Chad SturtzA Journey Through Software

There is a line that separates the people around you.  Depending on how you look at it, it may be blurry or clear, but you still know it’s there.  On the left side you have people that you want to invest in, do everything possible to keep at your organization, watch and learn from, and let drive the direction of your team or business.  While those on the right side may be intelligent and hard working, you know they’re not the type of people to grow an organization around.

What separates these groups?  It’s the presence of four traits: vision, desire to learn, passion, and value of teamwork.

Vision is what keeps these people focused on the big picture in addition to their immediate tasks and surroundings.  They consider long term effects, understand how individual roles fit together, and are able to look at a single issue from many perspectives.  Passion keeps them motivated and always performing at their best.  It’s the excitement and reward they feel every day and is visible in their actions.  The desire to learn makes them ask “why?”.  They want to be taught to fish rather than given a meal.  They work to consume new information every day and grow from it.  Their value of teamwork encourages them to assist others and share information and responsibility.  They wear whatever hat is necessary, and often wear several hats at the same time.  They know that the most ambitious goals are possible with the right group of people.

Focus on creating teams with a majority of people from the left side.  Provide an environment and culture that encourages innovation and risk taking, does not treat change negatively, and invests in its people.  From this you will get processes that work well for your organization, an army of intelligent, productive, and efficient people, and an organization considered successful by any measure.

9 months ago my daughter was born and since then I’ve had trouble finding much time for career development outside of the office.  One of my solutions to the problem was to form a sort of user group in my office that would meet over brown-bag lunch presentations.  I had already given a few brown-bag lunch presentations myself, trying to set an example, but only one other person ever did a presentation.  I thought that if I wrote out what it was I wanted to do and how I expected to to be valuable to our team, maybe there’d be more buy-in.  Plus, if I could get everyone to do just 1 or 2 presentations a year, we could have a meeting every other week.

I approached the entire office with this proposal and was very thrilled to get buy-in from a large percentage of my coworkers.  I volunteered to do the first presentation and asked 2 of my more active coworkers to take care of presentations 2 & 3 just to get things rolling.  Presentation number 3 is next week and after several emails, no one else in the office has volunteered for presentation #4 (or any other future slot).

I found out that for 2 people, the problem was coming up with something to talk about.  I have provided topic ideas as well as offered to brainstorm with anyone that was willing to present but unsure of a topic.  Still… no one has offered to present.

At this point I’m assuming it won’t pan out.  I felt it was acceptable to send a few emails stating that we needed people for upcoming presentations seeing as how I got a large amount of buy-in before this whole thing started, but I’m not going to push it.  If no one comes forward, I’ll just continue giving presentations when I can hoping that maybe someone else will jump in every once in a while.

I have to admit, I’m a little confused as to why so many people thought it was a good idea but then won’t participate.  I even found out that for presentation #2 (I was out sick), no one set up a virtual meeting or conference call for the few remote people assigned to our office.  Furthermore, those remote people never IM’d, emailed, or called anyone asking what number to call in on or for an invitation to the virtual meeting.  Maybe I’m the only one that feels there’s value here…

Q: Why do I need Yammer?

A:  It’s simple… I want access to my fellow software engineers and technologists that live on the other side of boundaries that get created around other Departments, Products, Business Units, and Acquisitions.

True story. I had to quickly come up to speed on a technology I had not been introduced to previously.  I took the normal approach of aggressively searching online to find examples, white papers, blogs, anything to help.  Time was running out, and while I had learned a lot in a short amount of time, I wanted a little help connecting all of the dots and selecting what I needed to focus on to complete my task in a timely manner.  I needed 15 minutes with an expert in this technology to guide me down the right path, because I didn’t have time to go down the wrong one.

I jumped on Yammer and put out a call for help.  A development manager responded with the name of a person who he knew to be experienced with this technology.  He introduced us over email and a few minutes later, I was getting exactly what I needed.

We’ve all seen too many blogs and articles along the lines of “10 reasons you’re organization isn’t ready for Agile”.  I believe that buried under all of those ‘reasons’ are fundamental problems that will keep your organization from reaching any high level of productivity.  Here it is, the real top 10 list:

1. you’re not hiring the right people

2. you’re not hiring the right people

3. you’re not hiring the right people

4. you’re not hiring the right people

5. you’re not hiring the right people

6. you’re not hiring the right people

7. you’re not hiring the right people

8. you’re not hiring the right people

9. you’re not hiring the right people

10. you’re not hiring the right people

Hopefully this comprehensive list will help you and your organization.  Cheers.

Over the past 5 years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with many people who were very knowledgeable in many different areas.  However, one thing I’ve come to realize all too often is that when it comes to solving difficult problems, knowledge is, at most, half the battle.  Time and time again I have seen people struggle at solving a problem they did not immediately know the answer to.  Without a suite of problem solving skills, the value of their knowledge of the problem domain quickly diminishes.  These are the times when the Problem Solvers step in and get the job done.

So, who are the real problem solvers?

Visionaries – The greatest Problem Solvers can very quickly identify a clear path to success.  From this vision they are able to generate a plan of attack that will strategically expose the root problem and find the correct solution(s).

Leaders – As a leader, the Problem Solver is able to coordinate the effort.  They break the the plan of attack down into individual tasks that can be executed in parallel by the resources at hand.

Enablers – Possibly the most important skill a Problem Solver has is the ability to remove roadblocks or find alternative paths.  The key to solving a problem quickly is to never stop.  The Problem Solver recognizes this and focuses on getting himself/herself and others whatever it is they need to identify and fix the issue.

Communicators – Solving problems requires that the right people have the right information.  The Problem Solver is able to recognize important data and ensure that the information is shared.  Furthermore, they identify all available communication channels and use them effectively.

Adaptive - The Problem Solver knows that any new discovery can change everything.  At a moment’s notice, they are able to shift resources, open new communication channels, and devise an entirely new plan of attack.