6 ms·

How to Manage People in 15 Minutes a Day

29 points by makimaki 18y ago

uberc 18y ago
This reminds me of Jack Welch's dictum to make every interaction with an employee an opportunity for evaluation. In quiet, implicit ways, a manager should always be evaluating his or her people, he says. The flip side suggested by this piece is that every interaction could be an opportunity for feedback and coaching also.
DenisM 18y ago
That just looks like a recipe for drive-by management to me.
- dpeq 18y ago
  From the title I would guess this is rather targeted on drive-through managers.
  - DenisM 18y ago
    Well, I guess drive-by is an improvement over drive-through, so this might have merit after all.
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
elq 18y ago
| "What do you need from me to make that project/transaction successful?" Go away and leave me alone so I can solve the problem?
- run4yourlives 18y ago
  Heh, I was asked that question yesterday, and gave pretty much the same answer - get out of my way. We both laughed, but he got the message loud and clear.
  - dpeq 18y ago
    You got his message too?
pkaler 18y ago
Wow, bad advice. Or maybe just bad advice for managing programmers. Interruptions suck and this advice just seems like interruption-based management. My advice would be to make communication asynchronous. Use something like Yammer for status updates to make sure everyone knows what everyone else is up to. Write good commit messages for each checkin. Make sure it's understood that everyone on the team is expected to read these checkin comments. Write release notes for each feature. Stuff these notes in a wiki. The audience for these release notes are the non-technical people in your company, too. Sales, marketing, production, design, etc. Have adhoc face-to-face time. At FogCreek, the team eats lunch together. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/12/29.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/12/29.html When I used to work at a game development company here in Vancouver, the entire team of programmers used to get up at 3PM and walk to the coffee shop together down the block to grab a coffee. This is when we would bounce ideas off of one another, talk about what we were stuck on, and let each other know what we were working on. Management tried to formalize this into 10AM Scrum-style standup meetings. That didn't work at all.
- DanielBMarkham 18y ago
  Have adhoc face-to-face time - key point. You're right that forced, formal scrums are a waste of time. The problem is, however, that spending time with your mates looks like a waste of time to a lot of people. You'd think it'd be an obviously good thing to do, right? By all means, take 15-30 minutes each day and grab coffee. Go for a walk as a team. Relax and chat about what work-related things are on your mind. Daily stand-ups are an attempt to get people doing this. But it's like pulling teeth. Unless you've actually been on a high-communicating team you just don't see the value. Even then for some folks it rarely occurs to them that by "wasting time" everyday they might be doubling or tripling their productivity. Then the scrums become bland and formal, nobody ever has any obstacles, the PM turns it into a status meeting, and you're truly wasting your time.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 18y ago
    Excellent point. We don't do scrum/agile, but I found the daily quick meetings valuable. What worked for me as team lead was to change my parking spot so I came in through the door nearest my team (we were at opposite ends of the bldg) and I'd hold a 5-10 minute meeting before I even sat down that day. A very simple "how did things go yesterday/what do you plan to do today/are there any obstacles or questions to get you going" and we were done. Contrast this to the larger status meeting with the bigger group which normally turned into a 1 hour waste of time!
skmurphy 18y ago
How to micro-manage and de-motivate people in 15 minutes every day. 1. Walking back to your office after a meeting? Praise in public, criticize in private. Don't correct someone in a hallway. 2. Constantly spot dead time. Relax and reflect on your own shortcomings and goals. 3. Don't show up without warning unless it's something urgent. This is an unnecessary interruption. 4. Make two calls on your way home from work: not unless it's urgent. You can't focus on a conversation and drive.
gstar 18y ago
Sounds like systemic lipservice-style management to me. I don't buy it at all, and I've only encountered this from MBA-types in our US office.

29 points by makimaki 18y ago

uberc 18y ago

This reminds me of Jack Welch's dictum to make every interaction with an employee an opportunity for evaluation. In quiet, implicit ways, a manager should always be evaluating his or her people, he says. The flip side suggested by this piece is that every interaction could be an opportunity for feedback and coaching also.

DenisM 18y ago

That just looks like a recipe for drive-by management to me.

dpeq 18y ago
From the title I would guess this is rather targeted on drive-through managers.
- DenisM 18y ago
  Well, I guess drive-by is an improvement over drive-through, so this might have merit after all.

deleted 18y ago

[deleted]

elq 18y ago

| "What do you need from me to make that project/transaction successful?" Go away and leave me alone so I can solve the problem?

run4yourlives 18y ago
Heh, I was asked that question yesterday, and gave pretty much the same answer - get out of my way. We both laughed, but he got the message loud and clear.
- dpeq 18y ago
  You got his message too?

pkaler 18y ago

Wow, bad advice. Or maybe just bad advice for managing programmers. Interruptions suck and this advice just seems like interruption-based management. My advice would be to make communication asynchronous. Use something like Yammer for status updates to make sure everyone knows what everyone else is up to. Write good commit messages for each checkin. Make sure it's understood that everyone on the team is expected to read these checkin comments. Write release notes for each feature. Stuff these notes in a wiki. The audience for these release notes are the non-technical people in your company, too. Sales, marketing, production, design, etc. Have adhoc face-to-face time. At FogCreek, the team eats lunch together. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/12/29.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/12/29.html When I used to work at a game development company here in Vancouver, the entire team of programmers used to get up at 3PM and walk to the coffee shop together down the block to grab a coffee. This is when we would bounce ideas off of one another, talk about what we were stuck on, and let each other know what we were working on. Management tried to formalize this into 10AM Scrum-style standup meetings. That didn't work at all.

DanielBMarkham 18y ago
Have adhoc face-to-face time - key point. You're right that forced, formal scrums are a waste of time. The problem is, however, that spending time with your mates looks like a waste of time to a lot of people. You'd think it'd be an obviously good thing to do, right? By all means, take 15-30 minutes each day and grab coffee. Go for a walk as a team. Relax and chat about what work-related things are on your mind. Daily stand-ups are an attempt to get people doing this. But it's like pulling teeth. Unless you've actually been on a high-communicating team you just don't see the value. Even then for some folks it rarely occurs to them that by "wasting time" everyday they might be doubling or tripling their productivity. Then the scrums become bland and formal, nobody ever has any obstacles, the PM turns it into a status meeting, and you're truly wasting your time.
- HeyLaughingBoy 18y ago
  Excellent point. We don't do scrum/agile, but I found the daily quick meetings valuable. What worked for me as team lead was to change my parking spot so I came in through the door nearest my team (we were at opposite ends of the bldg) and I'd hold a 5-10 minute meeting before I even sat down that day. A very simple "how did things go yesterday/what do you plan to do today/are there any obstacles or questions to get you going" and we were done. Contrast this to the larger status meeting with the bigger group which normally turned into a 1 hour waste of time!

skmurphy 18y ago

How to micro-manage and de-motivate people in 15 minutes every day. 1. Walking back to your office after a meeting? Praise in public, criticize in private. Don't correct someone in a hallway. 2. Constantly spot dead time. Relax and reflect on your own shortcomings and goals. 3. Don't show up without warning unless it's something urgent. This is an unnecessary interruption. 4. Make two calls on your way home from work: not unless it's urgent. You can't focus on a conversation and drive.

gstar 18y ago

Sounds like systemic lipservice-style management to me. I don't buy it at all, and I've only encountered this from MBA-types in our US office.