Puzzles?

the post you didn't ask for

I wrote over fifty blog posts last year - all with the same titles as Taylor Swift songs. In a year, just a few people noticed. This year, I decided to go less main stream, but still keep the spirit of a genius singer songwriter and use John Prine songs - I was too predictable, and two people noticed after three posts.

Now, neither of you will ever get to experience the post that was coming for The Great Compromise.

The Hunt

I love puzzles. Solving puzzles is (to me) a lot like writing software. There’s pattern matching, there’s trial and error, there’s learning from failure, and sometimes - if you’re lucky, the answer is obvious.

Daily programming hasn’t been in my life for several years now, but these days, I enjoy the challenge of debugging teams, and solving the puzzles that humans bring to the workplace when they interact. My teams hear me say often that behavior comes from motivation - the puzzle I solve on an almost daily basis is to figure out what is motivating people to behave the way they are.

Let’s say Frank was a bit of a jerk in a meeting this morning. If I know Frank, I may just ask, “Frank - you were acting a bit like a jerk in the meeting this morning, and it was shutting people down, what’s up?” Or maybe I don’t know Frank that well, so I have to work harder to figure out where he’s coming from. I can check with people I know who work with him. I’ll check Slack - where I may find out that his co-worker quit this morning. Behavior comes from motivation, and maybe Frank was just having a bad day.

A lot of times, human debugging happens in real time. I’m talking to Chad, and he’s not being very cooperative. Now I get to try and figure that out while we’re talking. I don’t always figure it out, but I always try.

Debugging Teams

I used to teach debugging classes at Microsoft. I am a nerd who enjoys kernel debugging (I wrote a chunk of the Win 9x debugger as well as a handful of debugger extensions). As I got deeper into a career in management overhead, I was pretty happy when I found Debugging Teams by Fitzpatrick and Collins-Sussman. As you’d expect from a book I like, it emphasizes building engagement and a healthy team culture to improve productivity. It also goes a lot into interpersonal relationships and communication (far more important than a lot of developers realize). In short, it’s a guide to solving the human side of management. The Michael Lopp book, Managing Humans is also a wonderful resource for solving the puzzle of managing humans.

I’ve talked specifically about this recently, but I recommend both of these books frequently when working with newer managers (and some experienced managers as well). Too many managers manage the work rather than manage the people. Give people a framework they can work in, and then get out of their way. As a manager, help them solve the people problems - debug the system of humans that do work. I’ve seen managers who think they’re doing the team a favor by checking in a bunch of code in an attempt to accelerate the team, or worse, “fixing” a bunch of code the team checked in. Personally, I can think of dozens of times where I just wanted to step in and do a thing or answer a question because I could - but I didn’t because I shouldn’t.

Take care of the people, and the work will get done. Manage the Humans, Debug the Team.

It’s No Secret

I’m fascinated by how human’s interact in the workplace and what makes them perform. It’s the reason books like Drive and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team or such favorites of mine. The Pink book is all about what drives knowledge workers to excel, and the Lencioni book is a blueprint for creating psychologically safe and innovative teams.

Software is easy - people are hard.

The Challenge

Just for fun, I’m going to continue with a puzzle. Hint: it’s not song titles - and because I’m pissed at Molly and Mako for uncovering the answer so quickly, I’ll make this one harder. Way harder. Solvable, but we’ll see.

So here’s the deal.

First person to guess the puzzle (by replying to a post with the answer) can have a $250 (USD or equivalent) gift card to the online store of their choice, or a donation in your name of that amount to your favorite charity.

The answer to the puzzle is a sentence in English. I’ve narrowed it down for you, and you’re welcome.

If nobody wins by the end of 2024, I’ll donate $250 to both NARAL and Planned Parenthood. I’ll supply clues if/when I feel like it. Play if you want, or just lurk and wait for the answer.

-A11:2