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I basically try to avoid doing anything blindly. But as peons we do have to
accept that managers, etc., often have knowledge we don't have and are
working on agendas (sometimes even legitimate) we don't know about. As
peons, we rarely know all, so how can we possibly know best?
Re the original post, I immediately thought of several scenarios where the
PM may have been perfectly justified in trying to maintain super control of
the product. For example, that particular SME may be a breed we're all
familiar with--the obsessive/compulsive editor who will now spend the next
week picking apart that non-first draft instead of doing a legitimate review
of another project. Maybe the PM has his/her own battles to fight, such as
walking a line between two arguing SMEs or road testing a new document style
or organization. And the non-first draft just added fuel to the fire.
But as usual we jump on the cliche (and I'm the cliche expert) and assume
the hapless PM is a demagogue. Perhaps he/she is. Most likely he/she is
some of the time but not always, as is true for most of us--everyone who
breathes has control issues.
A previous poster counselled--try to see the situation from their eyes, but
then proceeded to ruin that good advice by profiling characters so
inflexible to change that they'd start frothing at the mouth if their bus
was late. I say--try to see the situation from their eyes, because you
might learn something. If they really are running for office tinpot,
there's plenty of time to disagree/walk all over them/apologize abjectly.
IPCC 01, the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference,
October 24-27, 2001 at historic La Fonda in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
CALL FOR PAPERS OPEN UNTIL MARCH 15. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
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