Anti-Hero
thoughts on heroes in the workplace
A discussion with Brent (my podcast partner) about Brent (the character from The Phoenix Project) has had me thinking about heroes, bottlenecks, and culture.
The Hero We Need
In the Phoenix Project, Brent is an overworked expert and single source of knowledge for much of the companies IT systems. He’s a bottleneck. He doesn’t want to be a bottleneck, he just ended up that way.
Modern Testing (Delivery) Principle number 7 states:
We expand abilities and know-how across the team; understanding that this may reduce (or eliminate) the need for dedicated specialists.
In following this principle, we don’t hate specialists, we just believe that the more dedicated specialists a team has, the more likely it is that there will be bottlenecks slowing down feedback loops and delaying delivery.
Spoiler Alert: In the end, the company figures out how to alleviate the Brent-Bottleneck, and he gets to go on vacation. Everybody loves a happy ending.
The Hero we Hate
It’s unfortunate that Brent got to a place …
