10 August 2024
"He's doing WHAT?" "Yup, you heard me, he scrapped all the code reviews, canceled the migration work, and has us all starting this new project that he thinks is 'super-pumped'." "But what did you say when he asked why we were doing the migration work?" "He never asked...." The Bomb manager, upon being given a team that has "a few problems", comes in and within a very short period of time (sometimes weeks, sometimes days) has an immediate plan of action which primarily consists of "blowing it all up" and either starting over, doing something entirely different, or putting the pieces back together themselves.
Context:
The Bomb manager, also sometimes called a Wrecking Ball manager, is warned (either officially or unofficially through the rumor mill) that their new team has low morale. So they come in looking for issues to fix. As is inevitable, right away, they find some. Wanting to look decisive and determined, they immediately institute changes to the team's processes and/or work schedule, disrupting the status quo and demanding adoption of the new decisions.
Sometimes this is because the Bomb has a reputation for determined and decisive leadership--it is not uncommon for a manager who has success leading a high-performance team to be given a new, lower-performing, team in the hopes that whatever "magic" they worked with the first team can be repeated with this one. They may even get to bring a member or two from their old team over to the new one, and it is a given that the new team does things differently than the old, both in terms of the processes (formal and informal) and culture within the team, as well as technology choices or work partitioning. The Bomb not only has a notion of what worked well (from the old team) but also finds that they have something of a reputation to protect--and the feeling of eyes on them as they take on the new team. Even if nothing of the sort is said out loud, there is a tacit pressure to "deliver results immediately".
Consequences:
Ironically, blowing things up isn't the problem--sometimes, things need to be blown up or some other kind of radical engagement is necessary. The larger problem is around the lack of input from the team and/or their partners/clients.
Team dynamics suffer. Not consulting the team for their input or even just their opinions. The Bomb's sweeping changes leave people frustrated, slighted for their lack of input (despite their first-hand experience with the problem), and unappreciated. Morale suffers, and the decisive steps now look like ignorant flailing.
The Bomb's credibility suffers. Brought in to the team to fix things, the Bomb's decisions now seem wholly naive and inappropriate, costing the manager the one thing they desperately need in any kind of fix-it situation: credibility. Without some kind of immediate rectification, the Bomb will likely need to be transferred back out of that role before long.
Mitigation:
If you work for the Bomb. Deep breaths. Deep, cleansing breaths. You're frustrated, you're upset, and most importantly, you've been ignored and that's causing all sorts of emotional angst. What's worse, you have right to be! But you can't help yourself (or anyone else) if you're yelling and screaming at people, so... deep breaths.
Assess the new situation. Is the Bomb's new plan actually making things worse? It's hard, sometimes, when someone comes in and changes things up, particularly if you were instrumental in getting them to their current state. But--objectively--are they worse? What evidence can you find? Don't let your frustrations at "different" keep you from evaluating the changes honestly. Look for dissenting opinions (those who think the Bomb's changes are good) to your own as a counterweight to your frustrations. It may very well be that the Bomb's made some serious mistakes, but you want to make sure of that before you go off screaming about them--nothing hurts your own credibility than being seen as an impediment to making "necessary" changes.
Is the Bomb aware of their missteps? If they're convinced everything they've done has had positive changes, there's not much you can do about the situation--the Bomb will be absolutel convinced that their actions were and are justified and clearly are having the intended effect. Even if there's collateral damage, they may take solace in the old adage about omelettes and broken eggs.
Check in with your skip. If you can, get some time with your skip and see if they're aware of the damage being done. Keep in mind that the Bomb is often given the role precisely because things were sub-optimal (in somebody's mind, at least) on the team, so it's entirely possible that your skip is fully on-board with what the Bomb is doing. If they're not aware of the side effects and damage, however, bringing that to their attention may give them perspective
If you are the Bomb. For starters, you need to learn a little philosophy, most notably the concept of Lord Chesteron's Fence:
There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."
The original "lore" behind the idea is that of a nobleman who rode out into a field to see a fence bisecting the field for no apparent reason. Annoyed that the fence marred the otherwise glorious beauty of an open field, he ordered the fence destroyed. The next day, he woke up to find his cattle had wandered through the now-fenceless field into his garden, destroying it utterly.
Those things that seem like they need blowing up? Sometimes they're that way for a reason. It turns out the migration would have resolved issues that have frustrated the team for years. Senior engineers on the team had instituted the approval process after multiple disastrous outages.
Once you've embraced that, you can begin to try to claw your way out of the deep pit you've carved for yourself. Rescuing you from yourself can be tricky and difficult, and (being blunt) sometimes not worth the effort. Accept that you may have blown it entirely, and there may be no coming back, but if you sense that the team is open to change, then you must:
Apologize, immediately and profusely. You need to go in front of the team and apologize for your hasty actions. This is a necessary first step to rebuilding your credibility with your team. This cannot be a "mistakes were made" sort of apology, either; you must stand up, look each of the team in the eye and say, "I was wrong. I thought I understood why these changes would work, but I clearly didn't know as much as I thought I did, and I should have asked all of you to help with my assessment before arriving at a conclusion and pronouncing solutions." You will also probably have to do a few of these with clients and partners to your team if your actions affected them, as well.
Engage the team in a re-assessment. Next, you needs to bring the team in to the assessment of the current state so as to gain not just their insight, but their emotional investment into rebuilding the team culture and improving morale. It may turn out that their fixes/solutions are much closer to your original plans than anyone had thought, but now that the whole team (and any prospective partners or clients) has had a chance to weigh in with perspective and input, they can all take equal pride.
Take little to no credit for the changes. Even if the kudos come months or years after the changes, you must always be sensitive to any action that might call peoples' memories back to your early missteps. Embrace humility if the changes turn out to be positive, pass all credit on to the team, and in particular point out one or two of the team that were substantively large contributors to the changes that came into being.
Ironically, if you can win back the team's trust, it can help forge a team's connections more solidly than had things gone well from the beginning, but you must be both sincere and engaging in their actions after the initial gaffe.
If the Bomb works for you. Deep breaths. Deep, cleansing breaths. Yes, you thought you had this situation handled by assigning the Bomb to fix it, and now it's (literally) blown up in your face.
Assess the situation. Now it's your turn to take stock of the situation. Can the Bomb be rescued? Is there any room within the team for a second go-round on working with them? Has all goodwill been lost? Keep in mind that the team will be reluctant to voice their honest opinions with their boss' boss if they feel like the psychological safety has been lost, so you may need to enlist the help of HR or anonymous channels to get an honest opinion. However awkward it will be for you to admit that you need that help, keep in mind that it's going to be twice as hard for the Bomb themselves to admit their failures, and call it justice for your not having kept a closer eye on what the Bomb was planning or doing.
Understand that this is, partly, your fault. The Bomb was trying to do what they were chartered to do--fix the team's issues--and that they simply whiffed on the way to do it. Own your own part in that, and make sure the team knows that you had a hand in this. Doing so will help create an opportunity for the team to forgive the Bomb, and possibly create a window for recovery. Privately, use this as an educational opportunity, and point out that the best thing to do in any "fix-it" situation is to assess the current state, and the best way to do that assessment is to do extensive interviews of the people who've been on the ground floor of the situation.
Soothe the fuffled feathers. In skip-level 1:1s with the team, offer them the chance to vent, but not too much, though--you're not a therapist, and you want them to get past the anguish and on to the recovery. Listen to their complaints, and again make sure to point out that the Bomb was doing as asked, but just pulled the trigger too quickly on their solutions. Then, if there were partners or clients that were affected by the Bomb's actions, go in front of them and proffer the same apologies.
Keep a closer eye on the new plans. The Bomb has lost credibility, and you'll need to loan some of yours to them in order to help them recover. That means you'll need to not only put your stamp of approval on their new plans, but also demonstrate to all the concerned parties that you're keeping a close eye (which means knowing the details so you can comment to them as proof that you're keeping a close eye) on them.
Lastly, don't become a Bomb yourself! Blowing up the team as a last resort can effectively fall into the same trap, so if necessary, enlist your boss's help in managing the situation if necessary.
Tags: management antipatterns