My brush with ‘coach lock’
Alright, let’s talk about something I bumped into a while back. We called it ‘coach lock’ on the team, though maybe that’s not its real name everywhere. It’s this weird state where things just… stop. Not like a crash, more like getting stuck in thick mud.
I remember this one project clearly. We started off fine, everyone chipping in. We had this lead, let’s call him the ‘coach’, who set up all these rules. Like, super detailed rules for everything. How we coded, how we logged time, even how we commented in the docs. At first, it seemed okay, you know, organized.
But then things started to slow down.
We’d hit a small snag, a weird bug, or maybe a customer needed something slightly different. Instead of just figuring it out quickly, we had to follow the ‘coach’s’ exact process. This meant:
- Filling out a specific form for the issue.
- Waiting for the ‘coach’ to review the form.
- Having a meeting about the form.
- Getting approval to even start thinking about a solution.
- Then proposing the solution, which needed another review.
It was nuts. A simple fix that should’ve taken an hour could stretch into days. The team got visibly frustrated. You’d see people just staring at their screens, waiting. Waiting for approval, waiting for feedback, just… waiting. That’s what we started calling ‘coach lock’. The ‘coach’ meant well, I think, trying to keep control, but ended up just jamming the gears completely.
I tried talking about it once. Gently suggested maybe we could loosen up on some of the smaller things. You know, trust the team to make small calls. That didn’t go over well. Got told the process was there for a reason, to ensure quality and consistency. Yeah, consistently slow.
Breaking Free (Sort Of)
What finally happened? Well, the project deadlines slipped. Big surprise. Clients got angry. Management above the ‘coach’ started asking questions. It wasn’t pretty.
I didn’t stick around to see the final fallout. I found another opportunity and took it. Learned a valuable lesson though. Process is good, but when the process stops you from actually doing the work, it’s broken. You need flex. You need trust. You can’t have someone holding the keys so tight that nobody can unlock the door, even if they know how.
So now, when I’m involved in setting up how things run, I always remember that ‘coach lock’. I try to build processes that help, not hinder. Give people room to move, trust them to do their jobs. It seems to work out a lot better.
