This is a favorite lunch time topic lately. When I worked at a young startup, it was ok that I was unexperienced at management because what was needed was someone who could build things fast. I could make mistakes along the way as long as I could notice them at some point and correct them. It was important at the time to be a 'DOER'. A DOER (DO-ER) is someone who is a great builder of systems. Someone who has enough experience that he does not have to be managed. He's self managing. He goes out and begs, borrows, and steals time from business people and internal systems people to figure out the requirements and systems he has to interface with. He builds a best guest version of what is needed. Later on, he realizes things he didn't know adversely affects his new system's ability to deliver what was asked for. He breaks it up, fixes it, sends an apology note to whoever was affected, and declares the system working again. This is fast,furious,.cowboy coding at it's best. It's also known as Get Big Fast.
When a startup matures, people start to look at the flaws in what you have running. If the systems running are the cowboy's pride and joy, their babies, imagine how they feel when people tell them that their babies are ugly and need some serious plastic surgery. On this next stage, politicians come into play. These people are more concerned about image - prim and properness. They don't like comboys. They would rather manage soldiers. Soldiers are not as capable as cowboys but they follow orders and work through the proper channels to get information. Politicians can survive in a more mature startup if they can get riid of the cowboys or teach them to be soldiers. The issue is when systems are still so unmanageable that they need a little cowboy action.
There is a middle ground though. Thats the master systems builder who understands that you can't move forward into territory that would get you killed. This is a master systems builder who understands political strategy. When a company becomes mature, a master systems builder who employs chess-like skills of managing resources,time,and strategy can live to fight another day.
My feelings about politics are this. If you are consistent in solving problems, you wlll be noticed. You don't have to overtly say hey look at me, I'm great. Maybe just a little but it shouldn't be the focus of your job. I would rather strive to be a master systems builder who employs strategy when it comes to politics.
Not a solid argument but a bunch of ideas to be collected and molded later. Hey, I've got 2 years of blogs here. I think on my birthday, the day when the world stands still and my 'id' yells at me about what I am doing with my life, I might start a project to pull all of this talk into a book.
