Order From ChaOS

After managing literally hundreds of technical people, I have found that although 'techies' are as varied as you can imagine, the glue that binds them is the belief that technology is fun. Consider this: regardless of background, technically skilled people have obtained their skills simply because they have enjoyed learning some aspect of a technical stack. It is so very important that, if you want a technical team to excel, the individuals feel that their skills are being applied appropriately and that they be given a path to learn even more technologies. This is where proper management comes in (and where I can help). Whether it be to match skills to tasks, ensure appropriate education, champion architectural decisions or oversee conflict resolution, I have done it all. I am a huge believer that we endeavor to always hire the best people but, often, careers are mismanaged and techies end up finding work either dull or overwhelming... and end up underperforming. I am not afraid to help people realize that, perhaps, they are not the right fit anymore (and it is time for them to move on)... but, I am also unafraid to demand management make changes to help employees find a way to contribute at a higher level.

Solve Your Puzzle

Puzzles…

They start chaotic in nature. But those of us who are good at puzzles can quickly put order to the chaos.

You keep uttering phrases like “why can’t I just…?”. And your tech teams keep telling you that they can build it. It’ll be easy they say. It’ll take 6 months and a a little bit of money… and, oh, but by the way, they will need you to be clear on the requirements. And then there’s that 6 months. You are surprised to find that they meant 6 months of effort… that’s a whopping 12 months in business years.

But, it turns out that most of what you want is already there. You just need them to back off and learn to connect to it.

Its amazing how easy it might just be. You just need to talk to someone who is technology agnostic. Someone who can detach your development team’s blinders and get them to see that they can connect to all kinds of reusable systems out there. And that they need to build detached reusable systems themselves.