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"Examples of behaviors that reflect a mechanistic mindset include doctors: Performing medical procedures without letting patients know what’s happening Ignori

"Examples of behaviors that reflect a mechanistic mindset include doctors: Performing medical procedures without letting patients know what’s happening Ignoring patients’ complaints about pain Taking pictures of patients’ injuries for documentation without informing the patient Behaviors reflecting a humanistic mindset include doctors: Comforting patients verbally or physically Covering patients with a blanket after procedures are completed Complying with patients’ requests to relieve discomfort, such as adjusting bed height or shifting medical tubes" Absolutely! Some of the ways my manager has been mechanistic: setting OKRs out of thin air that he can't explain how it ties to any business goal, we just have it. Can't explain why something needs to be out of the door by a specific date, just gotta have it. Why the CTO asks to take caution during holidays but manager is giving negative ratings to people who listened to the CTO. Ignoring engineer explaination of risk for their aspirational timelines. I could go on. But poor managers are often the root cause of poor execution because managers forget that they are working with actual intelligent adults and that filling up context lets these adults make rational choices or to explain why certain things can't work. To be fair, my manager experiences the same from his boss and all the way up.

cm11 3y ago
I think your last sentence is usually the culprit. Person gets a set of contradicting constraints. Person wants to poke at the contradiction before starting the actual work. Person doesn't have the power to just make the call on their own so goes to direct managers, PMs, teammates, or whoever are providing the competing directions causing the issue. Turns out they didn't notice the issue (they never talk) and also turns out they also don't have the power to just make the call. When I became a manager, I found the same. Managers need to know what's going on broadly (which is doable, takes work, and some managers do) and to not shirk from pointing out misalignments across projects (which is harder, involves stepping on toes such that your project is better but your day longer, and most managers do not do). I don't think I ever struggled with the idea that this was hard, but I've always despised when my managers/PMs wouldn't do their one part and voice it to the next level above.

cm11 3y ago

I think your last sentence is usually the culprit. Person gets a set of contradicting constraints. Person wants to poke at the contradiction before starting the actual work. Person doesn't have the power to just make the call on their own so goes to direct managers, PMs, teammates, or whoever are providing the competing directions causing the issue. Turns out they didn't notice the issue (they never talk) and also turns out they also don't have the power to just make the call. When I became a manager, I found the same. Managers need to know what's going on broadly (which is doable, takes work, and some managers do) and to not shirk from pointing out misalignments across projects (which is harder, involves stepping on toes such that your project is better but your day longer, and most managers do not do). I don't think I ever struggled with the idea that this was hard, but I've always despised when my managers/PMs wouldn't do their one part and voice it to the next level above.