Episode Transcript
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[Music]
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Everything can be improved, iterated and refined.
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And if you don't think that's true, well, maybe you haven't analysed it enough.
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Calculated choices carefully considered.
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Absolutely analytical.
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This episode is brought to you by Clubhouse, the first project management platform for software development
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that brings everyone and every team together to build better products.
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Visit this URL, clubhouse, or one word dot io slash 10 the word for more information.
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We'll be talking about them more during the show. Analytical's part of the Engineered Network. To
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support our shows, including this one, head over to our Patreon page and for other great shows,
0:40
visit engineered.network today. Influence. And no, I'm not talking about social media influence.
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No, no, no, no, no, no. With reference to a normal job, there's this idea of influencing
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without authority. Now, I spoke about authority in terms of management in Episode 8 and inspiration
0:59
in Episode 11. Me personally, well, I've been on a roller coaster of positions in my
1:06
organizations in my career, working at most levels of an organization, so fluctuating
1:12
between team lead roles and management roles in recent years. And having sat in both areas,
1:17
It's made me question the nature of influence.
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Are you really a leader or are your team just following you because you're their boss on
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the organizational chart? See, for me, ultimately, why I turn up to work is about fixing things.
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I need to feel empowered to fix things that are broken.
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You know, they could be physical things, software, organizational structure, sometimes even,
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or even individuals through mentoring, career development, you know, anything like that.
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That's probably a good topic for another episode. But in the end, there's always got to be a balance between my sphere of influence and
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my sphere of control, at least in the context for this discussion about fixing broken things.
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Sphere of control by authority is straightforward because people report to you, hire, fire,
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remunerate, goal set, all of that stuff.
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But sphere of influence, well, that's a fair bit harder.
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I think it ultimately comes down to the sum total amount of effort expended to achieve
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the desired result.
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So as a manager, authority means that, well, generally speaking, your people are motivated
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to implement your work direction that you set out either A, out of concerns for a pay
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adjustment, either positive or negative or neutral, or B, for concerns about continued
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employment. I mean, it's brutal but it's generally the case.
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People tend to be motivated by those things generally speaking, not always mind you but
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generally. So, if you are a manager, it's relatively easy in that situation because it's low friction
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and low effort to set a direction and enforce that your people follow it.
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So I personally don't like to work that way.
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I much prefer to explain the rationale behind things and get a consensus from the team and
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agree the best path forward wherever that's appropriate which is you know hopefully most
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of the time. I like the idea that if I personally, if I can't genuinely sell it to myself whatever
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is I'm trying to sell, if I can't sell to myself first then how can I sell it to anyone
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else? I mean I have to believe it's true logically or I can't push it.
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Well, I mean that's just me.
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Potentially that's a career limiting move maybe in some scenarios but no, well, too
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bad. But that's not really what we're here to explore.
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So what about when you're not a manager or you're not a technical leader or a technical
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authority or you don't have any actual authority in an organizational structural sense and
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how do you then influence if that is the case?
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Because if the thing you do need to change isn't something that's within your sphere
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of control, it's only in your sphere of influence, how do you go about it?
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to affect that change, you are going to have to expend a lot more effort. You need to have
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a very strong sales pitch to explain your position and why that outcome that you're
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proposing is the best outcome and you need to highlight specifically why it's in the
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people's best interest that you're trying to influence especially why they should follow
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that direction because probably also that's why it's in the best interest of the overall
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business. In the end though, if you're unable to convince those people and influence their
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direction, there's one thing you can't directly influence and that is their personal and professional
4:43
priorities. The problem with that is priority and focus inevitably comes from the organizational
4:49
structure as we previously discussed, which is their managers and their managers' managers'
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expectations. Before we go any further, I'd like to talk
4:56
about our sponsor for this episode. And that's Clubhouse, the first project management platform
5:01
for software development that brings everyone on every team together to build better products.
5:05
Clubhouse was built from the outset with agile development in mind, with an intense focus
5:09
on intuitiveness and responsiveness. With their web app backed by Fastly CDN, it really
5:13
feels like a local app on any platform. Clubhouse delivers developer-centric tools for everything
5:18
from Kanban boards to epics, milestones and cards, with different card classifications
5:22
for features, bugs and chores. But it's more Clubhouse's ability to interconnect all of
5:25
them together that's so impressive. Users have reported creating less duplicates.
5:30
Navigation is also very fast using a common board but with as many
5:33
configurable workspaces as you like to customize that board for whatever
5:37
purpose you might need. Morning stand-ups for different teams, sub teams or all the
5:40
teams, it's up to you. Ultimately any collaborative project
5:43
management platform has to be as low friction as possible and not just for
5:46
the software developers but for everyone in the organization. Marketing, support,
5:50
management, you name it, the lot so everyone can contribute an actual
5:53
collaboration actually happens. Finally, the other part of Clubhouse that really
5:57
shines is its ability to zoom out from individual tasks to the overall project
6:00
status. That not only keeps project managers happy, but keeps the team
6:04
connected on how their part contributes to the greater project and keeps them
6:08
focused on what matters, delivering a result their customers will enjoy. There
6:12
are others in the market but they're not like Clubhouse and what makes Clubhouse
6:16
so different is the balance between the right amount of simplicity without
6:19
sacrificing key functionality structured to allow genuine cross-functional team
6:23
team collaboration on your project.
6:25
Clubhouse is a modern software as a service platform
6:27
with seamless integration for popular tools like GitHub,
6:30
Slack, Sentry, and lots more. And if the tools that you want to integrate with
6:34
aren't available out of the box, that's okay.
6:36
There's an extensible REST API in Clubhouse
6:38
that makes integrations straightforward.
6:40
If you visit this URL, clubhouse, or oneword.io/10theword,
6:44
you can take advantage of a special offer for Engineered Network listeners.
6:47
Of course, you'll get the 14-day free trial, but if you sign up, you'll get two months free.
6:51
And because this is a team-centric solution,
6:54
the offer will work for you and for your team.
6:57
This offer is only available to Engineered Network listeners
6:59
for a limited time, so take advantage of it while you can.
7:02
Thank you to Clubhouse for once again sponsoring the Engineered Network.
7:06
So no matter how well-intentioned people are,
7:08
how responsible they are, how professional they may act,
7:12
when push comes to shove and there's only eight hours in the working day,
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you will find that the very people you think
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that you've successfully influenced
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to achieve that desired outcome will fall back
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to the expectations of their direct manager
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or their organizationally driven priorities.
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So the final piece of influence comes down to influencing the managers of the people
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you're trying to influence to get the desired outcome.
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Because without their support, the priority and focus will not likely coalesce
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when you need it to. The organizational component is effectively impossible
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to overcome at most levels of the organization. So if you have to affect a change
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to the organizational structure of the entire company
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achieve an outcome, unless you have ambitions to be a CEO or to work for the CEO, then that's
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probably a bridge too far.
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And this is why it's so much effort to influence without authority.
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In terms of time and effort expended, it can be extremely hard for any given issue.
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So it would be a full-time job for weeks or months to influence every person and their
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managers and potentially their managers to get the desired outcome.
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Some things to consider when you are trying to influence other people anywhere in a business,
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I think there's probably good advice. So I'd consider the following things.
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Research the detail before you approach people and know what the heck you're talking about
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first. Remember that relationships are two-way streets.
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Be as free with information with them as they are with you.
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Holding back and speaking in half facts doesn't build trust, it kills it.
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Be concise as well.
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Everyone's time is precious and you need to respect their time by not wasting it.
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Get to the point and stay on topic. That's probably more, but there's a link in the show notes for some other suggestions,
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not all of which I agree with, but it's food for thought if nothing else.
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I've found that influencing without authority is actually exhausting.
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It's not impossible, mind you, but tiring.
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So the benefits that you realize from doing that really have to be worth the trouble.
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There isn't going to end on a note of defeat, just to be clear.
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I was recently told by a colleague he was offered a role with a focus on influencing
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without authority and he turned it down. The reason he gave was that it was a lot of work.
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And I would suggest that this episode is the explanation why.
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Although admittedly he didn't offer one at the time, I do absolutely think that there
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is a place for a role or a part of a role where you influence without authority, but
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not as a full-time role or commitment.
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It feels like leadership without authority is best administered in very small doses and
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for highly targeted, highly beneficial outcomes only.
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So if you do need to influence without authority, be smart about it, think it through and do
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it sparingly before it burns you out.
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But if you can pull it off, your sphere of influence will grow and it can really be worth
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it. Just choose carefully.
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If you're enjoying Analytical and want to support the show, you can via Patreon at patreon.com/johncheejee
10:07
or one word. With this, thank you to all our patrons and a special thank you to our silver producers,
10:11
Carsten Hansen and John Whitlow, and an extra special thank you to our gold producer known
10:15
only as R. Patron rewards include a named thank you on the website, a named thank you
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at the end of episodes, access to raw detailed show notes as well as ad-free, high-quality
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releases of every episode, with patron audio now available via individual breaker audio
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feeds. So if you'd like to contribute something, anything at all, there's lots of great rewards,
10:32
And beyond that, it's all really appreciated.
10:35
Beyond that, there's other ways to help as well, like leaving a rating or review in iTunes,
10:38
favoriting this episode in your podcast player app, or sharing the episode or the show with
10:42
your friends or via social.
10:44
All these things will help others to discover the show and can make a huge difference too.
10:48
I'd personally like to thank Clubhouse for once again sponsoring the Engineered Network.
10:52
If you're looking for an easy to use software development project management solution that
10:55
everyone can use, remember to specifically visit this URL clubhouse or oneword.io/10theword
11:01
check it out and give it a try. It'll surprise you just how easy it can be. Analytical is part
11:06
of the Engineer Network and you can find it at engineer.network and you can follow me on
11:09
the Fediverse at [email protected] or the network on Twitter at engineered_net. We also
11:15
have a YouTube channel with more content going live regularly for your convenience if that's
11:18
your thing. Accept nothing, question everything. It's always a good time to analyze something.
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I'm George Agee, thanks for listening.
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[Music]
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Oh man it's hot in here.
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Oh really I've got a high heart rate.
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