Crafting Chaos: A Maker’s Guide to the Dark Arts of Management
In the corporate coliseum, the journey from individual contributor to managerial maestro is akin to an odyssey through uncharted territories. Initially, armed with just your skills, you tackle tasks with the precision of a skilled fighter. Each task is a battle, each victory quietly celebrated.
As the years whisk by, like scenes from a gritty noir film, the role morphs, demanding more flesh and blood in the game. The playbook expands: now you’re not just playing; you’re plotting the play, deciding who does what and by when. The game deepens, layers unfolding, as you maneuver through the maze of securing buy-ins for grand projects and dancing the delicate tango of stakeholder management.
Enter the dichotomy of the corporate jungle: Managers and Makers.
Managers, the seasoned strategists of the workspace, orchestrate the grand symphony of projects. They’re the watchful eyes, the masterminds handling bottlenecks and resources with the finesse of a chess grandmaster. Their domain is the development of their troops, ensuring each piece moves in harmony toward organizational conquest.
Makers, on the other hand, are the artisans of the industry. Designers, developers, architects — their canvas is the minutiae: algorithms, design philosophies, and the raw code of creation. Their battles are fought in the trenches of innovation, their victories marked by the precision of their craft.
As a maker ascends the ranks, the lines blur. The toolkit expands beyond the technical; the hat of a manager is donned, sometimes awkwardly, as leadership beckons. Managing direct reports becomes part of the narrative, a subplot in the grand story of a career.
This evolution, this gradual shift from wielding tools to leading troops, is the dance of the modern engineer in the corporate ballet — a dance that requires both the grace of a maker and the grit of a manager.
This piece is a love letter to you, the makers — the wizards behind the curtain. You who thrive in the depths, where the minutiae isn’t just detail, but the very fabric of creation. You’re the ones who might today be navigating the murky waters of management, explaining the vital need of a feature to stakeholders, and tomorrow, deep-diving into the belly of your data ingestion pipelines to make them more robust, faster, better.
Let’s peel back the layers of these roles a bit.
Manager: Think of this role as the captain of a ship, navigating through fog and iceberg-laden waters. They don’t dive into the cold depths themselves; they clear the way so others can. They manage a crew of direct reports, each perhaps an expert in their own right, working on a tapestry of projects. Managers work in quick bursts — rapid, focused meetings that each contribute to the larger goal of project management. Their days unfold as a series of sprints from one challenge to the next, always keeping the big picture in view to avoid getting lost in the details.
Maker: Here’s where you live, in the realm of deep thought and deeper focus. You accept challenges that aren’t just tasks but quests. Your workday is more a marathon than a sprint, with hours that stretch into one another, allowing you to slip into that coveted flow state where time bends and problems yield to your will. You aren’t just working; you’re immersed in a craft that demands reading, research, and architectural acumen. It’s not for the faint of heart, but then again, nothing worth doing ever is.
For those of you straddling these worlds, your challenge is unique. You must navigate the choppy waters of management while keeping your anchor in the realm of making. It’s a delicate balance, walking this tightrope between leadership and craftsmanship. But who better than you, with your dual arsenal of skills, to dance this highwire act? Remember, it’s not just about managing or making — it’s about mastering both, blending the strategic with the technical, the broad vision with the deep dive. This is your arena. Own it.
Here is how it should be, a testament to what an ideal day should look like for both a manager and a maker. Blocks of time perfectly partitioned, each designated for its own purpose — deep work here, a meeting there, all arranged in harmonious balance.
But then, reality strikes. A meeting ambushes one of your sacred work blocks, like a rogue wave crashing onto the shore. This isn’t just a hiccup; it’s a full-blown disruption, halting momentum and fragmenting focus. Suddenly, the day’s color-coded promise is marred by swathes of red — each one signaling time lost, not to laziness but to the abrupt cessation of flow.
This scenario replays week after week. Days blur into a montage of interruptions, leaving you to wonder at week’s end, “What have I actually accomplished? Did I move any mountains, or just sift through pebbles?”
Here lies the crux of our tale
Not to banish these disruptive meetings from the realm but to strategically manage their occurrence. The solution? Embrace the art of “time boxing”. Set up focus blockers in your calendar — these are your shields against the chaos, your personal sentinels. They guard your precious hours of deep work, allowing you to declare, “Yo, I’m going deep. Talk to me tomorrow.”
An alternate implementation of this, allocate specific days to wear your managerial hat, where interfacing with stakeholders takes precedence. Other days, don the maker’s cap, diving into the depths of your craft, undisturbed. This deliberate partitioning of roles — manager some days, maker on others — ensures a balance that caters to both aspects of your professional identity.
For those scaling the corporate ladder or the technical founders juggling development with sales pitches, this duality becomes even more pronounced. Recognizing and planning for these dual personas is crucial. By judiciously time boxing, you not only protect your productivity but also enhance your capacity to perform both roles effectively, ensuring that each week is a testament to both your managerial acumen and your maker’s craft.
Now comes the million-dollar question: does it work?
The resounding answer, etched in the wear and tear of experience and experimentation, is a robust “yes, yes it does.” This isn’t just theory; it’s practice, a real-world magic trick that’s been pulled off successfully.
Imagine setting aside entire days — sacred and untouched — dedicated solely to the pursuit of deep work. These are the days when the world fades away, and the only thing that exists is the task at hand. The deep dive days. On these days, the noise of endless meetings and the cacophony of corporate demands are but a distant murmur.
Then, there are the other days, packed with meetings, where the calendar looks more like a Tetris game in its final, frenetic moments. These are the days for managing, for talking, for deciding. The balance here is key: by compressing the interruptions into these designated times, the rest of the week remains pristine, dedicated to the kind of work that demands not just attention, but immersion.
This approach isn’t just a makeshift raft but a well-crafted ship, navigating through the stormy seas of work demands with grace and efficiency. It proves that with the right strategy, one can harness the chaos, channeling it into a rhythm that not only sustains productivity but enhances it, allowing both the manager and the maker within to not just survive, but thrive.
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Keep going on and you will be hailed…
