Software Design Patterns for Human Relationships
People are not machines. We are not software.
But principles from well-designed systems can help us structure our relationships to be more effective.
Examples:
Adapter Pattern (aka The Leader) — the people who consolidate the unique perspectives of each human they represent and adapts those ideas to fit into interactions with other systems (other departments, other companies, etc.)
Singleton Pattern (aka The Rock Star) — the individual who is so valuable, he or she is always, synchronously, asked to support various parts of the business. While helpful, he or she can become a bottleneck.
Factory Pattern (aka The Manager) — the person who takes in unique requests and distributes the work load to the appropriate team member. The manager enforces a standard on the deliverable (aka the interface)
Observer Pattern (aka The Researcher) — the person in-tune with the latest technology and best-practices, and is always bringing this back to the team to implement.
State Pattern (aka The Documenter) — the one who consistently writes down the current practices of the team, the status of the project, or the requirements for a request.
Systems fall apart when we don’t follow these well-established patterns.
Teams can fall apart too.
The first step is to acknowledge these roles. Then you can delineate and delegate more effectively (i.e. “The Manager” does not always have to be “The Observer” or “The Documenter”)
