Endless Cycle of Enabling

Oh dear readers, I try to find happy subjects to write about, but alas, my mind needs to be cleared, and this is a good method for me to spew this out so I can move on.

For the last four to five weeks I have been performing an experiment at work, aside from my normal duties and assignments. Let me set the stage by saying that for a company to succeed in the satellite business it needs to be process driven, and the processes need to be established such that they work and can be trusted. For example, a process here is that when hardware arrives from wherever it needs to come from, it has to go through the inspection team before it is officially received and placed in stock to then be issued out for use. This, among other things, ensures we can trace the heritage of the hardware all the way back from piece parts to sub assemblies to full on systems.

So, on to my experiment. A variety of items I need for my project have been shipped from the suppliers and sub-contractors and are waiting for inspection per the above process. I decide to see if the process actually works and go completely hands off. I don't call the inspectors' boss, I don't go down and talk to them, etc. I let the process work. Or, to my dismay, not work. All of these items are still sitting and waiting. The paperwork is there, clean, and ready. The hardware is sitting within view of the inspectors and where they do all their inspections. But at least one item has been there for over five weeks now. The process is broken.....period. What it takes to get anything through this process is someone to go tell the inspectors that item 1, 17 and 23 are a priority and get them moved ahead of any others in the queue. But, then, engineer 2 has different priorities and says items 3, 26 and 49 are the priority. Then engineer 3 does the same. Hmmmmmm, no wonder my stuff can't get through.

The same goes for other items of work at this place. The managers of each project have daily standup meetings to assign daily priorities to each person. Yes, you read right, DAILY priorities, the essence of micromanaging in its worst form. So I am managing a project, and the way I manage is to set expectations (here is the schedule, here is what I need you to do, meet the deadline). But, since everyone is working on at least 2 different projects, and the other managers are giving them daily priorities, my stuff falls by the wayside. By micromanaging to this level, the expectations of each team member are lowered, and they are then enabled in an attitude of no one told me I had to do it so I won't. I'd rather see them striving to meet high expectations because they will be held accountable to them. But, alas, the culture of the company does not allow for it.

So, my experiment was a success in that it has laid open a giant flaw in the system, but it has also failed in that my project is behind schedule and I still don't have the hardware in hand. Go figure.