Informal Brain

I loved this example from Joel on Software:

Before joining Juno, I worked at Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), where my experience had been very different. A bit of Redmond lore: Two software designers got into a debate over how something should be implemented. The question was highly technical. They couldn’t reach agreement, so they went to their boss, a guy named Mike Maples, who was the vice president in charge of the applications division.

“What do I know about this?” he yelled at them. “Of the three people in this room, I’m the one who knows the least. You guys have been hashing this out for hours. I’m the last person who should be deciding. Work it out.”

And so they did.

[From How Hard Could It Be?: How I Learned to Love Middle Managers -- Fog Creek Software -- Small Business Advice]

So often the inclination of middle managers is to try and solve this type of problem by making a decision. What I am seeing is more often is a need to add structure to the debate. For example: The manager captures decisions, action items, risks, and parking lot items on a whiteboard while the technical people work it out. The facilitator gets out of the way and lets the technical people do their job; period.

Have you ever done this to your favorite pan?

Ugly!

Well, I learned this great trick from a cooking segment on TV. You take the baked on, burned on pan and put some water in it. Stick it on the stove on high and boil the water. You will notice that bubbles form on the baked on food and rip it loose from the pan:

Now, when you are all done boiling the water in the pan and giving it a scrape or two with a metal spatula (be careful not to splash yourself with the VERY hot water), drop the pot into a sink of soapy water and give it a bit of a scrub with a copper pad.

Voila!