in grade school you probably learned about the different kinds of energy potential energy kinetic energy etc and you probably also learned that any given machine has some kind of efficiency in other words the energy usage is translated to whatever your goal is with that machine in some cases more efficiently than others in today's episode i want to explore this mental model for efficiency in our work and our team dynamics my name is jonathan cutrell you're listening to developer t my goal on the show is to help driven developers like you find clarity perspective and purpose in their career and to help them achieve their goals if you are trying to run a team software engineering team or really any kind of team at all then you probably care about the efficient use of your time now let's be very clear here we're not talking about making sure that every single thing you do is perfect we're also not talking about micromanaging to make sure that every moment spent produces some x amount of value you're not talking about making sure that every single thing you do is perfect this is not the efficiency we're talking about instead we're talking about the efficiency of our effort going to the right things this may get messy we may be wrong sometimes we may make a guess in the wrong direction but needless losses needless losses of efficiency is what we want to try to root out these are the ones that are systematic usually those smaller ones that we were talking about before you might get a one or two percent bump in efficiency or productivity whatever you want to call it with systematic changes you're fixing an ongoing problem you get return on your effort over and over and over think about this as kind of the difference between trying to put slightly higher octane fuel in your engine versus replacing a component in the engine and improving the performance at a baseline so we're going to apply this mental model in kind of a partial way i want you to think about in your organization on your team your interactions with the people that you work with or clients or even with your close relationships information is energy in this model information is like the energy of those machines and loss of information is inefficiency when we lose information we become inefficient this is a simple model to apply because we can see how this works in a lot of different ways some simple examples forgetting to document your decisions or write documentation after you made significant changes in code we can see how this works in a lot of different ways so we can see how this works in a lot of different ways and sometimes it's not very far away it's not too far down the road losing information as the result of time is another example of inefficiency we've all experienced this we talk about doing something on friday maybe we don't write down enough detail and then on monday we have to talk about it again this loss of information from friday to monday represents yet another inefficiency some information loss is unavoidable we can't perfectly remember remember everything we say and even with perfect documentation we can't capture every bit of information that was available in in that let's say synchronous discussion for example and so we have to accept that there is some loss of energy some loss of information this is true in physics as well we accept that there is no such thing as a 100 efficient machine but i want to talk about a specific type of information loss that is directly related to your culture this is the information loss that is the result of a lack of transparency this kind of information loss is essentially a loss of information that is not a loss of information that is not a loss of information that is not a loss of information that is not a loss of information in your organization and on your team when you have a lack of transparency information gets hidden or otherwise subverted and wherever that information gets subverted there are decisions reactions responses to incorrect information or a lack of information this is where the the inefficiency of that information loss is turns into real intangible problems a cascade of problems if decisions are made on intentionally obscured information then worse effects happen causing a cascade of further hiding further loss of transparency this kind of flywheel effect creates extremely inefficient organizations that are making bad decisions if you have to protect one value in your culture one value in your culture it is true transparency and the reason for this is that it's a forcing function for so many other things transparency allows for the highest possibility the highest possibility of informational integrity so without transparency you've already degraded the machine you've already accepted an inefficient process without transparency you've already created a leak for your information you've already created friction for your information i want i want you to hear very closely here that when i say protect transparency in your culture protect transparency in your culture protect transparency in your organization i don't want you to hear a message that people have incorrectly labeled radical candor this idea that transparency is giving you a license to just be a jerk all the time that's not what transparency is about transparency isn't just from you it isn't just from leadership it's not just about you having the license to give an eviscerating you know series of decisions that are not just about you but it's about you and your community and your evolution and evolution and evolution and evolution and evolution and evolution and evolution transparency is not something that you act on it's something that you create it's part of that culture it's the result of for example an inclusive culture it's the result of a culture where people feel safe psychologically physically it's the result of a culture where leaders and ics and everybody in between seek to eliminate the causes of fear they seek to win theension they seek to win theension they seek to win theension they seek to win evolution fear. They seek to work together to improve and be honest with themselves and with each other, not for the sake of self-deprecation or to wear some kind of badge of honor that you were, you know, truthful about your faults or something like this. No, this kind of transparency is born from honesty so that you can grow, so that you have that efficient transfer of information as your baseline. This is what it means to build an excellent team, protect your culture, transparency. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Developer Tea. If you'd like to continue this discussion on transparency, I encourage you to join the Developer Tea Discord community. Head over to developertea.com and you'll be able to learn more about how to build an excellent team. Head over to developertea.com slash discord to get started today. Importantly, this is 100% free. Speaking of transparency, this community generates its own value and you are a part of that. In order for the community to be valuable, we need people to be bought in, but that buy-in doesn't mean money out of your pocket. It means a more important resource. That's time. That's effort. Your time and effort in this community makes it what it is. And so I encourage you to join that community, spend the time to ask good questions and to answer others' questions. Thanks so much for listening. And until next time, enjoy your tea.