The Hot Potato game: It’s not my fault!
Today I’ll talk about an aspect I experienced at several distinct projects: the Hot Potato game.
And what is it? Inevitably, at some point a project will present a problem — an unpredicted situation, misbehaving, mistunderstanding, you name it. Then, you get the ensued chaos: tighter schedules, general failures, customers calling, project teams pulling their remaining hair out (because we all know a good project manager shaves the head to prevent pulling out the hair).
And so, the Hot Potato begins:
Client: It’s the System’s fault. Call the Devs!
Devs: It’s the Architecture’s fault. Call the Architect!
Architect: It’s the Infrastructure’s fault. Call the Service Manager!
Service Manager: No one asked us if we had the infrastructure to support it. It’s the Dev’s fault!
Devs: The customer never explained exactly what he wanted. What he asked now was out of the initial scope!
Client: I do not need to know every single technical aspect, that’s why I hired you!
And so on. You got the picture.
And while everyone is arguing, the problem is still happening: general failure, no value generated.
Of course this is an exaggerated situation (is it?), but I can assure you that I saw something like that happen in at least 70% of the projects I observed. The situation gets ugly, and the only thing that comes to everyone’s minds is to find an escape goat.
I trust that when one says at their CV that they have a “hands-on attitude”, one must be willing to practice what they preach. My proposal here is that the professionals stop trying to point fingers while the problem is occuring: solve the problem and then, only then, and only if necessary, try to find the culprit.
I say only if necessary because most of the problems that occur during a project lifetime inevitably are everyone’s responsibility. Whether the customer didn’t explain it right, the Dev team didn’t undestand it right, the hardware guys didn’t get involved or didn’t dimension everything; Project Development is not like putting clothes to dry in the sun, where one person is responsible for only the one piece they hung. In project management, everyone is accountable.
It’s the human nature to avoid confrontation, and to avoid taking responsibility. Whenever one assumes they started the fire, one will get burnt (pun intended). Oh, sure. Is it better to let the building burn to the ground or to be the hero that started soaking the building with water? A “hands-on” professional is a rare thing when it comes to solve a problem. What usually happens is a chain of unnecessary meetings to nit-pick details, find the culprits, establish punishments, and in the meantime there is no more building.
What we all need desperately is to apply the basics of Technolgy: LOGIC. Pure, raw, cold, results-driven LOGIC. “Ah, but I ain’t a push-over, I’m not taking the responsibility, it’s not my fault, etc, etc.” would be the common response. Seriously, keep these feelings to what really matters, and not for work. Work is a serious business, and what you do is not what you are. This witch-hunt attitude is not what is expected from a serious professional, it fits better with that boy that has a basketball, is playing at the court, someone hits him, and then he picks up the ball, whines and goes home. This attitude jeopardizes the project — the basketball game — just because of ego.
True professionals leave their “pride” away when they get “offended”, and pride themselves when they deliver the project.
I’m not saying that we must be unconditional submissives. I’m saying that, whenever a problem occurs, everyone just step back, figure the problem out, check for causes and solve the problem.
Usually, the problem will not be that big. It will be something unavoidable, and, therefore, it’s no one’s fault. I apply this concept at my projects, and I can say this guilt-free environment succeeds at 95% of the time. Why not 100%? Because, for some people, work mistakes are personal flaws and they refuse to collaborate. For those people, there is only one path: listen to them and focus on the closure. When the problem is solved, those 5% will be shushed by the facts.
Remember: Project execution is exactly like building a house of cards. No matter how careful you are, all you need is a strong draft or a misplaced card to make everything crumble. A project depends on everyone’s engagement.
So, please, whenever the hot potato gets in our hand, throw it to the group and ask everyone to hold it before it burns. Don’t keep it to yourself. Be the grown up and try to find a solution before pointing fingers. Some small ammount of the heat will be absorbed by each one of you, and the potato will get cold.
