Design and anti-design patterns at work
Sure fire ways to fail
Photo by Mikey Dabro
Design patterns and Anti-design patterns
A design pattern is a template for creating solutions in different situations. An anti-design pattern is a template that sets you up for failure. The interesting thing about anti-design patterns is that you intuitively know that something is wrong - just the way a well-designed product with beautiful workmanship feels just perfect.
I have a long list of anti-design patterns in the workplace and in life in general, but today I want to write about 3 of my favorites: RECYCLE, DFTBB (Don’t flip the bozo bit) and MJI (manager jumps in) patterns.
Let’s start off with examples.
For example — you bought an IKEA couch and you can’t wait to get home.
For example — you are in the middle of solving a thorny, noisy customer problem
An anti-design-pattern, when used, guarantees failure:
For example — not reading the carefully numbered IKEA instructions and not carefully grasping what each of the clever, cheap looking tools does.
For example — losing it with a customer.
The RECYCLE Design pattern
If you don’t recycle, you will reinvent the wheel. You will make the some mistakes some bozo (see #2) made 10 years ago. You will spend more time and money wandering around the wilderness of problem solving.
Someone probably already had this issue/product question in your system. What do you / should you do? RECYCLE prescribes what to do. If you want to be really anal about this — you can make it a checklist.
Search & Share
Support system
Talk to Colleagues
Grill the Customer
Search Inside yourself
Ask ChatGPT
The DFTBB - Don’t flip the bozo bit anti-design pattern
DFTBB is basically human nature. We tend to be negative about other people who are fools. Or at least look like fools to us. It’s like Twitter and LinkedIn. Twitter are the really smart people from the Valley and Linkedin are the folks who are trying to sell you something you don’t need - like LinkedIn network growth.
The Bozo bit has a long and interesting history.
In early versions of Apple's classic Mac OS, the "bozo bit" (also called the "no copy" flag in some documentation) was one of the flags in the Finder Information Record, which described various file attributes. When the bit was set, the file could not be copied. It was called the bozo bit because it was copy protection so weak that only a bozo would think of it, and only a bozo would be deterred by it.
In his 1995 book Dynamics of Software Development, which presented a series of rules about the political and interpersonal forces that drive software development, Jim McCarthy applied the bozo bit notion to the realm of human interaction.
The 3 key attributes of this anti-design pattern are
Believing everything the customer says (and reacting to the data).
Not being curious
Falling into the trap of believing appearances
Once the bozo bit is flipped it’s usually permanent. How not to flip the bozo-bit?
Separate the person from the problem. Every person has their own personal drama. It has nothing to do with you.
Disconnect and go up to 20,000' and look at the problem dispassionately
Do not be empathetic. A customer has a serious issue in his own drama context, not yours. It’s like a drowning person — he’ll drag you down if you are empathetic and then sue you for drowning him.
Be curious - ask questions.
Look past appearances and how people talk. It’s all too easy to react to a very attractive person who is also very aggressive.
The MJI — Manager jumps in anti-design-pattern
MJI is more common than you would think. It can happen in any engineering, or customer support organization. It’s bad for 5 different reasons:
It breaks the connection between the support rep/engineer and the customer/problem. The employee then feels that he/she can step back and let their manager take control.
The customer/problem suffers while the connection is disconnected. In other words — while the circuit is off, the problem is not really being solved.
MJI conveys a lack of faith in the employee. This is bad for the employee. Good people will leave after a few disconnects like that. Lack of faith is quickly conveyed to the customer/team. Discontent spreads fast.
Customers will easily get used to talking directly to the manager. This is bad for the manager. Instead of using the problem as a training opportunity, the manager will soon find herself inundated in customer support calls.
Customers then identify with a manager instead with the company and the team. This is for my money — the biggest problem of all.
Solutions for MJI for the manager
Step back. Go up to 20,000' and disconnect yourself from the problem and the employee and the customers’s personal dramas.
Clarify expectations to the employee.
Explain why you and the team need the employee to step up to plate; fearlessly.
Suggest how to solve the problem. Turn the problem into a constructive training session.
If you’re jumping in because the employee is under-performing, then invest in training, explain the mission, give them the tools and step back. Most times, the team member will develop and move to the next level. If not — then you will have no choice but to replace the team member.
Suggestions for MJI for the employee — manage up the chain
Most employees think that their boss-employee relationship is a given.
However, you’re on the front line. You know that. Maybe your boss doesn’t understand that.
The solution is to manage up the chain of command.
Tell your boss what you need
Why you need it
How it will help you solve the customer/engineering problem
Clarify your expectations to your boss.
Do it respectfully.
I plan to write a book on anti-design patterns in tech and in life. If you would like to join me in making the world a better and happier place - hit me up and join the creative writing team.