CTO/CIO. Ruby. Rails.
just some more awesome
This tendency to look for individual goats – and heroes – isn’t just a problem that permeates the world of sports. It is reflected in many misguided ideologies and management practices, which focus excessive energy on hiring stars and weeding-out mediocre and poor performers, and insufficient energy on building a great system that enables most competent people to succeed.
Sure, people matter a lot, but as my colleague Jeff Pfeffer puts it, some systems are so badly designed that when smart people with a great track record join them, it seems as if a “brain vacuum” is applied, and they turn incompetent.
Indeed, there was close to 100% turnover at NASA between the two accidents, but the system was largely unchanged. According to the report (which is more useful and better written than most management books), NASA remained a dysfunctional bureaucracy where, rather than deferring to people with the greatest expertise, administrators believed that “an allegiance to hierarchy, procedure, and following the chain of command” decreased the odds of failure. People with greater power ignored and stifled, and overturned recommendations people with more expertise but less power. As a result, the Board warned “NASA’s problems cannot be solved simply by retirements, resignations, or transferring personnel.”
CTO/CIO. Ruby. Rails.
CTO/CIO. Ruby. Rails.
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