I’ll address a core driver: the corrosive pursuit of senior management visibility.
Key Issues:
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Visibility Over Value
- - Delivery of functional systems is secondary to crafting status reports for leadership.
- - Legacy teams hoard knowledge (e.g., Clueing Manager) to maintain "exclusivity" and visibility.
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Managerial Complicity
- - Managers prioritize showcasing team output to seniors over enabling growth or collaboration.
- - New ideas are stifled unless they directly enhance leadership optics.
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Zero-Sum Competition
- - Employees across grades compete for visibility, leading to credit theft, backstabbing, and information silos.
- - Collaboration is nonexistent; individual survival trumps team success.
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Impact on Progress
- - Legacy systems persist due to low-visibility modernization work.
- - Innovation stalls as only "high-visibility" projects gain support.
Consequences:
- Erosion of Well-Being: chronic stress (Fidelity’s resources are inadequate).
- Attrition Risk: Talent departs when visibility games overshadow technical contribution.
Call to Leadership:
Align incentives with actual IT outcomes, not performative visibility. Until then, toxicity will persist.