Working moments

Introduction

In continuation of the article habrahabr.ru/post/150065 we will discuss conflict situations arising in the process of working on one project. We will not consider the cases of “blood feud” or the principle of “eye for eye”, since in this case it is worth considering whether a team is a conflicted person.

All considered cases most often occur in large companies with ten-year projects. Young and small companies are subject to these problems much less.

It will be about hidden conflicts, often they do not appear at all - the employee simply changes jobs. The conflict of the novice, the conflict of the professional. Conflict, especially with oneself. They arise for various reasons, depend on the attitude to work, responsibility for the final result, empathy for work and are a narrow line between open opposition and internal turmoil.
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Examples

We assume that all employees are adequate and professional.

Example 1. First of all, it is worth talking about situations when one person does not want to work with another according to his personal views. He tries to avoid interacting with someone, while quietly working with another person. It does not take into account the professional skills of each and the work, respectively, is not optimally done.

Example 2. An employee offers a new idea to modernize a ten-year system. In response, he receives a comment that this cannot be done \ impossible \ expensive \ no one needs or they propose to do it themselves, and then everyone will see. If the project is already mature enough, then it has exhausted almost all the ideas with the “wow” effect. All proposals will require routine work and, often, a strong rework of the code base. As a result, the internal insult of the employee for the whole company - they give nothing to change, they do not want to change anything, they are outdated.

Example 3. The proposed idea of ​​the employee was blown apart by his colleagues. They said that it does not cost anything, but the worker vigorously defends the idea until it is convinced of its absolute failure. She is an idea to defend and defend her! Only in a dispute is truth born. The author often defends his ideas :)

Example 4. A new employee has worked in the company for several months and already offers to change everything here. His ideas are perceived with hostility. The conflict is visible not armed look.

Symptoms

“Sick” companies stand out primarily in the behavior of the team. Therefore, often, the top management is not aware of this until the very end.

Key features:

• Unsubscribe on any occasion and without it;
• Unwillingness to collectively discuss new proposals and ideas (review ideas and proposals);
• Oddly enough, there is complete and constant silence in the office;
• Punishability of any initiative. I proposed an idea, prove its viability and implement it, but we will see.
• Silence of imminent problems and their ignoring during publication;
• The absence of a “pantry of ideas” (about it below).
• Staff turnover. People go to other companies for similar conditions;
• The absence of spontaneous meetings, minutes, on various issues and discussions;
• When using agile-methods, some of the points are lost, but you can always add new ones. It is important how the technique is used.
• The reasons
• Almost in any resume you can find the word “sociable”. Often it is explained by the ability to flexibly adapt to the working process and avoid conflicts. I can say with confidence that in this case sociability turns into inaction.

In the modern working process, where terms, profitability, technological opportunities and competition are under pressure from all sides, conflicts cannot be avoided. All work at the limit.

At these moments, manifest true sociability. The ability to say “yes / no” under any pressure with a competent assessment and motivation is a direct sign of professionalism. The ability to criticize any proposal, including its own, gives rise to the most successful solutions.

The criticized idea, without protection from its creator, costs nothing. You could not publish it. Conflict of interest, a critical eye, discussion and discussions will give the necessary cut to the idea.

You can come to a strange conclusion: the absence of small conflicts is a sign of uncommunicativeness of workers. In fact, without such small conflicts, without criticism and controversy, successfully completing the project is problematic, because it is clear that the participants have little interest in it.

Effects

The consequences of such “sociability” are the most deplorable. This is a staff turnover, the extinction of creative potential, the absence of new “revolutionary” ideas.

Individual employee dissatisfaction leads at least to his departure to another company. But the worst case for the company is a decrease in its productivity, lack of interest in the result, sitting out of hours.

It is also worth saying that the general emotional stress in the team is growing. And it always hurts the common cause.

Pantry ideas

When all participants in the project are heavily loaded, then there is no time to promptly respond to suggestions and ideas, once to analyze them. We must have a mood, a bit of free time and a desire to make the product better.

Therefore, do not expect an instant reaction to a proposal or idea. Her most likely just leave without proper attention.

A better option for proposing ideas is to add them to a special section of the corporate knowledge base. In this case, the idea will not be forgotten and will not be lost in the pile of letters. It can be clearly discussed and offered new options. This section is addressed with free time and the desire to do something new. The mailbox does not turn into a dump.

Such a section can be called the “pantry of ideas”. It is important not to keep a strict moderation. Accept any, even quite fantastic suggestions. Collectively discuss and describe the result of effort.

Conclusion

With a general interest in the result, the pantry of ideas will be an invaluable section, opening up the vast future of your product. The opinions, ideas and suggestions of colleagues will not be hushed up, they will become open and more valuable.

It is important to continuously monitor ideas and suggestions. There should not be "stale" ideas. It is necessary to allocate time for analysis, collective discussion. Throw away insolvent ideas, take "in the work" worth.

After all, it depends only on us, whether the “storehouse of ideas” will turn into a “graveyard of dead ideas”!