A valuable skill

rands
rands
Sep 2, 2018 · 2 min read

We humans like our things just so. We like familiar and safe settings, so it stands to reason that we are incentivized to create work environments that reflect our desire for stability and safety. This becomes a problem over time when everyone is feeling so gosh darned safe that we forget this is business and part of business is inventing new and interesting products and processes. My experience is the art of the possible does not evolve in steady state.

Every 1.5 years, I go on a quest within a team to change the status quo. I mix things up. Phil is running Infra? Great, Phil is now running mobile. That Tuesday morning sync meeting that we’ve been having for 18 months? Gone. I am not willy nilly burning things to the ground. Phil wants to run mobile. I’m certain a group of well-intentioned humans will invent a new Tuesday meeting. However, by adding a little entropy to the system, I am getting the humans to shift their perspective. They need to remember this is a valuable skill and that their desire for order is preventing them from learning

The trope is “Change is scary.” It’s actually not. It’s uncomfortable. It requires you to update your expectations and it’s an opportunity to learn. Remember that last vacation? You went to San Diego for four days? That first day at the AirBNB you were cranky because everything was unfamiliar and your things were not just so. Day two: you walked around La Jolla and discovered that La Jolla has some of the best god damned breakfast in the world. You walked on the beach and remembered, “I love scuba diving. Why haven’t I done it in years?” You discovered that change, while uncomfortable, is when you learn.

(Capturing scribbles from elsewhere for the next book.)

rands

Written by

rands

Michael Lopp. VP of Engineering at Slack. I favor bridges, critical thinking, and Mac'n'Cheese.