Pawel Brodzinski on Leadership in Technology

Whatever it takes to lead a team, build a product, and run a business

Category: personal development

  • Learn. Adapt. Experiment. Repeat.

    One of recurring themes in my discussions on different methods and practices we use in our professional lives is: understand why and how the thing works so you can safely adjust it or substitute it with something else and get the same effect.

    A common example is stand-ups. Why are stand-ups limited to short time (15 minutes)? Why were they intended to be done with people standing and not sitting? Why do we answer three standard questions? And finally, how does it help us?

    Can you answer these questions from the top of your head?

    I know, it isn’t rocket science whatsoever. Yet I know many leaders, and even more teams, that would struggle to answer them reasonably.

    Such understanding of tools we use isn’t crucial only because it means you can go beyond by-the-book approach with methods and practices you adopt. It also is a signal that you know and use learn-adapt-experiment-repeat pattern. And this is a game-changer in terms of improving the way you and your team works.

    Let me share a story. I had a management retreat today, which was basically dedicated to discussion over handful of topics that are important for us. During the retreat’s summary a bit of feedback I received a couple of times was about the method of finishing discussions we used.

    Basically we had a Kanban board to organize subjects to discuss and at any given moment we had 1 (if any) subject that was “ongoing.” Now, if anyone out of 14 people in a room felt that discussion wasn’t adding value anymore or was meandering toward something totally different, they put a small sticky on subject’s index card. Once we had 3 stickies the discussion was over and could go further later, meaning during a break or after the retreat, in a group of people interested.

    My goal was simply not to see a dozen people bored to death only because there still are 2 folks who are willing to continue discussing something deadly important to them. At the same time I didn’t want to cut the discussion in half only because a timeslot dedicated for it was over, thus no timeslots whatsoever.

    Although no one taught me the method directly I’d lie if I said that I came up with the idea. Actually a few days ago I read Benjamin Mitchell’s post about two hands rule – a method one can use to cut irrelevant discussions during stand-ups.

    What I learned from Benjamin’s post wasn’t a stand-up-related technique. I learned the mechanism and understood how it worked. I didn’t dismiss the idea only because I don’t regularly attend any stand-up these days.

    Eventually, just after a few days, it came up handy. It required some changes in details as forcing people to keep their hands up for 20 minutes could be considered mobbing, but in its heart it is exactly the same tool.

    What happened here is I learned something new, adapted it as needed and experimented (I didn’t know how it would go). Finally, I learned something new. It seems I’m already at the beginning of the next iteration of the pattern. And I have a new tool in my toolbox. One which comes handy with things I regularly do.

    I’m two steps ahead. How about you? Are you there too or you still are following the book?

  • In Defense of Difficult Decisions

    I made quite a bunch of difficult decisions in my professional life. I underestimated their negative impact a few times. I received a lot of flak for making them in the first place. And I would probably make vast majority of them again if I had a chance.

    I also restrained myself and didn’t make a few harsh decisions. Sometimes I wanted to do it but couldn’t, sometimes I could but didn’t have guts and sometimes I just didn’t want to deal with consequences. Given the chance I would likely act differently in these situations.

    It seems I’m a bit gung-ho when it comes to fighting status quo. Why?

    Well, first thing is that whenever you’re reading a story how a company was turned around the story always has this big change, which eventually results in a new, better situation. If you’re doing great that’s fine – do more of whatever you’re doing.

    However, pretty few of us are in a position where we can say that we’re doing totally fine. It means that we need to try, sometimes hard, to change things around us. It means that we need guts to make difficult decisions on occasions.

    What kind of decisions you ask? Well, so far the most difficult decisions I made were somehow connected with people. It was either about letting them go, which may be just a neat metaphor for firing, or not giving them what they wanted, or moving them out of their comfort zones.

    After all, if everyone around is happy with your decisions, they aren’t difficult.

    So we come back to the question which so far I’m trying to avoid answering to. Why am I willing to face unpleasant consequences instead of just accepting status quo?

    One answer would be that I’m physically unable to accept mediocrity. I mean, in the long run. It doesn’t mean that I’m not willing to work in an organization that sucks. I did, at least once, and even though the starting point was really appalling, the thing which kept me there was a chance to change things around. The thing which frustrates me way more, and mean much, much more, is when you aren’t allowed to improve the situation even if you want it badly. Then, it doesn’t really matter what the starting point is. It may be decent but if it isn’t going to change my frustration will grow. And I don’t like to be frustrated, thus guts to make difficult decisions.

    Another answer would be that the real change more often than not requires difficult decisions. I like a metaphor I learned years ago from one of my friends: “powdering shit.” It doesn’t make it smell better or be more pleasant. It’s just fooling yourself – “it is powder, you see, not shit.” Well, no, not really. It smells like shit, looks like shit, it is shit. Sorry. Powdering it doesn’t improve it. At all. You want to change the aroma? Clean the mess. Get your hands dirty. There’s no easy way. The only way is difficult (and unpleasant). Thus difficult decisions again.

    It doesn’t mean that bold decisions are a way to go in each and every situation. No. The problem is, it’s way easier to find people who prefer accepting mediocre status quo than painful changes for the better. 4 out of 5 people (OK, I’ve just made up this statistic) will prefer to wait to the least possible (possible, not reasonable) moment before they make a difficult decision. Sometimes this waiting takes years. Years of mediocrity or, even worse, years of witnessing how the situation slowly deteriorates to the point where company goes out of business.

    And this is another reason for difficult decisions. There are few people having guts to make them. People, in general, would likely accept them, even though some of them would complain, but they don’t make them. Ever. Unless forced. Even if they say otherwise. After all, who likes to do unpleasant tasks? So yes, my gung-ho approach sort of compensates ultra-conservative approach of majority, thus difficult decisions once more.

    Now, don’t understand me wrong – difficulty that goes along with a decision doesn’t automatically make it a good one. You can be wrong with a difficult choice as well as with an easy one, except in former case it will hurt you badly. No risk, no fun, they say.

    However, when I think about wrong decisions I made, somehow majority of them are those which seemed ease at the time of making them. It was sort of accepting status quo. “It was always like this, why would you want to change it?”

    To make it better. To make our teams better. To make our work better. To make our products better. To catch up with ever-changing business environment. Or, in other words, to keep the organization alive in the long run. Not a bad motivation, eh?

  • Learn! Or How to Get a Better Job

    A couple of days ago I had a chance to speak at a local meetup. It probably won’t come as a surprise that I was speaking on Kanban. In fact, it was a test run of one of my presentations I was preparing for one of big events. The point is, only few people shown up.

    Don’t get me wrong, I don’t complain. Actually, such events are always win-win. Speaker gets some valuable feedback and an audience attends a session for free, which they would have to pay for otherwise. My end of the deal worked fine – I’ve already improved the session basing on feedback I received. However, I was somehow surprised, and in a negative way, that only few people popped up.

    Well, maybe “surprise” isn’t the right word. If you asked me I would say that most people didn’t really care to exploit chances to learn, so they wouldn’t use this one either. People, in general, don’t want to learn. They don’t, even if they state otherwise. People, again, in general, are lazy. They are, even if they deny.

    So no, I didn’t expect wild crowds even though I believe the message about the meetup reached quite a bunch of people. I see the same pattern whenever me, or my friends, are involved in organization of a local community events.

    However, since I always consider a glass half-full I see a good side of the situation too. If you happen to be the part of this small bunch of people and you actually care to exploit any occasions to learn, not only do you unwind yourself but you also become a demanded employee on a job market.

    I was discussing with one of my friends how does he see himself as an engineer. His point was that he wasn’t a rock star developer. My point was sort of similar. He wasn’t a rock star developer… yet.

    What I consider as one of his biggest strengths is his urge to learn. He doesn’t have a problem to invest a couple of hours of evening or weekend to attend local community event. He does this as A, it is a chance to learn and B, it is an occasion to meet interesting people and exchange experience with them.

    What he basically does is he’s consciously working on becoming a better professional than he is right now. So if you asked me about his value on job market I wouldn’t answer talking about what he knows at the moment, but what kind of potential the guy has and how he is using it. Give me the choice among him and another developer who is very skilled but have a regular “I don’t give a damn” approach and it would be a no-brainer for me when it comes to choose who I want to work with.

    Sometimes I hear complaints about different trainings or presentations people attend. It wasn’t that stunningly mind-blowing, or the trainer could have been better, or two third of content wasn’t new at all or whatever else. Now, let me stress it, in my whole life I’ve never been on a training, conference or meetup where I wasn’t able to learn anything at all. Yes, it is true that sometimes you learn by negative examples, meaning the only thing you get is knowledge how not to do things. But it is still a lesson, and a valuable one!

    So even though I expect people don’t give a damn I’m still surprised why it is so. If I asked all these people whether they want their career to be just a bit better they would agree in a second. And yet they do nothing to improve the situation they’re in.

    If I counted all the hours I voluntarily spent on learning, including all the ramblings I share on this blog it would be hell lot of time. And believe me; I don’t regret any minute spent on this, even though I learned many things I don’t use at the moment. And no, no one paid me for that. It was just an investment on my side. The investment, which pays off, as I’m better professional today than I was yesterday. Or so I hope.

    This basically means that if you happen to hire me you don’t just buy what I am today, but you also get all the potential I’m striving to exploit. The same I look for when I hire. I look at who you can become in a couple of years, not only what you’re worth now.

    Why am I writing all that? I do, to make you move your butt, look for occasions to learn and exploit them! Yes, I have selfish motivation as well. Next time I do something in local community I want to see more faces popping up. I want to see more people who strive to learn since it means there are more people I want to hire. And now that you asked, yes, I consider it win-win.

  • Be Passionate!

    When this post goes live I’m already going sailing to the seaside. It may sound very nice, but considering it is the Baltic Sea and it is already fall and a weather forecast is kind of harsh, it probably means the adventure will include being wet, cold and seasick. Sounds oh, so nice, indeed. Especially the part about throwing up.

    Why do I go there then? Well, I do because sailing is one of my passions. I know these few intensive days will recharge my batteries even though I will cut significant part of my sleeping time out. It is pretty simple – do something you love and no matter how exhausting it is at the end of the day you’ll be on the cloud nine.

    “That’s nice, Pawel. Actually you didn’t tell us that you switched the profile of this blog and now you’re going to share your ramblings on your private life. In this case I’m unsubscribing the feed. Good bye.”

    Um, wait, please. Actually there’s a purpose of this story. Exchange sailing through Baltic Sea with whatever you do at work and seasick with your pet peeves from workplace. Now, ask yourself whether you still are happy to go there even if the forecast is harsh. In other words: are you passionate about your job?

    For those of you who are managers there is following question as well. Are your people passionate about their jobs?

    These questions are super-important. Passion is a differentiator between mediocre folks and those who genuinely shine and everyone wants them in their team. Passion is a differentiator between people who learn new things because it is included in yearly performance appraisals from those who just want to excel at what they do, no matter how far from perfection they are at the moment. Passion is a differentiator between these team members who you have to regularly check from those who you trust and you know they’ll do their best under all circumstances.

    “OK, I may reconsider unsubscribing the blog after all. But the passion is something people have or don’t have. What’s the point, then?”

    Well, sort of. It is likely that most of us work with at least a couple of people who could have become more involved. But for some reason they don’t. If I had to bet why it is so I would say it is lack of passion. So maybe we should look for a way to ignite this passion.

    Yes, I know. If someone works in the same role for a few years already and you’ve never seen passion, expecting it will suddenly blossom is very optimistic version of optimism. So maybe, just maybe, looking for a new role for such person can be a game-changer? I mean we aren’t born as sailors. In some point of time someone takes us to a lake or a sea and then we discover our passion.

    It isn’t that different with our jobs.

    And I bet you’d prefer to work with passionate folks than with soulless specialists, even if the former were less skilled on the day one. It seems it is worth to run an extra mile to find everyone in your team a role which they’re passionate about. After all, even if you don’t succeed in each and every case at least you know you’ve tried.

    Passion makes a difference.

  • Trainers, SMART Goals and Context

    Every time I’m on some kind of management training I have this vague feeling of disconnection. I mean I do assume a trainer is a competent person who saw way more different work environments than I ever would. They also are trained trainers meaning they know all the tricks how work with a group, what are effective learning techniques, how to make training entertaining etc. That’s what I expect after all.

    And yet, I can’t help thinking their knowledge is somehow shallow.

    To take the first example – for me it’s now time of performance appraisals. I spend long hours (days actually) talking with, and about, managers from my team. One of parts of such appraisals should be goal setting. Now, ask any of those trainers teaching you how to run a good performance appraisal and they would tell you that goals should be SMART.

    Great. The problem is pretty few of goals I set are really SMART. Does mean I’m a crappy manager?

    Well, many of those goals are hardly measurable. Let me give you an example. I, as a senior manager, care much about building trust relationships with managers in my team because I strongly believe it is a crucial factor of success for the whole organization. How should I, or my boss, set a SMART goal for me in this area? “Gain trust of n managers by the end of the year.” As if it was kind of badge or something. Darn trust isn’t measurable! And even if it was setting such goal would be just dumb. Is getting trust of more people better than getting trust of right people? And how do you define “right people,” huh?

    This is exactly the problem of many trainers. They have their recipes. They know how to sell them. The question is: do they care to come down to learn a specific situation, understand a real problem and adjust their tool to a context?

    Most likely they don’t.

    Thus my vague feeling of disconnection and difficulties whenever I try to apply trainers’ recipes in real-life situations. Well, I don’t really do that but I like to imagine I do and I point every single hole I see in them.

    It is a problem of reality. It is so painfully specific. It’s never general. It can’t be described with a set of rules which are always true. Yet I’m being told over and over again there are such rules. Rules, which just work. I would even believe in that but, unfortunately, every time I try to apply them they seem so irrelevant.

    What is my lesson today? Understand a context. Many rules may sound reasonable during training but unless you apply the context you can’t judge their real value. And few people are willing to sell you a difficult truth: it’s never about recipes; it’s always about people who use them.

    Advertisement: Atlantic Global – provider of Project Management software.

     

  • Give Honesty a Try

    I use to say that you can’t lose being honest with me. There is no potential downside – only upside. I have no problems with critical opinions on me, others or the organization we’re part of. I don’t necessarily have to agree with these opinions but I want, and need, to know them. After all, if I don’t know you don’t like something odds are I won’t do anything to change it.

    I know there are different managers out there and openness and honesty don’t have to work equally well in each case. However, if you have to hide your opinions and play someone else to survive in a decent health in the organization then, well, I wouldn’t like to be a part of such company in the first place.

    For the sake of this argument consider you really can openly talk with your bosses about your problems and frustrations, if you have any. Will you just be honest like you’d be when describing the situation to your friend over a pint of beer?

    From my experience: many people are not.

    I don’t get it. Let’s say my decision pissed you off or you felt my opinion was unfair. We can sit down and discuss it through. I make mistakes. Everyone does. I change my mind when I face reasonable arguments. So please, challenge me. Challenge my opinions and my decisions.

    When your only reaction is venting in front of your colleagues then you do no good to me, to the company and, most importantly, to yourself. What are you trying to achieve that way? Is that what you believe works in the long run? I mean, really?

    If you choose being honest, be honest consequently. Being so only to some point is um… quite the opposite of being honest.

    I have one more advice: even if you don’t trust your manager give them a try. Maybe they won’t appreciate your open and straightforward attitude. In such case your situation will suck anyway so you don’t lose much. Fortunately, there are many managers who don’t work that way and you just can’t lose being honest with them.

    Like me, for example.

  • Experiment!

    I have a question for you: when was the last time you did an experiment on work you do? I mean if you are a developer when did you try something new: new practice, new way of doing things, maybe new technology to deal with a problem? If you are a project manager when you tried to do your stuff differently? Maybe it was a different way of running a retrospective or moving a planning meeting to a cafeteria or something completely different?

    If you don’t have the answer at hand think about it for a while. It is kind of important.

    If you think that there is expected answer you’re right. The expected answer is “today.” I expect you experiment all the time. I expect you challenge the way you work constantly. I expect you put rules to a question every now and then.

    It’s a funny observation – as I go through different questions on PMSE I often see this pattern: “I follow this, this and that and I do have this issue.” Every time one of answer is: “challenge your rules.” You can bet this kind of answer will be there in a matter of hours.

    This doesn’t come up as a surprise for me. This is the lesson I get over and over again. What you know is wrong. Well, it’s wrong in a way that it isn’t the best, or the most optimal, way of doing things. So if you want to keep you saw sharp you need to look for ways to improve your toolbox constantly.

    Is there a better way to do it than experimenting?

    So please do one thing today: do an experiment on your toolbox, your rules or the way you build things. Change something and see how it goes.

    Then, make it a habit.

    And if you ask what kind of experiment I did today there were many of them: I was experimenting with approach we have to training, with tools we use to build applications, with Kanban at portfolio level and with team organization. And these are only things I touched in some way today.

  • Taught Helplessness

    Roy Osherove in response to my last post on the art of saying no linked to his short (but very good) article on coaching, pointing it is better to use a chance to help people grow instead of simply turning their requests down.

    Yes Roy, you’re right. To some point at least. I mean I love the “What are you going to do about that?” story. But I also know a different flavor of it. It goes like that.

    – Pawel, I have a problem with my project here…
    – Um, what are you going to do about that?
    – I need more people so please assign them to the project.
    – Well, that might be a bit difficult. Do we have other options?
    – No, this is the only one.
    – Are you sure? Can’t you juggle with tasks in the schedule, haggle with the client so we can do something later or something less, incur some technical debt or just be late with this task?
    – No, we need more people. There’s no other choice. If you don’t give me them the world will burn in hell of flames and our poor souls will be lost.
    – I have no free people, sorry. Now, deal with that.

    I know – the last line should go like that:

    – I have no free people. What are you going to do about that? Ha! Check, mate! I have just used magic Roy Osherove’s formula so you lose and I win, sucker!

    The problem I see here is taught helplessness. People choose the only solution they believe would work, no matter how unlikely it is to happen, and don’t even try to look for any other idea. It’s my way or highway kind of situation. And well, it’s usually my way when we are at that.

    Usually in such cases unless you start with the art of saying no you can’t move to what are you going to do about that. You can hardly turn active search for reasonable solution on unless you turn down the one which is imprinted deep in the mind of a person who ask the question.

    Taught helplessness basically makes people immune for coaching. If you’re going to help them grow, you better have a good no at hand.

  • Project Management Styles: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

    This time a quick look at different types of project management styles. Since I’m dealing with many different teams and many different project managers I hear plenty of opinions about PMs and approaches they employ in their work.

    Somehow those opinions tend to support one of three general pictures: the good, the bad or the ugly. Somehow those opinions tend to be pretty aligned. My wild-ass guess: that’s not without a reason. Actually the more I think about that the more I’m sure I could put any project manager I know in one of these buckets.

    The Good

    You know your job. You try to do your job well. It doesn’t mean you don’t fail. Oh, you do, that’s for sure. However chances are good that every failure is an occasion to learn for you.

    The funny thing is the sole reason that you know your job and try to do it well isn’t enough to be respected by people around. There’s something more. You can adjust yourself to changing environment. After all, as a PM, you’re in the middle of the mess, usually called “a project.”

    You’re a good observer. You know about people you work with. Sometimes you know about them more than their managers or themselves. You call risks out. Not only project-related ones. Also those which are tightly connected with people and their characters. That doesn’t mean you’re always listened. Heck, that doesn’t even mean you’re often listened. But it isn’t a reason to stop trying.

    You’re good but it doesn’t mean you don’t have rough edges. Oh, you do. A lot of them. So yes, we had our fights and misunderstandings. It’s likely we filed each other under “problematic” label after our first meetings. But then, we both know this job takes all sorts and it’s our mutual business to find a way to cooperate well. What more, we clearly stated what we expect from the other side which helped to shorten the process of learning each other.

    Now, you’re one of those who I want to work with. I mean really. You aren’t an easy partner but discussion with you is never a waste of time, even if part our ways without finding consensus. It’s good to see you popping up in my office even when you bring a problem with you. It’s good to know you’ll be running projects I care about.

    Besides, that’s not only my opinion. People keep pointing on you as a project manager they’d like to have in their projects.

    The Bad

    For whatever reasons you don’t really like what you do. It may be anything from feeling you’re predestined to something other/better to belief that your work isn’t appreciated enough. Either way you don’t like the point where you stand.

    The real problem is you don’t do much to turn things around. If we don’t count complaining that is. It’s either definition of your role which is wrong or expectations are too high or boss is a jerk or project is a nightmare or moon is in the wrong phase. You feel a kind of doomed. You can’t work the way you’d like and you have no guts to consistently work to change things around.

    As a PM you have your power though. You use it to show that you are important. You request compliancy, you condemn overruns, you demand people, resources and budgets. There’s interesting thing here – you seem to always know the answer. The best solution is the one you point. And if reality doesn’t stick to it, well, so much the worse for the reality.

    Somehow almost everyone around never lives up to your expectations. And almost everyone around would say about you exactly the same. They keep asking what exactly you are responsible for as they’re suspicious enough to think it should be more than you seem to accept at the moment.

    We might have had our fights, but that’s not so obvious. You might have been just ignored in a well-mannered way. Chances are good you haven’t really fought for your projects. After all the whole world is allied against you, isn’t it?

    Besides, that’s not only my opinion. Most of project teams which worked with you will prefer some other project manager. They won’t be totally disappointed with having another project with you though. After all it’s better to have someone who isn’t supportive but isn’t a pain in the ass either.

    The Ugly

    You consider yourself as a damn good project manager. You’re a tough type, but that’s what this role taught you to be. You don’t care whether you’re liked or not. This job isn’t about being likeable but about pushing projects to their end. Yes, that’s the word, you push these projects. Without you all developers would end up reading news or playing Counter Strike all day long.

    You know how to use project management tools you have. They may say you’re kind of formalist but that’s how you show who failed with their tasks and where eventual project failure should be addressed. Also your ass is always covered. You have e-mails, documents and such for every problem in the project. In the worst case you can say: “Haven’t I told you that?”

    I have mixed feelings about you. Sometimes you’re able to put together a group of people and make them playing as project team. Sometimes playing a bad sergeant brings projects closer to the successful end. Unfortunately at least equally often your approach triggers allergic reaction in project teams which brings additional issues to the project. You have an ability to change performance of teams. The problem is it works in both directions – sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down.

    By the way: your successes seem to be interlaced with failures – isn’t that surprising? With your rock star project management skills every project should be a stunning success. I know it’s always team’s fault but hey, there are fellow PMs who seem to have much better success rate.

    Besides, that’s not only my opinion. People say different things about you. There are those who consider you as a model project manager and those who prefer to have no project manager at all than to have you to lead their projects. Have I already mentioned “mixed feelings?”

  • The Value of Certification

    The other day I had hot discussion about the value of certificates. We went through certificates for developers mainly but the issue is general: how much value certificates bear from the company’s perspective?

    The point where the whole discussion started was when we started analyzing what the most objective way to appraise engineers is. Typically organizations have some appraisal system in place – I don’t want to go deep into it as that’s the subject for another story. Anyway every such system is subjective as it bases on one person judging another. And the Holy Grail of many managers is to make appraisal system more objective.

    That’s where certification kicks in. Certificate is objective. One either passes an exam or not. It’s not her manager who says “she knows Topaz on Tires at 8 out of 10… I guess.” There are some standard criteria which say whether it is 89% or 23% or whatever.

    Then certification process is run by some external entity which isn’t biased so certificate is a kind of independent evaluation. Guys from certificating entity don’t really care if a specific individual passed the exam or not, at least as long as they have steady flow of incoming candidates to be charged for certification process.

    Where’s the problem then?

    It seems certification evaluates people independently and is objective. Unfortunately it’s also pretty much useless.

    The problem I have with vast majority of certification programs is that the only thing people are taught while preparing to earn the certificate is how to pass the exam. They don’t learn how to be a better programmer or a better project manager or how to deal with a specific technology. They basically learn what question schemas and standard answers are.

    You get what you measure. If you measure how many certificates people have you will get “many” as the result. Would that mean that you’d improve skills of your teams? No, not really. So my question is: which problem are you solving this way? Except of course having a huge pile of certificates.

    And by the way the real issue of subjective appraisal system is not system’s subjectivity but lack of trust between senior management and appraisers. “I don’t trust your evaluations so I’ll cross-check them with some certificate.” Well, I’d prefer to work on building trust relationship instead. But maybe it’s just me…