What Should I Do Tomorrow?

Tomorrow, start noticing the strengths, weaknesses, and oddities of the people around you. Notice

• How some fit their jobs well and some don't

• How some people are good at being consistent and others aren't

• The presence of both list-makers and those who dislike lists

• Some people taking unnecessary risks, and more people being conservative

• What your boss says the next time you offer a suggestion for improvement

About the time you start to wonder how on earth anything gets done in your company with such a mixture of fit and misfit, notice

• The teamwork in place

• The citizenship displayed by people

• The initiatives being taken spontaneously (what process could you possibly put in place that would eliminate the need for such initiative-taking?)

Improve your environment:

• Collect a few work samples: an example of some good code, a well-written class comment, use case, project plan, meeting minutes, design memo, or user interface.

• Enlist a few others to do this, and put the small collection of work samples online for everyone to copy from.

• Reduce interruptions. Create a small period each day, just two hours long, in which you don't take interruptions. See if a larger group in your office will do the same.

• Reduce the need for mechanisms that rely on people's weaknesses.

• Increase the use of mechanisms that draw on people's strengths, and let them use their talents.