Ask HN: What do you do to make normal people more productive? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What do you do to make normal people more productive?

4 pointsdiminium8 comments

I've read blogs after blogs about the absolute need to hire "rock star programmers" or the "best of the best" and what you need to do to make them productive.

That's cool and all but I want to hire normal and average people. People who are just your average day to day programmer/developer/analysts/accountant/etc.

What techniques are there to make NORMAL people more productive in their jobs?

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Do everything in your power to communicate clearly, including making sure your employees know that they are expected to ask ?'s if they aren't sure of something. The cost of an average employee isn't necessarily paid in the fact that they work more slowly than the superstar - it's that they aren't sure what to do and either do the wrong thing or spend time spinning their wheels trying to figure out what the right thing is. If you can circumvent that through excellent communication, you can effectively farm out your own intelligence (assuming you are, in fact, intelligent) and get by with less intelligent employees.

Being a developer I've worked closely with lots of other developers, and been on both sides of this equation; Sometimes I'm the 'normal guy' and sometimes I'm the 'rock star' depending who I'm sitting with.

As the 'normal guy' I observe what tools they are using, how they navigate them and what they are doing, because often times we both know the language equally or close to equal yet have a different selection in tools to aid the development process either 'go to' libraries or editors.

As the 'rock star' I may interrupt the developer to show them a faster way to do the same thing, either algorithm or editor functions. Because face it, the only thing that makes you a rock star is that you can get it done faster and more efficient then the other guy.

Yet you have to have 'rock star' qualities to even want to learn IMO.

you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him put on his swimming suit

try to understand what the horse wants to do ... try to help the horse be more productive doing what he wants to do ... don't try to get your normal horse into your abnormal swim suit

Hire the right person for the job ... sometimes you have hired the wrong person; it happens a lot; help that wrong person find his right job as rapidly as possible ... pay him to quit (Zappos-style) if that's what it takes.

Why do you need to pay them to quit?

Put them around ABnormal people that are more productive.

I would take a page from Google's play-book and feed them well. Good food has health benefits, it's a bonding experience, and lots of people really don't cook well or do a good job taking care of themselves. Taking care of them in this manner can be good for the bottom line.

My current supervisor buys us lunch when she wants us to work through lunch because we are behind. I think she's got the right idea. It doesn't necessarily have to be "free food" per se the way Google does it but anything you can do to help your people eat well is going to be a good thing.

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