Makers vs. Managers (or understanding how others work)
I read an excellent note by Paul Graham yesterday about the differences in scheduling between “Makers” and “Managers.”
His basic premise is that engineers and others who create need large, uninterrupted sections of time to get their work done. They thrive on silence and isolation because it gives them what they need to create. While managers and business-y people work in hour chunks, on different projects with many meetings and many changing demands. Since these manager types don’t create, they don’t need long isolated stretches of time to accomplish their work. Their work is meetings, not is interrupted by meetings.
This is a fascinating realization for myself. Much like the first time I learned about my Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI – a lot of people think this stuff is bullocks, but I’m a big fan – its all about understanding how you interact with those around you). I was both shocked at how little I knew, as well as how obvious it all seemed. I love the simplification of such complex concepts so that even the most ADD of us can grasp them quickly!
I have a tendency to work my own way (as I do many things) and often want to apply my way of doing things onto others. I’m not trying to be dictatorial but believe my way to be the best and want to share that with everyone. Turns out everyone isn’t the same, isn’t quite as ADD as me, and often has figured out the best way to work for themselves.
All of this leads up to a simple realization I came to yesterday: Once again I will need Tristan when I start my next business. For a reason I can’t explain Tristan understands all of this schedule stuff innately. He has the ability to interact smoothly with makers (who I drive crazy) and managers (me). At Event Seek, he would arrive before anyone else, prepare the day’s material and get his engineers kick started when they arrived. He catered to their needs and understood their limitations, while at the same time keeping me on track, in meetings, and productive.
It seems everyday that I can learn more and more from those around me. Often I don’t even know what to look for. This is a perfect example of what I thought to be just Tristan’s style, his way of doing things. Turns out that not only was there a method to what I thought was madness, but he knew how to keep the talent happy – something I’ve never been good at! (Unless I’m the talent) Some of you may remember that I called it “Wrangling the Nerds.” It might be more appropriately categorized as “A sophisticated managerial dance with engineering talent in order to extract the optimal levels of happiness and productivity.”
I’ll continue to strive to learn more about how to work with engineers, salespeople, executives and others. If I learn anything really exciting or innovative or boring to you, but exciting to me – I’ll share it here.
In: Entrepreneurship, Management · Tagged with: Makers, Managers, Managing Engineers, Schedules
