from doing the same. As well as a focus on a central, objective mission (e.g. "Does this help us X?"). You still got bad apples, but their behavior wasn't nearly as pervasive as I've seen other places.

mikrl 3y ago
Yea I’m fortunate to have worked in more good companies than pathological ones, so maybe whatever my strategy is has worked so far.
marcosdumay 3y ago
> One of the marks in favor of being cutthroat about pre-registering KPIs and expected outcomes, and then evaluating solely based on them. That's the only thing off in your comment. Those KPIs are always set by politics, always have surprisingly subjective measurements, and always have unpredictable consequences that are cleared out by politics. An environment with all formal strictly set objective metrics is one of the easiest ones to manipulate.
- ethbr1 3y ago
  The worst option, except for all the other ones. What's the better alternative?
  - marcosdumay 3y ago
    Have the KPIs, but stay aware that they aren't objective and complete measurements of individual performance, thus keeping the entire revision and verification of reported data.
    - ethbr1 3y ago
      > "thus keeping the entire revision and verification of reported data." What does that mean? The entire point of KPIs is to better solve the "subjective measures allow politicial employees to dominate less-so ones" problem, by converting it into a "defining KPIs such that gaming them produces outcomes beneficial to the company" problem. KPIs aren't objective, but they're certainly more objective than manager opinions.