The Glass Jaw of Time-to-market
The modern world of high tech work is dominated by only one principle: minimizing time-to-market. This single concept overrides quality, overrides thorough market research, overrides common sense, often overrides simple human decency. There is very little room for error. In such a system, from the standpoint of the workers, they hear:
I worked at a major, very famous, huge company that literally ordered us to consult their "best practices" website for everything we did and prove we went through it and used it. Needless to say, the "best practices" website was very bad, with obsolete information, vague to meaningless instructions, not maintained at all. The huge project we were all working on was flailing, losing a fortune, angering all the customers. All of us knew they were ordering us to waste precious time and screw up. Decisions like this were the rule, not the exception. It was as though management had absolutely no idea what they were doing.
My counsel to management is to stop anything resembling these micromanaging behaviors immediately, comprehensively, and start fresh, consider costs vs benefits realistically. Put fear into the worker's hearts, and they will respond in kind: with massively defensive behaviors that are even more expensive than the problems management originally set out to solve. They will be justified in doing so. Management won't like the results, if they can even see them at all.
Japan did this for a while: kaizen. You don't hear about it much anymore. They continued until their workers were flaming balls of ultra high-stress insanity, with suicides, health problems, massive divorces, and ultimately, total and complete economic stagnation. Now they have herbivores. It doesn't look like the principle worked long-term.
There is no such thing as a simple formula that will guarantee success. To believe otherwise it to believe in rainbows and unicorns, utopia and that one can immanetize the eschaton. It's been tried, many times, and has always failed.
To be real, time-to-market is most definitely a current market phenomenon. No one asked for it, most people hate it, but there it is, reality, un-diluted. For now, no one can overcome this very horrible spectre that haunts our work world, but there are very definite steps individuals can do to ease their personal situations.
For a start, every worker in the high-tech marketplace needs to become a master at the art and science of job-hunting. The simple formula is: the more options you have, the more power you have. The more power you have, the less likely you are to find yourself in a 3 hour daily commute, with a micromanaging boss you cannot stand, high and constant risks to your continued employment (because you are crazy busy, and have no time to think or plan), constant job chaos that eats into your personal life, crappy salary and benefits, predatory colleagues.
A job like this is a formula for personal failure: health problems, mental and emotional problems, marriage problems, personal social problems, financial problems. It isn't worth the apparently high salary. If your job is eating your life, you won't be able to start a business, find better employment, find a worthy life partner, nothing. You are stuck. I've been there, got the coffee cup.
Simplify now. Get rid of your junk, sell as much as can be sold, give the rest to charity. Work very hard on choosing your next job, and make sure the next employer is responsible and cares (in actions, not words) about the welfare of workers. If you absolutely have to, quit your damned job and live cheaply and simply while looking for a new job (dangerous).
NB: Time-to-market has about run its course. I see the market changing, yet again, to what it was in the late 90's and early 2000's - a new technology free-for-all. That benefits adaptable, nimble workers, and decompensates people stuck in a rut. Time to become a young person again in spirit, even if you are older. Learn the new stuff the market is begging for and make your life much easier.
You are welcome!
- It's not what you have done, it's what have you done lately
- It's not what you can do, it's how fast can you do it
- Yes, you've never done X before, what is your timeline?
I worked at a major, very famous, huge company that literally ordered us to consult their "best practices" website for everything we did and prove we went through it and used it. Needless to say, the "best practices" website was very bad, with obsolete information, vague to meaningless instructions, not maintained at all. The huge project we were all working on was flailing, losing a fortune, angering all the customers. All of us knew they were ordering us to waste precious time and screw up. Decisions like this were the rule, not the exception. It was as though management had absolutely no idea what they were doing.
My counsel to management is to stop anything resembling these micromanaging behaviors immediately, comprehensively, and start fresh, consider costs vs benefits realistically. Put fear into the worker's hearts, and they will respond in kind: with massively defensive behaviors that are even more expensive than the problems management originally set out to solve. They will be justified in doing so. Management won't like the results, if they can even see them at all.
Japan did this for a while: kaizen. You don't hear about it much anymore. They continued until their workers were flaming balls of ultra high-stress insanity, with suicides, health problems, massive divorces, and ultimately, total and complete economic stagnation. Now they have herbivores. It doesn't look like the principle worked long-term.
There is no such thing as a simple formula that will guarantee success. To believe otherwise it to believe in rainbows and unicorns, utopia and that one can immanetize the eschaton. It's been tried, many times, and has always failed.
To be real, time-to-market is most definitely a current market phenomenon. No one asked for it, most people hate it, but there it is, reality, un-diluted. For now, no one can overcome this very horrible spectre that haunts our work world, but there are very definite steps individuals can do to ease their personal situations.
For a start, every worker in the high-tech marketplace needs to become a master at the art and science of job-hunting. The simple formula is: the more options you have, the more power you have. The more power you have, the less likely you are to find yourself in a 3 hour daily commute, with a micromanaging boss you cannot stand, high and constant risks to your continued employment (because you are crazy busy, and have no time to think or plan), constant job chaos that eats into your personal life, crappy salary and benefits, predatory colleagues.
A job like this is a formula for personal failure: health problems, mental and emotional problems, marriage problems, personal social problems, financial problems. It isn't worth the apparently high salary. If your job is eating your life, you won't be able to start a business, find better employment, find a worthy life partner, nothing. You are stuck. I've been there, got the coffee cup.
Simplify now. Get rid of your junk, sell as much as can be sold, give the rest to charity. Work very hard on choosing your next job, and make sure the next employer is responsible and cares (in actions, not words) about the welfare of workers. If you absolutely have to, quit your damned job and live cheaply and simply while looking for a new job (dangerous).
NB: Time-to-market has about run its course. I see the market changing, yet again, to what it was in the late 90's and early 2000's - a new technology free-for-all. That benefits adaptable, nimble workers, and decompensates people stuck in a rut. Time to become a young person again in spirit, even if you are older. Learn the new stuff the market is begging for and make your life much easier.
You are welcome!
Comments
Post a Comment