Recently, I have created a Configuration Management space with an underlying Configuration Management wiki on IBM developerWorks. Initial focus will be on IBM products (ClearCase, ClearQuest and UCM) and on CM concepts and practices. Later, it is my intention to extend it to other CM products too. The space and wiki are an extension to the existing discussion forums on dW.
The content is still in its initial stages, so bear with me to let it grow. For that purpose I am still looking for co-editors who are willing to put more content to it. Although wiki's are intended for open collaboration, I want to be careful with making it completely open for modification to the world to assure proper structure and quality.
For new events or other news and changes on the CM space portal, feel free to contact me.
There are managers and there are leaders. And there are human resource managers. Managers organize the work by setting targets, getting the resources and coordinating the activities. Leaders give direction to a vision and strategies, providing the energy to a team to reach the targets and to overcome obstacles.
Human resource managers are a special breed. In fact, they are providers of resources, just liking a hosting company is a provider of diskspace and internet bandwidth (computer resources). For HRMs the resources happen to be humans. HRMs do not manage humans like real managers do, they provide resources. HRMs have power over their resources, because they have the authority of hiring and firing, they do the evaluation (not based on their own experience with the humans they "manage") and they claim to have better human skills than any of the humans they manage.
Because HRMs manage humans and because they have quite an influencial power over those humans, they are often regarded as very important managers, with a good sense of business importance, business priorities, and with a high esteme and a high salary. But in fact, they have no clue about the real work, the real challenges that those humans face, day-in day-out, to achieve the real business goals.
Disclaimer:
Anything I write may be my true opinion or an attempt to challenge my opinion (i.e. not my true opinion), or a combination. Any perceived correspondence with real people or real situations is purely coincidental.
I stumbled across the Google philosofy that engineers all have "20 percent time" in which they can work on the things they think are cool to work on. I like the idea. In my experience engineers spend time on creativity and other activities that they consider necessary anyway.
A long time ago I heard an interview with a great musician. It may have been Isaac Stern or Yehudi Menuhin, or someone else. The interviewer asked him who was his example when it comes to learning new skills for extremely difficult passages in music. His reply was:
"I learn the most from my students"
He explained that students often do not follow the techniques or the instructions tought by their teacher, either because they have forgotten or because they think it is too difficult. Those of you having had piano lessons can probably confirm that using the "right" fingers is often more difficult than doing it your own way. Using a different approach than the teacher prescribes brings forward alternatives, from which the teacher can learn.
In my work, I too learn most from the people that are trying to learn from me. When I tell them, they don't believe me, but it is true. Seeing my approaches applied by someone else, in a different way, reveals possibilities and alternatives where I have blackspots.
This is one of the most important reasons why I believe in user communities and sharing of experience. Not only novice users will learn from advanced users, but also advanced users will learn from the novice.
An article in managers online (Dutch) about Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) caught my attention. According to an article by Livia Markczy, OCB is defined as:
"Individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization."
There are two types of behavior in OCB:
- Active positive contributions
- Avoidance of harmful behaviors
The Agile approach however recognizes the value of people's contributions over formal procedures. Heroic behavior like OCB probably flourishes better under Agile than under CMM regimes. It relies on trust and respect, and as Brad Appleton writes "The first thing to build is trust".
At the IBM developerWorks Rational discussion forums, where I am discussion facilitator for the ClearCase forum, IBM staff and the discussion facilitators are trying to build a user community. Apart from technical means and resources to communicate and interact, such a community depends on people that contribute exceptionally, so called valued contributors (OCB type 1 behavior). They contribute positively to the customer satisfaction, which IBM values (or should value) because it is good for sales and saves service (support) costs.
But one of the concerns for IBM Rational is that the promotional power of a user community depends on avoidance of harmful behavior (OCB type 2 behavior). The big questions is how to foster this type of behavior? Open source communities show that it can be done, so I am optimistic.
On one side, I see that the business world is becoming hard and cold, revolving around money, stocks and stakeholders, treating people like assets. On the other side, I see more and more initiatives that are soft and warm, revolving around people, community building and trust, treating business as intellectual challenges.
The weblog article The cult of overwork , one of the comments caught my attention.
How about skipping the whole "work" concept too? That way, we can not only stop dividing time into work and leisure, but we can also stop dividing our life in duty and pleasure. Let's focus on creating happiness in whatever we do with our lives. "Work" sounds like postponing fun and happiness until you go home.How about skipping the whole “time” concept? I’ve stopped dividing my time into work and leisure, since it seems to overlap in great extend. [...] I still seem that I love what I do enough to get the jobs done par excellence. frankly I don’t know if I’m working more or less than 40 hours a week.
For a long time I though that being present on discussion forums and weblogs, being able to be a though leader on a particular subject, being able to write great articles, give excellent presentations, being involved in everything that is important to the business and to my profession, and also being excellent in your day-to-day work and life,
is necessary to be successful.
Well, it is not. It is fun to do it all, but being excellent in your day-to-day life is hard enough and sufficient. All the rest is the cream on the pudding.
Although I don't really like reading books, I started in Behind Closed Doors of Johanna Rothman and Esther Derby. It really is not a book about management, but about working with people as a manager. Easy readable and for a slow reader as I am - especially with the distractions that I have while reading - my progress is reasonably fast.
The previous book I read so easily - and finished - is Peopleware by DeMarco, a classic in management books.
Both books are about people and working with people.
Update 15/3/2007:
I have read the second chapter. It certainly is not my favorite - in other words - I don't like it. It's about matching roles and people. It assumes an amount of freedom to mix and match that - at least in my work environment - seldom exists.
Update 18/3/2007:
The third chapter about building your team started familiar with jelling teams. I immediately felt the connection with Peopleware. It was convincing until the subject of feedback was touched. Especially ending the chapter with the option of firing someone ruins the whole atmosphere needed to build a team. Overall, I was left with a very disappointed feeling.
