I Don't Want the Details
An engineering manager reflects on an interaction with an executive who prioritized actionable change over detailed post-mortem explanations. The author concludes that focusing on future prevention rather than past justification is more effective for organizational growth.
Why it matters
This perspective challenges traditional corporate incident-reporting cultures, advocating for a shift toward forward-looking problem solving.
A few months ago I was dragged into a call with my engineering counterpart and their boss (who happens to be our SVP of engineering). Something had gone wrong that shouldn't have. Nothing catastrophic, but important enough that I was now on a call with an SVP.
I started to explain how it happened when they cut me off with "Michael, I don't want the details".
I know that if we get into the details, the reasons will be perfectly reasonable. You'll explain what happened, I'll understand why everyone made the decisions they made, and I'll empathise with you.
So I don't want the details. I want to know what we're changing.
At first I thought "I don't want the details" sounded dismissive. How can they make informed decisions without understanding the details?
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