I was watching the first inning of the Padres/Pirates baseball game. The game started with the 2 pitchers having control problems and both having to serve up nearly 70 pitches. Near the end of the first inning, a Pirates hitter bounced a ball off the bullpen screen right in front of both team’s relief pitchers. After the outfielder picked up the ball and threw it to second base, it looked like he said something to all those pitchers.
“What do you think he said?” my wife asked.
“Don’t get comfortable,” I answered.
My advice this week is for IT people is the same as our friend in the outfield.
Something in IT will always remain the same. What is that wonderful constant that we have to soothe us? Trick answer! The one constant is that IT will constantly change. Well, that does not sound too comforting!
I was someone who liked doing the same thing every day. If I had a really good day, yesterday, I would tend to do the same thing for the next couple days. One habit key to my good-day-routine was to get a nice cup of coffee in the cafeteria, and to pick out a large blueberry muffin. These muffins were terrific, especially in the late summer when there were millions of fresh blueberries around. A fateful day in 1996, I went to the cafeteria and there were no blueberry muffins. Zero. Zilch. Extinct. I searched the shelves high and low, but without success. I dragged myself back to my desk and grouched all morning while I coded away. I had a 1-on-1 with my director that afternoon, and when she asked me the best way to make my job better, I answered, “Make sure the cafeteria has blueberry muffins.”
So, what was bad about changing my daily routine? First, the change was unexpected. Second, because it was unexpected, my disappointment was magnified so that it impacted other parts of my day. Normally, I would never say the words “blueberry muffin” to a director, but that change defined my day and filled my mind.
So, the first thing that I want to accomplish in my IT team is to communicate so we can all understand when change is coming. If change surprises my team when it is actually happening, then people may have a bad day trying to understand why the change happened. That would be my fault. The right change management is to:
- Describe a challenge or problem that is a catalyst for change
- Talk about options that have been considered in dealing with a challenge
- Share the option selected to best deal with the challenge
- Gather the team’s feedback and questions to refine the option
- Implement the change step-by-step with the team participating
By now, you may be wondering what sort of change I am thinking about. In your mind, you might say “Why would Chuck tell a long story about blueberry muffins if he was not cooking up a big change.”
As our team grows, each of our job areas will need to adjust how we assign work. Sometimes, we all know to go ask the one key expert who has always known what to do in our apps. If we add 5 more people, and those 5 also go to ask the same expert, that expert is going to be buried in questions. One change will be how our new developers will pair with a senior. The expert must become the teacher.
In the movie Mary Poppins, the president of the bank is arguing with a child who wants to spend 2 cents to feed birds. The president declares, “Do you know what you get when you feed the birds? Fat birds!”
You know what you get when the IT expert teaches? More experts! Note to all experts: Be like the kid in Mary Poppins.
IT can expect that an external change will be more frequent also. Additional customers will be part of greater demands for delivery. So, what would be the internal change? We can look at our methods of delivery and know that two or three teams may need to work in parallel to deliver multiple clients. Easy right? Just hire 3 times as many people! Not so fast… we can architect and design our systems so that more common components serve all customers. A team of a few key skills can deliver features for all customers – current and future. To work in this way, we may need to re-arrange how our teams operate.
I will share more about the changes that could happen in the near future. You can be certain of it. Roll with it.
The golden rule:
Change is coming. We are busy. Some would say that we are crazy busy some days. As we push to get as much done as we can, the amount of work can lead to a bit of stress and agitation. It is easy to have that frustration show in working with the team. When I am frustrated, and those on my team see how my attitude has changed, I cause a problem. When I am in a better mood, people can come ask me questions and work with me comfortably. When frustrated, I may appear angry – and nobody wants to bother an angry person.
The wise old timers in a past job told me to “follow the Golden Rule” when at work. The Golden Rule was to treat others as I wished to be treated. I learned that this was a very good rule. If I was having a bad day, but was still able to do my part and even help my teammates, they would offer to help me too. I helped make the team better, and they would certainly make me happier.