Don't Let The Bozos Grind You Down.

In my previous post we introduced you to Bozos. Bozos are individuals who out of genuine concern or an unstoppable spontaneous funny little itch want you to walk the lines they walk and remain in the realms of 'normality'. The one thing they forget however is that normal is boring. The problem in surrounding yourself with Bozos is that if you let them grind you down, they will.

Given the fact that not listening to the Bozos is such an important characteristics of genuine builders around the world, I thought it might make sense to bring to you, dear reader, a few genuine builders or amazing trouble makers on the web and present to you, their thoughts on how they deal with the Bozos trying to grind them down.

Guy Kawasaki, an evangelist, an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist, explains why you should not let the Bozos grind you down rather articulately in his video on Evangelism at Comdex:

Guy's idea is simple. Don't Listen to a Bozo and don't be one yourself. At best --- ignore the Bozos when they try to grind you down. You can literally hear the same thoughts resonate in how veteran blogger Jeff Atwood addresses the issue of Bozoism in his post dedicated to criticism of blog posts. He explains:

Seth Godin, a renowned marketer and author, explains the phenomenon of ignoring the Bozos and not letting them grind you down much more articulately in his post where talks about why you should ignore your critics. He explains:

Scott Hanselman, a veteran builder and story teller rolled into one; describes his take on Bozos trying to grind him down in one hilarious tweet that made me roll over laughing as I read it.

The tweet: --- "@shanselman I learned that some people don't like my sense of humor. Poop on those people. #standup"

Jokes aside; consider anyone out there who has shipped anything to the world --- an open source product, a paid product, a blog post, an article, an opinion --- anything. If you have or are shipping anything what-so-ever that is worth noticing, it's usually easy to Google yourself or what-ever-it-is-that-you-are-shipping and see some flames being thrown your way by random Bozos or critics out there. 

Even with this little blog that is visited by just three people, my mom, me and you dear reader, I have had my share of grinding from random criticisms here and there from both; well-wishers and random commenters.

My criticisms have raised from; simple difference of opinion from colleagues or acquaintance where someone thinks I am seeking heaven on planet earth;  to slightly personal remarks from absolute strangers where someone thinks I am soft skill retard.

Every once in a while, a couple of individuals; ranging from a well wisher to an anonymous commenter; will have a general passing remark; starting from an email or a remark on the lines of your-blog-is-becoming-boring going all the way to leaving a comment on the lines of I-am-not-going-to-read-your blog-starting-today.

To be honest, this is not about maintaining a live inventory of flames being thrown my way and linking to them.

Neither is it about how boring, stupid, odd, wearied or evil I am.

This post, dear reader, is about builders.

If there is one thing I've learnt by observing genuine builders for years; it is this --- The bozos out there are supposed to grind you down and nudge you to the safe boundaries of 'mediocrity'. Listen to them and you are going to practice safety by 'doing nothing'. After all, it's easy being a leach, shutting up and contributing nothing --- the problem with that however; is that it's boring.

This is serious stuff; you can go from a contributor trying to share his ideas, perspectives, products or stories to a non-existent non-participant just by listening a couple of Bozos. 

Most genuine builders that I have observed in my very own personal life; and the ones I've observed through their work and web presence follow three simple steps when it comes to dealing with Bozos trying to grind them down. The three steps are really simple:

1. Ignore. 
2. Move on.
3. Do it anyways.

Once you've done step three and have decided to do whatever-it-is-that-you-were-doing anyways --- push a little harder than you did last time; get louder and do it in ways that are bolder than the ones you have used ever before.

If your idea or message is sufficiently strong and you have started with conviction, ignoring the Bozos is easy.

Most genuine builders do it every day of their life. They don't just ignore the Bozos; sometimes, they even listen to what the Bozos ask them not to do; and then they go out there and do just that.

You'll never be able to shut the Bozos up. What you can do however can be summed up in two simple words --- "don't listen" --- and if they go out of their way to make you listen --- "don't care".

Like most genuine builders; indulge in strong opinions weakly held; entertain all thoughts; but accept only the ones that you genuinely agree to and believe in.

I wish you good luck. 

How many examples of the Bozos trying to grind you down have you witnessed?

How many times have you proved them wrong by not listening to them?

What do you do when you encounter Bozos trying to grind you down, dear reader?

Discuss.

Note: This article is a part of a Work In Progress Book. To Read connected articles read the Builders At Work category of this blog.

That Is Exactly What I Want To See.

"But She is going to Fail." --- for the last hour; Fred has been on the other side of my cell phone; convincing me; wanting, expecting and demanding me to interfere and pursue Jane to use technologies out there rather than the self-made component she is planning on using for the project.

He wants to hold her hand and guide her to a safe and successful completion of the project. Jane on the other hand doesn't seem to care about safety. She doesn't seem to need any hand holding either. Offer her your hand or some safety and she shrugs.

She seems to know what she is doing.

Like a genuine builder, she is walking without a safety net of lame excuses. She is taking her own decisions; sometimes succeeding; sometimes failing; and most of the times recovering gracefully out of her failures. She has been doing a great job in the last couple of months since she was promoted. 

"Do you want to see her fail?" --- Fred questions.

I cringe.

It is a spontaneous response - "Actually, Yes; that is exactly what I want to see."

The statement is followed a long silence from the other side of the phone making me feel like I just turned into an alien with five eyes.

I explain - "She is entitled to her share of successes and failures. We need to give her a fair chance."

Long silence.

The sound of a click.

Fred is a Bozo; or at-least he is acting like one.

Builders And Bozos.

Genuine Builders don't sit around whining about external factors or giving lame excuses.

Genuine builders ship.

Continuously; shamelessly and consistently.

If there is one thing I've learnt by observing genuine builders at work and around the world it is that they have thick-skins, short-memories, the minds of a child, scarred careers which are full of new or remarkable failures and very little respect for status quo. They walk on the fringes, waiting to risk it all for remarkable results and for the sake of testing their limits along with losing their fears or insecurities.

All these qualities apart; there is yet another critical quality that forms a genuine builder.

Genuine builders know when to turn completely deaf and not give a rat's ass about what 'the crowds' in general and 'the bozos' in particular think or say.

Every dent in the universe; small or large; is an example of genuine builders gone deaf.

Builders are highly opinionated and picky when it comes to beliefs and ideas. Once the beliefs and ideas survive their idea-test however; most builders turn a deaf ear to the crowd or the bozos who tell them they should stop. From that point on they have the spine to follow their own convictions and beliefs.

If you are reading this; chances are that you have been through this moment of clarity in your project; your work or your life where you knew what you had to keep doing irrespective of what others told you to do.

From the folks at Apple refusing features in the iPod to the folks at 37Signals refusing more functionality in Project Path and all their other products, builders work by entertaining all thoughts but accepting only the ones that they want to accept.

Most builders out there are not just thick-skinned or stubborn; they often turn deaf and sometimes even rebellious to what the crowds or the bozos have to say.

Meet The Bozos

Bozos are usually your so called well-wishers.

They can be your distant relatives; your colleagues; your acquaintances; your bosses; your organization and sometimes even your clients or followers.

They mean no harm.

All they want to do; is keep themselves; and you; in the safe territories of --- mediocrity.

Writer Elizabeth Gilbert explains the phenomenon in her classic presentation at TED:

Long story short, Bozos want you to be 'normal', 'good' and 'safe'; just like everyone else. If you think about it Bozoism-Through-Genuine-Concern-Of-Well-Wishers dates back to pre-historic days when Little-Jack-The-Cave-Kid was living on trees with Uncle-Freddy-The-Cave-Man. That was when it was Uncle-Freddy's responsibility that Little-Jack does not do something stupid; like get down of the trees and get himself killed.

That is when Little-Jack's mistake would have ended up costing him his life and Uncle-Freddy was supposed to teach Little-Jack the 'normal' route to survival; which was to stay up on the trees.

But then a weird thing happened. Someone got down off the trees; no-body was killed and then the entire human race followed. 

Today, we live in a world where all a mistake will usually cost you is a minor slap on your self esteem and a little bit of humiliation.

In today's world your professional mistakes will usually not kill you. They will just make you stronger.

Here is the sad part however --- The Uncle-Freddy-Attitude still exists amongst the Bozos who walk your planet; in the form of distant relatives, colleagues, acquaintances, bosses, organizations, client and followers. 

Long story short; just in case you didn't look and notice already; the Bozos are all around you.

Bozos In Action - Gentle Nudges Towards Mediocrity.

Experiment One:

Go and announce to your personal friend circle that you are quitting your job and are going to be an independent consultant. Tell them that it means a lot to you and that you really want to do it.

Observe.

The Bozos will kick in trying their best to nudge you back to the safe and established territory of your job life.

Experiment Two:

Suggest a radically new and different corporate website for your organization.

Observe.

The Bozos will kick in trying their best to nudge your back to the safe and know path of a simple, safe looking corporate website.

Experiment Three:

Have a slightly different hair style or follow a slightly different dress-code to office.

Observe.

The Bozos will kick in trying their best to nudge your back to the safe and know territory of the 'old you'.

Do you understand exactly what it is that is happening here? If you don't --- understanding the Bozos around you might help.

Understanding Bozos

Bozos aren't bad people. They aren't whiners. Just 'normal' people living a 'normal' life and having 'normal' fears of failures along with a lot of preconceived notions.

What they feel; is a subtle and indescribable fear of change. If there is one property that describes their behavior the best it is - Homeostasis. 

Bozos usually have a 'fear' that you or your organization might make a fool out of yourself.

To be fair to them; some of them might be your genuine well wishers.

In a few cases the fear may be a result of 'genuine concern' for the organization or for you as a colleague.

There is just one tiny little problem in listening to them however.

Listen to them and you will remain safe in the realms of mediocrity for the rest of your life. A realm which builders leave as quickly as they can in search of remarkable outputs and results.

Every single genuine builder that I have seen has thrived, not by confronting or trying to convince the Bozos but by turning a deaf ear to them.

If there is one secret, builders know as a part of their very nature or as a lesson acquired from a difficult experience it is that what ever you do, if you want to build something that makes a big or tiny dent in the universe, you do not let the Bozos grind you down.

If the Bozos get louder; all you can do; dear reader; is turn deaf.

Look around you, how many Bozos do you see in your professional life?

How many of them do you think are your well-wishers?

Do you have stories connected to Bozoism, dear reader?

Discuss.

“That is exactly why I decided to build it”.

Jack is this young and budding developer; I inherit him with the project where Fred suddenly disappears.

He is going around with the right guys in the culture chart, he seems to like lying low, seems to be working abnormal hours and occasionally hides in the meeting rooms and conference rooms in search of silence. 

Sometimes he even disappears out of office and works at a local cafeteria.

You can see him working in the strangest of places.

I don't see him in any meetings.

In a very healthy and positive way he does not seem to have a life outside work. He seems to love what he is doing.

Put simply, everything about him tells me he is a builder.

Having said that, there is a little problem --- I don't know what Jack is up to.

The “Project Plan” shows him assigned to “invoicing enhancements”.

He's checking in his code on time, but he's up to something mysterious.

Nah! --- I tell myself --- Changing labels on Data Entry forms; couldn’t be keeping him busy.

But then we’ve been working on firefighting multiple issues and I don’t have a lot of time to check on Jack. He could be underutilized; we could be wasting his talents or he could be genuinely up to something interesting; but I have bigger problems at hand.

The code generator that Multiplitaxion Inc, is planning on buying; for example; is a big problem needing immediate attention.

I spend a few weeks evaluating various products in the market. Nothing seems to fit our requirement.  Soon I am struggling with every single commercial code generator out there. I’m working hard and staying late.

That's when I realize that Jack and I are the only two ones usually in office past midnight.

"Labels changes on data entry forms keeping him up?" --- I wonder.

Funny.

Our initial conversations start with simple interactions - “Hey you want to order something? I'm ordering food.”

Then; we talk; about the project --- and what each one of us thinks will kill the project.

Jack thinks, code migration is going to kill us; customized code generation using templates and custom code, is the only thing that can save us.

"What the… this guy knows about the code generation approach?" - I am thinking to myself.

How could he?

What does “invoicing enhancements” have to do with code generation and the most critical aspects of the project?

Surprise.

Not only does he know about the code generator, he knows that looking for commercial code generators is an approach that is not going to work.

More talking --- now he has my attention.

It is late night. Seriously late.

Jack in on a white board, explaining the design of this customized code generator he has been writing without talking to anyone.

Then he's running me through the code.

Then of course the weirdest thing happens --- he shows a working prototype he wrote in his last three months of spare time; without talking to anyone about it.

Everything seems ordinary till this point. However the chain-of-events take a weird turn.

Here is the creepy part – his prototype does exactly what we need.

Silence; followed by a very short conversation.

The discussion was about Fred, the PM, who decided to disappear after rubbing every single builder the wrong way.

Pops: Why didn't you tell us you had a working prototype?

Jack: I asked him if I should give it a shot and he said I should focus on my current tasks. He said I am incapable of building something this complicated.

Pops: You decided to build it anyway?

Jack:  Actually --- that is exactly why I decided to build it.

Pops: When were you planning on showing this to everyone?

Jack: I wasn't. Just wanted to see if I can build it.

Long silence.

Pops: Can you demo this to everyone tomorrow?

Jack: If you think it's good enough; I still think it needs a few days of polishing.

Pops: It's good enough. Seriously. Do you think you can demo it?

Jack: Sure. If you think it will help.

Pops: Thanks. Let's go home now.

Since then every time I witness a “builder-hibernation” in an organization, I feel sorry for the organization.

When your builders hibernate, they don't lose their consistency; neither do they stop building stuff.  That is their very nature. The behavior is hardcoded in their geans. They can’t help but build stuff.

When they hibernate, they just stop building stuff ‘for you’.

Why?  --- Because they think you don’t care one way or the other.

The next time a junior programmer tells you he has ideas do not ask him to focus on his assignments.

Do not tell him to ‘do his job’.

Shut up. Stop. Listen.

The next time you are stuck between doing something that needs your 'immediate attention'; for example; evaluation of a commercial code generator; or having a conversation to someone who seems like a genuine builder in hibernation, remember; the conversation is much more important.

Do not tell yourself you have other important things to address.

Chances are that the solution to the other important things that you are trying to address is lurching in your very own organization and you aren’t even aware of it.

Have you ever seen a builder being told what he cannot do?

Have you seen him go ahead and do it anyways?

What other stories of relentless stubbornness have you seen from your genuine builders, dear reader?

Discuss.

Note: This article is a part of a Work In Progress Book. To Read connected articles read the Builders At Work category of this blog.

Hibernation Through Thanks But No Thanks.

Jane is doing an amazing job at shipping some serious backend code. She isn't doing it under the temporary fit of impressing her manager. She has been consistently shipping for the past couple of years and yet you see her working away late nights; supporting issues when things break and getting things done by silently attacking one problem at a time without breaking down.

She is passionate; she is consistent and as she runs forward she is taking the team along with her.

She isn't even burning out.

She; is a builder.

Then you realize that when she politely requests other builders to do things, things get done. Just like that.

She isn't just shipping or building stuff. She is leading. She is leading without whining or bitching. She is doing it at a time when your organizations needs builders who can lead.

Desperately.

You weave an amazing and remarkable story around her capabilities. The story of the quite builder being a hero spreads amongst the corridors of your organization. She can now be 'officially' promoted. More power can be vested in hands of someone who is not desperately seeking power.

Life is good.

"I prefer to do my job rather than leading a team. I like to code. Anyways, thanks so much for asking." --- she tells you.

You are hearing words all right but you can hardly understand them.

That's right --- what she is telling you, is that she does not want a promotion.

Yes; builders say that kind of things and here is the really creepy part - sometimes they mean it too.

You need to take a deep breath.

Don't Panic.

Maintain eye contact, talk; listen very intently and learn.

Very closely.

What's happening here?

Why doesn't she want to take the lead?

The entire pecking order of your organization doesn't know what is going on here. Even Jane herself is clueless. But she is telling you something she cannot put in words. She is saying it through her refusal to accept the promotion and she is giving you her reasons very articulately, maybe not through her words, but through her actions.

Can you hear it?

If you care; I'm going to help you understand what she is telling you.

Her unspoken message has both good news and bad news.

Good news is that she still loves the work she is doing in her team. Her talents are not yet getting utterly wasted in your organization. Jane, as an engineer is highly effective in your organization; and that dear reader is a good thing.

Ready for the bad news?

She knows how promotions and leaderships work in your workplace.

She is developing a disconnect with the way promotions and leaderships work in your organization.

All those whiners that were leading your team and were getting away with promotions and pats on their backs --- she was observing when that was happening.

Now she feels threatened at the idea of being promoted to her level of incompetence.

She associates leadership in your organization with whining and she in her own unique way; has figured out how she can continue to add genuine value rather than turning herself into a whiner.

What she is doing, is simple:

First, she is writing amazing code.

Second, she is avoiding anything that brings her in the limelight.

Put simply, she is lying low.

Unlike fire and motion; a technique well known the world of army; she is using a technique I like to call 'fire and duck'.

What she is telling you is that she has no political skills to match the skills being demonstrated by the whiners leading teams in your organization. She prefers to ship, then duck and hide --- like she does not even exist.

She wants to lie low and keep shipping.

This form of disconnection in builders is so common; and yet most organizations hardly understand it.

The purpose of this post, however is twofold.

First,  is to germinate the idea that most builders survive hostile environments by 'fire and duck' or by lying low. When you see whiners talking about how your 'developers' are not good at communication or how your builders need to be managed; more often than not your builders are actually spending extra effort making sure that you think that they do not exist. They might be leading your teams already; they just don't want you to find it out and make it 'official'.

It's a technique which allows them to lead teams without indulging themselves in bureaucracy.

They are indulging in fire and duck; because they don't trust your organization and leadership to come out in the open and take charge. They are afraid you'll promote them to their level of incompetence and that they will rot in meeting-hell.

The second purpose of this post; is to bring to your notice; dear reader; that the disconnect that your builders have with the promotion and leadership; has probably transformed into disconnect for the entire organization. If not, it will; soon; especially if you leave it unattended.

It is important that the next time you talk to Jane you get her to accept that promotion you are trying to give her. 

Getting her to accept that promotion is important; because by doing that you are sending out a very clear and honest message to your builders. You are telling your genuine leaders that it's OK to get noticed. You're telling them that it is OK to lead and that it is OK to drive the organization; because if they don't; your whiners will.

What examples of builders indulging in fire and duck or lying low have you seen?

Have you ever seen genuine builders in your organization refuse leadership roles and promotions?

Why do you think they refused the leadership roles when they did, dear reader?

Discuss.

Note: This article is a part of a Work In Progress Book. To Read connected articles read the Builders At Work category of this blog.

Getting Genuine Builders To De-Hibernate.

When Fred, the young and budding manager disappears, and when you have spent your first few days trying to replace Fred fully and undo the crap he littered all over the place, you realize that it is already too late. The 'builder hibernation' has already begun.

Most of your genuine builders have left.

The ones who are capable of fixing things, don't care.

They've moved to a I'll-Follow-Orders mode.

They've gone silent and the whiners in your organization have taken over.

You can here them loud and clear through the silence and the sounds of crickets chirping.

Hollywood style inspirational speeches will not work here.

When this happens you are left with only two things do so.

The First Thing To Do --- “Listen”

If we were to take three most important things that you should know about hibernation here is what they would be.

One, there is a possibility that your system is being screwed big time right now as you read this.  There could be a dozen things that could be messing things up; Artificial deadlines, monkeys, mitigated speech --- the list is endless but if the builders don't speak up, chances are, you'll never find out.

If your builders are in hibernation they don't care enough to gate crash into your office with a big fat red light in their hand to have a fight with you to save the project, the team or the organization from absolute stupidity.

They've had it.

It basically means, you've been cut off from the sound-non-whining-genuine-feedback-loop of your organization or team.

Two, most builders are still going to give in reasonable effort to try and fix things even after they have moved into hibernation; the only difference here is that their opinions are going to be very soft whispers; not the loud shouts that they once used to be.

Why?

Because they have lost their 'attachment' with the organization, team or project.

There's a lot to be said about attachment; but the bottom-line is simple --- If you can't get them to feel the attachment again, you are going to lose your builders.

The third fact is most interesting however --- If you genuinely want them to feel attached to the project, the team or the organization again, they will.

Eventually.

All you need to do really is illustrate one simple quality consistently --- empathy.

Jack, is in hibernation. He hasn't quit.

Hibernation is Jack's way of telling you that you need to stop and listen.

When I say stop and listen I do not mean Lets-Have-A-Project-Status-Meeting approach to stopping and listening.

I mean Lets-Go-Out-For-A-Cup-Of-Coffee-And-Talk-Openly approach to listening.

If you are facing a hibernation and your organization, team or project is struggling through problems; chances are that every single problem that your organization, team and project is facing right now, has been solved.

There is a fully-working solution, or an individual fully capable of providing you one, lurching somewhere in your corridors. Solutions to the so called huge organizational problems your senior management is so worried about right now; have long been found and are being discussed in your cafeteria.

The questions you need to ask yourself are simple:

One, are you listening?

Two, do you have the power and the intention to do anything, even if a genuine builder was to tell you the solution?

The two questions are important; because here is the tragic part --- in most cases only one of the answers is a 'yes'.

That is what screws up most projects, teams and organizations out there.

Scott Berkun describes this inability to 'listen' in his classic post on fighting management incompetence. He explains:

If you genuinely want to do something about your organization, team or project, learn to talk a walk down the corridors and when people look like they want to have a talk with you, strike a conversation; and listen.

Then either gather enough power to do something about it; or you weave a remarkable story of how important it is to fix the situation and convince the big bosses in your organization to help.

Listening is the first thing you can do to de-hibernate your builder.

Ready for the second thing?

The Second Thing To Do --- Act.

“Dude, we have seriously cramped cubicals around here in the new office.” - Jack tells you.

“Half the time Fred doesn't know what he is talking about.” - Jane describes her current manager.

Jack and Jane are seriously kick ass builders.

You cringe.

You're sorry you even asked for then genuine authentic blatantly honest feedback.

This is a serious nightmare.

Why?

Because you know you're not going to be able to do anything. You're going to try your best to fix things. You're going to take it up with your Office Administration department and your senior management. Then you're going to die in the meeting hell.

You know deep down inside, that neither are the cubical going to change, nor is Fred going to be replaced.

That's how organizations handle feedbacks from builders.

Peopleware by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister describes this so much more articulately. The book explains this through a real life incident:

Which is why when you have organizational meetings to discuss the direction and the vision statement of the organization, no genuine builder ever has a question or a feedback. Which is why when you do a meeting to talk about a project that's failing you hear the absolute silence.

The next time no-one emails you their feedback after a meeting, the next time no-one has a question after a presentation, the next time no-one in your team files in their feedback on the corporate intranet, the next time you hear the sound of the chirping crickets and “something” doesn't seem right, you know what's happening.

Your genuine builders are hibernating and you are either not listening or you don't care enough to act.

The next time you see a genuine builder-hibernation, avoiding the problem will only make it worse.

Listen. Act.

Get them to De-Hibernate.

Because if you can't --- you are screwed.

Have you ever worked with a team of hibernating builders and got them to connect back to the organization, the project and the team?

Did genuinely listening and acting on what they told you help?

Do you have a story to tell about your experiences on this front, dear reader?

Discuss.

Note: This article is a part of a Work In Progress Book. To Read connected articles read the Builders At Work category of this blog.

The Hibernation

You join Multiplitaxion Inc as a young and budding manager who is consulting for them.

Here's the story so far: The team you are being asked to lead was being led by a a certain Fred. Half way through the project Fred decides that the project is officially screwed. Then one fine sunny morning when the sky was clear Fred decides to disappear and does.  He doesn't disappear completely though. He leaves some part of his culture behind.

You are called in.

"He was making stupid mistakes" – you tell yourself - You can do better.

Then when you spend a couple of days at the client's office you realize something else.

He was the last one to leave.

Before he left he had ego tussles and power struggles with any genuine builder who could have fixed anything. Most of them left before he did. Others have been rubbed the wrong way and have gone into what I call the builder's-hibernation.

None of the genuine builders at Multiplitaxion Inc, care anymore.

As a manager, the 'builder-hibernation' is a phenomenon difficult to explain.

You know what it is when you see one in action

How do you know when it happens?

You know when Jack, a seriously kick-ass builder who used to gate crash into your office and shout at you, asking you to get the monkeys out of his way, stops showing up.

Or when Jane, who was working on your other branch office, stops giving you the direct-to-the-point brief calls when she feels something isn't going right.

Genuine builders will usually take a lot of abuse and continue to work silently. Incompetent managers, loud work environments, unreal schedules --- genuine builder tend to notice this details rather well but they are too busy to react to take any of this seriously.

Then the stupidity keeps piling up.

Slowly.

To a point where something happens and the thin thread snaps.

To be honest, beyond a certain point; where a lot of organizations and so-called-managers go; a lot of things can make the thread snap.

For example, this young and budding manager you hired last month rubs a few of your genuine builders in the wrong way; or says something that is intimidating and down right insulting.

Snap.

The thread breaks.

And then there is silence.

Followed by chirping of crickets.

You continue to get the long-winded status reports; that say nothing; by your so-called-managers. But you suddenly stop seeing Jack; your core engineer.

Jack is the guy who used to gate crash your cabin with one single sentence - “we need more time to ship quality; we are delaying the sprint by a week; can talk later if you want or I can give you more details in an email if you need that but we can't ship crap.” - and then he used to leave without wasting a whole lot of your time.

When Jack does not gate-crash anymore and you have to turn to that status report to see what the team is up to;  it might be an indication of Jack moving to a hibernation.

The builders slowly switch to a mode where they do exactly what they are told to do. They cover their ass and become disinterested to even care or give a rat's ass about the project or the organization that they once felt so very passionately about.

They start 'doing their job'.

Put simply, they go into a full fledged 'hibernation'.  The feedback loop snaps and all you are left with is cries from whining employees.

“Do you want the system to remember the last time the user logged in” - specific questions of this sort, by Jack and Jane; as they build; stop.

Suddenly Fred is telling your clients and stake-owner what the problem is - “The requirements of the login use-case aren't yet clear and they are constantly changing; we need to have a meeting to freeze the requirement because if we don't it's going to be really hard to start construction”. 

When that happens, you know you've lost it.

When that happens, Dot-com companies wind up.

Your job as a builder, story teller, manager, vice president, director, chief executive officer, board manager, entrepreneur or whatever it is that you are, is to avoid this hibernation from a ten mile radius.

If you don't understand how lethal it is you should.

It's lethal for three reasons.

First, the chances of any builder quitting and joining another company are huge during his hibernation period when compared to his chances of leaving when he is genuinely connected to the pond, feeling the ripples and taking corrective action. Genuine builders usually do not quit for factors like a small hike in salary; but make them feel disconnected and you've just multiplied their chances of quitting.

Second, it contagious. Builders usually work in closely knit team. The young and budding manager may have rubbed one genuine builder the wrong way; but  chances are high that others that work closely with him are going to disconnect and hibernate sooner or later.

Third, it stops genuine complains by genuine builders and amplifies the voice of the whiners. Those meetings where 'requirements are frozen' and 'use cases are finalized' suddenly become important. Processes and rules become important. Deadlines become important. Then slowly, showing up at nine in the morning becomes important.

Jack and Jane go from loud warnings, to whispers, to silence.

They are hibernating.

When you start losing touch with Jack or Jane and when they stop showing up, it's time to react like the life of your project, team and organization depends on it --- because to a large extent, it genuinely does.

When was the first time you witnessed a genuine builder or a team of builders go into hibernation?

What caused the hibernation?

Did they come back and feel connected again or did you just lose them?

What brought them back?

Have you ever disconnected or hibernated, dear reader?

Discuss.

Note: This article is a part of a Work In Progress Book. To Read connected articles read the Builders At Work category of this blog.

Nine AM.

There is something about Nine AM.

It's the time of the day when something amazing happens.

A time when any organization is vulnerable to someone like me, who is trying to study it and get loads of information about the organization, the people who work there and the culture chart that prevails in the organization.

Seriously.

"But Pops, why is Nine AM so important?" --- you ask.

OK, do this --- walk into any organization you want to examine at nine AM sharp and observe.

Watch everything that goes on; closely.

Chances are; here's what you see --- tons of people dressed in formals, getting in, grabbing coffee and settling down to work. If you are in a larger organization and have a good imagination you'll be able to draw your very own personal parallels.

Now, here's the secret --- rare exceptions apart, that crowd that you are watching as it gets in to work, dressed in all formals, is exactly that --- 'a crowd'.

Remember the Pereto Principal they taught you in management schools when you were a young and budding student?

It was the little lesson where they taught you how only twenty percent of the people do eighty percent of the job in any organization.

Remember that? 

This 'crowd' rushing in to office at Nine AM with ironed shirts, ties and suits; is that other eighty percent of the people the Pereto Principal did not explicitly mention just for the sake of being nice to them.

A very few exceptions apart, they are the boring mediocrity and potential-current-or-future-whiners.

The Nine AM observation is one quick and easy way to spot whiners.

On the other hand, here's how you spot potential genuine builders:

1. Drop in to office at five in the morning and you'll see a couple of heads popped up in the vacant cubical farm; deeply immersed in serious work. You have a few genuine builders who are showing up early to get some real work done.
2. Drop in to office at eight evening and you'll see a couple of heads popped up in the vacant cubical farm; deeply immersed in serious work.  You have a few genuine builders who are staying back late to get some real work done. 
3. Of the Nine-AM-Crowd, try to spot the slightly strange guys; the strangeness can manifest itself in subtle ways - for example, some of these guys might be coming in with slippers, others with undone hair; some might be wearing jeans; some T-Shirts or some even shorts. You would find clear violations of organizational rules conducted with absentmindedness and humility. These guys will not even realize they are violating your organizational policies and rules.

If you can't find any of the above three in your organization, it's bad news.

Seriously.

My point?

Real builders are not just ugly; they are often slightly weird and lack respect for rules.

Of all the things that describe genuine builders 'normal' is one word which does not even come close to describing what genuine builders are or what they do.  

Here is the ironic part, however --- Most organizations out there seem to have a serious passion for hiring 'normal' people who do 'normal' things, including following 'normal' office timings, adhering to 'normal' office dress code and organizing 'normal' meetings for having 'normal' discussions.

Guess what?

These 'normal' employees, indulging in 'normal' activities; results in --- 'normal' products --- and unfortunately 'normal' products are utterly boring.

'Normal' is not remarkable.

'Normal' doesn't work.

When it comes to genuine creativity --- it is the weird and ugly that often do the job.

Yet, most organizations out there continue to chase the 'normal'.

Scott Berkrun, describes this organizational mistake in his excellent essay on why ugly teams win. He explains:

Scott takes the concept of our leaning towards the safe and beautiful and attacks it heads on:

Most genuine builders are nowhere close to 'normal' or 'safe'.

Amongst all the other things they are ugly, shameless, loud and weird; they have beautiful scars which they carry with elegance and humility. They take risks, bend the rules, fail and continue consistently even after being told countless times they should consider stopping or changing their path. 

Fred; gets in by Nine AM sharp; he's out at six; always adheres to the official dress code; always fills his timesheet on time; never has a fight with his manager; never goes around the official company policies; never breaks rules; never fails and is one hundred percent professional.  Even your HR department loves Fred. You should not be having Fred in your team and if you can influence the decision, you should not be hiring Fred in your organization.

"But Pops, the guy is just following the rules. What is the problem here?" --- you ask.

That dear reader, is precisely the problem.

Chances are, that Fred plays equally safe when it comes to his work.

"It's not my fault. The use-cases aren't clear about that" --- ever heard that?

Chances are, that, this is exactly what you might hear from Mr. Fred.

Chances are, that Fred; dear reader; is not a builder.

He is yet another boring employee and a whiner; at least a potential one.

While your organization might be busy looking at time registers to see who is coming early or late; if you are looking for genuine builders in your organization; all you need to do is be careful of is the Nine AM employees; who wear a tie to office and get everything right.

They are your whiners.

A few others troublemakers that remain contains all your builders.

If you want to genuinely monitor how well your organization is doing, how many whiners and how many genuine builders you have --- observe your organization at Nine AM.

What is the number of Nine AM Employees compared to the early comers and late goers in your organization?

How many individuals can you think of who break your organizational rules like timing and dress code without even realizing they are breaking rules?

How many weird and scarred employees does your organization have, dear reader?

Discuss.

Note: This article is a part of a Work In Progress Book. To Read connected articles read the Builders At Work category of this blog.

Observing Builders

If you really want to understand builders and what makes them survive, tick and thrive; observe what they do.

During my professional life, this is one thing I've spent hours doing whether it is observing a young and budding engineer I might have hired for the organization I work for or observing the famous online-success-stories through their blogs and through what they ship.

Grabbing my attention is easy. All you have to do is mention a genuine builder and if I can observe him personally, through his work or through his blog; I will.

As it turns out, builders come in all shapes and sizes. They have different ways of working. Some of them prefer to lie low and ship while others thrive by selling the achievements of their team to their organizations. Some prefer talking to the compiler and shipping amazing stuff, while others weave remarkable stories and make small dents in the universe with their very own unique perspectives. 

After working with multiple genuine builders and observing countless others online, if there is one conclusion that I've arrived at, it is that each builder is different from another. Yet the fundamentals that make these individuals builders generally the same.

One of my objectives of writing this book was to turn this personal observing exercise into a coherent stream of thoughts that allow me to not just observe builders; but actually dissect their actions and arrive at my very own conclusions regarding the people who build organizations, teams or bring amazing products and services into our life.

What follows are common traits I've seen in every single genuine builder I've observed or worked with in my life.

Consistency.

It's not that whiners don't have amazing ideas or cannot do great stuff. It's easy to write off whiners as people who whine, bitch and waste everyone's time but that is clearly not the case. Some of the whiners that I've observed are fairly intelligent and smart people; yet they are unable to deliver anything that makes any considerable impact on the organization, the team or the project that they work on.

So, what is going on with the whiners?

Why can't whiners get to ship something that has any impact on anything or anyone's life?

The answer to this question lay in my interactions with Fred and Jane.

I met Fred and Jane back the days when I was working at Multiplitaxion Inc.

Fred like most whiners, was big time into bitching, moaning and Resume Driven Development.

After a few days of observing Fred, I realized that Fred was not a bad guy after all.

Slightly political --- definitely.

Naughty --- sure.

Stupid --- not really.

Fred often did have his share of amazing ideas which were genuinely all right.

Fred however, had a problem.

You couldn't get Fred to work on a single project for more than a couple of months. Fred was a classic parasite, that overwhelmed the project team with the list of cutting-edge technologies they aught to use and when he had made it amply clear to people sitting high up in the pecking order of the organization that he had contributed sufficiently by providing 'thought leadership' or by doing a dozen 'proof of concepts' he would jump over to another project. 

Fred was what I called the 'Idea monkey' back then.

You could allocate Fred to the most comfortable of all the projects and be rest assured things would start going wrong. You would start having communication issues, issues with timelines and issues with shipping.

Jane on the other hand, happened to be a quite builder who was slightly reserved and liked doing her work quietly in a corner cubical. You hardly ever saw her laughing or hanging out with people; not even with her own team. She was a quite, intellectual who liked to be alone and write code.

There was something strange about Jane though.

If you had a project that was stumbling or failing all you had to do was to put Jane in the project and then slowly things would start falling in the right place.

It wouldn't happen overnight though.

It would take weeks, sometimes even a few months before a late project would come back on time or a project littered with bugs and broken windows would suddenly start meeting the quality standards.

By that time Jane would have developed really strong hold on the project and would have settled down with one track focus of shipping, sprint after sprint. Ask her if she wanted to move to a different project and she would look at you with eyes which would made you feel sorry you asked.

Here is the spooky part however --- if you were to compare the years of experience, educational qualifications, designation or even genuine technical competence and talent of Fred and Jane, Fred would beat Jane hands down. Yet, Fred, somehow managed to screw up project after project when Jane led even the most screwed up ones to a successful end.

What was happening here?

It took me a couple of months to figure this one out. On the surface Both of these talented individuals were awesome guys and equally fun to interact with.

On close observation for a couple of months however, you would notice that there was one thing that separated the two however. While Fred, was seriously interested in 'proving' his abilities and chasing one successful project after another; Jane was interested in getting into a project, understanding the issues, developing firm roots on the project and then working on solving one problem after another --- consistently.  

Project after project, If there is one thing I've learnt, it is that consistency is one quality which differentiates genuine builders from whiners. Not talent, competency, caliber or anything else. Irrespective how much much talent, intelligence, competence, smartness or IQ you have if you are not consistent, chances are that you either are a whiner or will turn into one pretty soon.

Seth Godin for example, differentiates performers from ones who forever remain the realms of mediocrity using the concept of Dip. He uses the following diagram to illustrate Dip:

Seth explains:

The Dip, according to Seth is the point where excitement of doing something new dies down. If you are a blogger, Dip is the point where you realize that no-one cares about your blog and that your blog with three entries about your cat will not make you the most popular blogger on planet earth. If you are a software developer writing an open source application, Dip is the point where you realize that you are just not getting more than ten downloads a month.

If you are a young and budding entrepreneur trying to build a business around an idea which you once thought will change the world, Dip is the point when just ten unique visitors show up on your website on the launch day and no-one is willing to buy your universe changing product for just ten dollars.

Long story short, Dip is the point where the excitement of starting something new dies down and the realization that you are not going to change the world with whatever it is that you are doing, as easily as you had expected you would, sets in.

That's when most whiners jump on to something else.

That's when a whining blogger starts a new blog; a whining entrepreneur thinks of a new idea; and a whining programmer hops over to a new project or a new job. Genuine builders however, ask themselves if they genuinely love and believe what they are doing.

They ask themselves if they can spend rest of their life doing it.

If the answer is no, they surrender shamelessly and then then learn to work hard to avoid things they do not genuinely enjoy doing.

if the answer is yes, however; they continue working at what-ever-it-is-that-they-were-working-on.

Consistently.

The same ruthless consistency holds true even with genuine story teller Elizabeth Gilbert. In her PowerPoint-less-presentation about the 'Genius' at TED, which is one of my favorite talks ever, she talks about her life as an author, the reason behind her success and how she continues to overcome her fears:

If we think about it this way it starts to change everything. You know, this is how I've started to think and this is certainly how I've been thinking about in the last few months, as I have been working on the book that will soon be published as the dangerously, frightenly, over anticipated follow up to my freakish success and what I have to sort-of keep telling myself when I get really psyched out about that is "don't be afraid", "don't be daunted", just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it; whatever that might be. If your job is to dance, do your dance. If the divine cockied genius assigned to your case decides to let some sort of wonderment be glimpsed for just one moment through your effort, then Ole! And If not, do your dance anyhow and ole to you none the less. I believe this and I feel that we must teach it. Ole to you none the less just for having the sheer human love and stubbornness to keep showing up.

Jeff Atwood from coding-horror is no different. He describes the success behind his amazing blog and gives sound advice on how to ahieve ultimate blog success in one easy step:

When people ask me for advice on blogging, I always respond with yet another form of the same advice: pick a schedule you can live with, and stick to it. Until you do that, none of the other advice I could give you will matter. I don't care if you suck at writing. I don't care if nobody reads your blog. I don't care if you have nothing interesting to say. If you can demonstrate a willingness to write, and a desire to keep continually improving your writing, you will eventually be successful. But success takes time --- a lot of time. I'd say a year at minimum. That's the element that weeds out so many impatient people. I wrote this blog for a year in utter obscurity, but I kept at it because I enjoyed it. I made a commitment to myself, under the banner of personal development, and I planned to meet that goal. My schedule was six posts per week, and I kept jabbing, kept shipping, kept firing. Not every post was that great, but I invested a reasonable effort in each one. Every time I wrote, I got a little better at writing. Every time I wrote, I learned a little more about the topic, how to research topics effectively, where the best sources of information were. Every time I wrote, I was slightly more plugged in to the rich software development community all around me. Every time I wrote, I'd get a morsel of feedback or comments that I kept rolling up into future posts. Every time I wrote, I tried to write something just the tiniest bit better than I did last time.

If there is one thing that connects every single genuine builder that I have studied, observed, looked up to, seen or worked with, it is relentless consistency to keep showing up.

Your girl-friend dumped you?

Feeling low?

Having problems at work?

Guess what --- no-body cares.

Unless of-course you have a something remarkable in it for them which makes them care.

To add to that, neither of these are reason enough not to ship on your own self picked schedule. 

If you haven't picked one thing that you absolutely love doing, and are not giving it your consistent focused attention day-after-day relentlessly; for years; you probably are just wasting your time, whining away to glory.

If you are going to stop reading this book, right now, right here, remember this before you do - builders ship; consistently.

Oh and that product that your organization might be shipping out successfully --- it is *not* shipping because your young and budding managers who are awesome at organizing meetings and talking big are going on a white-board or brainstorming about cutting-edge ideas.

Chances are, that it is shipping because, a few builders in your organization, who you may not even know have been slogging away, quietly; for years; without looking for a new opportunity, a new project to jump on to or something new and exiting to hop on to. It's shipping because of tremendous amount of commitment, hard work and the will to 'show up' day-after-day which is often characteristic of genuine builders.  

That's consistency.

Of all the traits of genuine builders, this is one that all genuine builders I have seen so far; demonstrate; consistently.