Embrace Complexity; Tighten Your Feedback Loops
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Re: Embrace Complexity; Tighten Your Feedback Loops
#2[deleted]
Re: Embrace Complexity; Tighten Your Feedback Loops
#3This comment is in reference to the second to last paragraph (there's something weird going on with that page that's preventing me from copying text on my mobile). That paragraph says something like "by being outside silos you can carry information around and tie it all together".
I've been thinking about my role as a technical writer (TW) recently. I think TWs have a lot of opportunity to operate in a similar way. The real name of the game for my line of work is organizational knowledge management. For example, I've had some [1] success getting Eng teams to dump common Q&A into Stack Overflow so that the next time the issue comes up they can just link customers to that answer. It often feels a bit more lightweight and less intimidating than updating the official docs. Also the Q and A nature of Stack Overflow keeps the docs request tightly scoped. And of course the end result is that the knowledge is much more accessible.
On the other hand, maybe there's nothing special about SREs or TWs here and "organizational knowledge management" is the name of the game for every role in the org. We all just tackle the problem from a different angle.
[1] Emphasis on "some" here. Sometimes it works very well, other times it doesn't go anywhere.
Re: Embrace Complexity; Tighten Your Feedback Loops
#4A lot of good information.
But my cynical worker viewpoint is that the problem is really that upper management doesn't do the actual work and that is by design. It's a class separation. They are there to crack the whip and collect the spoils.
The only way for upper management to really understand what's going on and give useful input would be for them to be directly involved on a day-to-day basis.
In other words, they would have to do actual work.
That's not going to happen. So the best they can do is to stay out of the way of people who are actually working, avoid making decrees, and maybe try to keep the other managers from interfering with the work also.
Maybe another approach would be for the workers to share more equally in the spoils so that they would be naturally inclined to integrate business improvements and goals. But that's never going to happen.
The structure is much more directly related to a caste system than people may acknowledge.
Re: Embrace Complexity; Tighten Your Feedback Loops
#5A lot of good information. But my cynical worker viewpoint is that the problem is really that upper management doesn't do the actual work and that is by design. It's a class separation. They are there to crack the whip and collect the spoils. The only way for upper management to really understand what's going on and give useful input would be for them to be directly involved on a day-to-day basis. In other words, the…
That's a point of view that would change quickly if you were in one of those management positions.
You get to a point where it's impossible to do the work anymore. There's too much of it. You have to develop teams, processes, structure, etc. that delivers the outcomes you're accountable for with full knowledge that you cannot do them yourself. It's very different than doing the work and experience shows that fewer people are capable of doing it, especially with any repeatability. The working world yearns for effective managers.
I encourage you to compare the productivity of the modern multinational corporation to any commune in history. The people working in collectives are not stupid or lazy. It's not an effective structure.
Re: Embrace Complexity; Tighten Your Feedback Loops
#6A lot of good information. But my cynical worker viewpoint is that the problem is really that upper management doesn't do the actual work and that is by design. It's a class separation. They are there to crack the whip and collect the spoils. The only way for upper management to really understand what's going on and give useful input would be for them to be directly involved on a day-to-day basis. In other words, the…
>They are there to crack the whip and collect the spoils
This is historically correct
Here's a recent unambiguous proof from Tesla's own words:
"Tesla argued that stock options were used to ensure Director's incentives were aligned with investor goals." [1]
Said another way, "we massively over-paid directors in order to give them an incentive to prioritize investor goals over all other goals"
In the parlance of finance this is the only goal and the ultimate decision that cannot be questioned.
I have seen this made explicit in multiple organizations as a Director or Senior Manager. As a manager, if you are explicit in supporting employee benefits over increase in stock price or C-Suite direction (when given the choice) then you should expect no further growth or promotions (unless you can manipulate the org or have some damaging information on the company).
>Maybe another approach would be for the workers to share more equally in the spoils so that they would be naturally inclined to integrate business improvements and goals
The strong form of this is a worker-owned-cooperative but second to that are labor unions. So if you want to change it, then start/join a union and stop creating corporations with separate ownership rules for investors.
[1]https://www.engadget.com/tesla-directors-agree-to-return-735...
Re: Embrace Complexity; Tighten Your Feedback Loops
#7A lot of good information. But my cynical worker viewpoint is that the problem is really that upper management doesn't do the actual work and that is by design. It's a class separation. They are there to crack the whip and collect the spoils. The only way for upper management to really understand what's going on and give useful input would be for them to be directly involved on a day-to-day basis. In other words, the…
That's a point of view that would change quickly if you were in one of those management positions. You get to a point where it's impossible to do the work anymore. There's too much of it. You have to develop teams, processes, structure, etc. that delivers the outcomes you're accountable for with full knowledge that you cannot do them yourself. It's very different than doing the work and experience shows that fewer pe…
Agree. In fact one problem many have when new to management is actually doing the work themselves rather than coaching others to achieve it.
Re: Embrace Complexity; Tighten Your Feedback Loops
#8A lot of good information. But my cynical worker viewpoint is that the problem is really that upper management doesn't do the actual work and that is by design. It's a class separation. They are there to crack the whip and collect the spoils. The only way for upper management to really understand what's going on and give useful input would be for them to be directly involved on a day-to-day basis. In other words, the…
>They are there to crack the whip and collect the spoils This is historically correct Here's a recent unambiguous proof from Tesla's own words: "Tesla argued that stock options were used to ensure Director's incentives were aligned with investor goals." [1] Said another way, "we massively over-paid directors in order to give them an incentive to prioritize investor goals over all other goals" In the parlance of finan…
Workers vs investors shouldn't be seen as a zero sum game. If it is then that's short-term thinking. Simon Sinek explains this all very well in The Infinite Game.
Re: Embrace Complexity; Tighten Your Feedback Loops
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
>They are there to crack the whip and collect the spoils This is historically correct Here's a recent unambiguous proof from Tesla's own words: "Tesla argued that stock options were used to ensure Director's incentives were aligned with investor goals." [1] Said another way, "we massively over-paid directors in order to give them an incentive to prioritize investor goals over all other goals" In the parlance of finan…
Workers vs investors shouldn't be seen as a zero sum game. If it is then that's short-term thinking. Simon Sinek explains this all very well in The Infinite Game.
Why should they care about long term health of the company when their stake can change [almost] on a whim?
The whole system seems to exist for short term profits.
Re: Embrace Complexity; Tighten Your Feedback Loops
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
>They are there to crack the whip and collect the spoils This is historically correct Here's a recent unambiguous proof from Tesla's own words: "Tesla argued that stock options were used to ensure Director's incentives were aligned with investor goals." [1] Said another way, "we massively over-paid directors in order to give them an incentive to prioritize investor goals over all other goals" In the parlance of finan…
Workers vs investors shouldn't be seen as a zero sum game. If it is then that's short-term thinking. Simon Sinek explains this all very well in The Infinite Game.
Simon is wrong.
It is absolutely zero sum for any measure that matters over periods that are impactful to individual and familial human flourishing
This capitalist rationalization of greed-based markets, loves to pick whatever timeline for measurement which fits their criteria.
It is unambiguous that wealth and power accumulation will persistently concentrate into the smallest number of hands in absence of collective structural countermeasures.
So the default state of large scale capatalist systems follows power law in both wealth and power distribution. It’s a mathematical reality that is shown over and over and over to repeat itself