Minding the Machines

CHAPTER 4People

How to structure and engage a team, establish productive and parsimonious conventions, and lead a distinct practice with unique requirements.

Strategies and processes, no matter how expertly devised and deployed, live or die on the strength and abilities of the people on the team. This fact may not be immediately evident to those more technically minded individuals who, through education or predisposition, favor and focus on the solution rather than the problem. It is human ingenuity and collaboration that creates value—never tools and data. The latest deep learning approach running on the most powerful GPU cluster means nothing if it is not directed toward a productive end. Colin Powell (2006) said, “Organization doesn't really accomplish anything. Plans don't accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don't much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.” All other considerations are constructs designed to support and enable the work that people are doing for other people.

In analytics groups tuned for performance above all else, unrelenting mechanistic production only serves to alienate the practitioner from their work, exploiting them as a resource, eliminating any sense of fulfillment, and causing them to lose any authentic ambition and creativity they once had. Regardless of salary, benefits, environment, or other enticements, any productivity gained ...