What “work” looks like
blog.jim-nielsen.com
What “work” looks like
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Re: What “work” looks like
#2[deleted]
Re: What “work” looks like
#3The problem isn't so much what work looks like, but how to measure it. I'm kind of surprised with the shift to work from home (and in some cases back again) we haven't seen any large companies come out with analytical data about what is more effective and how they measure it. I'm guessing the reason why is because they don't, and any return to office policies are driven soley by pointy haired managers with no real data.
My company measures performance based on the company reaching its sales target, but as a lonely software engineer whose projects can still be months once I've finished them until they reach customers, my impact on that measure (in the short term) is basically nothing. We also do OKRs but somehow my team never get assigned any. Sure as an engineering team you can try to estimate cards and measure your velociy at the end of the sprint, but how do you do the same for a product manager or creative roles like a copywriter?
Re: What “work” looks like
#4Software development is creative work. Creative insight can come anywhere, any time. Better ideas can make difficult things easy. And make the impossible– possible.
So the most important thing on a software team (or really any team creating high technology products or services) is an environment where team members feel safe to be themselves– psychologically safe, where they can try out new things, make mistakes, fail, and not be punished or belittled. Say their ideas and have them improved by others, not criticized. It's an environment where team members take care of themselves so they can be creative– sleep enough, exercise enough, be with friends and family enough, play enough.
You have to be at your keyboard or lab bench or whatever enough to make things. But if you are there too much your creativity plummets. This is what I try to get across to my teams.
Re: What “work” looks like
#5That's one of the reasons I think being a founder is probably the most freeing job title one can have. There's no single human making judgements about your performance. Instead, the market is the judge.
That way, you focus on leverage and impact, not on "time on desk".
Also worth noting that sometimes there's no substitute to just sitting down and grinding away.
Re: What “work” looks like
#6Rich Hickey talks about this, calling it "hammock-driven development."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84n5oFoZBc
Aaron Sorkin has also touched on this:
> Most of the time, me writing looks—to the untrained eye—like someone watching ESPN. The truth is if you did a pie chart of the writing process, most of the time is spent thinking. When you’re loaded up and ready to go—when you’ve got that intention and obstacle for the first scene that’s all you need. For me at least, getting started is 90% of the battle. The difference between page zero and page two is all the difference in the world.
Re: What “work” looks like
#7For the past 3 years I’ve worked in an almost 100% pair programming environment. It works wonders for a lot of problems, especially around “code ownership”. It’s much harder to get precious with your code, or point fingers at someone else’s code, when the responsibility for every line is shared by at least two people.
But I found that the pressure of pairing shuts down a lot of thought. Long silences are forbidden in pairing; you must vocalize your thought process. I found myself searching for gaps in the conversation where I could think for a second and blurt out my thoughts before it’s too late to turn the train around. I believe pairing can lead to local maxima this way because there’s no room in the conversation for deep thought.
Re: What “work” looks like
#8The problem isn't so much what work looks like, but how to measure it. I'm kind of surprised with the shift to work from home (and in some cases back again) we haven't seen any large companies come out with analytical data about what is more effective and how they measure it. I'm guessing the reason why is because they don't, and any return to office policies are driven soley by pointy haired managers with no real da…
Well, the joke's on those PHBs, because soon we'll have the data available in the form of aggregate performance data for companies implementing return to office policies versus those that have not. I do not foresee the results favoring the "everybody in the office all the time" model.
Re: What “work” looks like
#9The problem isn't so much what work looks like, but how to measure it. I'm kind of surprised with the shift to work from home (and in some cases back again) we haven't seen any large companies come out with analytical data about what is more effective and how they measure it. I'm guessing the reason why is because they don't, and any return to office policies are driven soley by pointy haired managers with no real da…
Well, the joke's on those PHBs, because soon we'll have the data available in the form of aggregate performance data for companies implementing return to office policies versus those that have not. I do not foresee the results favoring the "everybody in the office all the time" model.
Do we then get to lay off large swaths of PHBs and replace them with people whose titles describe the actual value some of them can add and be respected for: clerk, administrator, evangelist, etc?
Re: What “work” looks like
#10No post body was provided.