I think, this could be a good Friday read: "When Change Outruns Us" is a tale about sustained progress.


The main point of this article is that smart companies do not push for "constant change for the sake of change", but rather adopt a more cyclic pace, when the periods of extensive work are followed by more relaxed times.

This article is particularly interesting to me, because I've just finished listening to the "Slow Productivity" book by Cal Newport. One of the principles, outlined in that book, is that one should work in their natural pace. However, a constant run is no one's natural pace. Another observation in that book, is that starting from the second half of the XX century, managers started to approximate work by "business", i.e. if you look busy, you do some work, even if in the reality, there are zero outcomes.

Many tech companies like to claim that they are "outcomes-oriented" or "value impact", but in my experience, "business" is still the approximation for work. Especially, once a company growth beyond the size, when everyone naturally knows everyone, as well as what they are doing.

#culture #mgmt