Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Management actions and lingo are nice. They are not, however, as effective as simple friendship.

In a recent job, we had a traditional organization arrangement where the engineers built systems and the operators used the systems. Managers divided this arrangement into smaller parts or “branches” of six to ten people by the type of system the engineers built and the operators used. In an effort to ensure that the engineers built systems that the operators would actually use, the managers arranged the office space to reflect the organizational structure.

Are you still with me through all this management arranging? Please bear with me a little longer.

I worked for the engineer manager Ed. The operator manager was Oliver. During all the office moving and such confusion, I grabbed a circular table and half a dozen forgotten chairs and set them in an open space outside of Ed’s and Oliver’s offices. Everyday some of us ate lunch at this table. Imagine, engineers and operators eating lunch together daily. During lunch, Ed and Oliver became friends. They were of similar age, family situation, and life experiences.

Senior managers walked through one day, and not having anything else to do, noted that the open space with a circular table and half-a-dozen forgotten chairs could hold a set of cubicles. Despite my protests and admonitions to the contrary, the senior managers replaced our gathering place with impersonal cubicles.

Yes, these were the same managers who wanted the engineers and operators to work closely together. These same managers removed the one item (which cost nothing) that brought these two groups together. But that is not the point of this story.

With the open space gone, lunch moved into either Ed’s or Oliver’s office. The camaraderie among the engineers and operators continued; the friendship between Ed and Oliver grew. Ed, Oliver, and several engineers and operators even began to play games together at night on the Internet. They all bought compatible game consoles and played some WW II game or other. They would play together three and four hours a night five and six nights a week.

In the midst of all these lunches, games, and friendship something predictable happened:

Oliver’s operators were using the systems built by Ed’s engineers.

Ed’s engineers were building the systems that Oliver’s operators wanted.

The mission was succeeding. The “new” organizational scheme of seating engineers and operators near one another was a management triumph. Such needed to be replicated to other parts of the greater organization.

Senior managers moved Ed to a second building and Oliver to a third building. Surely, that would spread the good work. Ed and Oliver remained friends. The people left behind in the first building didn’t work together as well any more.

I suppose now is about the time to bring a moral to this all-too-true story:

Friends do things that help one another, so the mission is likely to be successful.

All that management stuff is nice, but is not nearly as effective as letting friends work together.

I wish that I could bring this story to a happy ending. Alas, wishes and happy endings are left to fairy tales, not true-life office and management dramas.