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Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

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Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#161

Post by mobjack »

kelnos wrote: post #150
mobjack wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blockers are not always obvious. People don't always realize that their tasks is blocking someone else. Often times when engineers are blocked, they work on a lower priority tasks while they wait. Sometimes that is a good thing but other times they get off track. Spending 10 minutes every day resolving the communication and prioritization mismatches early helps deliver software faster. With just weekly meetings, thes…

> Often times when engineers are blocked, they work on a lower priority tasks while they wait. Sometimes that is a good thing but other times they get off track. Not in my experience. Most developers I work with will raise issues in Slack as they come up. That's part of what being an owner of your tasks is about: communicating issues early and often.

Senior developers can work like that, but junior engineers need more managing.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#162

Post by nitely »

ansible wrote: post #147
nitely wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This assumes people don't communicate when they get blocked, but wait 24hs to announce it in a meeting.

Yes, exactly. A lot of people don't do a good job communicating this sort of thing. It helps to have someone else ask you what's blocking your progress.

Sure, adding meetings that affect the whole team instead of addressing someone's lack of communication is the way to go.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#163

Post by Lio »

GCA10 wrote: post #31

This article treats all types of announcements as being equal. Not so! A hazy announcement like "I'll be doing more to fight climate change" may indeed be empty virtue signaling that leads to nothing. But what about a more precise announcement like: "I'll be writing a book on Topic X, which I plan to publish 15 months from now, and I'll be completing one chapter on the 25th of every month until then"? Now we've got i…

That's not how I read it.

The article seems to be specifically addressing the precise announcements you talk about and is making the case that they are bad because they provide an emotional response similar to actual completion.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#164

Post by forgotpwd16 »

smacktoward wrote: post #75
mbarronj wrote: post #37

I call them "Secret Plans". You gotta save up the emotional energy and reward. On so many projects, you get the same neuro-chemical reward by talking about your project plans and how cool the result will be, as you do by making progress. By holding out, and only allowing progress itself to be a reward, and not just the talking, I usually get much further. The project may still die, but then I have something in my han…

The soft overcomes the hard. The slow overcomes the fast. Let your workings remain a mystery. Just show people the results. -- Tao Te Ching , Chapter 36, Stephen Mitchell translation ( http://taoteching.org.uk/index.php?c=36&a=Stephen+Mitchell )

Compared with the others translation on the same chapter, Mitchell's translation supposedly conveys the meaning rather than being exact?

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#165

Post by machinelearning »

vvanders wrote: post #137
machinelearning wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IME standups are not even effective in unblocking most people. Why would someone want to admit they're blocked by something in front of everyone? Someone else will inevitably proclaim that they have the solution, however simple it may be, and make the asker look stupid while elevating themselves. Most people know who to ask to be unblocked or can ask their manager. 1:1s are the time to sync with regards to status on…

I really hope you aren't using 1:1s as status meetings, that's the worst possible use of your time[1]. As a developer I've found stand-ups to be useful to know what's going on within the team and if feature A with collide with feature B. [1] https://randsinrepose.com/archives/the-update-the-vent-and-t...

I disagree with your reading of the article. It does not say that providing status updates in 1:1s are the "worst possible use of time" anywhere.

Quoted from the article: "The point of this discussion is not to solve my Disaster, the point is that we’re going to have a conversation where one of us is going to learn something more than just project status."

Status updates are a conducive part of 1:1s and its the perfect time to get unblocked as the quote above duly points out.

As for learning about whether "feature A will collide with feature B", weekly/biweekly roundtables are the perfect time to learn about such things. The weekly cadence allows people to find time to collaborate on the possible overlap.

Lastly, I don't think the article is even that good. It seems to make up for its lack of interesting-ness by feigning conviction and edginess. The central point of the article is highly unusual in that it lauds novelty over pragmatism.

A 1:1 should be an environment where all of what the article talks about CAN take place. But that doesn't mean it SHOULD during every meeting.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#166

Post by PikachuEXE »

high_derivative wrote: post #113
t34543 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I refuse to do stand ups

I found the best response to standups in a prior job was to randomise a delay about ongoing work. Simply talk about what you did 2-5 days ago (depending on urgency of things). This obfuscates your exact productivity and takes away organisational power from micro-managing bosses. Whenever a manager comes in or there is a meeting to check on your progress, you can slice of something from your buffer to present. For eve…

I am so glad I am not in a company that does standup Coz I am the tech lead hahahahaha

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#168

Post by em-bee »

nitely wrote: post #162
ansible wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, exactly. A lot of people don't do a good job communicating this sort of thing. It helps to have someone else ask you what's blocking your progress.

Sure, adding meetings that affect the whole team instead of addressing someone's lack of communication is the way to go.

that meeting is supposed to only take 5 minutes, and it is only to discover the issue, not to address it. addressing the issue happens after the meeting with only the people who are actually involved.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#169

Post by ken »

fhbdukfrh wrote: post #128
alexis_fr wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Standups to me are just a way to ensure everyone is awake. And able to answer a simple question and make a sentence. I don’t exactly care about the contents, except from time to time when it makes us notice that a colleague is on a wrong track.

They have real value in building team: We are all standing around in a circle; our alignment means something. They're also one of my easiest ways to include remote workers- they always go first. (the phone is part of the circle)

Aren't those contradictory? Someone talking on the phone clearly isn't standing in the circle with you.

I understand the benefit of standing together, but not if you're going to add an exception for someone talking on a phone from anywhere in the world. Physical alignment is a great metaphor for team alignment, and therefore physical absence shows me someone cares more about sitting on their porch with their dog than being part of the team at work.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#170

Post by nitely »

em-bee wrote: post #168
nitely wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, adding meetings that affect the whole team instead of addressing someone's lack of communication is the way to go.

that meeting is supposed to only take 5 minutes, and it is only to discover the issue, not to address it. addressing the issue happens after the meeting with only the people who are actually involved.

5 minutes or 5 hours, an interruption is an interruption. My ideal day to be fully productive would've no meetings at all. I don't need each day to be an ideal day, just once a week (or more if at all possible). However, when there is an scheduled interruption each day every day, guess what?

Also, anything that feels like micro-management will be considered micro-management. A daily meeting to give a status report looks a lot like that.

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