Here’s this week’s 200 word idea from The Hard Thing about Hard Things by Ben Horowitz.
Programmers refer to taking coding shortcuts or “quick fixes” that prove to be very expensive in the long run as “technical debt.” As CEO of Opsware, Ben Horowitz referred to shortcut decisions companies and managers make as “management debt.”
He gave a few examples of management debt –
– Offering an employee a very good raise because he/ she receives a better offer from a competitor. Very soon, everyone threatens to quit to get a raise
– Rewarding low performers because it ruffles fewer feathers
– Avoiding an important difficult conversation with the team because it is, well, difficult
Ben’s experience taught him that these “quick fix” decisions always needed to be repaid with very high rates of interest.
We face so many such choices in our daily lives too – spending on a luxury vs. saving, watching TV vs. exercising – I guess that’s why day-to-day living is probably the biggest challenge of them all. So, here’s to remembering Ben’s idea of management debt / “life” debt and getting past our next shortcut decision.
Source and thanks to: www.EBSketchin.com
‘The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want right now’ | Zig Ziglar
A Learning a Day 