Re: In the Trenches, A Bit of Venting

[Andrew Plato <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

"Gary S. Callison" <> wrote ...

> But that brings me to where Andrew's advice goes south: it's not deadline
> day you spring this on your boss- because at that point, the project is
> on the line. No, the instant I realize that my working relationship
> with this person is going to impact the quality of my work, I go to the
> boss and play the whole hand face up. 

...and the boss says "figure out you two, the docs are due in 2 weeks."  And
you're right back at ground zero. 

Moreover, is it your job to see that everybody meets their deadlines? Are you the
boss? 

> And most of the time that I've gone
> to management with "I am having real problems dealing with X on this
> project", the answer is something like "You didn't hear this from me, but
> you don't know the half of it. X is driving EVERYBODY NUTS. Is there
> something I can help you with instead?" The boss appreciates my candor,
> and helps me find other ways to get the product out the door on time.

Sure, if you work in a "lets play the blame game" kind of company, then this
might work. Blame-based organizations predicate every job with rationalizations
and blame, such as: 

1. We can't meet the deadline because SME 1 and SME 2 won't get back to us with
the information.

2. I can't do all this work by myself because Mr. MFA won't help.

3. We need more resources so I can fritter away 9000 hours fondling fonts to
ensure perfect template unity. 

4. We all hate Mr Z and he is the root cause of all the problems here. 

Rationalizations are the realm of people who essentially don't want to do their
job. Or more specifically, they like one part of their job (usually the fun stuff
like fiddling with fonts and processes) and therefore will make up an endless
series of excuses why they need to do that - and not do something else - like
write the damn docs. 

Blame-based organizations are weak and ineffective. They produce sub-standard
material because everything is done in a clumsy and unfocused manner even when
internationally STC-approved documentation methodologies are used. Blame-based
organizations rarely have the drive and ambition to creatively solve problems.
The people in these groups get stuck in a rut of "that's the way we do things
around here." Never mind that the way things are done is astronomically stupid. 

A solutions-based environment refuses to allow blame to be assigned. Rather,
failure is just a reality and dealt with as a problem to be solved. Sometimes
that solution is to remove people who consistently fail or demand to
?re-engineer? their job so they don?t have to do ?hard work.? 

I realize many organizations are obsessed with blame. That is usually due to a
crappy corporate culture. But you are not doing them any favors by going along
with that work ethic. You're just following the lemmings over the cliff.

Andrew Plato


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