[geeks] Re: Re: being reasonable...[was ...screwed for 4 more years...]

[velociraptor]

On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 16:27:55 -0600, Matthew Braun <geeks at leydenjar.com> wrote:
> I was just thinking that's kind of our Achille's Heel; we can be calm
> and reasonable about most things that other people go berzerker about.
> But if the issue of commodity software/hardware comes up, the gloves
> come off!

Just like the IT geeks who can't keep a "normal" project going in the
right direction all come together when the feces hit the fan and solve
the most arcane problems in short order.

As an example: During a team offsite which I arranged at the behest of
my manager, the team managed to lose one of the two boards during the
"crossing the lava" exercise.  Prior to this, the two control freaks
in the group (the manager and a fellow with "dominant"
tendencies--this was in SF/Silicon Valley area and the guy *was* in
that fringe group) managed to get themselves "burned up" in the lava
flow.

So, without a leader, per se, and with the loss of 1 of the three
supposedly "key" components to the solution, the team managed to get
everyone left across the lava.

The facilitator told me afterwards that he was completely amazed that
the team had finished the crossing, as it had never happened before
that a team had even *attempted* to finish after losing one of the
boards.  After chatting about some of the "hard problems" the group
had been involved in solving over the last year or so, I explained to
him that, in my mind, the key issue facing IT teams was not their
performance under pressure, but, rather, their ability to function in
"normal" business environments.

His thoughtful look and my reflection on the rest of the days'
exercises suggested to me that I had a definite dissertation topic if
I were ever to take up organization psychology.

Geeks are motivated by intellectual challenges, and when faced with an
"interesting problem" will set aside their issues with just about
everyone on just about any topic, and set to the hard work of finding
a solution.  I think that's why a lot of us stick with jobs that we
find absolutely frustrating for so long--in spite of the frustration,
their are interesting problems to solve, and that has more weight with
us.  Even if the stress of the rest of the job is grinding us into
hamburger.

=Nadine=