Conning the boss
by Miki SaxonI know a development manager who uses the old chestnut “don’t have time to do it right, but have time to do it over” as the basis for gaming his boss.
Why would any manager in his right mind do this? Why would he intentionally set up his people to fail when, in fact, he has the time to do it right the first time?
To make himself look good.
Here’s a simplified version how it works.
Boss: We need the new version by [valid time frame], can you do it?
Mgr: It’ll be tight, but if everything clicks together we can deliver it.
Mgr to development team: We’ve been asked to have the new version by [time frame minus 30%] I know the schedule is tight, so do it quick and dirty and we’ll fix it later.
[Schedule is met, but product doesn't work as required]
Mgr: There’s no way we can release the product in this condition, so I went to go to my boss and groveled to get us some more time [the 30% he had deleted] to do the fixes.
Development team goes into crisis mode to clean up all features on which they had cut corners to meet the original schedule.
Boss: Great job, you’re exactly on schedule. I’m surprised because I’d heard you were having problems.
Mgr: Thanks. It was touch and go, but I was able to rally the team and we got it done.
To a boss who isn’t paying attention the manager looks like a hero; to the team he’s a jerk (no “looks like” about it).
Two morals:
- Bosses need to pay attention and walk managers to the door if they can’t be turned around. Employees need to avoid rationalization and vote with their feet when their manager continually plays manipulation games.
Manipulation is part of MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy)™ and MAP can only be encouraged to change externally—actual change is only generated internally.
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