Nicked: Set The Bozo Bit
Problem. There is an idiot on your team.
Context. You are working on a project, the success of which matters to you, with other people, one of whom never contributes anything remotely intelligent.
Wrong Solution. Set the guy's "Bozo bit" to TRUE. This means that, in your mind, everything he says and does can be safely ignored. Use the time during which he is speaking to plan what you are going to say or do next.
Known Uses. Ubiquitous. Everyone is tempted by this AntiPattern at times, as witness the discussion below, which largely treats this as a Pattern rather than AntiPattern.
Here are a few of the problems this AntiPattern can cause:
- It attacks the wrong problem. A stupid fool with a good attitude isn't a big problem; the problem is stupid fools with bad attitudes. So the real question is How to deal with bad attitudes?, which is a different and much bigger issue than I'll just ignore this bozo.
- It projects a very negative attitude which can and will get in the way of fostering whole-team communication and participation, and fosters an atmosphere of cattiness and rumor-mongering and back-stabbing.
- It runs the risk that, as with most behavior arising from negative emotion, it will make other people think that you, not he, are the real bozo.