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“many reports (and management self-help literature) where teams are shown to be the superior approach” Isn’t the manager himself the BDFL - or a part of a BDFL
by fsloth 2y ago
“many reports (and management self-help literature) where teams are shown to be the superior approach”
Isn’t the manager himself the BDFL - or a part of a BDFL led chain of command - for the team he is empowering in this case?
He does not give out the organizational governance-authority just by empowering the team.
Having a BDFL does not imply micromanagement or not empowering teams. It’a a different granularity role than implementing day-to-day issues.
There are people who are really talented leaders. The problem are bad leaders - not the governance model IMO. And this is not a “no true scotsman” argument since effective leadership is a documented and observable phenomenon.
Lack of authority is probably better than poor leadership but not better than good leadership (e.g. legendary John Kelly of Skunkworks fame for an fairly well documented example).
- Propelloni 2y agoGood point, and I wholly agree that there are really good leaders out there. But I wasn't trying to say that leaders are necessarily bad. I was trying to say that BDFL setups are not necessarily "the best" and there are good reasons to think that other forms of governance have just as good or even better track records. We do not talk about them that much because, I think, we just like hero stories and they are easier to tell with BDFL than with groups.