begin quoting James G. Sack (jim) as of Mon, Mar 05, 2007 at 05:36:03PM -0800: > Bob La Quey wrote: > > While I too like working with "good" people and am > > sympathetic to what you and Gregory are saying there > > is still a voice inside that says, "Anbody can get the > > job done with 'good' peiople. No challenge there. The > > whol eproblem is how to get the job done with people > > who are 'not so good' ." (how the hell do you punctuate that?) > > > > If all of our processes and theories are unable to help us > > do better with less then what good are they? Have we > > actually learned nothing? > > I don't see the promotion of team development as a need/desire to get > things done with below average people.
But that's not Bob's question. As Bob's Little Voice says, "Anyone get get the job done with good people." That's not the promise of all these methods and schemes and processes, as normally sold. > I see it as a recognition that no one is an expert at everything. It is > further complicated by the fact not everybody who might be expected to > be knowledgeable in a given area will agree. There are even terminology > differences that always seem to crop up. Differences between good and not-so-good people isn't a matter of knowledge or expertise. Ignorance is easy to cure. Stupidity is not. > One might say that it should be possible to divide things up so that > each area of work can be performed by someone who has "sufficient" > expertise in that area. It is possible. One of the better teams I've worked on had just that... to the point where I have little role titles in my head. "The GUI Person", "The Algorithm Guy", "The Tool Builder", "The Optimizer", "The Tester", "The Incompetent Roadblock", etc. > I suggest that there are lots of work > environments where that is hard to pull off -- especially over any > significant time scale. Such as? > People need to communicate and negotiate. And try to appreciate > conflicts, and know when to compromise. Oh, indeed. So what do you do with the people who can't or won't communicate, negotiate, appreciate conflicts, or compromise? > They didn't even touch on any of that back in my dark ages education. Most of the valuable lessons I learned in school weren't on the curriculm. The thing to do with dead weight that can't or won't come up to speed is to cut 'em out of the critical path. And that explaining something to someone else is almost always worthwhile. And, and, and... -- Watching the light bulb light up is indescribable. Stewart Stremler -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-lpsg
