[petee]

I read a good book about management recently that pretty much defined the need for micromanagement as either lack of training, and/or lack of clear expectations and appropriate resolution when those expectations are broken.

The sum of it is an employee that knows the right way, and is given the freedom to do that will make the correct choices, if they fail occasionally that's ok. If they can't be trained, or refused to follow the expectations, then they need another job.

Micromanagement will just repress those employees further where they'll be too afraid to make their own decisions.

Humorously, the book is called "It's your Ship", by a navy captain who turned the worst ship in the navy into the top ship

[hinkley]

Making all of the decisions is just another variant on the "don't accept responsibility for things you have no control over". Your boss is taking the power to make the decision. Your boss is not taking responsibility for cleaning up the mess if that decision turns out to be just as stupid as all of the developers predicted.

[dcolkitt]

I mostly agree with you. But there are many many reasons why these constraints may still apply, at least in the short term. Ideally you want everyone to be competent enough at their role to need minimal management. But the reality is that often times you'll find yourself in a situation where that's not true. And it's pretty rare when you just have the freedom to bring everything to a halt to start from scratch.

[petee]

This is true, I didn't mean to suggest there weren't good exceptions. Although instead of starting from scratch sometimes reassigning crew will uncover unknown strengths and weaknesses.

Personal example of this, an old foreman I knew on a job, had a boss who didn't understand that people had strengths, so as an example he would routinely swap people into tasks that emphasized their weakness to prove it.

Additionally, this allowed people who didnt do X job because they didn't have the confidence or skill, to actually get a little extra experience as well

[amrox]

I think the book is called "Turn the Ship Around"

[milesvp]

I was only familiar with "Turn the Ship Around", so I just looked it up. Apparently there are 2 books on this topic from different captains.

"It's Your Ship", Captain D. Michael Abrashoff "Turn the Ship Around", (Captain) L. David Marquet

I'd actually be curious how much the advice overlaps.

[tome]

Side note: Turn the Ship Around is about a submarine and It's Your Ship is about a surface vessel.

[tpoacher]

Thank you for the book recommendation :)