Force Multiply: Send In the Marines

I've always liked working in small groups. I think small teams have more room to accomplish what they need to do without so much bureaucracy getting in the way. Plus, those posters with "inspirational" sayings on them come to mind. Like, "None of us is as dumb as all of us." Or, "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."

The same thing that makes a small team appealing to me is also the same thing that the team must overcome - the "small" part of the "small team". While a smaller team is able to move more nimbly than a larger team, it is also has less resources. So how is a small group supposed to get an ambitious project done in a timely manner with all that work to do?

Force Multiply.

That's how. I'd love to take credit for the idea, but in truth I saw this while watching a Military Channel special on Rangers. My wife left the room and my dog gave me the, "Are you really going to watch this over Sienfield?", look - but I did it anyway. (Our idea of what is interesting to watch on TV evidently differs somewhat.) According to the show, Rangers work in very small groups, but are responsible for a large number of successful high priority missions. I was interested to find out how that's possible.

Here's the concept. In order to be successful, you have to be able to overwhelm the enemy by being able to instantly multiply the size of your force. So, unless you have a cloning machine or a well trained pool of contractors, that means that you have to be able to count on people/teams outside of your team.

Now, that sounds like a pretty simplistic idea in theory. In theory, practice is like theory, but not in practice. I submit to you, that being able to count on people outside your team is much easier said than done. Some teams can't even count on the people on their team, let alone another team. But look what happens when it becomes a reality - three rangers sneek behind enemy lines and take their time doing recon. When the enemy starts to mobilize, they take action. The Airforce is radioed and suddenly the sky is full of bombers, the Army was positioned well in advance and has the enemy blocked in. Game over. They were able to force multiply faster than the enemy.

If you think about the factors that allow for this to happen, there aren't that many: communication and coordination. You have to get the other teams involved from the start and have good communication, so that when the call is radioed in everyone is coordinated and acting as one force. In our corporate software development world where each team often has a different agenda and so many people are willing to do whatever it takes to make themselves look good and get ahead (not just developers, but management as well) these simple concepts are often difficult to execute.

With my two cents said, what ways have others found to successfully break down barriers between departments/teams and improve communication and coordination that allow them to "send in the marines?"

Note: As an aside, I think it's important to note that the Rangers are part of the Special Forces. The soldiers on these teams aren't in their first rodeo. They're seasoned and they know what needs to be done. I think that the smaller your team becomes the more this needs to hold true.

Some things can't be changed

Some things are what they are.

Geez, I reread that sentence and at first I wasn't sure it had anything useful to say at all. Nonetheless, it doesn't change it's correctness. Apparently it is what it is. Darn it, I did it again. Some things you can just count on, like the sun coming up in the morning, Brittney making the front page, and a cheesy line in my post. Here it is: You can change your friends and you can change your pants, but you can't change your friends' pants. (Ummm... yep, that's definitely how it goes.)

The reason this topic is on my mind, as philosophical as it is, is that I think recognizing this fact can be useful. The number one, for instance, can't be the number two. It isn't green or blue or happy or sad or anything else besides the number one. You can add five to the number one, but you'll end up with the number six - and one, surprisingly enough, will still always, eternally, infinitely be the number one.

Because it is unchangeable, the number one is said to be immutable. I don't think this makes the number one bad, in fact it's quite a useful number (after you embrace it's permanence). So I guess we can all accept this fact or decide to be very unhappy about it, but either way Brittney will still be on the front page, and the number one will still be itself. What it seems we can change then, based on the previous recognition, is what we decide to do about it being unchangeable. We can change ourselves, our attitude, and what we choose to do with the information we're presented with.... something to think about.

To tie this back to a little bit of programming - I've read several blogs lately that talk about immutable objects. Regardless of whether you're looking for the good or the bad in things, you will usually find it. That's true with immutable objects too. Immutable objects have several properties that make them useful to work with, but if you view them with a negative attitude and choose to ignore them, you've dismissed them before you understood them. If you're interested, read some of the sites out there to discover what kind of cool things can be done with unchangeable objects and what kinds of benefits they bring. I've even seen it labeled a few times as the "future of programming."

It can't be dead, it's still twitching

Nope not gone yet. Just took a really long break.

Hopefully I'll come back with a fresh perspective.

An "Excellent" Sign

As I was driving to our family's weekly Sunday dinner, I passed a sign on the side of the road. The kind of sign with the changeable letters that always has a clever message on it. We drove by too fast for me to get a picture, but on it was the message:

Excellence - Doing something common in an uncommon way

At first, I looked at it and thought, "All right, inspiring". But then after thinking about it - I'm not sure I agree with it. Do you think they put the "Excellent" message up in an uncommon way just to prove their point? I don't think standing on milk crates stacked on a hammock while placing the letters on the sign with a pair of tweezers would have any bearing on the effectiveness of the message. In fact, the most common way of putting the message on the sign is probably the best.

I liked wikipedia's definition of "Excellence" the best, so I'll use it.

Excellence is the state or quality of excelling. It is superiority, or the state of being good to a high degree. Excellence is considered to be a value by many organizations, in particular by schools and other institutions of education, and a goal to be pursued.

So, "Excellence" is the state of being superior. It doesn't say anything about the way in which this superiority is achieved. This is where I have a problem with the first message. I think you can be excellent, do excellent work, and have an excellent product in a common(usual) way.

Now, I'm not saying that it's bad to do something in an uncommon way - that's how we get better. To solve a complex problem sometimes takes some creativity and doing something that no one else has done before - it's called innovation. What I am saying is that that this does not equal excellence. I believe that you can have excellence without innovation (since I already used that word), but it's a lot harder to achieve innovation without excellence - that's the challenge.

Although it's usually involved, Sunday dinner was excellent, done the same old way as always.

Computer Hero

Now with wireless controller!

I'm pretty sure most of you have played Guitar Hero at some point.  If not, I'll try to describe it the best I can.  Basically, you hold a plastic guitar which has five differently colored buttons on the fret board where the strings would normally be, a plastic lever where you would normally strum the guitar, and a whammy bar.  While you're holding the guitar colored circles come toward you on the screen like a multi-colored version of the beginning of Star Wars, only faster.  The object is to press the colored buttons in the correct order and hit the lever as if you were actually playing guitar.  It's a lot of fun.

On the way home, I was excited to get home and play, but I was thinking that this game is a pretty good analogy for a lot of things going on in my life and career.

It's all I can do to keep up with everything that's coming at me.  It takes the coordination of all of my abilities sometimes: mentally, physically, financially, and otherwise.  As soon as I finish one set, it's on to the next one where there are more notes coming faster - and as soon as I finish that gig,  someone wants a "software battle."  If all goes right, my band and I will hit enough notes in a row and leverage our "star power" just when the timing is right.

We just finished a pretty major sub-project, and it strikes me that good software teams are a "band".  Everyone has a part and even a bad stage hand can keep you from becoming a star.  Which is why the title is a bit of a misnomer.  There can't be any heros in this business - there's too much to do.  How are you going to be the front man, the lead guitarist, the bass player, and the drummer all at once?  Find your part, practice it, and play it well.

We all know it isn't about being a hero anyway.  In the end, all we really want is acceptance and respect from our peers.

One Man's Trash | Another Company's Customer

7 am
The garbage truck
Beeps as it backs up
And I start my day thinking about
What I've thrown away

- 11AM, Incubus, Morning View (Sony Music, 2001)

That's how the lyrics to one of my favorite Incubus songs begins. And while they're melodically tackling a more philosophical topic, I never really considered how much stuff I've thrown away (and I guess in a philosophical sense too...)

It seems our society has an attitude of convenience rather than an attitude of quality. We always want what we haven't got - we're never happy with what we have. We'd rather spend three times as much to get a new one than to take the time and energy to fix anything that's broken. Even though our family couldn't afford a lot when I was growing up, one thing my father told me was that he always bought the best he could afford - even if it hurt a little financially at the time - because he wanted it to last.

Now it's easier to buy a new one. Everything is throw-away and disposable. People buy high dollar items expecting that they'll only last for 3-5 years at best (see my previous post). It doesn't stop with objects either. Even relationships are disposable in our society. Divorce is more commonplace than couples who've been married for 10 or more years. People aren't as loyal to brands (or employers) as they used to be.

As a technology related side - it's interesting that even software products are realistically written for a lifetime of 2-3 years now. The age of legacy software is over. If you're not reinventing your software periodically it is replaced with something else better.

I've noticed this attitude has carried to business too. Customers now seem to be disposable. Everywhere I look it's not about keeping customers anymore, now it's about getting new customers. It's as if businesses get new customers expecting they'll only be around for the next 3-5 years at best before they move on. Companies will seemingly give the house away to get new customers locked into a contract but expect that loyal customers pay full prices for everything when they're the ones who've been keeping the lights on all along!

Let me bring the topics together in a more real sense.

One Man's Trash
My co-worker and I recently came into a set of 30" flat panel LCD TVs that were involved in a lightening strike and no longer worked correctly. They were being disposed of. These TVs were originally over $3000, and used models still retail for over $1500. We took the TVs apart and diagnosed the problem - a circuit board that wasn't operating correctly. We called the manufacturer to get replacement parts. They didn't have replacement parts. Let me repeat: The manufacturer didn't have replacement parts!! (Nothing says disposable like no replacement parts.) Finally, we found a company on the WWW who had replacement parts for $150. Fantastic! New TVs for $150 and some elbow grease.

Another Company's Customer
Now that my co-worker had a new LCD flat panel, he decided to put it up in his bedroom. The only problem was that he didn't have a satellite receiver in the bedroom. So he called his satellite provider to get setup with some equipment. They didn't sell equipment anymore - they only leased it. Equipment upgrade: $100, RF Remote Control: $25, Shipping and Handling: $20, Programming Upgrade: $10/Mnth, Extra Receiver: $5/Mnth, Installation Extra (if required). Total 1 time charges: $145, new monthly charges: $15, making your existing customers bend over and take one for the team: priceless. He has been a loyal customer for 7 years, currently has no promotions, and has never made a late payment. They would waive NONE of the charges (we even called back and tried a different operator). They wouldn't even throw in the remote for goodness sakes!! Can you imagine how many times that $100 receiver (that cost $10 to make) has been paid for over 7 years? But guess what? If you're a new customer you can get a four room HD-DVR system installed completely free of charge. (Read current customers are disposable. We don't care if you leave because we know you'll be back in the next 3-5 years.) What a kick in the pants!

It's amazing to me that in a society where most people hate change that we promote it in everything we do. I wonder what kinds of things I've been throwing away...

Goes around, comes around, but it won't turn on

karma |ˈkärmə|
noun

• informal destiny or fate, following as effect from cause.

Nothing lasts forever - except the stop light next to my house, in the morning, when I'm late. Anyways, that's what I told my buddy when his first generation iPod shuffle took a dive.

He'd been having problems with it off and on, so when he brought it in to work and told me that neither iTunes nor Windows could recognize it I wasn't too shocked. We tried it on my Mac to see if "it just needed some Apple lovin'", as he put it. Turns out it worked on my Mac - that really set him off. He'd just transfered some music on to it the previous night after upgrading to the latest version of iTunes. After reading some sites he got it in his head that it was an Apple conspiracy to get rid of this version of the shuffle - although after our experience he may be on to something.

After about an hour of messing with this thing I was thinking, "why can't someone who works with technology for a living, who has used the heck out of this device, and deals with change constantly in his professional life understand that things wear out and technology changes to newer and better things. Surely he's considered that it might just be time to buy a new one." But, as if it were a life long pet who'd become part of the family, he just couldn't let it go. So being the friend I am, we took it to the vet - the genius bar at the Apple store.

We made our appointment online. We showed up 15 minutes early as they asked. Right on time they asked to see the iPod and wanted to know what the problem was. We told them. We had brought the original packaging and receipt. They scanned the SKU and informed us that it was out of warranty and that there wasn't much they could do. Odd... the guy didn't even plug it into a computer to try it out until my friend finally asked him - even then he just said, "yep, you're right. It doesn't work." They haggled a little more and they were finally willing to give him 10% off on a new shuffle.

And then, as we were getting up to leave, they guy behind the bar said, "I guess it's just time to get a new one." The very words I had uttered earlier. But, somehow it didn't sound the same coming from him. It really rubbed my friend the wrong way - especially the next day, since he was able to take it home that night and get it working again (even though it broke again later that day).

[Fade to black]
[End Scene]

---

[Curtains Rise]
[Jeff is walking into his living room from the garage]

Hmm... I wonder what's on television. [kicks off shoes, plops onto couch]

[grabs remote and turns entertainment center on]
[picture comes on but the sound from the receiver won't get any louder]

Well, I guess it's just time to buy a new one, Karma... you cruel cruel mistress.