Hell do it yourself
Many people say that it is necessary to talk not only about successes, but also about failures. I fully agree with this - an understanding of their failures, their causes and consequences, sometimes more valuable than any success.
I have had such an automation experience in my life for which I have been ashamed for a long time. Not because the system worked poorly, or the metadata curves were, or the TK did not match - exactly the opposite. Everything is beautiful, fast, with full implementation throughout the company. In terms of formal criteria, this was a complete success.
But the company, its culture, this implementation has turned into a hell - bureaucratic, systemic and meaningless.
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But this hell brought an incredible benefit to me, and I will hasten to share with you. I will not spoil, and you do not run to the end of the publication to read.
First things first.
In my youth I believed in systems. I was a real programmer, confident that the correct engineering system, taking into account all the variations of life, blocking all the moves for mistakes and loopholes for assholes, can save the world.
I considered people as elements of the system, which should sit in their places and press buttons in time, look at the numbers and react to their deviation from the norm, if required by the instruction.
My confidence in the correctness of my own picture of the world was reinforced by practice — literally just that I had completed a project to create such a system, only from another area. People in it were assigned the role of either operators or performers - you get the task from the system, you perform, you report. He didn’t execute, or didn’t report, or was just late - a fine of 500 rubles.
This system worked, and very effectively. And I created it alone - and programming, and business processes, and instructions, and implementation, and debugging. Such a success could not but eclipse my mind - I honestly decided that with this approach I could solve any problem in developing a business system.
And here they set me an ambitious task - to create and implement a task management system, or instructions for the entire company.
Any programmer and / or manager will understand how and why such a problem has arisen if he learns a little more about the enterprise where the events took place.
The company is the most common, industrial and commercial, far from the center of Russia, with all the traditional sores and features. One of the key points is poor performing discipline. Simply put, you can't force anyone to do anything except hard management.
A meeting is being held, problems are being discussed, and instructions are being issued based on the results. They are distributed - in the sense of being entered into a paper protocol, which is then copied and distributed to the participants. It is assumed that they will all happily run to execute their orders.
What happens at the next meeting? Everyone looks at the protocol, like a ram on a new gate. And, I forgot, they didn’t remind me, they didn’t warn me, they didn’t give me a copy of the protocol, etc.
Same story with memos (do you know such a thing?). They write, coordinate, bring - execute. Yeah, just take the run. I personally performed only the first service until I understood the main rule - almost no one ever checks whether they are executed or not. Personally, I put the helpers in the bottom drawer of the bedside table. Others acted more interesting, the word "wipe" sounded there.
This is the mess needed to win.
As you understand, this is mainly about cross-functional tasks, i.e. about the interaction between different services. Inside, the chiefs more or less coped.
I truly believed that all the problems of the enterprise were due to executive discipline. It is enough to do so that the orders and business processes are executed, and everything is formed by itself.
I looked at what solutions are on the market. Typical, branch, bitriks and megaplanes, outluki and cloud, and I did not like anything. Everything is too sugar there, focused on spiritual kindness, a priori existing sense of duty, motivation and team spirit.
The main thing - it was necessary to easily and quickly customizable system. And then I was a pure 1Sniki.
The closest to the truth was 1C: Document flow, then still version 1, but I didn’t like it either. I needed a simple, fast system, without unnecessary functionality and a lot of settings and options. In addition, I had the experience of creating simple systems such as a service desk - I knew that they were being made, changed and implemented easily.
If anyone knows, 1C: Document management is a constructor. It can collect any system for managing tasks, processes and projects. But the "picking up" performed by the means of customization, rather than programming, is performed unnecessarily long. Well, anyway, without customization was not enough, but if so - I decided to make the system myself. I was there, in fact, needed one tool - an assignment. Well, the body kit, such as reports on executive discipline, task lists with different settings, etc.
A couple of days cooked up a configuration on managed forms, published on IIS, and went to check it out.
I considered the key feature the simplicity of the problem statement. My experience said that the most difficult thing in factories in such systems is to drag middle-level managers, because they do not want transparency in management, and they always reinforce the implementation, saying that the system is complex.
I put the order was very simple. And it helped the successful commissioning of the system, because I handed over to managers, and the system was sharpened for them.
She was tested by several favorites, I corrected all the jambs found, and launched into operation for the entire office.
As always, the system was perceived as a new whim, which will soon end. Well, went, well, poked, well, came out. Everything.
And figushki. The management really wanted the system to work. And I wanted, because believed in order.
At the first stage, the system was like a child - naive and clean, confident in the well-intentioned people. They are all good, they want to work and do everything on time, they simply did not have a tool.
But reality quickly turned the child into an evil, cunning rascal.
In the first option, there was no acceptance of instructions to work. You send, and it is already in to do. Fuck it, they say "I have not seen, I do not know." Need the fact of acceptance to work - ok, add. At the same time, and the report - who for too long does not accept orders to work.
The naive system thought there were no bad tasks. Well, when the obvious nonsense is written. And they are. Means what? Add the ability to reject the order.
They begin to reject everything - after all, you can, the button is there, why not reject it? No, guys, not so contacted! Add a mandatory comment when declining - write, what displeased! Deviations became somewhat less.
When developing, having heard a lot of smart people, I laid into the system a breakdown of the deadline into control points. A day after the start, in the middle of the term, and somewhere near the end, it was necessary to “celebrate” - as the process goes. I did this according to the recommendations of intelligent people, but the reality came to me and said - fuck these show off, there is a beginning, there is an end, a point. Ok, clean.
People began to carry out assignments - check the box and write a comment, what they did. And the task immediately fell into the "completed" section. The bureaucrats came and said - uh, how is it that they did something completely wrong, how can they return the task back? After some disputes, the possibility of rejecting the result of execution was added.
Now the bad directors began to hang tasks to check. He wrote a mission, and thinks that he fulfilled his mission in the universe. The contractor made a report, wrote, and is waiting for verification. And it is not. The executors were indignant, and a report appeared controlling the verification of completed orders.
But the worms continued to squirm. Once the inspection period is monitored, then we will stupidly reject everything that we did not have time to verify. Damn, what to do with this? The first solution came up with me, the second people. My solution is a “complain” button. You press, you choose to send a complaint to someone, you write a comment, and the link comes to the person to the order. Sometimes it helped if the recipient of the complaint was an intelligent and empowered person.
About the second solution, which was used by people, will be lower.
The system, of course, required the execution of the order on time. Overdue lights glowed red, displayed in a special report, everything is as it should be. But the naive system believed that the order could be completed on time, because it is coordinated when it is accepted for work. Naturally, people had a different opinion - we have circumstances there, loading, blah blah blah. I had to add the possibility of postponement. But with the sly.
If the deadline has not yet expired, you can make a request to transfer it through the system. If you have already missed the deadline, then you cannot request its transfer through the system. We must get up and stomp his feet to the director, so that he logs into the system and moved the deadline. This was called the type of “pushing people to verbal communication.” At the same time and for educational purposes, to follow the deadlines in order to avoid hemorrhoids with personal conversations - not everyone loves them.
The postponement of the term allowed to do two. When the limit is reached - everything, in any way, even the initiator cannot move.
Then it turned out that there is little bureaucracy in the system — you can simply put the task to another person. And coordination? People began to grumble. How is it that he assigns an eccentric to the letter “m”, but the chief accountant and finir will not look at him? Come on, add agreement.
Terribly I didn’t want to spoil the small document “Order”, and I added a new one - “Service Note”. The meaning is the same, only you can add the coordinators who you want and how much you want. And while everyone does not agree, it is impossible to take in the work. And then at least carry out the service itself, at least put 100 orders on its basis. If someone rejects the service, then all, the end, you have to start all over again.
There was a bunch of bureaucratic levers and tricks. For example, the initiator can add both the initiator and the recipient. Moreover, my programmer's mind said - why can't the recipient add himself to the agreement? Even as you can! I myself began to do so. They write me a help desk, I agree with myself, and reject.
Then we got to the minutes of the meetings. It is boring to simply put instructions on the results of the meeting, since they will be scattered. So a new document appeared - “Work plan”. He, by the way, cool. From it, it was then possible to print a piece of paper, to the next meeting, and it lists all the instructions, their statuses, comments on the execution and rejection, etc.
The worms began to squirm again. They sit at a meeting, they are assigned an assignment, they nod at the pumpkin, and then come to the computer, the assignment arrives, and they reject it - there is a button!
How so, indignant archangels of the system, you were sitting and waving a mane? Well, they say, the wording is wrong there, the term is not the same, and in general I just have a nervous tic, the head itself dangles in the presence of the director.
Ok, we add protection. The work plan lists all the people who attended the meeting, and they are deprived of the right to reject assignments from this work plan. Cleverly. But worms are smarter.
Now it is possible to blunt an errand to a naive guy, avoiding the possibility of rejection! You make a work plan with a name like “Meeting in the smoking room”, indicate a person as a participant, write him any crap, and that’s all he can’t reject. Of course, this was done only for Hochma, because you can get a pumpkin.
Then they decided that the same work plan will appoint meetings. You make it in advance, indicate the participants, place, time, agenda, and send. People receive invitations, they must accept or reject them. Then in the same document you drive orders by results.
But orders, SOC and work plans - this is a short horizon of planning and management, but we wanted more genuine. Someone thought up - let's write a task type for a month, and then indicate the degree of achievement as a percentage. The idea, it seems, was taken from some seminar, as was the title - “The Matrix of Responsibility”.
There was written such nonsense, such as "The efficiency of the systems is provided 24/7" (this was in the matrix of system administrators). Then, at the end of the month, I, as their head, came in and set the actual figure. I did not care, and put 100%.
And not only I did not care. All set 100%. But here, of course, there were serious people who scorched us, and staged a beating. From now on, I had to write "real numbers."
But even here one of the great ones remembered the seminars visited, and said: if the task is completed by 94%, then it is not completed. Argued, had a fight, set 95% as a threshold.
Then they remembered - ba, we still have projects! External (for money, for customers) and internal (all there is development, construction, etc.). Well, what to do - we add the “Project” entity, inside - the classic cascade, with the Gantt chart and the ability to set orders, create stages and all that nonsense crap, which is called “project management”.
This is where the irreparable happened.
In business programming, there is such a thing - a triad of changes, when automation, changing business processes and motivation go hand in hand, and everyone comes to happiness.
And irreparable is when automation, business processes and the motivation system are crossed inappropriately.
That is exactly what happened. The system functioned, but was not mandatory, because did not assume a connection with motivation. If you do not carry out orders, well, they will scold you sometimes, if you are a boss, and you almost never got to the line guys.
But the greats decided that it was enough to indulge, the system is cool, it takes into account almost all manifestations of reality, now it will not get out.
And they introduced the concept of “executive discipline” into the system of motivation.
Mathematically, it is very simple - the percentage of completed orders. We gave you 10 orders, you completed on time 9 - you have sp. discipline 90%. They put 10, all overdue - you have 0%. A separate condition for those who did not receive instructions - there is 100% stupid.
The first measurement of performance discipline for the company gave a figure of about 50%. Set a goal - to bring up to 80%.
Executive discipline began to affect wages. At first slightly - about 5% of the salary was managed by discipline. Those. if you are an accountant with a salary of 30 tr, then you will meet a maximum of 1.5 tr, if you don’t carry out any orders at all.
Then (very quickly) brought the influence of discipline to 20% of salary. The picture has changed dramatically. Orders, discipline, memos and all other entities quickly entered into use, they began to know all the staff who were at the computer.
If we talk formally and in figures, the project to improve the company's performance discipline was brilliantly executed. For us, programmers, to perform the tasks recorded in the computer is normal, we are used to it, and without it, even somehow it does not happen by itself.
But this is another matter. Accountants, economists, salespeople, suppliers, designers, HR, OTC, production managers, storekeepers, project managers, technologists, engineers, secretaries, quality management, programmers, system administrators, technicians and, of course, managers - all were connected to the system, everyone knew how to work with it, everyone worked with it, came in every day and monitored their discipline, ran with postponements, and with all their heart acted for achieving the company's goal.
And the company's goal was achieved in less than six months. Performing discipline rose to 85%, and a little later - to 95%. A chic result that you can safely enter into your achievements and puff up your cheeks during interviews.
But at what price was the goal achieved? And how has the company changed?
There were funny transformations with people in the implementation process.
First, a lot of people just quit.
Someone was fired, so to speak, for the professional incompetence revealed by the system. It can be said the merit of automation. It just became clear that a person does not perform tasks at all. Or always writes some excuses and delirium instead of a report on the implementation.
Someone quit himself, because, I quote, “that's enough, I ate”. Funny the origin of this phrase.
The system, as expected, sent notifications to the mail. When a new order is received, when your done, when the new term requested, etc. At the same time, even in the morning, she sent to the mail a summary of orders indicating expired ones. Some were so comfortable - I read in the morning that there was nothing urgent, and you didn’t even enter the system.
So, times were dark, and not all employees had a corporate mail, some, from remote subdivisions, used personal boxes. I, of course, just drove these personal boxes into the user's settings and did not steam.
And so the dude quit, and I only found out about it in a couple of days. For this couple of days, of course, he continued to receive letters from the system, such as no instructions, but you do not go far, suddenly appear. And the dude wrote the answer to the system - “disconnect me, that's enough, I ate”. I saw the letter by chance, because the sending box was set up for me, and when the letter arrived, a notification popped up.
Especially a lot of managers left, let's say, technical workers. Masters, shop managers, production managers, chief engineers, warehouse manager, chief designers, etc. Could not get along with the system.
I myself do not know exactly how to treat this situation. On the one hand, I want to brand them with old footers who don’t want to keep up with the times. You carry smartphones with you, you use mail, you shkryabe something in the vibe, it means you are not dinosaurs at all, and all your “I am a production worker, not an office rat!” Is nothing more than a show.
On the other hand, I understand them. They also need to work, and mostly - not at the computer. And they know their work - and in such a way that they can work autonomously, that's the point. You give the plan to the shop manager, then he will figure it out himself, and there is nothing to pull him with his own assignments such as “Provide a report on the work in progress by the end of the day”.
Secondly, the company settled fear - not to fulfill the order in time, not to respond to the system. Fear is real, strong. I know for sure, because they ran to me crying - “aaaa, I didn’t fulfill the task, help me what to do.” They drank validol packs.
Fear of this fictional coordinate system began to overshadow all other fears. It is better not to do your job, in the generally accepted sense, than not to mention an assignment on time. The system of toys turned into a Cerberus.
Fear was almost physically palpable. To understand this feeling, you can read, for example, "In the lists did not appear." There is not about fear, but about, I apologize, the smell of a corpse after a few days of fighting in the Brest Fortress, which is sticky, physically tangible, piercing to the bone.
Such was the corporate culture in the company. Fear.
Thirdly, the system divided people into ... I do not know what to call these categories. Without further ado, I will share in people and orcs.
Orcs are office rats who really liked the system because it allowed them to realize themselves and increase their importance.
Here is a man sitting in a not particularly important position, and everyone, in general, does not care. Something is tinkering there, he goes to meetings, he mumbles sometimes, he dances at a corporate party aside.
And here again - and in his hands the system. The system equalized people, because any fool could write a commission to anyone. And the one who received the order, is obliged to respond to it. He can reject, he can get it by agreement, he can come to yell, but he cannot ignore the main thing.
Probably, it would be more correct not an orc, but a troll. Although, there is not much difference. Let it be an orc.
These orcs got out a few. Real system worms, who quickly understood the change in the coordinate system - now the young man is not the one who works, but the one who uses the. discipline 100%. And the one who puts the instructions, but they do not fulfill, reject, or delay coordination.
There were examples when people who understood the essence of the moment were able to climb the career ladder to a very high level. There are also such a pancake.
These orcs have played a key role in spreading the infection. They staged Dogville.
The people attacked by such orcs did not at first understand what was happening. Well, here you are, an ordinary person, but I, also an ordinary person. What do you tell me your crap through the system write? Fool what? Do you get out in front of your superiors? What the hell is it for you?
Once had a fight, two had a fight, then spat. The more you swear with an orc, the more he writes you instructions.
We tried to talk to the greats, but it didn't work out - the greats were on the side of the orcs. Type "build horizontal and vertical communications using the system."
What is the result? Also turned into orcs! Not in the true, of course, but in, so to speak, forced. Since the only way to influence this company is an instruction, I will write an instruction.
The commission has become a way of revenge, such as a black mark. You do not like a man - write him a request. Two write. Break the task into small ones, write 10 instructions. Let the bastard die from a little mouse.
This, by the way, is the second method of influencing bad task directors that people have invented. Do not check my task? On your errand! Or two!
The trick is that you can always think of an order, to anyone. The most beloved, meaningless order is to “provide information.” Loll out almost always.
Want to get the beginning. warehouse? Every day put him an order "to provide the remnants of material stocks in quantitative terms for the analysis of the dynamics of dollar reserves on the instructions of the Director General." Who will reject this instruction? Who is going to check whether you had a job from the CEO?
And if you have fun, then have fun. What is one order to ask all the balances? Warehouses after 15? Let there be 15 orders! Everyday! I after all need to track the dynamics.
If you dare to blink like "hey, there is a report in 1C, you have rights, come in and watch your balances," you can plug one of the two standard excuses.
The first is “there is incorrect information, the programmers are working on something, or the accounting department has done something wrong, there are minuses”. After all, one minus in the report is enough to find in order to call the entire report incorrect.
The second is “this is your area of ​​responsibility, there’s nothing to kick me off.”
It is clear that there are such people in the world. All companies have at least one. Formalism, bureaucracy, multiplied by the ambitions of their carrier, give a result that is fantastic in abominations. In the words of my teacher, "a fool, but with fiction."
But I have never, before or after, seen such a massive and rapid transformation of people into assholes. Almost 100% of the company's employees became forced orcs!
There has been a very strong shift in both the value systems, and management methods, and business processes, and the cultural building — in short, everything that is possible.
It became impossible to force someone to do something without putting an order.It’s ridiculous - two accountants are sitting at the same table, opposite each other, and they write instructions to each other, such as “conduct a receipt from a certain counterparty”.
The imbalance between orders and business processes led to catastrophic failures. Some newly-made orc sits, and a thought comes to his mind: why should I do what I always did without questions? Let the order be written first! And it is better - to the servant, but with the agreement, but not one!
Well, ridiculous. The cartridge ran out of a person, came to the sys.admin, and that one - write the office service, but agree with my boss (with me, I mean). And then you never know, times are vague. I, of course, the head to the right place, but more on that below.
And all this is on a company scale.
At that moment I felt uneasy, and I decided that this could not continue.
I started partisaning against my system, because it was no longer mine.
Mine was the one that was initial, naive and stupid. And with this monster, I did not want to have anything in common.
I could not make changes because Algorithms have already been formalized, in the form of orders and instructions. But I could stop reporting discovered loopholes. What I did.
Began to teach people how to cheat sp. discipline. It's so easy.
There was a limit - 95%. Over this number isp. discipline is considered equal to 100%. Mathematics is simple - for every overdue order, 19 unexpired ones are needed.
I got into an unpleasant situation, fulfilled with delay, but the initiator does not want to move the deadline? Well, you just have to get 19 good errands. And it's easy, because orders can be set to yourself!
Nafigachil 19 pieces, solemnly executed and accepted the result - that's all, the effect of one overdue leveled out.
If it is scary to sleep, you can ask a friend to give you instructions. True, friends by the time were a luxury.
Then I began to reduce people's brains. A man will come to complain, I take him by the hand and lead him to the abuser. What are you, I say, like children, you can not agree. Well, what do you think about the fact that the guy deduct money from the salary? You do not fall from this. What the hell are you doing for him? Well, etc.
From individual conversations went to, so to speak, the formation of background opinions. When there was a suitable case, I phrased phrases like "system is crap, you have to throw it out in the garbage." People were very surprised - you say they created it. I honestly answered that I was only programming.
I also decided to protect my relatives - programmers and system administrators. Introduced an internal order, of two points.
The first point is that the IT department does not write instructions to each other. Never, under any circumstances. No one and no one. Even if you really want.
The second point is that the IT department does not accept orders from anyone, rejects them all with the wording “I ask you to redirect the order to my boss”.
This, of course, is not a victory, but a significant minimization of damage, because the entire department has ceased to steam at the expense of performing discipline. I was steaming only, but it was easier for me because I am a top manager, and I know the loopholes.
After some time, I still got tired of running around with these instructions, and I took a cardinal step - I invented, created and legitimized another tool in the same system - “Application to the IT department”. The argument led that it would be better and more efficient, blah blah blah. But everything turned out - there are practically no instructions left in IT.
There were only purely managerial, and for me personally. Basically, the results of meetings.
I taught colleagues and executives some of this, too.
Then I made considerable efforts to ensure that the IT application system showed its effectiveness as a management tool. These were the motivation system, the transition to Scrum, the management of cross-functional interactions, and work on the company's strategic goals.
The result was the abolition of motivation for performing discipline. I do not presume to say that this is my sole victory - there are many factors that influenced me. But I showed the correct opinion about the system and the practice of more efficient task management.
An example of the development, implementation, operation and cancellation of this system is one of the key and turning points in my vision of the world.
First : I personally, with my own eyes, made sure that the films “Dogville” and “Das Experiment” do not lie. If you have not watched these films, I highly recommend to watch. Only not now, because the New Year, the holiday, the fun - only spoil your mood. Then in January.
People really change, and people are full of nastiness. If you put people in the wrong, but appropriate to these disgusting environment, then everything will pop up.
When you watch movies about it, it seems that it is not from real life. There, in fact, conditions are created such that in life usually does not happen. Maybe that's why I do not believe in the realism of what is happening on the screen.
But all this is true, alas. And I no longer want to put such experiments on people. If you push a person, you can be sure that only he will not get out of it, and you will not be happy about it.
Second : high performing discipline in an “ordinary” company is possible. You can implement a task management system in a factory, in an office, or in a trading company.
I saw, and read about many implementations of task management, but they are almost always piecewise. Either the system manages only a few streams - for example, only the service desk for IT, or a very limited circle of people work in it - for example, salespeople install and use Bitrix24.
So, if you didn’t have examples before your eyes, when task management gathered the whole company in a heap - here it is, use it, ask questions.
This is a purely technical conclusion, but it is.
But all this fades before the main conclusion.
The most important thing is not how to make and implement such a system. The main thing - what for.
We return mentally to the beginning of the publication: I firmly believed that all the problems were due to low performing discipline. It is enough to make people perform tasks, and everything will work out.
And here before me is a unique result - a business in which all tasks are performed, of which 95% are on time. Is not a fairy tale? Without taking into account all these snot about the impact of man-made environment on man.
Everything, the dream came true, now business efficiency will soar to the skies, because it has turned into an obedient, adaptive, responsive system. Come on, drive, and everything will get stuck.
But it was not there. I am writing the main conclusion.
When a leader starts to listen, it turns out that he has nothing to say.
While no one has solved his tasks, he was well done, on a white horse, because there was always an excuse - yes, they don’t do fucking there, that's the problem.
At the same time, the tasks that the manager sets are not analyzed. Neither by him nor by others. Who cares what to order, if you still do not comply?
Part of the tasks, of course, will be completed, but the fact of the matter is that part. And the second part, unfulfilled, will always serve as a buffer, or damper, protecting the head.
Note that it is not only about the tasks of the head of his subordinates. First of all, I'm talking about cross-functional tasks, when one manager sets the task for another, parallel, on a horizontal line.
This, according to my observations, is a favorite excuse for managers - they did not, they did not provide me, they did not buy me, they did not agree with me.
Moreover, this excuse can be created artificially - so that there is a buffer. Here the head of production knows that they will not buy him a five-coordinate metalworking machine. But the application still does, the budget includes, but it walks, it makes sincere eyes - give, it is necessary! Do not give.
What's next?All the hell you get to the bottom of his marriage, which gives a three-dimensional machine in the manufacture of complex parts. You did not give me, refused, and so we turn as we can, even if the marriage sometimes.
And here everything is exactly the opposite. You set the task and they will do it. Damn, it's scary. This is really scary. Because you begin to really think what you are ordering and to whom.
And when you face a real business problem, and you can no longer hide your incompetence behind the performers and allied companies, then there are few ways out. Some left.
Most simply had nothing to say. Big, serious, strategic something. So, on trifles, as accustomed over the years to manual micromanagement, when the risk is small.
And when they reached the strategic management, they got into a puddle. After all, you know now that they will do what you say. And what to say?
Nothing to say. The most courageous, of course, spoke, but quickly it turned out that nonsense is all. Someone was fired for the wrong course, someone escaped and did not blather anymore.
And I have lost faith in the effectiveness of implementing task management systems, as well as in the effectiveness of management. It makes no sense to spend time on the efficiency of execution, automating the control of tasks. Because you will face a real crisis of management - it turns out that no one knows what to do.
But this is not the end of the road, but simply a turn. When implementing task management systems, one should not worry about the execution of tasks, but about their setting. This is more important.
For the time being, we’ll dwell on the fact that the chief mediocrity in our business is leaders. It is clear that you will not believe my word. Especially if you yourself - the head. But just in case, do not ask programmers to automate the management of your subordinates. Fear your desires, they can be fulfilled.
The implementation described in the article took place in 2013-2014. I wrote the text of this article a year ago. I was still quite impressed with the work in that company, and was very keen on flexible technologies for managing tasks and projects.
But over the year I have significantly revised my views, based on a different reality - the implementation of development and implementation projects for external customers. I again faced the same problems that tormented my once-native enterprise - low performing discipline, mostly from the customer.
That's like all - decent people. You come to them - egegey, all great, we’ll do everything, just say it! And you leave, you start to communicate via the Internet - somewhere everyone is lost, tasks hang for months and, most importantly, you will not understand a damn thing in what status, and when it all ends.
Having suffered with all sorts of githabs, djirs, Yandex trackers and other cotton-sugar tasmen managers, I, as M said in the movie “Casino Royale”, miss the cold war. I want to know again who the asshole is not accepting the task. I want to clearly see where that reptile does not check and does not accept the result of the work done by the programmer. I am terribly lacking in my performance discipline report, which shows who worked like a month, quarter and year.
So I ... I wanted to say - reluctantly, but not - with great joy and relief! - I add proven controlling elements to the task management system I’m doing. Strength is in integration, not in opposition. This youthful maximalism makes yelling “Scum forever!” Or “Discipline, and only discipline!”. And I will take the best - from the first and second - and add my own, worked out over 10 years of practice, task management.
Uh, thank God. It was not for nothing.
Happy, friends!
I have had such an automation experience in my life for which I have been ashamed for a long time. Not because the system worked poorly, or the metadata curves were, or the TK did not match - exactly the opposite. Everything is beautiful, fast, with full implementation throughout the company. In terms of formal criteria, this was a complete success.
But the company, its culture, this implementation has turned into a hell - bureaucratic, systemic and meaningless.
')
But this hell brought an incredible benefit to me, and I will hasten to share with you. I will not spoil, and you do not run to the end of the publication to read.
First things first.
Prerequisites
In my youth I believed in systems. I was a real programmer, confident that the correct engineering system, taking into account all the variations of life, blocking all the moves for mistakes and loopholes for assholes, can save the world.
I considered people as elements of the system, which should sit in their places and press buttons in time, look at the numbers and react to their deviation from the norm, if required by the instruction.
My confidence in the correctness of my own picture of the world was reinforced by practice — literally just that I had completed a project to create such a system, only from another area. People in it were assigned the role of either operators or performers - you get the task from the system, you perform, you report. He didn’t execute, or didn’t report, or was just late - a fine of 500 rubles.
This system worked, and very effectively. And I created it alone - and programming, and business processes, and instructions, and implementation, and debugging. Such a success could not but eclipse my mind - I honestly decided that with this approach I could solve any problem in developing a business system.
And here they set me an ambitious task - to create and implement a task management system, or instructions for the entire company.
Task
Any programmer and / or manager will understand how and why such a problem has arisen if he learns a little more about the enterprise where the events took place.
The company is the most common, industrial and commercial, far from the center of Russia, with all the traditional sores and features. One of the key points is poor performing discipline. Simply put, you can't force anyone to do anything except hard management.
A meeting is being held, problems are being discussed, and instructions are being issued based on the results. They are distributed - in the sense of being entered into a paper protocol, which is then copied and distributed to the participants. It is assumed that they will all happily run to execute their orders.
What happens at the next meeting? Everyone looks at the protocol, like a ram on a new gate. And, I forgot, they didn’t remind me, they didn’t warn me, they didn’t give me a copy of the protocol, etc.
Same story with memos (do you know such a thing?). They write, coordinate, bring - execute. Yeah, just take the run. I personally performed only the first service until I understood the main rule - almost no one ever checks whether they are executed or not. Personally, I put the helpers in the bottom drawer of the bedside table. Others acted more interesting, the word "wipe" sounded there.
This is the mess needed to win.
As you understand, this is mainly about cross-functional tasks, i.e. about the interaction between different services. Inside, the chiefs more or less coped.
I truly believed that all the problems of the enterprise were due to executive discipline. It is enough to do so that the orders and business processes are executed, and everything is formed by itself.
Development
I looked at what solutions are on the market. Typical, branch, bitriks and megaplanes, outluki and cloud, and I did not like anything. Everything is too sugar there, focused on spiritual kindness, a priori existing sense of duty, motivation and team spirit.
The main thing - it was necessary to easily and quickly customizable system. And then I was a pure 1Sniki.
The closest to the truth was 1C: Document flow, then still version 1, but I didn’t like it either. I needed a simple, fast system, without unnecessary functionality and a lot of settings and options. In addition, I had the experience of creating simple systems such as a service desk - I knew that they were being made, changed and implemented easily.
If anyone knows, 1C: Document management is a constructor. It can collect any system for managing tasks, processes and projects. But the "picking up" performed by the means of customization, rather than programming, is performed unnecessarily long. Well, anyway, without customization was not enough, but if so - I decided to make the system myself. I was there, in fact, needed one tool - an assignment. Well, the body kit, such as reports on executive discipline, task lists with different settings, etc.
A couple of days cooked up a configuration on managed forms, published on IIS, and went to check it out.
I considered the key feature the simplicity of the problem statement. My experience said that the most difficult thing in factories in such systems is to drag middle-level managers, because they do not want transparency in management, and they always reinforce the implementation, saying that the system is complex.
I put the order was very simple. And it helped the successful commissioning of the system, because I handed over to managers, and the system was sharpened for them.
She was tested by several favorites, I corrected all the jambs found, and launched into operation for the entire office.
System
As always, the system was perceived as a new whim, which will soon end. Well, went, well, poked, well, came out. Everything.
And figushki. The management really wanted the system to work. And I wanted, because believed in order.
At the first stage, the system was like a child - naive and clean, confident in the well-intentioned people. They are all good, they want to work and do everything on time, they simply did not have a tool.
But reality quickly turned the child into an evil, cunning rascal.
In the first option, there was no acceptance of instructions to work. You send, and it is already in to do. Fuck it, they say "I have not seen, I do not know." Need the fact of acceptance to work - ok, add. At the same time, and the report - who for too long does not accept orders to work.
The naive system thought there were no bad tasks. Well, when the obvious nonsense is written. And they are. Means what? Add the ability to reject the order.
They begin to reject everything - after all, you can, the button is there, why not reject it? No, guys, not so contacted! Add a mandatory comment when declining - write, what displeased! Deviations became somewhat less.
When developing, having heard a lot of smart people, I laid into the system a breakdown of the deadline into control points. A day after the start, in the middle of the term, and somewhere near the end, it was necessary to “celebrate” - as the process goes. I did this according to the recommendations of intelligent people, but the reality came to me and said - fuck these show off, there is a beginning, there is an end, a point. Ok, clean.
People began to carry out assignments - check the box and write a comment, what they did. And the task immediately fell into the "completed" section. The bureaucrats came and said - uh, how is it that they did something completely wrong, how can they return the task back? After some disputes, the possibility of rejecting the result of execution was added.
Now the bad directors began to hang tasks to check. He wrote a mission, and thinks that he fulfilled his mission in the universe. The contractor made a report, wrote, and is waiting for verification. And it is not. The executors were indignant, and a report appeared controlling the verification of completed orders.
But the worms continued to squirm. Once the inspection period is monitored, then we will stupidly reject everything that we did not have time to verify. Damn, what to do with this? The first solution came up with me, the second people. My solution is a “complain” button. You press, you choose to send a complaint to someone, you write a comment, and the link comes to the person to the order. Sometimes it helped if the recipient of the complaint was an intelligent and empowered person.
About the second solution, which was used by people, will be lower.
The system, of course, required the execution of the order on time. Overdue lights glowed red, displayed in a special report, everything is as it should be. But the naive system believed that the order could be completed on time, because it is coordinated when it is accepted for work. Naturally, people had a different opinion - we have circumstances there, loading, blah blah blah. I had to add the possibility of postponement. But with the sly.
If the deadline has not yet expired, you can make a request to transfer it through the system. If you have already missed the deadline, then you cannot request its transfer through the system. We must get up and stomp his feet to the director, so that he logs into the system and moved the deadline. This was called the type of “pushing people to verbal communication.” At the same time and for educational purposes, to follow the deadlines in order to avoid hemorrhoids with personal conversations - not everyone loves them.
The postponement of the term allowed to do two. When the limit is reached - everything, in any way, even the initiator cannot move.
Then it turned out that there is little bureaucracy in the system — you can simply put the task to another person. And coordination? People began to grumble. How is it that he assigns an eccentric to the letter “m”, but the chief accountant and finir will not look at him? Come on, add agreement.
Terribly I didn’t want to spoil the small document “Order”, and I added a new one - “Service Note”. The meaning is the same, only you can add the coordinators who you want and how much you want. And while everyone does not agree, it is impossible to take in the work. And then at least carry out the service itself, at least put 100 orders on its basis. If someone rejects the service, then all, the end, you have to start all over again.
There was a bunch of bureaucratic levers and tricks. For example, the initiator can add both the initiator and the recipient. Moreover, my programmer's mind said - why can't the recipient add himself to the agreement? Even as you can! I myself began to do so. They write me a help desk, I agree with myself, and reject.
Then we got to the minutes of the meetings. It is boring to simply put instructions on the results of the meeting, since they will be scattered. So a new document appeared - “Work plan”. He, by the way, cool. From it, it was then possible to print a piece of paper, to the next meeting, and it lists all the instructions, their statuses, comments on the execution and rejection, etc.
The worms began to squirm again. They sit at a meeting, they are assigned an assignment, they nod at the pumpkin, and then come to the computer, the assignment arrives, and they reject it - there is a button!
How so, indignant archangels of the system, you were sitting and waving a mane? Well, they say, the wording is wrong there, the term is not the same, and in general I just have a nervous tic, the head itself dangles in the presence of the director.
Ok, we add protection. The work plan lists all the people who attended the meeting, and they are deprived of the right to reject assignments from this work plan. Cleverly. But worms are smarter.
Now it is possible to blunt an errand to a naive guy, avoiding the possibility of rejection! You make a work plan with a name like “Meeting in the smoking room”, indicate a person as a participant, write him any crap, and that’s all he can’t reject. Of course, this was done only for Hochma, because you can get a pumpkin.
Then they decided that the same work plan will appoint meetings. You make it in advance, indicate the participants, place, time, agenda, and send. People receive invitations, they must accept or reject them. Then in the same document you drive orders by results.
But orders, SOC and work plans - this is a short horizon of planning and management, but we wanted more genuine. Someone thought up - let's write a task type for a month, and then indicate the degree of achievement as a percentage. The idea, it seems, was taken from some seminar, as was the title - “The Matrix of Responsibility”.
There was written such nonsense, such as "The efficiency of the systems is provided 24/7" (this was in the matrix of system administrators). Then, at the end of the month, I, as their head, came in and set the actual figure. I did not care, and put 100%.
And not only I did not care. All set 100%. But here, of course, there were serious people who scorched us, and staged a beating. From now on, I had to write "real numbers."
But even here one of the great ones remembered the seminars visited, and said: if the task is completed by 94%, then it is not completed. Argued, had a fight, set 95% as a threshold.
Then they remembered - ba, we still have projects! External (for money, for customers) and internal (all there is development, construction, etc.). Well, what to do - we add the “Project” entity, inside - the classic cascade, with the Gantt chart and the ability to set orders, create stages and all that nonsense crap, which is called “project management”.
This is where the irreparable happened.
Irreparable
In business programming, there is such a thing - a triad of changes, when automation, changing business processes and motivation go hand in hand, and everyone comes to happiness.
And irreparable is when automation, business processes and the motivation system are crossed inappropriately.
That is exactly what happened. The system functioned, but was not mandatory, because did not assume a connection with motivation. If you do not carry out orders, well, they will scold you sometimes, if you are a boss, and you almost never got to the line guys.
But the greats decided that it was enough to indulge, the system is cool, it takes into account almost all manifestations of reality, now it will not get out.
And they introduced the concept of “executive discipline” into the system of motivation.
Mathematically, it is very simple - the percentage of completed orders. We gave you 10 orders, you completed on time 9 - you have sp. discipline 90%. They put 10, all overdue - you have 0%. A separate condition for those who did not receive instructions - there is 100% stupid.
The first measurement of performance discipline for the company gave a figure of about 50%. Set a goal - to bring up to 80%.
Executive discipline began to affect wages. At first slightly - about 5% of the salary was managed by discipline. Those. if you are an accountant with a salary of 30 tr, then you will meet a maximum of 1.5 tr, if you don’t carry out any orders at all.
Then (very quickly) brought the influence of discipline to 20% of salary. The picture has changed dramatically. Orders, discipline, memos and all other entities quickly entered into use, they began to know all the staff who were at the computer.
If we talk formally and in figures, the project to improve the company's performance discipline was brilliantly executed. For us, programmers, to perform the tasks recorded in the computer is normal, we are used to it, and without it, even somehow it does not happen by itself.
But this is another matter. Accountants, economists, salespeople, suppliers, designers, HR, OTC, production managers, storekeepers, project managers, technologists, engineers, secretaries, quality management, programmers, system administrators, technicians and, of course, managers - all were connected to the system, everyone knew how to work with it, everyone worked with it, came in every day and monitored their discipline, ran with postponements, and with all their heart acted for achieving the company's goal.
And the company's goal was achieved in less than six months. Performing discipline rose to 85%, and a little later - to 95%. A chic result that you can safely enter into your achievements and puff up your cheeks during interviews.
But at what price was the goal achieved? And how has the company changed?
People
There were funny transformations with people in the implementation process.
First, a lot of people just quit.
Someone was fired, so to speak, for the professional incompetence revealed by the system. It can be said the merit of automation. It just became clear that a person does not perform tasks at all. Or always writes some excuses and delirium instead of a report on the implementation.
Someone quit himself, because, I quote, “that's enough, I ate”. Funny the origin of this phrase.
The system, as expected, sent notifications to the mail. When a new order is received, when your done, when the new term requested, etc. At the same time, even in the morning, she sent to the mail a summary of orders indicating expired ones. Some were so comfortable - I read in the morning that there was nothing urgent, and you didn’t even enter the system.
So, times were dark, and not all employees had a corporate mail, some, from remote subdivisions, used personal boxes. I, of course, just drove these personal boxes into the user's settings and did not steam.
And so the dude quit, and I only found out about it in a couple of days. For this couple of days, of course, he continued to receive letters from the system, such as no instructions, but you do not go far, suddenly appear. And the dude wrote the answer to the system - “disconnect me, that's enough, I ate”. I saw the letter by chance, because the sending box was set up for me, and when the letter arrived, a notification popped up.
Especially a lot of managers left, let's say, technical workers. Masters, shop managers, production managers, chief engineers, warehouse manager, chief designers, etc. Could not get along with the system.
I myself do not know exactly how to treat this situation. On the one hand, I want to brand them with old footers who don’t want to keep up with the times. You carry smartphones with you, you use mail, you shkryabe something in the vibe, it means you are not dinosaurs at all, and all your “I am a production worker, not an office rat!” Is nothing more than a show.
On the other hand, I understand them. They also need to work, and mostly - not at the computer. And they know their work - and in such a way that they can work autonomously, that's the point. You give the plan to the shop manager, then he will figure it out himself, and there is nothing to pull him with his own assignments such as “Provide a report on the work in progress by the end of the day”.
Secondly, the company settled fear - not to fulfill the order in time, not to respond to the system. Fear is real, strong. I know for sure, because they ran to me crying - “aaaa, I didn’t fulfill the task, help me what to do.” They drank validol packs.
Fear of this fictional coordinate system began to overshadow all other fears. It is better not to do your job, in the generally accepted sense, than not to mention an assignment on time. The system of toys turned into a Cerberus.
Fear was almost physically palpable. To understand this feeling, you can read, for example, "In the lists did not appear." There is not about fear, but about, I apologize, the smell of a corpse after a few days of fighting in the Brest Fortress, which is sticky, physically tangible, piercing to the bone.
Such was the corporate culture in the company. Fear.
Thirdly, the system divided people into ... I do not know what to call these categories. Without further ado, I will share in people and orcs.
Orcs are office rats who really liked the system because it allowed them to realize themselves and increase their importance.
Here is a man sitting in a not particularly important position, and everyone, in general, does not care. Something is tinkering there, he goes to meetings, he mumbles sometimes, he dances at a corporate party aside.
And here again - and in his hands the system. The system equalized people, because any fool could write a commission to anyone. And the one who received the order, is obliged to respond to it. He can reject, he can get it by agreement, he can come to yell, but he cannot ignore the main thing.
Probably, it would be more correct not an orc, but a troll. Although, there is not much difference. Let it be an orc.
These orcs got out a few. Real system worms, who quickly understood the change in the coordinate system - now the young man is not the one who works, but the one who uses the. discipline 100%. And the one who puts the instructions, but they do not fulfill, reject, or delay coordination.
There were examples when people who understood the essence of the moment were able to climb the career ladder to a very high level. There are also such a pancake.
These orcs have played a key role in spreading the infection. They staged Dogville.
Dogville
The people attacked by such orcs did not at first understand what was happening. Well, here you are, an ordinary person, but I, also an ordinary person. What do you tell me your crap through the system write? Fool what? Do you get out in front of your superiors? What the hell is it for you?
Once had a fight, two had a fight, then spat. The more you swear with an orc, the more he writes you instructions.
We tried to talk to the greats, but it didn't work out - the greats were on the side of the orcs. Type "build horizontal and vertical communications using the system."
What is the result? Also turned into orcs! Not in the true, of course, but in, so to speak, forced. Since the only way to influence this company is an instruction, I will write an instruction.
The commission has become a way of revenge, such as a black mark. You do not like a man - write him a request. Two write. Break the task into small ones, write 10 instructions. Let the bastard die from a little mouse.
This, by the way, is the second method of influencing bad task directors that people have invented. Do not check my task? On your errand! Or two!
The trick is that you can always think of an order, to anyone. The most beloved, meaningless order is to “provide information.” Loll out almost always.
Want to get the beginning. warehouse? Every day put him an order "to provide the remnants of material stocks in quantitative terms for the analysis of the dynamics of dollar reserves on the instructions of the Director General." Who will reject this instruction? Who is going to check whether you had a job from the CEO?
And if you have fun, then have fun. What is one order to ask all the balances? Warehouses after 15? Let there be 15 orders! Everyday! I after all need to track the dynamics.
If you dare to blink like "hey, there is a report in 1C, you have rights, come in and watch your balances," you can plug one of the two standard excuses.
The first is “there is incorrect information, the programmers are working on something, or the accounting department has done something wrong, there are minuses”. After all, one minus in the report is enough to find in order to call the entire report incorrect.
The second is “this is your area of ​​responsibility, there’s nothing to kick me off.”
It is clear that there are such people in the world. All companies have at least one. Formalism, bureaucracy, multiplied by the ambitions of their carrier, give a result that is fantastic in abominations. In the words of my teacher, "a fool, but with fiction."
But I have never, before or after, seen such a massive and rapid transformation of people into assholes. Almost 100% of the company's employees became forced orcs!
There has been a very strong shift in both the value systems, and management methods, and business processes, and the cultural building — in short, everything that is possible.
It became impossible to force someone to do something without putting an order.It’s ridiculous - two accountants are sitting at the same table, opposite each other, and they write instructions to each other, such as “conduct a receipt from a certain counterparty”.
The imbalance between orders and business processes led to catastrophic failures. Some newly-made orc sits, and a thought comes to his mind: why should I do what I always did without questions? Let the order be written first! And it is better - to the servant, but with the agreement, but not one!
Well, ridiculous. The cartridge ran out of a person, came to the sys.admin, and that one - write the office service, but agree with my boss (with me, I mean). And then you never know, times are vague. I, of course, the head to the right place, but more on that below.
And all this is on a company scale.
At that moment I felt uneasy, and I decided that this could not continue.
I gave birth to you, I will kill you
I started partisaning against my system, because it was no longer mine.
Mine was the one that was initial, naive and stupid. And with this monster, I did not want to have anything in common.
I could not make changes because Algorithms have already been formalized, in the form of orders and instructions. But I could stop reporting discovered loopholes. What I did.
Began to teach people how to cheat sp. discipline. It's so easy.
There was a limit - 95%. Over this number isp. discipline is considered equal to 100%. Mathematics is simple - for every overdue order, 19 unexpired ones are needed.
I got into an unpleasant situation, fulfilled with delay, but the initiator does not want to move the deadline? Well, you just have to get 19 good errands. And it's easy, because orders can be set to yourself!
Nafigachil 19 pieces, solemnly executed and accepted the result - that's all, the effect of one overdue leveled out.
If it is scary to sleep, you can ask a friend to give you instructions. True, friends by the time were a luxury.
Then I began to reduce people's brains. A man will come to complain, I take him by the hand and lead him to the abuser. What are you, I say, like children, you can not agree. Well, what do you think about the fact that the guy deduct money from the salary? You do not fall from this. What the hell are you doing for him? Well, etc.
From individual conversations went to, so to speak, the formation of background opinions. When there was a suitable case, I phrased phrases like "system is crap, you have to throw it out in the garbage." People were very surprised - you say they created it. I honestly answered that I was only programming.
I also decided to protect my relatives - programmers and system administrators. Introduced an internal order, of two points.
The first point is that the IT department does not write instructions to each other. Never, under any circumstances. No one and no one. Even if you really want.
The second point is that the IT department does not accept orders from anyone, rejects them all with the wording “I ask you to redirect the order to my boss”.
This, of course, is not a victory, but a significant minimization of damage, because the entire department has ceased to steam at the expense of performing discipline. I was steaming only, but it was easier for me because I am a top manager, and I know the loopholes.
After some time, I still got tired of running around with these instructions, and I took a cardinal step - I invented, created and legitimized another tool in the same system - “Application to the IT department”. The argument led that it would be better and more efficient, blah blah blah. But everything turned out - there are practically no instructions left in IT.
There were only purely managerial, and for me personally. Basically, the results of meetings.
I taught colleagues and executives some of this, too.
Then I made considerable efforts to ensure that the IT application system showed its effectiveness as a management tool. These were the motivation system, the transition to Scrum, the management of cross-functional interactions, and work on the company's strategic goals.
The result was the abolition of motivation for performing discipline. I do not presume to say that this is my sole victory - there are many factors that influenced me. But I showed the correct opinion about the system and the practice of more efficient task management.
findings
An example of the development, implementation, operation and cancellation of this system is one of the key and turning points in my vision of the world.
First : I personally, with my own eyes, made sure that the films “Dogville” and “Das Experiment” do not lie. If you have not watched these films, I highly recommend to watch. Only not now, because the New Year, the holiday, the fun - only spoil your mood. Then in January.
People really change, and people are full of nastiness. If you put people in the wrong, but appropriate to these disgusting environment, then everything will pop up.
When you watch movies about it, it seems that it is not from real life. There, in fact, conditions are created such that in life usually does not happen. Maybe that's why I do not believe in the realism of what is happening on the screen.
But all this is true, alas. And I no longer want to put such experiments on people. If you push a person, you can be sure that only he will not get out of it, and you will not be happy about it.
Second : high performing discipline in an “ordinary” company is possible. You can implement a task management system in a factory, in an office, or in a trading company.
I saw, and read about many implementations of task management, but they are almost always piecewise. Either the system manages only a few streams - for example, only the service desk for IT, or a very limited circle of people work in it - for example, salespeople install and use Bitrix24.
So, if you didn’t have examples before your eyes, when task management gathered the whole company in a heap - here it is, use it, ask questions.
This is a purely technical conclusion, but it is.
But all this fades before the main conclusion.
Main conclusion
The most important thing is not how to make and implement such a system. The main thing - what for.
We return mentally to the beginning of the publication: I firmly believed that all the problems were due to low performing discipline. It is enough to make people perform tasks, and everything will work out.
And here before me is a unique result - a business in which all tasks are performed, of which 95% are on time. Is not a fairy tale? Without taking into account all these snot about the impact of man-made environment on man.
Everything, the dream came true, now business efficiency will soar to the skies, because it has turned into an obedient, adaptive, responsive system. Come on, drive, and everything will get stuck.
But it was not there. I am writing the main conclusion.
When a leader starts to listen, it turns out that he has nothing to say.
While no one has solved his tasks, he was well done, on a white horse, because there was always an excuse - yes, they don’t do fucking there, that's the problem.
At the same time, the tasks that the manager sets are not analyzed. Neither by him nor by others. Who cares what to order, if you still do not comply?
Part of the tasks, of course, will be completed, but the fact of the matter is that part. And the second part, unfulfilled, will always serve as a buffer, or damper, protecting the head.
Note that it is not only about the tasks of the head of his subordinates. First of all, I'm talking about cross-functional tasks, when one manager sets the task for another, parallel, on a horizontal line.
This, according to my observations, is a favorite excuse for managers - they did not, they did not provide me, they did not buy me, they did not agree with me.
Moreover, this excuse can be created artificially - so that there is a buffer. Here the head of production knows that they will not buy him a five-coordinate metalworking machine. But the application still does, the budget includes, but it walks, it makes sincere eyes - give, it is necessary! Do not give.
What's next?All the hell you get to the bottom of his marriage, which gives a three-dimensional machine in the manufacture of complex parts. You did not give me, refused, and so we turn as we can, even if the marriage sometimes.
And here everything is exactly the opposite. You set the task and they will do it. Damn, it's scary. This is really scary. Because you begin to really think what you are ordering and to whom.
And when you face a real business problem, and you can no longer hide your incompetence behind the performers and allied companies, then there are few ways out. Some left.
Most simply had nothing to say. Big, serious, strategic something. So, on trifles, as accustomed over the years to manual micromanagement, when the risk is small.
And when they reached the strategic management, they got into a puddle. After all, you know now that they will do what you say. And what to say?
Nothing to say. The most courageous, of course, spoke, but quickly it turned out that nonsense is all. Someone was fired for the wrong course, someone escaped and did not blather anymore.
And I have lost faith in the effectiveness of implementing task management systems, as well as in the effectiveness of management. It makes no sense to spend time on the efficiency of execution, automating the control of tasks. Because you will face a real crisis of management - it turns out that no one knows what to do.
But this is not the end of the road, but simply a turn. When implementing task management systems, one should not worry about the execution of tasks, but about their setting. This is more important.
For the time being, we’ll dwell on the fact that the chief mediocrity in our business is leaders. It is clear that you will not believe my word. Especially if you yourself - the head. But just in case, do not ask programmers to automate the management of your subordinates. Fear your desires, they can be fulfilled.
PS
The implementation described in the article took place in 2013-2014. I wrote the text of this article a year ago. I was still quite impressed with the work in that company, and was very keen on flexible technologies for managing tasks and projects.
But over the year I have significantly revised my views, based on a different reality - the implementation of development and implementation projects for external customers. I again faced the same problems that tormented my once-native enterprise - low performing discipline, mostly from the customer.
That's like all - decent people. You come to them - egegey, all great, we’ll do everything, just say it! And you leave, you start to communicate via the Internet - somewhere everyone is lost, tasks hang for months and, most importantly, you will not understand a damn thing in what status, and when it all ends.
Having suffered with all sorts of githabs, djirs, Yandex trackers and other cotton-sugar tasmen managers, I, as M said in the movie “Casino Royale”, miss the cold war. I want to know again who the asshole is not accepting the task. I want to clearly see where that reptile does not check and does not accept the result of the work done by the programmer. I am terribly lacking in my performance discipline report, which shows who worked like a month, quarter and year.
So I ... I wanted to say - reluctantly, but not - with great joy and relief! - I add proven controlling elements to the task management system I’m doing. Strength is in integration, not in opposition. This youthful maximalism makes yelling “Scum forever!” Or “Discipline, and only discipline!”. And I will take the best - from the first and second - and add my own, worked out over 10 years of practice, task management.
Uh, thank God. It was not for nothing.
Happy, friends!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/433514/
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