SiteLight: Rands In Repose
So, I thought I’d do a short series on some of the sites I’m subscribed to. The first one I want to mention is Rands In Repose.
What is this site?
Rands In Repose, http://randsinrepose.com. Rands is a manager at a Silicon Valley hi-tech firm (are there any other kinds of firms there?) and has over a decade of direct management under his belt. He writes from experience, and shares his losses with his wins, and tells you what to learn from them. As you’ll see from the interview (below) he tells stories, and PEOPLE LIKE STORIES.
Why I read this site:
Rands’ articles on management have given me some vocabulary and models to understand management from the POV of the manager and the managee.
Why you should read this site:
- The management category - Everything you didn’t know you needed to know about managing and being managed.
- The Management Glossary - How To Talk With Your Manager. Both more and less tongue-in-cheek than you think.
- N.A.D.D. - You may recognize this if you know me. If you’re a geek, nosce te ipsum.
Q & A:
I had a short email exchange with Rands today. Here’s the skinny:
Steve: I went back and tried to read up on your management category; I saw your first post, about why you started weblogging, and I’m wondering how you decided to write about management?
Rands: If you’ve read the first columns, you’ll notice I’m all over the place… even the style and formatting of the writing is erratic. Still, there is a consistent thread through the early articles regarding “dealing with people” and “solving problems”.
I’d consider “The Big QA Freak Out” to be the first structured management related article and there was no deliberate choice to suddenly write about management…. it’s just what I do and if everyone who had a weblog just wrote about what they do… well, weblogs would be infinitely more interesting. I digress.
Steve: Where did you learn all this stuff?
Rands: I’ve been directly managing people for a decade, but, more importantly, I’ve been scurrying around the Silicon Valley since the early 80s and that has exposed me to all sorts of people, companies, and technology that comprises the Rands Experience (tm).
I think the ability to relay the information is actually more important than the learning (although you obviously need both). You said in your first mail “getting the right language to describe a situation helps to understand it” and that’s the key. When an idea for an article pops into my head, I immediately start scrambling for an experience I can mold to explain the idea because PEOPLE LIKE STORIES. Standing on soapbox makes you look like a freak.
Steve, displaying his Fear Of Managing (tm): Perhaps the better question would be, how did you survive management long enough to pass all this along?
Rands: Survive makes it sound like management is a struggle. It’s not. Sure, it’s chaotic. Right now, I’m sitting at my desk, drinking my coffee, writing this mail, and wondering who is going to walk in my door and alter my day… but I’m limber. All good managers are limber because we succeed based on our ability to deal with chaos.
If you want to be a manager, you better like chaos.
Thanks Rands!
