Working on large projects has a way of grinding down the best professionals. The list of things to do is endless. Deadline pressures mount, and technical challenges can take the most realistic timeline and transform it into a tar pit of despair. I experience these emotions just as much as the next person. Taking some time for myself this weekend, I stumbled on a metaphor that will help me manage the stress and strain which will build up over the next four weeks as I prepare to get ready for a new release.
Anyone who leads a team needs to learn how to tell stories. The ability to tell stories helps you put situations into context, inspire others, and make the bad times less terrible. Good leaders know how to read the team and what stories to tell to help them get to the next point. Over the years, I have collected some of the better stories from literature and philosophy to help make sense of the chaos that swirls around me as a technology professional.
After a relaxing weekend with my partner, I watched her grown children participate in the Brookfield Zoo 5K race. It is a casual affair where you will see parents pushing strollers around the race route next to runners looking to earn prize money. At the start of the race, cheering people on, we spread out over the course to clap and provide support to our family members. The runners appreciated the support from family and friends to a person. The runners went a little faster and kept pushing, thanks to the encouragement of others. As a leader, you need to be on the sidelines, helping push people to keep running and provide the support they need when tired or running out of energy.
In many respects, a significant software project is like a long-distance race. The difference is with a technology project, the endpoint is unclear, and the racecourse changes difficulty as the race progresses. It is frustrating and can undermine the confidence of anyone. After the race, the family and I decided to enjoy a leisurely tour of the zoo via tram. Our driver mentioned that many species of animals and insects migrate as part of their natural behavior. The monarch butterfly is one of those species. A common misperception is that a butterfly will travel across the United States to Mexico in the space of a year. The tour guide mentioned that it takes four generations of butterflies to make the trip to the breeding grounds in Mexico. The butterfly in Minnesota will never experience the warm sun of Mexico. It is up to the butterflies' descendants to make the trip.
Throughout four generations of butterflies living, breading, and flying, they make the trip across the continent one flap at a time. It struck me this is the perfect metaphor for a large enterprise software project. Often, people come and go on the project doing necessary work and then moving on to other things. What keeps everything moving forward is the instinctual desire to finish the project and the muscular memory of the organization. A good coach or scrum master should support this process and make sure that work gets done. An agile leader should also point out that it will take numerous people to work together over long periods to get the job done. It is like standing by the side of the road and cheering on people you want to succeed.
Until next time.
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