Motley says: "I must conform to the wishes of the management team, even if they are wrong"
Summary
Motley: I must conform to the wishes of the management team, even if they are wrong. I need permission to modify the organization-wide processes.
Maven: Sometimes it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Break the rules if it is best for the team, then say "sorry". Be accountable for results, not processes.
______________________________
[Context: Motley has just surfaced out of a 3 hour meeting that focused on company processes that he feels are unnecessary. Motley is back at his desk, slams his desk drawer in frustration, and lets out a few colorful metaphors. Maven takes note and walks over.]
Maven: What's up, Mot? Did someone throw a laxative in your coffee or something?
Motley: Why you-
<a chase around the office ensues>
Maven: Ok, Ok, I give up. You are in a mood. But seriously, may I do anything to help whatever is bothering you?
Motley: You're lucky I didn't catch you before you gave up or… ah, forget it. You want to know what's bothering me?? Extraneous process. Too much bureaucracy. Inflexibility. Resistance to change. Micro-managing. People telling me the wrong thing to do. That's what's bugging me. Simple fix this time, eh Mave? Good luck.
Maven: Well, let's get into some of the details. How about the first two, since they are likely related - extraneous process and bureaucracy. What's the problem?
Motley: First of all, I am a developer. I develop software. I am paid to be technical. The stuff I just talked about shouldn't even factor into my job. I want to design. I want to write code. I don't want to deal with politics. It's frustrating.
Maven: You are the lead of a team, are you not?
Motley: Yes. So? I still have to conform to the wishes of the management team, even if they are wrong.
Maven: Firstly, even though management may be wrong in your eyes, they may think that they are right. Keep that in mind. Secondly, those non-technical aspects you mentioned come with the job. Not only do you have to be a technical leader on your team, but you also have to deal with all the other stuff around it and shield your team from distractions. It comes with the job. You are good at it, too. I've seen it.
Motley: Don't butter me up, wise guy. You are right that I am good, but save it. Anyway, you know how the company is structured - there is a release management team in place that sets many of the rules. You have to input bug records in a certain way. You have to meet a ton of exit criteria at a milestone. You have to plan your feature set in a certain way. You can only have certain things for lunch on Monday. You know how it is. The ridiculous rules take away your freedom as a feature team.
Maven: Yeah, I hate having tofu on Mondays. Ha! Just kidding. Yes, there are rules in place, and many of them are there for a reason - to ensure the release of the software is on time and of high quality. But-
Motley: I figured I would get the standard answer from you: "Follow the rules. Conform. You have to play nice." Blah, blah, blah.
Maven: Ah, but you didn't let me finish. BUT, you have to understand the "why" of the rules, and if it doesn't make sense to you, break them.
Motley: WHAT?!?! YOU are telling ME to break the rules? Have you been into the glue again?
Maven: Sometimes it is better and easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Do what you think is right and explain why later if necessary. Where the release management team is falling down is in instituting process across the organization instead of focusing on results. It's the accomplishments of the team that matters, and every team is slightly different. If you need to bend the rules to do what you think is right, then do it.
Motley: But they are going to make me accountable for following the rules!
Maven: Ultimately they are going to make you accountable for the results. That's what matters. You need to be prepared to answer why you broke the rules, but in the end I am sure you will be forgiven. What about the other issues: inflexibility, resistance to change, micro-managing, and people always telling you the wrong thing to do?
Motley: They are all basically the same category, I guess.
The inflexibility comes when the management team wants us to do something specific and won't take no for an answer. For example, we are forced to come up with a detailed long term plan when our team is agile. The important thing for us is to have the right priorities against our work, not predict exactly what features will make it into the final release.
Resistance to change comes in when management views our team as renegades and does not let us operate on our own even though the development model differs from other teams.
Micro-managing comes in when they look over every move we make. For example, they review our bugs even after we have triaged them!
For the wrong thing to do point, it just ties in with forcing actions on us that do not jive with our development model, like the planning above.
They are all related.
Maven: I see. You are right - they are all related and come back to the very same point. Focus on results and do what is best for the team even if your methodology differs from the overall group. Just be prepared to be accountable for the results. I am willing to bet the release managers forgive you if you ship a super high quality product on time. In fact, they will likely want to learn from your team in future releases.
Motley: Wow, Mave. You are quite the renegade. This is not exactly the advice I was expecting from you! I have new found respect! Well, not exactly, but let's pretend. We will definitely become the golden child of the entire organization and other teams will want to be just like us.
Maven: Great. The catch is this: you had better make sure you deliver those results or the release team has more ammunition to use you as a very bad example for other teams to learn from and not follow. That could spell disaster for you as a lead.
Motley: Of course we will deliver. There is never any question.
______________________________
James' Pointer: Sometimes an idea arises that you know is going to make the team more productive and improve morale. Take a recent situation I experienced. In my office area at Microsoft we are very space constrained at the moment, with people double and tripled up in offices and extreme difficultly booking conference rooms. Our team had a great idea to quadruple the leads, free up two offices, and use one for 1:1 meetings, and the other as a non-bookable team room with some extra test hardware in it. We were ecstatic. Then we asked for permission and the administrator shot us down stating that empty offices would not be tolerated and would need to be filled immediately to alleviate our space problems. But they were our offices to begin with and we didn't have to move! In the end, we did manage to get the administrator to agree to a partial move, and we used our ingenuity to perform the full move anyway without telling anyone. We are happier, more collaborative, and more productive. What she doesn't know won't hurt her. I just hope she does not read this write-up. We'll beg for forgiveness if we get caught, but until then we will help ourselves and the business.
Maven's Quotes:
- "It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission. " -- Grace Hopper
- "Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future." -- Paul Boese
- "Do whatever it takes to get the job done the right way and the best way; then both permission and forgiveness are unnecessary and thus irrelevant." -- Rosa Say