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Moving forward
Oct. 19th, 2019 08:10 am I am a big fan of choices and I believe accepting the inevitable is a choice. A lot of time and nervous energy can be expended trying to fight things you can't fight, and you're the one that ends up in bits. So, choose to accept the Thing and make the best of it.
We had a meeting on Thursday with the team and the two new line managers, one of whom was particularly... aggressive isn't the right word. Forceful? But they are the kind of person who likes things written down in a plan (they LIVE for spreadsheets), and isn't happy unless they know exactly what's happening next. And I get the feeling there was a sense that the whole team was fairly useless at running projects, rather than just the team leader being completely useless at leading a team. I had another meeting with them yesterday morning to run through our existing processes and documentation, and that went much better. The same person challenged me - quite reasonably and without it sounding like a criticism of me, my job or how I perform it - on whether we actually follow the processes and/or use the documentation. I replied honestly, 'sort of'.
But my gamer colleague and I continue to plot. We both see an opportunity to get ahead of the curve and begin to make some changes, rather than waiting for them to be made to us. So, we're using DMAIC for the project they've been asked to run in the absence of a PM - which was going absolutely nowhere under the team leader. Now, to be absolutely fair to the team leader, this one is an absolute mare that the University has been trying to do something with for at least 10 years. Various people have looked at it, said, 'this is a mess, we need to sort it out', then realised just how much of a monster it is, and walked away again. Think Emerald Weapon when you first encounter it. But my gamer colleague seems to feel they've got Knights of the Round levelled up sufficiently to blast it into bits. I haven't shared that analogy with them - I shall have to remember it!
Anyway, the world continues. I am feeling better, but also applying for a civil service job. Not sure what my chances are, but I'll feel better just making the application.
We had a meeting on Thursday with the team and the two new line managers, one of whom was particularly... aggressive isn't the right word. Forceful? But they are the kind of person who likes things written down in a plan (they LIVE for spreadsheets), and isn't happy unless they know exactly what's happening next. And I get the feeling there was a sense that the whole team was fairly useless at running projects, rather than just the team leader being completely useless at leading a team. I had another meeting with them yesterday morning to run through our existing processes and documentation, and that went much better. The same person challenged me - quite reasonably and without it sounding like a criticism of me, my job or how I perform it - on whether we actually follow the processes and/or use the documentation. I replied honestly, 'sort of'.
But my gamer colleague and I continue to plot. We both see an opportunity to get ahead of the curve and begin to make some changes, rather than waiting for them to be made to us. So, we're using DMAIC for the project they've been asked to run in the absence of a PM - which was going absolutely nowhere under the team leader. Now, to be absolutely fair to the team leader, this one is an absolute mare that the University has been trying to do something with for at least 10 years. Various people have looked at it, said, 'this is a mess, we need to sort it out', then realised just how much of a monster it is, and walked away again. Think Emerald Weapon when you first encounter it. But my gamer colleague seems to feel they've got Knights of the Round levelled up sufficiently to blast it into bits. I haven't shared that analogy with them - I shall have to remember it!
Anyway, the world continues. I am feeling better, but also applying for a civil service job. Not sure what my chances are, but I'll feel better just making the application.
