Weinberg - Becoming a Technical Leader The Psychology of Technology, no. 5

Becoming a TechnicalLeader:

An Organic Problem-SolvingApproach

by

Gerald M.Weinberg

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Gerald M. Weinberg onSmashwords

Becoming a Technical Leader:

An Organic Problem-SolvingApproach

Copyright 2010 by GeraldM. Weinberg

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Table of Contents

Preface

Foreword

PART_1_DEFINITION

Chapter_1_What Is Leadership, Anyway?

Chapter_2_Models of Leadership Style

Chapter_3_A Problem-Solving Style

Chapter_4_How Leaders Develop

Chapter_5_But I Can't Because

PART_TWO_INNOVATION

Chapter_6_The Three Great Obstacles toInnovation

Chapter_7._A Tool for Developing Self-Awareness

Chapter_8_Developing Idea Power

Chapter_9_The Vision

PART_THREE_MOTIVATION

Chapter_10_The First Great Obstacle to MotivatingOthers

Chapter_11_The Second Great Obstacle to MotivatingOthers

Chapter_12_The Problem of Helping Others

Chapter_13_Learning to Be a Motivator

Chapter_14_Where Power Comes From

Chapter_15_Power, Imperfection, and Congruence

PART_FOUR_ORGANIZATION

Chapter_16_Gaining Organizational Power

Chapter_17_Effective Organization of Problem-SolvingTeams

Chapter_18_Obstacles to Effective Organizing

Chapter_19_Learning to Be an Organizer

PART_FIVE_TRANSFORMATION

Chapter_20_How You Will Be Graded as a Leader

Chapter_21_Passing Your Own Leadership Tests

Chapter_22_A Personal Plan for Change

Chapter_23_Finding Time to Change

Chapter_24_Finding Support for Change

Epilogue

Bibliography

Preface

When Banzan was walking through a market heoverheard a conversation between a butcher and his customer. "Giveme the best piece of meat you have," said the customer.

"Everything in my shop is the best," replied thebutcher. "You cannot nd here any piece of meat that is not thebest."

At these words Banzan became enlightened.

Paul Reps, "Everything Is Best"from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones

This is a book about enlightenment, bothmine and yours. Mine is still incomplete, but so far has takenrather longer than a walk through the market. This book, forinstance, has been at least fifteen years in the making.

It started around 1970, when Don Gause, DaniWeinberg (my wife), and I spent a summer in Switzerland. Don and Iwere writing a book on problem solving (Are Your Lights On? orHow to Figure Out What the Problem Really Is), and Dani wascontinuing her anthropological research on Swiss peasantcommunities. Over the years, Don and I had been studying successfuland unsuccessful problem-solving efforts, particularly computingprojects. Dani had been studying the ways in which new technologyhad been introduced into peasant communities.

Comparing rotes, we dreamed of a workshopthat would have the maximum possible leverage on the successfulintroduction of new technical system When we compared successfuland unsuccessful systems, we - quickly realized that almost all ofthe successes hinged on the performance of a small number ofoutstanding technical workers. Some of them were consistent sourcesof innovative technical ideas, some were interpreters of otherpeople's ideas. Some were inventors, some were negotiators, somewere teachers, some were team leaders. What distin- guished themfrom their less successful colleagues was a rare combination oftechnical expertise and leadership skills. Today, we would say thatthey were high in innovation, but with sufficient motivational andorganizational skills to use in making ideas effective.

These leaders were not the pure techniciansproduced by the engineering and science schools, nor were they theconventional leaders trained in the schools of management. Theywere a different breed, a hybrid. What they shared was a concernfor the quality of ideas. Like the butcher, they wanted everythingin their shop to be the best. We called them technical leaders.

Don, Dani, and I designed a new leadershipworkshop, called "Technical Leadership in Computer Programming,"which was first given in Australia at the invitation of DennisDavie. Fourteen out of fifteen participants rated it "the mostprofound educational experience I've ever had." The other one saidit was merely "one of the most profound educational experiencesI've ever had." We realized we had found our leverage.

In the years that followed, Daniel Freedmanand a few others joined our team, and the workshop was given tohundreds of would-be technical leaders all over the world. A fewelectrical and mechanical engineers slipped in, as did sometrainers. Except for some technical material, these newcomers foundeverything directly applicable to their work. As a result, wegradually dropped technical material and broadened our audience. Wealso broadened our vision of what was possible. For one thing, wediscovered that this technical leadership style was applicable tomany problems that have nothing to do with technology. We beganhear stories from workshop graduates who had applied it tosituations other than those arising from their technical work.

These people had transformed themselves fromordinary technical supervisors into problem-solving leaders withthe power to make things happen. Many of them didn't understandtheir own transformation. It seemed as if one day they weresupervisors and the next they were leaders, like Banzan in themarketplace. But if leadership were only attained through, asudden, mystical enlightenment, how could one learn to become atechnical leader?

Over the years, the biggest lesson we havelearned from our workshops is that becoming a leader is notsomething that happens to you, but something that you do. Often ina workshop, someone seems to attain a sudden enlightenment, but wehave no more to do with that than the butcher had to do with themoment that completed Banzan's lifelong conversion. Our workshopsdo not teach people to become leaders; they merely give a boost toeach person's unique experiential process of self-development. Thisbook takes the same approach: Consider it as your personalleadership workshop.

From working with systems, I have learnedthat the process of change is always organic: It's never possibleto change just one thing at a time. Each of my behaviors is thesolution to some problem from my past. To learn, I add newbehaviors to serve alongside these valuable old ones. Yet, like aseed, I already have all the behaviors needed to grow, so I merelyneed to cultivate them selectively. I believe that leadershipinvolves a nurturing process, not taking charge of people's lives,so this book is a guide to the process of taking charge of your owndevelopment. Its methods, like the methods of our workshops, areorganic, designed to t with the unique system that is you in a waythat is gentle, realistic, and fun.