Why good work is invisible

You do great work, yet it's not recognised. Let's see why that happens, and how to change it. If you're a manager, this will help you recognise contributions that others miss.

A work product might have the same "quantity" regardless of whether it was produced by a novice or a veteran. A software design plan might span just 3 pages regardless of who created it. The difference comes in the "quality." One major indicator of quality is the number of bad ideas discarded.

For example, a novice might write up the first idea that came to his mind. Whereas the veteran would think about scalability, hiring of new engineers, popularity of programming languages, stable/unstable requirements of the system, timelines, and a lot more before finalising his design.

In short, a higher quality work product addresses more constraints (in addition to many other things). It's like making the best chess move.

But distracted by a 3 page document, no one notices the number of "bad ideas" you threw away. Or no one appreciates the "problems that never became problems" because you prevented them from happening in the first place.

Rather than noise, the silence becomes a formidable indicator of quality. Learn to detect the presence of silence.