Full text of email below
A couple of quick notes first:
As for the highlighted line below:
You’ve been great in listening what I have to say, even when we’ve disagreed.
First off, that’s a soothing setup for the next line:
But you also set conditions on it—in that such conversations should only be done by phone.
Secondly, outside of this ridiculous drama — Mike and I got along great. So what would happen is that we would end up talking about other things almost instantly in the ways we bonded, and next thing ya know — we never addressed those problems.
I share some blame on that, because once you start having a good conversation — you don’t want to ruin it by bringing up the conflict. And we had a fantastic conversation on July 4th — but we skipped right over what was at issue. Naturally, the thought was that we’d get back to it later — but we never did.
My thinking was that maybe enough had been said anyway — so maybe we didn’t need to get back into it. That was a mistake (on my part as well).
All I’m saying is that if you take that one line in isolation — you’re not only wrong, but that’s Mike’s way of doings things.
I can’t recall the last time I’ve been so happy and at peace—maybe never.
What does it tell you that I felt the need to coat my criticism with my happiness?
As for “peace” — that’s more about some big changes I made last year, which you can read about in You Got Gold if you’re interested.
It wasn’t until talk of the Turnover transfer came up that I gave much thought to your approach to responsibilities across the spectrum of a project. I’m fine with your decision to transfer the project in general, so this question has nothing to do with me wanting to hold onto some aspects of it. But it raises the question that I’ve had in the back of my mind all along: I don’t completely understand the rationale behind your philosophy on this.
I didn’t give much thought to it [before] because I wanted to get experience in Tableau, so my interest got in the way of how I would normally think about this. It’s great for us all to get exposure in the multiple areas we work in—but [our Tableau experts] are specialized in their skills for the same reason I am in mine or anyone else. By not utilizing that expertise in full, you lose a level of quality, consistency, and timeliness in development (on their end as well as the back-end). Moreover, you lose the invaluable interaction that goes hand-in-hand with development between colleagues working on the same project. If done right, that’s where the cross-training comes into play best. Granted, following along and trying things out in Tableau is not the same as having the entire responsibility for a dashboard. I’m thrilled that I’ve had that opportunity (including the struggles I’ve had with it). That’s great stuff, but at what cost?
With reasonable certainty, I can say that Turnover would have been done weeks ago had project responsibilities been split between areas of expertise. I hate to think about losing the experience I gained in Tableau during that time, but I’m far more concerned with delivering for our business partners. I enjoy thinking about things like this and always have. You’ve been great in listening what I have to say, even when we’ve disagreed. But you also set conditions on it—in that such conversations should only be done by phone. Some things need to be absorbed before immediately responding to them, and you can’t do that by phone. On that note, I have some thoughts to share about our JIRA/DevOps discussion—and I’d like the opportunity to craft my concerns by email first, and then talk it over if need be.
I can’t recall the last time I’ve been so happy and at peace—maybe never. And yet I’m still doing what I’ve always done—looking at situations and processes and thinking, “How could we do this better?” I didn’t ask to have Turnover entirely transferred, and I think it’s a mistake to do it. Outside of Workday, there wasn’t a constraint with the back-end component—but due to knowledge transfer needed, now there is one. I needed some bandwidth, and freeing me up from Tableau was the clear constraint to solve the problem. But rather than look at the situation purely on the merits of need, you made a decision based on your approach to project responsibilities. Even if you want to maintain that approach, was it the right call in this situation?
I’m gonna be happy regardless of what philosophy we follow—but I’ll be happier if I feel the freedom to say what I think (by phone or by email). If you received this and immediately picked up the phone—in your mind, you’re thinking that you’re promptly addressing my concerns. In my mind, you didn’t take the time to digest what I wrote.
Enjoy your holiday weekend!
One Voice Became Two 