People are a mess of intangibles: thoughts, emotions, strengths, weaknesses and ideas. A coding language is a mess of tangibles: letters, characters, patterns, and formats. Superficially seen as opposites, one would think there would be little similarities between them. However, by working between the two, several similarities are exposed prompting me to ask the question, what can we learn?
Lost in Translation
Telling the computer something has to be written precisely, detailed, and in a language it understands. The communication has to be delivered in the format required for the language. Same with people. Adjusting how one speaks to a specific client, coworker or employee should vary person to person.
27% of employees get communication training-and only that amount are confident in their communication role at work.
Little nuances between people’s personalities can dictate how they understand the words. Direct, linear, straightforward employees only need the literal words and will go from there. Emotionally acute, thoughtful feelers will hear the how you say something just as much as the what. The fine line between hearing something and understanding something can be determined by what level of customized communication is used.
“Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.”– Martin Golding
“I’m the CSS to your HTML”
How a couple of files can interwork the intricacies between lines of HTML, CSS, javascript and PHP to output a beautiful webpage can be fascinating (or incredibly repulsive for some). A team of languages works together just as a team of different individuals comes together to create some kind of beautiful output as well.
88% of millennials prefer collaboration over competition.
The contrasting characteristics each team member brings to the table adds a new level of depth and insight toward the final goal. We’ve understood that diversity brings about better team dynamics for a company for a while now. Seeing a team member with a specific strength seamlessly jump into a project with an obvious vulnerability warms the hearts of managers everywhere.
“I Don’t See Typos”
People view the world differently. A web designer sees a pixel off on image padding from a mile away. She sees the layout, the flow, the balance, the look, and everything in the spacing around the images, text blocks, and lines. A minute later, a content creator walks up and points out a typo in a text block. People view and use things differently.
“Asking users to adopt new behaviors or even modify their existing behaviors is very, very hard.” – Khoi Vin
How developers design and build a product, application or page with an intended use in mind, does not mean that users will see it that way. What a boring world we would live in if everyone did and thought exactly how we did!
There will always be bugs in coding and there will always be disconnects amongst a group of people. How each part fits together and works is the true beauty in any code and any team. Take the guessing out of learning who is who at your office and assess your people, today.
“If you want to hire great people and have them stay working for you, you have to let them make a lot of decisions. You have to be run by ideas, not hierarchy.” Steve Jobs
