Notes

In management decisions are made mostly with good intent, which trigger other decisions. It is not so simple to solve problems that arise from these decisions. There is the problem that you want to solve and then there are other adjacent issues.

When you’re a leader, it is difficult to sense the issues. Because for you, for example the meeting is inclusive. For those on the periphery it might not be so.

It isn’t enough to have good ideas, you need buy-in from the people who would be doing the work.

The responsibility for finding and fixing problems should be with everyone. Everyone should be encouraged to spot and report problems. There is also a joy that comes when you know you fixed something. A pride in your work. Pioneered by Deming and Toyota. Re: the assembly line.

When downsides exist with good, people often don’t complain, for fear of being labelled complainers. This kind of thing, if left unaddressed could lead to destruction.

People should talk to each other directly and later let the manager know. This is more efficient than going through proper channels.

People are more important than ideas. Ideas come from people. It is not just about individual brilliance, how the team works together is key. A mediocre team can destroy a good idea. A good team will either replace or make better a mediocre idea.

Candor is a better term than honesty. We can not be honest all the time. There are times when we have to hold our tongue. There is nothing wrong with that. But unchecked lack of candor can be destructive. It needs to be instituted that candor is appreciated. Needed? Wanted? There is fear - of asking a stupid question - being ridiculed, of repercussions. It needs to be tackled. Again and again. The crucial factor around this, around having a group where people speak with candor, give feedback etc is lack of power. This is not my way or highway. The feedback is not binding.

You are not your idea. So when getting feedback, we should not get defensive. Kind of like strong beliefs held loosely.

Candor is only valuable if the person on the other end is willing to listen.

In a meeting/environment such as this, when you’re looking for feedback. There can be two ways of looking at it: additive or competitive. Additive is the approach that one must follow. That everybody contributes something, even if that idea does not work eventually. It is not a debate to be won or lost.

A good note/feedback is specific. It says what is wrong, what does not work. It is offered at a timely moment, when something can be done about it. It does not make any demands. As an example there can be a proposed solution.

If you are doing something new, you will fail. When doing something new, if you keep thinking everything before doing that thing, you will not do anything. Better to fail fast and early. It is not enough to choose a path. You must walk on it. There will be things that you could not have foreseen. You need to walk the path. To correct paths of need be. But without walking how would you know.

If you’re a leader, then the misstep of the team is your misstep as well. Keep it in mind. You can’t be a good leader of all you do is complain about others.

Improving the process, making it cheaper, better, easier to produce is a worthy aspiration, but it is not the goal. The goal is to make good stuff. Or, at work the goal is not to save the SLA. The goal is to do good work, to solve user issues. If we are doing that, then the SLA will take care of itself.

change

We cling as long as possible to a safe position till the next safe position becomes available. We might have developed processes that work and then because they worked we stuck to them. Eventually it’s very difficult to know whether what we are stuck to is helping or holding us back from improving.

Ways to work around this is saying not going to do anything but what if…

randomness

Randomness is a big part of life. Randomness/Luck. Things happen. Some things don’t happen. We might attribute causality and patterns to things that happened, but we can’t to things that didn’t happen. Like during that trip with my friends where we just left a place and then had weather hit. Things like that. We should have consistent processes/systems for all problems: big or small. Errors happen. There is little point in assigning blame. We must improve systems. Like that time Brijesh deleted all the users in that domain. The correct response to that was to fix the script, so that it returned max 5 users per query and so on.

hidden things

In a complex environment, it is difficult to know everything.

1. There are things that I am not good at, not trained in.
2. There are things that people won’t tell me because of my position.
3. And then, there are people actually working on the thing who would have insights that I would not have. It is important in scenarios like that to always recognise this. Alternative views are additive. That’s all. If someone says something that we did not know, we should not become defensive. Things are additive. This is related to also Confirmation bias. Where in we just ignore things that don’t agree with our mental models. Sounds like AI. Maybe an idea for a story there. There might also be times when something is kept from us, we are not invited to a meeting and then we think that there is a threat to our position, our self. Where none might have been intended.

mechanisms

1. Dailies - daily connects. Work in progress. It’s ok. Open feedbacks.
2. Research trips - go out, see what you’re trying to describe. Attention to detail matters. Adjacent to describe something mundane in full detail.
3. The power of limits - it’s good to have boundaries. But micromanaging everything is not the way. Within the boundaries, there should be scope for flexibility.
4. Integrating technology and art - art challenges technology. Technology inspires art.
5. Short experiments - things which if fail are ok. Better in fact. That allow exploration.
6. Learning to see - we all have biases. Our internal models. We can learn ways to ignore them. Like while drawing a chair draw the empty spaces.
7. Postmortems - important to do this after a project is finished. Why?
   1. consolidate learning which happened during the project.
   2. Teach others who weren’t there
   3. Don’t let resentments fester - things that were said in the heat of the moment. Discuss now.
   4. Force reflection
   5. Pay it forward - lessons for the next project
8. Continuous learning - it is important to have the openness and curiosity we have as children and protect it. In the face of the world. The judgement of the world.

Similar to the same thing about when doing something new. That it is unknown. And so we all have models on how to deal with that situation. As an example consider that you are walking through a tunnel. During the middle it is pitch black. But you must have trust and keep on moving.

Unleashing creativity requires that we loosen the controls, accept risk, trust our colleagues, work to clear the path for them, and pay attention to anything that creates fear. Doing all these things won’t necessarily make the job of managing a creative culture easier. But ease isn’t the goal; excellence is.