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Interesting that Steve Jobs had pretty much the opposite approach to group collaboration and pressure, yet got good results from them as well. At the expense of

Interesting that Steve Jobs had pretty much the opposite approach to group collaboration and pressure, yet got good results from them as well. At the expense of an often very miserable working environment.

dredmorbius 6y ago
Philosophies do differ widely. There's some suggestion that young and old Jobs had markedly distinct management styles. That's ... also discussed in a talk somewhere that I've heard recently, though I don't recall by whom at the moment. More generally, there's been subsstantial research of highly innovative companiess, most especially the research labs at DuPont (Hounshell, https://www.worldcat.org/title/science-and-corporate-strategy/oclc/71238828 https://www.worldcat.org/title/science-and-corporate-strateg...), AT&T (Gertner https://www.worldcat.org/title/idea-factory-bell-labs-and-the-great-age-of-american-innovation/oclc/834742434 https://www.worldcat.org/title/idea-factory-bell-labs-and-th...), the Manhattan project (various), and more. The lighter touch seems generally preferred.
jacobr1 6y ago
I wonder if the time-scale is relevant. Are we talking about different things when "keeping the pressure on" for project that weeks or months in duration and "maintaining intensity" for a specific effort measure in hours? Could you deescalate the latter while maintaining the former? How does that work with stress and cortisol and other factors?
valuearb 6y ago
I’m not sure what that Jobs style was the opposite. He was the industries leading example of taking your time to get it right. Like when he canceled the iPad just prior to the launch decision, and told the team to take a few years to try to make it into a phone instead.
- hellofunk 6y ago
  The extraordinary pressure he put people under on a daily basis, especially as deadlines approached, his biographies are full of reports of working long weekends, sleeping in the office, having him push push push push to the breaking point.

dredmorbius 6y ago

Philosophies do differ widely. There's some suggestion that young and old Jobs had markedly distinct management styles. That's ... also discussed in a talk somewhere that I've heard recently, though I don't recall by whom at the moment. More generally, there's been subsstantial research of highly innovative companiess, most especially the research labs at DuPont (Hounshell, https://www.worldcat.org/title/science-and-corporate-strategy/oclc/71238828 https://www.worldcat.org/title/science-and-corporate-strateg...), AT&T (Gertner https://www.worldcat.org/title/idea-factory-bell-labs-and-the-great-age-of-american-innovation/oclc/834742434 https://www.worldcat.org/title/idea-factory-bell-labs-and-th...), the Manhattan project (various), and more. The lighter touch seems generally preferred.

jacobr1 6y ago

I wonder if the time-scale is relevant. Are we talking about different things when "keeping the pressure on" for project that weeks or months in duration and "maintaining intensity" for a specific effort measure in hours? Could you deescalate the latter while maintaining the former? How does that work with stress and cortisol and other factors?

valuearb 6y ago

I’m not sure what that Jobs style was the opposite. He was the industries leading example of taking your time to get it right. Like when he canceled the iPad just prior to the launch decision, and told the team to take a few years to try to make it into a phone instead.

hellofunk 6y ago
The extraordinary pressure he put people under on a daily basis, especially as deadlines approached, his biographies are full of reports of working long weekends, sleeping in the office, having him push push push push to the breaking point.