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Good Culture Is the Biggest Productivity Hack, Not AI

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Re: Good Culture Is the Biggest Productivity Hack, Not AI

#61

Post by chanux »

zug_zug wrote: post #5

I think the points being made here are mostly good-ish. The last place I worked created a team of principles whose whole goal was to create a system to turn jira tickets into PRs and it was incredibly demotivating and bore no fruit before I left. But, and maybe I'm just a curmudgeon, but I kind of wonder why we write articles like this. Like if a culture is bad, is it likely a CEO is going to be looking for random bl…

> But, and maybe I'm just a curmudgeon, but I kind of wonder why we write articles like this.

Good question.

Personally, it feels good to read these when stuck in a bad situation/culture. Feels good (relieving) to write too. I don't really believe these reach and/or change the relevant category of people.

Re: Good Culture Is the Biggest Productivity Hack, Not AI

#62

Post by sph87 »

tikhonj wrote: post #51
dolni wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a worker, you can exercise your voice... by getting another job. That is your vote. The power of your vote is proportional to the value you bring. A while back I threatened to quit because I had a team dynamic that was untenable. I made a management change mandatory. I got a new boss. The old boss was later terminated.

You can also exercise your voice by... talking. That might mean trying to convince leadership, it might mean trying to coordinate a bunch of people who agree with you but don't want to act on their own, or, who knows, it might mean something else. But there are quite a lot of things you can do that are short of threatening to quit or simply leaving. (And sometimes just leaving really is the best step!)

I would argue that’s an asymmetric game. If your boss’s boss or higher already dislikes your boss, then convincing leadership would be easy. But bad bosses don’t become the big bad boss by winning over their subordinates. They spend more time with their own boss than you do, your boss is likely going to have a better relationship with their own boss than you do, simply by proximity. Assuming they aren’t just a flat asshole of course.

A vote would in turn provide a mechanism to prevent such abuse. The boss works for the people not for their boss. Likewise the boss is no longer bound to the whims of their own boss. Their boss is the people below them. A group they will inevitably rejoin with new found appreciation for the troubles of management.

Re: Good Culture Is the Biggest Productivity Hack, Not AI

#64

Post by ls-a »

dirtbag__dad wrote: post #57

[for companies with idk 100 or less headcount] Good culture boils down to: 1. Predictability. Flavors of it: deliver features on time, roadmap stays mostly stable, on demand requests are known about ahead of time, business struggling or doing well transparent, tech debt / upkeep are first class citizens of planned work. All of this is project management and communication. 2. Org pays market rate and has good benefits…

[dead]

Re: Good Culture Is the Biggest Productivity Hack, Not AI

#66

Post by MyHonestOpinon »

linuxhansl wrote: post #60

After 35 years in the industry in various capacities (from architect, engineer, VP, and different products, small and large companies, ...) I can heartily confirm this. A company with a good culture is like a good football or soccer team. They work with each other to win, they know each other (enough for the job at least). I am working at a bigger place now and the AI mandates handed down have been quite unproductive…

> I am working at a bigger place now and the AI mandates handed down have been quite unproductive... As if we wouldn't have been able ourselves to figure out how to use the new tools - like we have since the beginning of software.

This is so true. We have figured out how to use an endless list of software tools. Hardly anyone is as prepared to use the new tools as software engineers.

Re: Good Culture Is the Biggest Productivity Hack, Not AI

#69

Post by ahsteele »

dirtbag__dad wrote: post #57

[for companies with idk 100 or less headcount] Good culture boils down to: 1. Predictability. Flavors of it: deliver features on time, roadmap stays mostly stable, on demand requests are known about ahead of time, business struggling or doing well transparent, tech debt / upkeep are first class citizens of planned work. All of this is project management and communication. 2. Org pays market rate and has good benefits…

> If you push for change long enough, and aren’t an asshole about it, just genuinely interested and motivated, there’s a chance you’ll see your vision for better culture materialize.

Throughout my career, I’ve described this as “polite persistence is how you effect change.”

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