Engineering Management 101: My favorite one… what i call
"Opinions vs Decisions" ✌️
Basically:
- At any point it needs to be clear who makes the decision on a given topic.
- Ideally the people who need to "live with it" (eg implement)
- Everybody else "just adds opinions"
"Opinions vs Decisions" ✌️
Basically:
- At any point it needs to be clear who makes the decision on a given topic.
- Ideally the people who need to "live with it" (eg implement)
- Everybody else "just adds opinions"
When a decision has been made everyone else supports the people trying to achieve their goal.
If you need: Disagree but commit.
If you need: Disagree but commit.
In any project - (disagreements or not) - you want to reduce risk by minimizing scope and doing tests/checks along the way.
In any team - (disagreements or not) - you want to hire (and fire) for good decision making.
In any team - (disagreements or not) - you want to hire (and fire) for good decision making.
Training decision making is one of the most important tasks you have as an engineering manager.
Never give a decisions w/o context.
Always explain how and why you got to your decision.
You don't want to tell what you think but teach how you think.
Never give a decisions w/o context.
Always explain how and why you got to your decision.
You don't want to tell what you think but teach how you think.
The ideal people to make decisions are those who have to implement the solution.
The ideal people to implement a solution are those who have the competence to make the decisions needed.
If one of the two isn't happening you maybe want to rethink project team or management setup
The ideal people to implement a solution are those who have the competence to make the decisions needed.
If one of the two isn't happening you maybe want to rethink project team or management setup
Never underestimate how much impact "opinions" of other people (eg with more authority) have.
Make it clear who will have the last call.
You never want to end up in a situation where you need "everyone's opinion" - this doesn't scale.
Make it clear who will have the last call.
You never want to end up in a situation where you need "everyone's opinion" - this doesn't scale.
If you do not require or enable your knowledge workers to make decisions then you can hire cheaper less experience people.
If you hire "the best" but don't let them do what they know best - why?
If you hire "the best" but don't let them do what they know best - why?
Sometimes in rare cases you (as higher level manager) need to override the decisions made
- do it early
- learn why you needed to make those and fix the root cause
- consider them rare "interventions"
- focus on decisions that are on "your layer" (eg long term strategy)
- do it early
- learn why you needed to make those and fix the root cause
- consider them rare "interventions"
- focus on decisions that are on "your layer" (eg long term strategy)
This gets harder as a company grows…
Why?
Complex inter-coupling of decisions
Missing transparency
Unclear boundaries
Missing communication
Misalignment of goals
The solution?
No idea. Decision making in large organizations is complex.
But every generation gets better in it.
Why?
Complex inter-coupling of decisions
Missing transparency
Unclear boundaries
Missing communication
Misalignment of goals
The solution?
No idea. Decision making in large organizations is complex.
But every generation gets better in it.
