Managers love to axe straw

In Latvia we used to say that a person „axes straw” (my probably poor translation) when the effort is an overkill compared to the goal. I used to wonder how managers may talk four hours about technically trivial problems, while missing opinion on technically complex problems. Last week I did the same myself. What a shame, is it?! With this post not only I want to admit two mistakes – my misbehavior yesterday and my years long misinterpretation.

Lesson #1: What’s a straw for a chicken is a food for a cow

Let’s start with my second mistake. I remember sitting there in a meetings were bosses wasted minutes and hours to discuss if there should we a warning/confirmation message upon deletion or which button should be on the right OK or Cancel. I remember what I was thinking about them: “at last there is so (technically) simple a question that everyone understand what’s been asked and everyone is willing to show their competence…” I now realized that: a) Technically simple questions are not only what our managers understand but also what customer’s managers understand and will have their opinion on. So we must pay a lot of attention to those technically simple questions. We have a luxury to answer whatever on technically complex questions. b) Sometimes managers wants us subordinates to draw conclusions, to show pattern behind their decisions. Of course simple issues are the best samples to learn upon.

Lesson #2: For a lumberman an axe is just a fine tool

More and more I’m getting involved into management work. I’ve got used to the way they think, talk and write. I’m getting affected. But those were only my excuses. My mistake was quite simple: I wrote quite long email, with cc to project manager demonstrating all my competence… when I should have simply said “let’s simply disable this feature in this release”.

Conclusion

If your managers sometimes do what I’ve called axing straw – forgive them and remember that it is their duty to bring in different perspective which may or may not seem suitable for you, if you are a technical person.