The topic for is to tell folks about something which went wrong and what it took to fix it. Whilst I’m sure there are plenty of more experienced folks out there who’ll have some interesting articles to read, I thought I’d take it in a slightly different direction.
As much value as there is to learning from others, imagine if you knew enough that others could learn from you? Well, you probably do. My advice for folks out there is to share your knowledge and experiences with others. (That’s what we’re trying to do here actually isn’t it, hmm?)
Deal with the Baggage
I’m sure most of us have been there where someone isn’t in the office and that really big important thing breaks and they’re the only one who knows the precise order to flip the switches, run the scripts, and restart the hamsters. Yep, those mornings aren’t fun to walk in to – and it’s certainly no fun being that guy either.
This is where it started for me. Those regular processes, they’re great and all – but write them down. They’re monotonous and mundane, and you’ve got better things to do!
Don’t deliver black boxes to your team, they won’t thank you for it in the long run, and neither will you. When it’s written down in black and white and a few months later you come back to do it again, you might just look at it and think “hey that [really cool tech] stuff I learnt recently could really come in handy to replace this”, and you’re already two steps ahead putting that process to rest once and for all.
Start Adding the Value
So writing things down is great for shedding baggage from your day, but what about adding value and moving forwards? How about we start to share all those tricks that you’ve been working away at for so long and seeing how they might help someone else. Just imagine…
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What about that script you’ve been using to keep your backups tidy or some transaction data archived and pushed up to the cloud? Maybe your infrastructure guys could use some of that for tidying their file servers!
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How about that bit of C# you’ve pulled together to scrape some data from the web? Maybe your buyers would like a version so they can be alerted when a supplier pushes a new price file onto their site!
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Maybe that trick you found to optimise your ETL could be reused by your data team to get your reporting platform available earlier in the day!
Sharing can be very rewarding, both to yourself but also to those you share with. It’s a great way to build bridges between teams and improve engagement across an organisation.
Sometimes folks haven’t had the time to get stuck in and experiment like you may have, maybe they haven’t approached the challenges from the same direction as you, or it might just not be part of their day to day toolkit. Your perspective on a problem can be invaluable and showing you’re the person to not only design the solutions but you take the time to actually share and teach others can raise your value.
Keep Moving
All of this is really well and good, but the key to making it work is sharing with folks who are willing to learn. This isn’t a one sided conversation. You want to find that culture of learning where people can embrace collaboration, be open to suggestion and willing to put themselves out there too.
Some teams are ready for that. Some aren’t. Don’t try to force things.
You keep doing what you’re doing – learning, writing, sharing – whatever you need to do to make sure those bad days don’t show up at your door. Hiding all that knowledge and experience in your own toolbox is selfish. You might be surprised whose interested in what you’ve got to say.
Andy Brownsword 