Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Well-run organizations can fall into the trap of ‘hoarding’ their star performers. They keep them ‘on the bench’, not deploying them for big, risky, challenging projects. That’s an unnecessary inefficiency. As in sports, allowing your strongest players to go out to the field gives them practice. It also improves general team performance and provides boost of morale to the rest of the team. Send your players out to play!

Introduction

Imagine a dusty attic overflowing with heirlooms, gathering cobwebs. This parallels the irony of hoarding mentality in software engineering. Top performers – an organization’s most important assets – are under-used, their potential locked away like precious antiques.

I saw this firsthand in a Kathmandu engineering shop. A highly skilled engineer was kept on the sidelines for “big emergencies,” while his colleagues struggled with their projects. This experience left me unsettled… the underutilization of talent, the missed opportunities and hampered efficiency was so easy to fix! It was hard to not intervene as an outsider.

That made me wonder: how might organizations break free from such limiting approach and use their power-players? I’ll discuss the “use-it-or-lose-it” reality of hoarding psychology in engineering, explore its negative consequences and advocate for a better alternative.

From Orchestras to Engineering Teams

Imagine a magnificent orchestra where the most skilled musicians are rarely given solos. Their virtuosity reserved for special occasions, the big projects. While others struggle with challenging pieces, these talents remain unused. It might seem like a silly scenario, but it mirrors engineering teams where top performers are kept on the sidelines. This is done despite it limiting their contributions and stifling team potential.

Imagine a talented gardener with an interest exotic plants. If they hoard rare seeds instead of planting them, their skills never develop. The potential beauty of their garden remains unrealized. This parallels individuals in organizations who see their skills stagnate due to under-use, hindering both personal and organizational growth.

We’ve all encountered hoarding in everyday life. Imagine a family with a “junk room” overflowing with unused items. While they hold onto these possessions for “just in case” scenarios, they miss opportunities to declutter, donate, and enjoy these items. This mirrors how organizations hoard data, tools, or even knowledge, limiting their accessibility and hindering innovation. The idea is to move from ‘scarcity’ mindset, to a more ‘abundance’ mindset.

The Ripple Effect: From Unused Individuals to Societal Impact:

Consider a chain reaction: an unused top performer in an organization feels unmotivated and less productive. This impacts team morale and performance. That eventually impacts product quality and customer satisfaction. Imagine the cumulative effect of unused talent across countless organizations. Hoarding mentality – and the scarcity mindset it originates from – is universal, and has far-reaching consequences. A master gardener plants, a talented musician performs, and so organizations must let their top-performers work. This unleashes individual potential, builds stronger teams, and drives innovation and success.

This hoarding manifests in multiple ways. Top performers might be stuck with mundane tasks. They will ask for more challenging work, to no avail. They might be excluded from critical decision-making. Or they might be kept in the dark about talented resources and collaboration opportunities. This breeds a culture of fear and information silos, where knowledge and expertise are tightly controlled. It’s like having a library locked away, its knowledge inaccessible to those who need it most.

As a consequence, top performers feel unused, their skills plateaus, and their motivation wanes. Teams suffer from knowledge gaps and missed partnership opportunities. Inefficiencies increase, progress slows. The organization loses competitive edge, stifling innovation and getting slow development cycles.

Consider an alternative scenario. Top performers are challenged, empowered, and seen as integral parts of the team. They actively share their knowledge, encouraging knowledge-sharing and learning across all levels. This reveals a trove of benefits: individuals experience growth and recognition. Teams gain increased synergy, and the organization thrives on innovation and agility.

Engineering teams must abandon the hoarding mentality and embrace consistent utilization for their performers.

Emphasizing the Benefits of Consistent Utilization

Consistent utilization of top performers generates numerous benefits. Companies like Alphabet and Netflix make the advantages visible firsthand. Apple’s culture of “hackathons” encourages senior engineers to actively share knowledge and contribute to diverse projects. Apple uses its top researchers not just for research, but also for code reviews and mentorship. In both cases, consistent use has led to faster development cycles, improved product quality, and a more agile workforce.

Shifting towards consistent utilization of top performers requires overcoming the inertia of established practices. Organizations fall into comfortable routines, afraid of disrupting the status quo even with a suboptimal approach. Understanding these underlying forces is important to lead change.

Sources of Inertia:

Fear of the unknown: Stepping outside familiar territory can be daunting. Organizations might fear unintended consequences of disrupting established hierarchies or workflow patterns. Investment in the existing system: Resources have been poured into training, tools, and processes associated with the current system. This creates a “sunk cost fallacy” that discourages change. Lack of urgency: If the negative effects of hoarding haven’t become critically apparent, there might be a “wait-and-see” attitude, delaying action. Individual resistance: Managers who benefit from the existing power dynamics might resist changes that disrupt their control or influence.

Here are some ways teams could overcome the inertia that binds them to underuse their talent.

Strategies for Overcoming Inertia:

1. Start small: Pilot programs showcasing the benefits of consistent deployment in specific teams can build momentum and overcome resistance.
2. Transparency and communication: Engaging stakeholders in open dialogue about the challenges of hoarding and the potential benefits of change allows for understanding and buy-in.
3. Data-driven approach: Quantifying the negative impacts of hoarding and the potential gains from change. Use metrics like employee satisfaction, innovation rates, or product development cycle times
4. Incentives and recognition: Recognizing and rewarding individuals who champion the shift towards consistent utilization can encourage broader adoption.

The choice is not between utilizing or hoarding top performers; it’s about letting them reach their true potential or letting the potential remain locked away.