On Teams

Over the course of my life I’ve been on more than a few teams. Sports teams, work teams, programming teams, church teams, and student teams. In more than a few ways they are incredibly similar. Almost shocking how similar. There is an enormous amount of research done on teams as well, so much I don’t even know where to start with it. Leadership and teams are how the world works – seems only fit to study it. The single most important factor that I have ever experienced is respect.

The times that I have felt my team succeed (regardless of how well they accomplished, or did not accomplish, the external goal) have been because of respect. Everyone recognizing that each person in the group – while perhaps not equal – all play a role. They all have a spot. Everyone stays within their spot. They don’t strive to be something they are not. They speak when they need to speak. They are silent when they need to be silent. They strive to meet the groups expectations because they are lofty and correct. The group enforces right behavior and conduct. I don’t care if that is the programming culture of the group making you avoid the dumb things we’re going to have to cleanup later, or the clubhouse of the baseball team keeping you in line with your teammates. It is the expectation of every member, by every member to live up to what the group has chosen.

The times that I have felt that I have failed a group are primarily because I never found a spot. I was not able to figure out when to talk, and when to be silent. I did not know the group’s culture. Or my culture was different than the group and neither was being upheld. Failure, when it comes down to it, is a lack of communication. I am granting the fact that everyone in the group is capable and motivated. The only problem after that is communication. Unfortunately it is a stupid problem to have.

When people breach their group-given role, it can get real bad. When a leader, who is given that leadership position by the group (which is the only real way you get a leadership position), steps outside the group’s accepted behavior it is all over. They are no longer a leader. It doesn’t matter if they have the ‘Manager’ title, or the Captain’s ‘C’ on their jersey. Their decisions will be questioned, challenged, and possibly ignored. It is hard for a leader to recover from some of these issues. Which is why star players get traded all the time.

I feel that I am going through this is more than a few areas of life. Trying to be a leader for some, a role-player for others. All the while trying to figure out the unstated group culture. Politics is hard.

PSO is the Penalty of Doing It Wrong

I was lamenting with a former co-worker and friend about Professional Services Organizations (PSO). If you’re unfamiliar with the term, you sure know the concept. A PSO is a company that makes money, gains clients, or keeps client, by supporting its flagship product with heavy customizations and installations. I am going to go out on a limb here, and say that for an internet company, operating on a “Software as a Service” business model, if you are a PSO you have failed your primary job.

For your failure you will suffer through pain. You will watch as your clients become your master. You will become beholden to their insane desires just to keep them as clients. You will have to hire dedicated people to support your customers and their customizations. This part of your company will run at a loss. It will chew up most of your time, and cause most of your headaches. Your client-facing people will do the least amount of work necessary to get the client off their phones. Your developers will go mad implementing customizations never dreamed up by the initial product creators. You will spend less and less time focusing on your product and your core code. This is the punishment for failure.

Now, let me explain how you have failed. You created a product. That product was liked. It solved a problem adequately. It filled a niche. People bought it. But you missed something. You missed the true need of your clients. You missed their expectation. You see, if you fulfilled their needs, they wouldn’t have these itches and pet projects to throw at you. Their itches are real. Their pet projects are wrong. You missed their itch. Their pet project is an attempt to design a software solution (which isn’t their job) to their itch. The second you give in to the pet project, instead of finding the itch, the game is over. The minute you do not incorporate the itch into your project pitch and vision, the game is over. You have to be willing to say ‘No’ to your client. If their itch does not fit into your product there are two possible reasons; one, you don’t understand the product domain, or two, you are not looking for that type of client. You cannot please everyone. Understand that.

I hope you have not yet found yourself in this kind of a situation. It is an uphill fight to recreate an environment in which your product matches the client need and expectation. It is an uphill fight to recreate an environment in which your clients will shut up and let you lead. Good luck.

The Way to Spin Your Wheels

Is to perform tasks that take up plenty of time and effort, while delivering the lowest impact to the goal.