Working Conditions

Working Conditions

Fractals, Mother Nature, and Software Development

© by Mike Robinson

Since we all work in an industry that is both creative, competitive and high-pressure, we know that the working conditions that we offer our employees ... and to ourselves ... are very important. We've probably all spent some time in a “cube farm” as massive as the one in which Scott Adams (Dilbert®) briefly worked: “so big that my cubicle had its own ZIP™ Code.”

But what are “good working conditions?” What will be attractive to the best-and-brightest people? Is it really the ping-pong tables; the Nerf® Ball shooters; a cooler stocked-to-the-brim with all-you-can-drink Jolt® Cola; an espresso machine? I'm not so sure.

In fact, I don't think so at all.

No.

Let's face it: sometimes what you have to work with, and therefore the only physical environment you can offer your employees, is “a cube-farm.” (Perhaps even one large-enough to need ZIP Codes.) Your place of business is a multi-story glass-walled office building, and the Board of Directors just wasn't too keen at your idea of moving the star-team development group to “The Bohemian Rhapsody.” So, is it possible to make an attractive working environment out of that, especially since the fire-codes do not allow bean-bag chairs and lava lamps?

Yes, you can. Here's how...

Give ’em what they really want most ...

The essence of a truly-satisfactory working environment, in my opinion, isn't the physical trappings and decorations of the place. It isn't the stimulating (soft?) drinks. It isn't the toys. The essence is the environment, itself. If you have properly structured and prioritized the essential elements of how you treat your employees and that the work that you all do together, even the most sterile cube-farm can be a fun and pleasant place to work.

What do the best-and-brightest employees really want most in their workplace? Just what everybody else wants: success.

That's really “it,” don't we agree? People want to do a good job, to be recognized (collectively and individually) for having done so (but not through condescending gifts of “motivational” trinkets), and they want to be able to influence that successful environment so that they are able to be successful. They want to pro-actively arrange their environment where “of course” they go home at a reasonable hour every night, with every weekend unto themselves, knowing that the Monday-morning workplace (hectic though it might be) is under control: under their control.

Who's in “Control?”

“Waitaminute,” you say? “I'm ‘the boss’ here.” Well, yes, you are. Yes ... and no.

Yes, you've got some apportioned amount of “executive authority,” and the weighty responsibilities that go with it. You're “the boss,” and this means more-or-less that you can make people do things they don't want to do. But that quickly leads to a hostile work-environment, and shortly thereafter you begin to feel the wind from “the revolving door.”

So, you need to employ those powers in a different way. Use your authority to create and maintain an environment in which people “want to do.”

Use your influence as a positive motivation and as a useful tool. People follow your direction, not because they fear your authority, but because they respect and honor that authority, and because they appreciate how you employ it. Strive to bring people in line with your goals, therefore supporting you in those goals and helping you to succeed. They'll want to do this, because they recognize that, through you, they are better able to succeed also.

“Success,” again.

Success... Indirectly:

As an executive (team-lead, head programmer, project-manager, what-have-you), your influence is vital in creating and maintaining a successful work-environment, but your influence is always felt and exerted, to some degree at least, indirectly. You put the seeds in the ground, having chosen their location and devised at-least the first draft of the watering and weeding plans, but you can't make them grow.

“A good working environment” is one in which those seeds not only grow, but flourish and prosper. They didn't flourish because of you, but then again, presumably they would not have flourished nearly so well without you. Go ahead, let 'em flourish, and let them take full credit for it. Sit in the comfortable shade of that prosperous workgroup and share in the glow of mutual success.

A “Well-Stocked” Workplace:

When you are devising and managing your workplace (and bear in mind, you work there too), take care to stock its cabinets richly with the following:

Open Communication:
Make sure that everyone in the workplace has a part in it; and, has a stake in it. Communications among and between workers must be open and free, but also disciplined and civilized. You might need to take some training on the best ways to accomplish that, and you should offer that to the workers too.
“Open Communication” is not always exactly pleasant, but it is always goal-oriented and in some way is intended to further the goals of the group. Furthermore, open communication is moderated in a way that curtails out-of-band talk and negative-directed comments. Used properly, open communication may be the single most-important tool in your hands.
Rigorous Project-Management:
No one appreciates being caught in a “death-march” struggle, yet many shops get caught in that death-spiral time and time and time again. This makes people justifiably feel caught-up in a mismanaged situation that, well, you mismanaged. Then you abused your executive authority to impose that pure-hell upon them. They didn't create the situation, but they were forced to pay the price. (And guess what, “mister I'm In Charge Here,” they're probably right.)
The way to avoid this is to institute rigorous project-management. Learn about Microsoft Project® Server; learn about the open-source project management tools and websites. Train yourself on these techniques, and once again, offer the training to others at no cost to them.
This is vital. When people can see the intended path of the project (even if the project has wandered off-course as projects often do), and when they see that they can nevertheless positively-influence the direction of that path, they'll tend to be on your side instead of (actively or passively) against you. “The sight of a well-worn chart in the Captain's hands” means everything.
From a purely-pragmatic perspective, project management allows everyone who's involved in the project to see what is facing them, what remains to be done, and what issues remain unresolved. When these elements of the project have been captured in an always-up-to-date plan, preferably one that is available to each person in real-time at their own computer, it allows them to choose what to pursue next, without the risk of literally losing(!) some important detail. The fear of it is really enough to keep you awake at night. Computer-folks naturally become adept at “keeping track of dozens of things at-once in their own heads,” but “heads” have very-limited capacity, and they can be accessed only by the person who lives in-between those ears. When you know that something has been immediately captured, in all of its relevant detail, you don't have to try to keep track of it mentally. No one's going to have to pester you for the information, nor to dread when you might say, “oops, I forgot to mention ...”
Eliminate “I forgot...”
Up-To-Date Professional Practices:
If any single thing can be said about the computer industry, it's that it changes every day. Perhaps more so than any other industry, the computer trades exert a very rapidly changing influence, not only upon their business surroundings but also upon themselves. No matter what situation you are encountering in your project, you can be sure that a thousand other workgroups worldwide have wrestled with the same issues before you did. If you are not constantly working to at the very least be aware of the current ideas, tools, and practices of our industry, you're wasting your own time ... perhaps massively.
Many of these ideas, of course, manifest themselves as “a silver bullet.” We know that silver-bullets almost never exist, yet behind most of them there will be found the germ of a good idea. Therefore, no matter how caught-up you and your workgroup may be in whatever you're doing now, always take the time to lift your head above the water and to look around. Instill that same principle in your workgroup. Although it's rarely practical to make a substantial change in the approach of a project after it's underway, a slight change at the right time sometimes yields unexpectedly generous results.
No matter what worked well for you ten years ago, “ten years ago” was ten years ago. In our business, two years is practically Eternity. Even though we quite-routinely work on projects that are two or three times that old, and we cannot “scrap it all and start over” (however earnestly we'd all like to), up-to-date working practices can always be blended into the project, if not always into the source-code itself.
Insistence upon Goals, not Effort, and upon Team Work:
A project should be managed “from goal to goal.” Establish the goals and the deadlines to meet them, and do this well in advance. Even when the goals are high and the deadlines are tight, every one of your employees has “an outside life” which they must coordinate with their work efforts.
To merely say, “this is our goal,” of course means nothing. This statement must immediately be accompanied by “therefore, this is our plan.” And, perhaps most-importantly of all, “so what do all of you think?”
You can't just drop this statement on their heads and wait for an immediate answer. People need time to actually think, and they need to know that “actual thinking” is actually expected of them.
Let's face it: people will be Bobbleheads,™ especially in front of the boss, if they think that this is what's expected of them or if they fear to stick their necks out. It's also by-far the easiest thing for them to do. (“Hey, either way it's no skin off my nose ... I just work here.”)
Daily Tracking:
In addition to “the Captain and his well-worn chart,” the crew always pays close attention to the Navigator. Workers expect not only that the project management knows where the project is going; they also expect them to know at all times where they actually are. Every person, including management, must comply equally and daily with whatever is expected of everyone.
Daily tracking also includes daily status-meetings. This can (and should) be brief, but well-chaired and informative. The point of these meetings must not be to dwell on the moment's pressures and failures, but to be sure that everyone knows where everyone else needs help ... and to find and deliver that help. (As the executive leader of the group, this is one of your primary daily responsibilities: to identify needs, find help and eliminate obstacles.)
Recognizing and Growing the “Surprise Skills” of Others; Promoting and Growing the Skills of All:
Did you know that the “junior coder” that you just hired has some really great ideas about the help-text? Did you ever ask them about what they've learned from their past jobs that might be useful in this one? When they offered such insights, did you respectfully give them your full attention, as to a peer? You never really know what someone brings to the table, and you may never know unless you ask them.
Being a good manager doesn't mean that you must be a fountain of great ideas, nor that you must be the one to furnish answers to every technical problem. Instead, place the goal in front of your staff and let them devise (and argue) solutions. People sincerely appreciate opportunities to grow, when at the same time they are properly protected from failure. They don't like a know-it-all, especially when they know that “you're wrong ... sir.”
Motivation is Not a “Thing.”
It's not a trinket, an engraved trophy or paperweight, or a photograph with a pithy saying printed at the bottom. Motivation is not something that you can actually give to anyone. Don't try. You're just being condescending.
Truly Experienced Leadership:
Once again, this is something that you'll probably have to train to do, and it's training that you should offer to your employees. It takes real talent to keep one's voice steady when someone has just dropped a stick of dynamite into an outhouse.
It takes diplomacy and skill to keep people from blaming one another when a situation has turned stressful. These are skills that almost no one “comes by naturally,” and being promoted to a senior position will not imbue you with them. Being in a senior-management position for twenty-odd years also will not bequeath them to you. They usually must be learned from an outside source, although some people do seem to have “the gift.”
Mutual Respect:
Do you really respect every person who works for and with you?
No, I really mean that: do you?
A certain Very Famous Wise Man once said that “a master is not above his servant” and “he who would be first must be last.” When you are in a position of executive leadership, you feel the pressures that bear down upon the workgroup most-intently because they (quite by-design) bear down most explicitly upon you. Therefore, you feel singularly responsible for the success of the entire team, and (especially if you really are technically very-good yourself) the natural human tendency is to treat other people as an accessory to your own effort and therefore in some way “beneath you.”
I feel that I should stress this point, simply because so many computer professionals work their way up from “programmer/analyst” to some kind of leadership position ... and sometimes discover too late that they have just exceeded their personal “Peter Principle.”
Let me just put it this way: if you dare to even-once breathe the word, or even allow it to be imagined that you think, that “I could do all of this (better) without all of you, if I only had the time,” the Sweet Angel Of Success will never, ever come calling at your doorstep.
Instill into yourself a deep and genuine respect for the people who work for and with you. They are the people who will actually cause the success of the project to occur. When you respect them, and they respect you, the very best qualities that each one of them has to offer will tend to come out in a positive and useful way.

“But I'm Not an Executive...”

In every (farmer's) field, every now and then, some little plant stands out. It seems to be a positive influence on the other plants around it, even though it is has merely “bloomed where it is planted.” Such plants seem to have a natural ability, or perhaps it is just determination, to do and to become “just a little more.” And believe me, very quickly those plants do get noticed. In fact, wise senior executives attentively watch for them, lift them up and promote them, because it is written that “those who are faithful with little, will also be faithful with much.” (And of course, vice-versa.)

When you have no authority at all, you can nevertheless usually find a way to bloom. You can influence both your working environment, and the way that you work with others and that others work with you. Even if you have no aspirations whatever to move into a position of leadership or management, you can still find ways to better your own situation. The sphere of your influence is necessarily limited to your present “container,” but there are always other people attentively watching you even if you do not immediately notice their presence. You might have an idea that truly no one else had yet thought of, even if it seems “so obvious” to you (and to them, after you'd pointed it out).

Therefore, work quietly but resourcefully to create a better working environment, and a better working technique, for yourself and for those around you. Always work within your directives (even if you disagree with them), and don't go out of your way to grab a headline for yourself. It is a simple fact of life that not every project is well-planned, not every workgroup is well-run, and that even “the best-laid plans of mice and men” sometimes take a real plunger. But a positive influence and a positive attitude always gets observed, and brings a positive result even if it does not do so obviously or immediately.

In Summary ...

“Good working conditions” are, simply, a place where a real human being would want to work and would enjoy working. But good working conditions go far beyond the real-estate trappings, extending to the very core and foundations of how a particular workgroup approaches and fulfills its assigned task. A good working condition is pleasant because it is successful, and successful because it is pleasant.