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The brilliance of

By Marcus Blankenship

brilliance
Guillermo wrote me back yesterday to let me know how he solved the “demotivated, disconnected programmer” problem.  I’ll let him tell you…

I started seeing this behavior in my developers, so what I did was to introduce a "Customer Support value hour."  Programmers have to sit with the CS people for an hour and see their work and figure out solutions for their pains and the end users pain.  They must do this every day. Once they started seeing the pain, their attitude changed. They now contribute to the engineering discussions with real-life experience on the issues we are facing.

This is an oft-overlooked aspect of re-engaging your programmers: connecting their efforts to real outcomes.

Guillermo’s approach may sound radical, but so were the results.  Reading this makes me a wee-bit jealous of a team that “contributes to engineering discussions with real-life experience.”  That would be a team that’s not only motivated by intellect but driven by empathy.  This would make for an unstoppable team.

Do your developers have real-life experience?

How could you expose them to the real-life problems of your users?
What new discussions could you have?

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About Marcus Blankenship

Where other technical coaches focus on process or tools, I focus on the human aspects of your Programmer to Manager transition. I help you hire the right people, create the right culture, and setup the right process which achieves your goals. Managing your team isn't something you learned in college. In fact, my clients often tell me "I never prepared for this role, I always focused on doing the work". If you're ready to improve your leadership, process and team, find out how I can help you.

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