Mentally break away from your usual view of work – yours and the company’s. I encourage you to think about the path of money in a company. Me, you, your neighbors, your boss - we all stand in the way of money.
We are used to seeing money in the form of tasks. You may not think of it as money.
If you are a programmer, you see the requirements, the technologies used, the complexity of the client, the estimate in hours or parrots.
If you are a manager, then you see in the task a piece of the completed plan, a hemorrhoid with a choice of analyst and executor, and you estimate your percentage of the revenue.
But you don't look at the task as money. Now try it. It’s just like this: the task is money. Imagine that a client came to your office and brought a wad of money - he wants to give it to you. It’s not just that - he’s not a fool, he’s a normal, adequate person with a wad of money. What will be the path of this man and his money?
He'll probably go to the manager - programmers don't really like talking to clients, do they? They’ll talk, the manager will write down a wish list in a notebook and promise to solve the client’s problem.
The client is impatient - he wants to give money. But for now there is no one, and there’s no reason to. He tugs at the manager's shoulder - well, buddy, who should I give the money to? No, the manager answers, wait, it’s still early.
The client sighs and sits down on a chair in the corner of the office, folding a wad of money on his knees. And the manager goes to the next meeting, or talks about something with other managers and programmers. And the money is on my knees.
This is how the day goes by (well, imagine that such a client was caught, like a grandmother in Social Security). He just drops tears on his wad of money, and waits, and waits, and waits...
The manager sometimes remembers a task, but does not yet understand what to do with it. You should structure the information a little yourself, conduct at least a superficial analysis, otherwise the programmers won’t take it on. There’s no time after all... Let the client wait a little longer, and let the money lie there.
Finally, the client can’t stand it, comes up to the manager and shouts - who to give the money to??!!.. Now, now, the manager answers, and, without structuring the task, he goes to look for a performer. The client, satisfied with at least some movement, sits down on his chair again. Money is waiting.
The choice of performer does not go smoothly. Nobody wants to help a client part with money. Some say, clarify the statement, nothing is clear. Others say we need an analyst. Still others say - I'm busy. Several days pass like this. And the money is waiting.
Finally, with grief in half, the performer is found. He gets up from his chair, approaches the client and again finds out all the details of the task. The client asks again - who should I give the money to? It’s too early, says the programmer. Sit down, man.
A bundle of money spends several days in line. The order in the queue is unknown to anyone, not even to the programmer. Downtime occurs periodically. For example, when something is not clear, but it is shameful to ask, because they will understand that you are not addressing the topic. Yes, they can send it, albeit in a veiled manner.
Sometimes the programmer waits until the last minute - until the client flares up again, comes running and hits the top of the head with his wad of money. This pack is already burning his hands; with all his heart he wants to get rid of the heavy burden. But he can’t - there was never a person who needed this money. Everyone runs away from them like the plague.
And finally, the miracle happened! Problem solved! The client runs, as if stung, to give the money!
Immediately another miracle happened - all the participants in the process, as if by magic, also saw the money! While the money was in the client’s hands and was called a “task,” no one noticed it. When the bills rustled pleasantly, everyone remembered why they came to work.
Do you think it's a lie? So there is a statistic that not everyone considers - the lifetime of tasks, especially in terms of money. Usually they are content with some kind of SLA, or volumetric indicators - how many tasks were completed, how many of them were on time, etc.
What's more interesting here? There may only be a couple of hours of actual work on the task. Two hours of work can take a week, two or a month. All tasks hang out in long queues, like grandmothers at a clinic. All around us, in all our offices, there are stacks of money that we don’t need. Money sticks out of all the cracks, floats in sinks, hangs from the ceiling, and dangles across the floor in the draft. We are afraid of this money, we put it off for later, we play football with each other, we hide it out of sight under the carpet, we do not let it live a full life.
Reminds me a bit of a Soviet joke:
A spy comes to Lubyanka to surrender, and they ask him: “From what country?”
- "From USA".
- “Then you should go to the fifth office.”
They ask: “Are there any weapons?”
- "Eat".
- “Then you’ll be at seven.”
They ask: “Are there any means of communication?”
- "Eat".
- “Then it’s tenth for you.”
- “Well, do you have a task?”
- “Of course there is.”
- “Then go and do it and don’t interfere with work.”
Try to look at the task as if it were money. Try to put yourself in the client's shoes. Go to the clinic and see the therapist on duty if you have forgotten these feelings of complete helplessness, even if you have money.
Try, at least mentally, to call tasks money. Not “how many tasks do I have at work”, but “how much money do I have at work”. Not “how long has this task been pending?”, but “how long have I not taken money from the client’s hands?” Not “I’ll think about this problem on Friday,” but “I don’t need the money, let it stay with the client, or give it to someone else.” Not “damn, what an incomprehensible task, what to do with it?”, but “oh, damn it, he doesn’t even understand how much money he brought in!”
Not only the amount of money is important, but also the speed with which it moves from the client to you. For the client, this is the speed of solving his problem. He is ready to part with money the moment he picks up the phone, walks into the office, or sends an email.
There is, however, a positive note in this: we are all like that. Each of our competitors and yours. They all say they want money. And also that they do not have enough specialists. That the market is stagnating. That the vendor is to blame. That clients are abandoning them. That young people are getting dumber every year. What about the macroeconomic situation, the policy of the Central Bank, demography, blah blah blah, and a bunch of other smart words.
And they themselves are covered with money, like a dog with fleas. But they think that these are tasks.
Source: habr.com