Elezea by Rian van der Merwe - RSS Feed https://elezea.com/2015/02/managing-making/ A personal blog about product, technology, and interesting things that are worth sharing. Thu, 02 Apr 2026 17:43:52 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 The managing/making dance https://elezea.com/2015/02/managing-making/ Sat, 21 Feb 2015 19:05:03 +0000 Rian van der Merwe https://elezea.com/?p=5214 In my latest column for A List Apart I discuss our obsession with “managerial tracks” in career development, and propose something different. From Managing and Making: It Doesn’t Have to Be One or the Other:

I think we need a career system that encourages people to oscillate between individual contributor roles and manager roles. Maybe we provide “manager sabbaticals” where a manager becomes an individual contributor on a team for six to nine months. Maybe when a manager goes on vacation, an individual contributor takes on their role for a period of time (or for the duration of an entire project). I don’t know exactly what this looks like yet, but I think it’s important for us to figure it out.

I explain why in the article. I’d also like to point out that my original title for the piece was “Managing and Making: It Doesn’t Have To Be A Dirty Dance”, and it featured this photo:

Dirty Dancing Croc

I’m really glad my editor talked me out of it. It’s not good to make jokes that only people who grew up in the 80s will appreciate.

It’s a good joke, though.



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