Technology heroes are always difficult subject. \u00a0As an engineering manager, I remember the first time I participated in a \u201clife boat\u201d drill where you have to produce a stack rank of your engineers.\u00a0 Someone explained the process saying, \u201cThe task is to figure out if you had to throw out one person from a lifeboat, who it would be? \u00a0After you figure that out, then you decide who would the next one be, etc. until you have a fully ordered list.\u201d\u00a0 I chewed on that a bit and asked, \u201cHow many people are going to be left in the lifeboat?\u201d\u00a0 When they asked me why, I replied \u201cBecause if there is only one person left in the lifeboat, it would be Mark but if there was more than one person left, Mark would be the first one I\u2019d throw out.\u201d\u00a0 Mark was a technical hero. \u00a0Able to accomplish a great deal but at a great cost to the the organization.<\/p>\n
I’m reminded of a story in Storming Norm Schwarzkopf’s<\/a> autobiography <\/a>where he was frantically trying to stand up forces in\u00a0Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War. \u00a0At some point during the buildup, someone asked him where he wanted to deploy Special Forces and Norm replied something along the lines of, “keep them the F*** out of my\u00a0theater!<\/em>\u201d \u00a0(Norm is a colorful character.) \u00a0 Shocked, the person responded along the lines of, “these are the best of the best, the most capable warriors in the history of the world, what do you mean you don’t want them in theater?<\/em>” \u00a0Norm explained, “Look – this is all about a couple hundred thousand guys killing a couple hundred thousand other guys. \u00a0If your Seal teams can kill a couple hundred thousand guys, great, I’ll send everyone else home. \u00a0If they can’t do that, then keep them the F*** out of my theater<\/em>.”<\/p>\n What clarity of that thought! \u00a0What it basically comes down to is that it doesn’t matter how good you are if you are wrong for the mission. \u00a0Windows (any OS really) is about a couple thousand guys writing a millions of lines of code to deliver lots of scenarios. \u00a0If a few heroes could accomplish this, we would pay them a lot of money and send everyone else home. \u00a0They can’t but let’s just say that they could. \u00a0If you build a plan around a hero and then that hero gets hit by a beer truck, you’re screwed. \u00a0Hero-centric planning is fragile and ultimately irresponsible. \u00a0But<\/strong>\u00a0superstar technical individual contributors\u00a0do<\/strong>\u00a0exist and they\u00a0do<\/strong>\u00a0occasionally\u00a0change the way the game is played. \u00a0So while it is folly to plan around heroes, it is also folly to ignore them. \u00a0Norm understood that.<\/p>\n After Norm got a critical mass of forces in the Gulf and had a plan he was comfortable with, he\u00a0revisited\u00a0the idea of using the Special Forces and used them to great effect in the war. \u00a0Navy Seal teams were some of the first to engage and served with great distinction. \u00a0But let’s be clear about it. \u00a0They were\u00a0optional<\/strong>\u00a0elements to a plan that would succeed without them. \u00a0They enhanced the plan, in some cases dramatically but Norm needed a plan to succeed even if they didn’t exist.<\/p>\n In the same token, there are tasks that require a hero or small group of heroes and would be screwed up with a couple hundred thousand guys tried to do them (think hostage rescue mission).\u00a0 At Digital we used to say that a Consulting Engineer was someone that could solve a class of problems that other engineers could not solve no matter how many of them there were.\u00a0 There were times that you just had to bring in a Consulting Engineer and cope with whatever that entailed or you would not get the problem solved.\u00a0 The best Consulting Engineers were those that would roll up their sleeves and help while keeping their egos in check.<\/p>\n One of the problems with a hero-centric world is trying to get the hero’s to add up. \u00a0Bill Gates used to say this all the time, he talked about how we had dialed-in the ability to hire the smartest people in the world but still hadn’t figured out how to get their IQs to add up vs. negate one another. \u00a0Look, we’ve all worked with heroes before so let’s just say what we all know; they can be egotistical buttheads or prima donnas. \u00a0They don’t have to be. \u00a0Certainly\u00a0Jim Gray<\/a>\u00a0wasn’t a butthead. \u00a0Not only was he one of the smartest guys in the world.\u00a0 He was also one of the nicest, most helpful and approachable guys as well. \u00a0More often than not, the characteristics that allows someone to think dramatically differently than other people and the courage and tenacity to put that idea out there and fight to make it come to fruition are the same characteristics that make them difficult to work with. \u00a0(NOTE: \u00a0My experience is that a senior technical IC\u00a0must<\/strong>\u00a0be a butthead at times to make things happen.\u00a0 The distinction is whether they are motivated by concern about the customer, the company, the technology or are they motivated by their ego and status.)<\/p>\n Said another way, many heroes find it hard to be followers. \u00a0I’m reminded of a conversation I had with an awesome mentor at Digital, Mark Storm. \u00a0Mark was a Consulting Engineer and had worked with 4 or 5 other rock star Consulting Engineers in the database team. \u00a0I said something along the lines that it must have been awesome to be a team with that much talent. \u00a0He shook his head saying that it would have been much better if there was only one or two of them there because they spent so much time competing with one another about what to do and how to do it. \u00a0Nietzsche one said that if you had to have virtue, have only one because as soon as you have two, they start to conflict. \u00a0Sometimes it is that way with heroes as well – but not always. \u00a0There are plenty of heroes that will lead but are also able to follow. \u00a0And not just follow but commit and execute with the same passion they would have if they were executing their own ideas.<\/p>\n Technical heroes can be both a blessing and a curse.\u00a0 An organization, needs to be super clear about what type of problem it has and whether it is one suited for a hero or an army and the have the courage to make the appropriate decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Technology heroes are always difficult subject. \u00a0As an engineering manager, I remember the first time I participated in a \u201clife boat\u201d drill where you have to produce a stack rank of your engineers.\u00a0 Someone explained the process saying, \u201cThe task … Continue reading