Month: January 2020

[Notes] The Little Things That Make Employees Feel Appreciated

WeiranLeave a comment

The trick is to avoid giving both types of feedback at once. When managers try the common sandwich technique, stuffing negative feedback between two layers of positive feedback, employees just get confused. In our experience, the people who needed the developmental feedback most tended to only hear the positive things their manager said, and the people who performed well left remembering more of the negative comments. So be sure to clearly separate out the positive feedback from the developmental feedback.

Instead of using sandwich, a better way is use your own failure story to start the conversation on improvement feedback. Bottom line is, you can only effectively deliver the improvement feedback after you gained the full trust.

[Notes] The No Code Delusion

WeiranLeave a comment

Many businesses fail attempting to do digital transformation to access these benefits. The downside of trying to make this jump is that suddenly you’re becoming, at least in part, a software development company. Surprise: most companies are not good at this! A software environment is one of infinite possibility because most everything is achievable, with enough resource (time, money, people).

But the representation of the logic doesn’t reduce the fundamental complexity of the thing that it describes. In the same I way I can write “two” and “2” and mean the same thing, there are many ways of writing out business logic.

That means no code is possible if the end result involves no logic or just simple logic. At the same time, if logic is not heavily involved then that wouldn’t be the software system that the company is looking for so badly, and won’t be able to get away from being democratized.

as an example, you can define extremely complex software in Salesforce Cloud, without having to write a single line of code. It’s a mix of visual programming, basic rule setting and configuration.

With “no code”, it tends to be difficult or impossible to have a non-production environment. Even if you do have one, accurately copying changes over from one to the other is non-trivial. Salesforce has some excellent tooling available to make this work, and even in that environment it’s extremely difficult to do.

There are many tools which, while not “no code” per se, also allow users to produce more technical output. My favourite example is Looker, the business intelligence tool, but there are many such in different niches. As an aside on Looker: I find it extremely interesting that a lot of the model development in that environment happens in plain text, using regular software development tooling. I think this is one of the reasons it has ended up being successful.

[Notes] The Care and Feeding of Your Young Employee: A MANAGER’S GUIDE TO MILLENNIALS AND GEN Z

WeiranLeave a comment

While most managers want me to “fix” their young employees, the truth is that the younger generations greatly outnumber the older generations. As such, it’s in our best interest to learn and adapt so we can develop them to lead our companies into the future.

How much Kodak film have you used lately? …You must be willing to let go of what has worked in the past and adapt to the new consumer environment, or your business will go extinct.

they consistently named “brings snacks” as a behavior exhibited by good leaders.

Another major factor was the Great Depression they [silent generation] experienced during their childhoods, which taught them to appreciate having a job.

I will point out that it is important to treat them with respect and honor to get their best work on the job.

some people calling Gen Y the “Soccer Trophy Generation.” Much more than in previous generations, Millennials were rewarded for participation and collaboration rather than competition.

They [Gen Y] are also more accustomed to frequent praise than previous generations.

internet is always available without limits or supervision for Gen Z. This has resulted in a very independent and self-taught generation.

It’s worth noting that every generation has been accused of being “entitled” by the previous generation. It’s safe to say entitlement is more a symptom of youth than a generational definition.

both Gen Y and Z are extremely comfortable talking to their elders as equals. They have always been included in their families’ critical decisions, with their opinions having substantial impact on final outcomes. …When they are at work, they expect to be part of strategic decisions, and they expect to be invited to key discussions, even though they may have limited experience.

I have noticed that Gen X and Boomer employees can quickly get overwhelmed by having what seems like never-ending, large-scale, ongoing discussions rather than scheduled meetings.

Totally, a production fire can be put off by 3 key people who know enough of the problem area with a half hour video call. But if instead, 10+ people from different teams jumped into a Slack channel and tried to chat out a solution taking half a day. And the real owner of the area may not even bothered and the root cause has not been truly fixed. Postmortem meeting is helpful but unlikely to take on further action since the focus hasn’t been the ownership/accountability.

Helping your Gen Y or Gen Z employee understand how bad behavior at work hurts their co-workers is more likely to get their attention than bringing up how it hurts the business.

The best companies have mentor programs where young employees are formally paired with mid-level employees who can coach them through realistic expectations, corporate politics, and best practices.