Member-only story
I’ve been working by some order for about 20 years now, although you could argue at present I’m barely working that hard as I try to figure out existing contracts and what I actually want to do, which is a much harder process than anyone realizes and made doubly hard because I’m currently still banned from LinkedIn for claiming, however incorrectly you might think, that executives tend to lip-service diversity initiatives. Anyway. Across those 20 years there’s one astounding theme I keep seeing, and I wanted to dedicate a few paragraphs to it quickly.
First: realize that most everyone has a boss, and resides within a department. (Different for freelancers, of course.) If you have a boss and a department, those functions mean you have certain deadlines and deliverables and incentives, no? Managers often have no fucking clue how to manage deadlines, but they still exist and they’re sacrosanct to millions of people. But most people tend to follow their own incentive structures, which means they care about the deadlines set by THEIR boss.
In the last 10–20 years, what’s happened is that a huge chunk of the “thought leadership” community has doubled down on “collaboration” and “teamwork” and other pie-in-the-sky terms, which is utterly comical because organizations advance individuals, not teams, so at some point the whole model falls apart when you want a bigger house and another kid, and you’ll sell your “collaboration” down the river to be seen as a guy who “ships.”
What’s interesting to me is that in the midst of collaboration and “breaking down the silos” and “cross-functional work” and all that, what happens is that a lot of middle managers think they can email/call another silo and say “OK, I need this by then,” even though whatever they’re asking for is not on the radar of the silo they’re asking, and thus creates more work for people in that silo.
So basically, you’re emailing something with almost no context, and what you’re really saying or asking is “Hey, do my work on my timeline, even though you have your own work, own timelines, and own incentives. But I need this now, so do it, and throw your stuff away.”
This almost never works, and people just ignore the emails, and then bigger bosses have to get involved, and all…
