Matt Miner's Blog
The Eroding Effect of Labeling Others as "Blockers"
Mon 01 July 2019"We’re blocked on Ops”
Givent the nature of our work, Ops folks hear this more often than any other engineering group.
Ops are regarded as “blockers” many times daily. Every single support task Ops does could be considered a “blocker”. Calling it one does not make it special. It does not inspire action.
Agile culture has had an unintended negative effect on team dynamics. Project managers don’t code. Admirably, in the spirit of agile, they task themselves to contribute. So, they leverage their communication skills to be the agents of unblocking. Standups are designed to uncover blockers that can be escalated so PJMs can go out and contribute to the team.
This isn’t the fault of PJMs. Engineering managers, driven by deadlines and frankly, laziness, allow the practice of labeling work "blockers". As a team gels, it hits challenges and a common pattern emerges. Folks learn:
“If I call this a blocker, I can stop answering for why I’m late on it.”
Bad managers comply and don’t challenge the blocker.
“Alright then, Mr. Project Manager, start escalating”
Worse, escalations are brought up for the first time in a public email or leadership forum as a way to deflect being behind on a delivery. Defensive short-circuiting. Shots fired. All this really does is convince the "blocking" party to put their own defenses up. No one has talked about the work yet.
What’s a blocker anyway?
It’s just work. It’s only special because it requires coordination with another party. It’s work that requires diagrams, tickets, explanation, cooperation. It requires another person to do work on your behalf that they’ve agreed to.
No wonder folks try to pawn that work off! Ain’t no time in software development to coordinate, sounds like a Project Manager’s problem.
“Ops is blocking us”
Better options:
“I don’t understand this problem, I reached out to Ops to get help”
“Ops is in the process of helping out”
“We hit an impediment and we’re working it out with Ops”
“We haven’t done a good enough job seeking Ops help on that yet”
Words are rooted by their intention. Words can positively compel others to engage with you. Or they can drive them away. With signals of partnership and humility, you’ll catch more earnest support.