Comment by mikemarsh
9 hours ago
This is brilliant, excellent example of the ideal of "management as shielding devs from higher-level corporate shenanigans" in action.
9 hours ago
This is brilliant, excellent example of the ideal of "management as shielding devs from higher-level corporate shenanigans" in action.
I tried to embody this ideal when I managed a team, but realized shielding too much meant less connection of members with the wider org and too much dependency on me for context and such. Overall, this meant we were a lower value team for the org.
> too much dependency on me for context and such
If you're management, that's literally your job. Synthesize and communicate the important context bits.
Sometimes. When my manager went on sabbatical I had to reach out directly to other teams. We got so much done with that higher bandwidth, unmediated communication. OTOH my boss's boss was constantly breathing down my neck for status updates. There's a balance to everything I suppose.
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Well there is a balance. For certain things it is natural, that you are the one giving them the information. For other things that are much smaller and much more a out generally being aware how others departments deal with certain tasks it can be enough to pick one "ambassador" that maybe does small projects with them or goes to a short weekly meeting or something.
It really can help an organization if departments are not siloed off. But sending everybody into every meeting is a recipe for not getting anything done.
Maybe it's not the same scale, but I recently came across this passage in Cryptonomicon which I find applies to a lot of middle management.
> The extreme formality with which he addresses these officers carries an important subtext: your problem, sir, is deciding what you want me to do, and my problem, sir, is doing it. My gung-ho posture says that once you give the order I'm not going to bother you with any of the details--and your half of the bargain is you had better stay on your side of the line, sir, and not bother me with any of the chickenshit politics that you have to deal with for a living. The implied responsibility placed upon the officer's shoulders by the subordinate's unhesitating willingness to follow orders is a withering burden to any officer with half a brain, and Shaftoe has more than once seen seasoned noncoms reduce green lieutenants to quivering blobs simply by standing before them and agreeing, cheerfully, to carry out their orders.
Again, this is definitely not this extreme in corporate culture but this is exactly the kind of division of labor I see with most successful teams.