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Organization probably doesn't want to improve things

ludic.mataroa.blog

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Re: Organization probably doesn't want to improve things

#21

Post by ludicity »

addicted wrote: post #16

> My current organization has 8000 staff members, and I used to glance over the usage metrics of the dashboards my old team produced. I believe three dashboards were used, out of somewhere around 50 - 100. Of those being visited, it usually turned out they were being visited by members of our team checking to see if the data had refreshed for the day. I'd estimate the cost of maintaining our team was approximately $1…

It's slightly more complicated, and the numbers are somewhat obfuscated to hide my actual employer. You're right that these numbers are not a huge deal - that much is obvious, or we wouldn't be wasting that money.

What is more relevant to the average reader is that we have a large department in this space, and almost all (not all) the work is pointless because the numbers just don't matter at this scale. We have a core business that generates amounts of money large enough to fund departments that do nothing other than reaffirm that we care about whatever that department is supposed to do. That's totally fine (though I doubt it's a deliberate strategy) unless you waste time thinking they want to make people read the dashboards. It turns out that it's totally irrelevant to anything - they just want to have the team there to say they care about data, and you'll go insane if you try to do your job better.

(Excellent critique though.)

Re: Organization probably doesn't want to improve things

#22

Post by pdimitar »

smokefoot wrote: post #15
pdimitar wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How? Programmers don't have executive powers. You are very often told that this is not your job and you should be doing yours and leave the "experts" to theirs. Well, they are not experts. They are not even at the level of informed amateurs. But they have the power. What would you do? Sure, there are good companies and you can switch until you find one but let's recognize that statistically speaking this absolutely d…

In no particular order: 1. Use your powers of persuasion to drive better decisions 2. Recruit some good people 3. Suggest and execute some positive changes—“there’s this thing called source control and it’s great…” or, “seems like the reports we built aren’t that useful—how can we make this better” There’s a trap here which is thinking it’s all crap so I may as well not try. It’s seductive but quite poinsonous to the…

> 1. Use your powers of persuasion to drive better decisions

"Appreciate the feedback but we got this covered. Please resume your duties."

> 2. Recruit some good people

Did you miss the part where I said that my comment is from the point of view of a working programmer and not an executive?

> 3. Suggest and execute some positive changes

See my reply to your (1) above.

> “there’s this thing called source control and it’s great…”

"Don't be a condescending smart-ass please, you are not being a team player right now."

> “seems like the reports we built aren’t that useful—how can we make this better”

"They work well enough for us and we have no time budget for any modifications, and we are not convinced the said modifications are necessary at all".

---

Your move.

Re: Organization probably doesn't want to improve things

#23

Post by pdimitar »

ludicity wrote: post #18
pdimitar wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Truth be told, I liked your article a lot but that particular example definitely should have been replaced with something more concrete and a bit more convincing. Having several copies of a GIT repo for different branches is a viable strategy as long as one does not do force-pushes.

Thank you for the feedback - I hammered this out over an hour this morning, and wasn't really expecting much readership but should have been more careful. As noted elsewhere on my blog, I'm young enough that I've only used Git, so it's good to know that the original example was not good. I read much too far into it given the other dysfunction I've seen from the same people. In any case, I've made a speedy replacement…

> wasn't really expecting much readership but should have been more careful.

Fair enough but if you allow me to suggest you this: don't do it for the readership, do it for your own skills of eloquent and convincing writing. Even if nobody ever reads it, developing proper articulation and being exhaustive in your analysis will only make you smarter and better at what you do.

This is unsolicited advice though, and I apologize if it's misplaced.

Re: Organization probably doesn't want to improve things

#24

Post by jsocuwl »

lapestenoire wrote: post #13

Unreadable. Organize your thoughts, write concisely. You believe you have something to say; we would love to hear it. But we aren’t willing to wade through a sewage of words.

Don't hide behind "we", stand for yourself. I found this article very readable and I heard what the author had to say.

Re: Organization probably doesn't want to improve things

#25

Post by pdimitar »

88913527 wrote: post #17
pdimitar wrote: post #7

That article was a very nice surprise and apart from how crushingly accurate it is (before somebody jumps in to defend all the corporate chaos, of course) it also had me giggling several times while reading it. The answer of course is financial incentives. It is the answer 99% of the time, I know quite a few high-profile managers at this point and they are all very smart and get stuff done people and yet they allow t…

You can make improvements, but it ends up being small things that you can showcase to leaders to demonstrate that progress is happening, but it's nothing of actual material value. It's a lot like public political discourse where a policy solution is touted, all the ooh's and ahh's, but then nothing really changes.

Yep, I have found the same over my career. It's better than nothing, I agree on that, but it still ends up being infuriating because it's so damned slow.

Truth is, everyone just wants to clock out and go home. CEOs included.

Re: Organization probably doesn't want to improve things

#26

Post by jsocuwl »

pdimitar wrote: post #22
smokefoot wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In no particular order: 1. Use your powers of persuasion to drive better decisions 2. Recruit some good people 3. Suggest and execute some positive changes—“there’s this thing called source control and it’s great…” or, “seems like the reports we built aren’t that useful—how can we make this better” There’s a trap here which is thinking it’s all crap so I may as well not try. It’s seductive but quite poinsonous to the…

> 1. Use your powers of persuasion to drive better decisions "Appreciate the feedback but we got this covered. Please resume your duties." > 2. Recruit some good people Did you miss the part where I said that my comment is from the point of view of a working programmer and not an executive? > 3. Suggest and execute some positive changes See my reply to your (1) above. > “there’s this thing called source control and i…

In a big enough organization, it is a complex system with unpredictable outcome. Pouring your soul into it may lead to unexpected consequences as opposed to simpler environments where your contribution actually make a relative difference.

Re: Organization probably doesn't want to improve things

#27

Post by pdimitar »

jsocuwl wrote: post #26
pdimitar wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Use your powers of persuasion to drive better decisions "Appreciate the feedback but we got this covered. Please resume your duties." > 2. Recruit some good people Did you miss the part where I said that my comment is from the point of view of a working programmer and not an executive? > 3. Suggest and execute some positive changes See my reply to your (1) above. > “there’s this thing called source control and i…

In a big enough organization, it is a complex system with unpredictable outcome. Pouring your soul into it may lead to unexpected consequences as opposed to simpler environments where your contribution actually make a relative difference.

True, that's why if I get to work for a big organization again I'll not even entertain the idea of trying to make a difference in improving processes. I'll just gulp the salary and never stick my nose out of my direct responsibilities as written in the contract.

Making a difference can only happen in small tight-knit teams.

Re: Organization probably doesn't want to improve things

#28

Post by campbel »

pdimitar wrote: post #7

That article was a very nice surprise and apart from how crushingly accurate it is (before somebody jumps in to defend all the corporate chaos, of course) it also had me giggling several times while reading it. The answer of course is financial incentives. It is the answer 99% of the time, I know quite a few high-profile managers at this point and they are all very smart and get stuff done people and yet they allow t…

Part of the problem has to be that as an individual in an organization it seems like a better ROI for your effort to grow your share of the pie than the entire pie itself.

Individual incentives are naturally going to be aligned by advancement and "being difficult" is something everyone wants to avoid. Easier to shed blame and avoid accountability than try to fix the social and political structure of your organization. Mostly because even if you succeed, the organization wouldn't be sophisticated enough to understand and credit you for the work.

Re: Organization probably doesn't want to improve things

#29

Post by lr4444lr »

The upside to all of this is that large monopolistic corporations in an industry can be utterly vanquished by much smaller competitors who focus on hiring productive, capable people who work really well with one another. And it doesn't take a lot of them, because the org. described in this post is often getting in its own way, and is unable to deliver a sustained defense on quality or efficiency. So they often try to sue - but that's often blood in the water, and equally a sign to keep striking that weak spot as it is a serious deterrence.

Re: Organization probably doesn't want to improve things

#30

Post by lr4444lr »

brilee wrote: post #6

In this long rant, there is only one concrete thing named that is supposedly bad: > I saw someone that was working on a few Git branches, twenty years my senior, and they decided to clone the entire repository ten times, then checkout a different branch in each repository clone "because it's easier". > Can you imagine the kind of havoc such a person could wreak upon infrastructure and code if left unchecked? But I'm…

I think that is besides the point. If there is no adequate enough training in the work flow or basic tooling concepts for employees such that this is what people are doing with git, there are probably serious problems afoot with best practices and productivity.
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