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Read http://www.ribbonfarm.com/, http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/, and anything else you get your hands on about strategy. Seriously, the things that are holding you back are corporate, office and national politics. These aren't insurmountable obstacles, just impressions of them. It's a bank for goodness sake, it's not meant to be interesting. Suits and a sterile office are not the problem. They are the symptom; and more than that, they are the signal and the filter for the type of people that work there (so I can see you having just as much problem getting your comrades-in-arms to agree to "collaboration, idea generation and non-corporatism" as your managers.) (I've written this assuming you're not a manager. If you are, great, it'll be easier to do either of these options and you can probably shave a couple of years of the timeline!) The best advice I can think of (other than give up, obviously) is to first prove technical competence, in the form a high-level executive understands (I saved us X million dollars on Y different occasions) and then get them to support you in setting up a team (which you will lead and will almost certainly need to recruit from outside to fill — quick, who's the first person you phone?) that will do the projects you want to do (quick, what can you do that might add a billion the bank's bottom line?) and provide the political cover to do what you want. It'll take 5-10 years, it's risky and it requires political skill. An alternative tactic would be to think of the best technical practice that your office doesn't use that you could introduce via your co-workers, without threatening your manager, and start trying to do that. It's low key but if its an effective practice you could see payoffs quicker than the above plan. It won't get rid of the suits on its own though. Anyway, good luck! I just really hope you weren't thinking of standing up and saying "I wish we had more foosball, fewer suits and daily pushes to our online banking app (which we are gonna rewrite in Ruby)." (edit to add: The "How to Manage Geeks" current on the front page is also quite good, but doesn't really help you. http://www.wikihow.com/Manage-Geeks. I also recommend: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/management http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/08/managing_older_managers_a_gu... http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/cat_management.html) |
Wouldn't this imply that their current process works since it allows saving huge amounts already?