"The pain you don’t feel, you don’t fix"
Have you ever noticed how some problems linger, not because people don’t care, but because they don’t feel the pain themselves? I remember when we had a managed release process on a large monolith. Releases were risky, so the release manager carried the burden. On Mondays they’d gather the teams, list what was shipping, and nominate a developer to support the release. But here’s the thing: the actual authors of the code never felt the stress. Their changes were wrapped up in a batch with everyone else’s, buffered by the release manager. If something went wrong, the pain wasn’t personal, it was someone else’s problem. What I learned is this: when responsibility is abstracted away, accountability evaporates. Shielding people from consequences also shields them from growth. If you want behavior to change, the pain has to be visible and shared. Otherwise, the system just teaches people to keep moving and let someone else carry the load. Until next time, ✉️ Enjoying The Messy Middle? If someone sent this email your way and you’d like to get it direct, you can sign up here. |