Relax. Think. Do Your Job.

This is one of my watch-phrases. It comes from a few years of being a software developer and consultant punctuated by a couple of years managing and working in operations and production support.

The order of these tasks is important. It has been my experience that people don't tend to do their best work without at least a bit of forethought. Clear thinking also doesn't tend to come in moments of extreme agitation. So, relaxing, even in the face of extreme pressure, leads to thinking clearly about your task which enables the implementation of a better solution.

Now, what gets in the way?

Pressure, both from within and from without, is easily the most common barrier to relaxing. In the middle of a crisis, our managers, colleagues, executives, stakeholders, and the like want a solution yesterday. If you're like me, technologists can be a bit arrogant and think that we can solve any issue in front of us. Pressure from the outside, and pressure from the inside.

Experience, or a lack thereof, is one of the barriers to thinking. Not a lack of overall experience, but a lack of experience with a situation, set of systems, area of a business. I work with quite a few truly gifted technologists, but there are only a handful I'd trust working on a Java-based application crisis. My experiences put me one step away from useless on a mainframe. No one has a monopoly on good ideas though. Our points of view affect our ability to think of solutions to problems. Those points of view are driven by the sum of our experiences.

Never making it past the thinking stage is another pitfall. We've all heard of "analysis paralysis" and believe we can avoid it easily. In the midst of analyzing log files, talking to subject matter experts, opening tickets with vendors, bouncing ideas off of colleagues, and the like, we don't believe we are overthinking the solution. Providing the "best" solution doesn't always mean resolving all outstanding issues with a system. The business value of a down system is, at most, zero and probably negative. Timeliness is an aspect of the "best" solution. Part of the outcome of doing your job can be an action item list for engineering, development, and/or architecture. One way or the other, a solution has to be implemented.

Welcome to my blog. Believe me, it's not going to be all work and no play. Relaxation comes in many forms and isn't only necessary when resolving IT issues. Thinking includes philosophical pursuits and educating ourselves. Doing our jobs is only partly about occupation but is also about being part of humanity.

Enjoy!