engineers_unite

The presumption here is that engineering leadership is the best source of intelligence and ideas. That now you are in a leadership role, you have a megaphone, so use it. This is a terrible, terrible practice.

If you truly do have the best knowledge, build support for your ideas through dialogue. Make engineers and other leaders feel like they own the idea.

Good managers build consensus. Good ideas build their own momentum. Bad managers use the megaphone, and push their ideas by avoiding dialogue. Even if their ideas are implemented through micromanagement/force of will, they do not stick, because no one else feels ownership.

Larson seems to think that engineering excellence from ICs is synonymous with doing what your manager tells you without question.

Yes! I suggest starting with https://pragprog.com/titles/rjnsd/the-nature-of-software-dev...

"The Nature of Software Development", by Ron Jeffries. Focus on incremental value, engage everyone, deliver and adjust.

You are hired to bring in your context and personality and experience. Do not fall in the same traps the org has been in. If they didn't need help and change, you would not have been hired.

Micromanagement is what managers do who don't trust their teams or feel threatened by their engineers. If you are a former engineer in management, remember what it feels like to be micromanaged. You are not a manager because you were/are still a great engineer. If you are- your org is broken and the wrong people are in management.

"Holly fuck balls this is all bullshit." TOTALLY. Never seen someone so wrong be so celebrated. This guy makes horrid engineering orgs.

I have seen Will Larson's techniques applied/ forced in multiple organizations and have found that his view of the engineering world just does not work. I sense that there is a cult of personality around him that leads to engineering ivory towers.

Most orgs that I've seen follow his writing or ideas have ended up in conflict with the business and one another, isolated on a corporate island, and then gutted by layoffs.

I don't like to throw an author/engineer under the bus but I do not know why this guy has a following. I have never seen his methods result in happy engineers and delivered value.

My summary of this article (for managers): 1. Micromanage early and often 2. Measure, and whatever you're measuring, act like it's truth and that you know best. 3. Listen to the curmudgeons and the naysayers because they are the true sources of knowledge.

Edit- as I mention in a reply, try https://pragprog.com/titles/rjnsd/the-nature-of-software-dev... Ron Jeffries' "The Nature of Software Development". Incremental value, engineers leading delivery, constant feedback cycles, flexibility. I've followed the tenets of this book in many orgs, and they lead to measurable value, happy engineers, and successful orgs.

Always looking for an advantage, those Astros. Trash-can banging experience a plus.

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