Leading Geeks: How to Manage and Lead People Who Deliver Technology

Chapter 5. Performing Geekwork

When we turn to the subject of how geeks perform geekwork, the dynamics of the tripartite relationship are played out as geeks and leaders attempt to add value to their organizations through the completion of geekwork.

It's easy, at least in a simplistic sense, to visualize how a worker on a manufacturing line adds value to the product on which he or she is working. A half-built automobile chassis passes the workstation of a factory worker. The worker grabs a bumper from the bucket of bumpers and bolts it onto the moving car. The value-added that the worker has performed was the selection and installation of a bumper. ...