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9 Lessons From Programmers Who Anticipate Learning
Round One
The Sassy Vagrants were frantic. Their four-foot tall house of cards was falling over. They refactored, reinforced and reworked the tower, but still it sagged and swayed. They cheered each other on, working faster and faster… until time ran out.
They had met all the engineering requirements except one: their tower must reach four feet high and stand without support. That was the most important one.
Taking their hands off the tower, they watched it slowly topple to the floor. The look on their face said it all: “We failed.”
Meanwhile, the Cutting Edge was confident, even… cocky. They’d met their four foot mark with apparent ease, and were now adorning it with enhancements. Their tower started life as a square that rose from the floor, but now was, in their words, using an architecture from “a Japanese apartment building.”
When the time ran out, their tower stood tall, and they all cheered. Everyone cheered with them, basking in their victory.
Round Two
In this round the Vagrants decided for a more traditional approach to architecture, so they spent time looking at other teams designs. This was perfectly acceptable, but did cost them some time.
Interestingly enough, the Vagrants were the only team who would take time to observe other designs before beginning their tower.
After their design review, they did a bit of sketching and planning, then got to work.
The Cutting Edge decided to revise their architecture a bit, but not dramatically, believing it would reach the new goal height of eight feet.
As they built, their team was quiet. No one spoke. Each person had a job to do, and now it was time to get it done.
That is, until the tower was six feet tall, when a loud “Oh, crud!” was heard.
Their design had reached it’s natural limits, and was swaying dangerously. It was suggested that Felipe, the youngest team member, should hold onto the structure while the rest of the team continued to build upwards.
Their plan was to extend the tower all the way to the ceiling where they believed “they would create downward pressure on the towner, squeezing it between the ceiling and floor, and allowing it to stand without Felipe’s aid.”
To accomplish this the Cutting Edge would have to far exceed the eight-foot requirement, as the room’s ceilings were ten feet high. Later they would note that “failure wasn’t seriously considered, because they knew they were good at this.”
The Vagrants chattered as they worked, building, throwing out ideas, revising designs, planning, gathering materials and laughing. While the Cutting Edge had been mostly silent during Round Two, the Vagrants were engaged in continual discussion, encouragement and idea generation.
As the Vagrants tower rose, one team member would stand on a chair to place pieces, while others would encircle the tower, looking for problems. “Wait, it’s swaying.” “Yes, that looks good here.” “No, hold on, bend that piece a bit more” were heard by the team.
The Vagrants recognized that the person placing the pieces had the worst view of the tower, even though they were the only person “doing actual work.” This created a new informal, yet vital, role on the team: spotter. If you weren’t placing pieces, you were actively engaged as a spotter, giving feedback to the team.
The Cutting Edge reached the ceiling, and let out a *WHOOP!* Now all that was left was stuffing enough pieces between the ceiling and tower to create a downward pressure. Felipe switched arms rapidly as fatigue set in, as a team member mounted a ladder and continued to build. Silently everyone looked on, until the team member announced, “Okay, Felipe, it’s safe to let go.”
“Are you sure?” Felipe asked. “Yes,” the person on the ladder said, “it seems good from up here.”
Felipe stepped away, rubbing his sore shoulders.
With impossible slowness, the tower leaned, then quivered, as the bottom pieces strained to hold the downward pressure. The Cutting Edge watched in silence as the tower slowly toppled under it’s own weight.
The Vagrants reached their goal of eight feet with time to spare, and decided to stop. They put a flag on top to celebrate their achievement, and spent the last ten minutes enjoying their coffee and snack, admiring their handiwork.
Our lessons
The above story is true, and generated many lessons for the team members and we, the learning leaders.
Some of the learnings we experienced were:1. How success can fool you into believing you can’t fail, encouraging you to take risks.2. How failure can encourage you to become more conservative and take the time to design.3. How success gives you the impression “We know what we’re doing”, which can limit the conversation and ideas brought out during the build phase.4. How past success may encourage you to take unreasonable risks.5. How past failures can cause a team to be satisfied with accomplishing the goal, and then stopping to rest.6. The value of a “spotter” role, and the importance of that role to success.7. The way individuals embraced the spotter role once they understood it’s value, despite the fact it wasn’t building anything.8. That the person doing the building might have the worst view of the overall project.9. Teams that feel they know what they are doing don’t talk much.
Each of us left with many lessons that day, from simple simulations where we trained our eyes and ears to eagerly anticipate learning.
Now its your turn
It’s a fundamental part of the tech leader’s job to create a place that’s safe to learn, try and grow. This is done in public, and in private in your one-on-one meetings. (Want better 1:1 meetings? Grab this free guide.)
Does your team eagerly look for opportunities to learn?Do you help them become comfortable with failure and learning?If not, how could you?
9 lessons from programmers who anticipate learning was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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