Re: In the Trenches, A Bit of Venting

["Gary S. Callison" <huey -at- interaccess -dot- com>]

Andrew:
> Huey:
>| Andrew:
>|> Sure, if you work in a "lets play the blame game" kind of company,
>|> then this might work.
>| It also works in organizations back here in the real world, where the
>| goal is to produce what the client wants. My first reaction to reading
>| the rest of your post was "Now that's a curious, ill-informed, and
>| inaccurate characterization, bordering on an insult, of damn near every
>| organization I've ever worked in"...
>My statement was of a rhetorical nature. This is why the words "kind of
>company" and "if" are used. It was not directed at you.

"If you work... ...then this might work". No- because I don't work in one
of those places, and yet it still works. Either it's an insult to the
place I work, or it is simply an incorrect statement. Take your pick.

> But if you want it to be and you want to be insulted by it - be my guest
> - but the argument was not directed at you personally. When it is, I
> will mention you by name.

I find it interesting that Mr. Content-Is-King has a writing style that is
(apparently) 'taken wrong' by his readerbase. Maybe style is a little more
important?

>| Sometimes, the process _is_ the problem.
> Sometimes?

Yes, sometimes. Sometimes your system is broken, and sometimes you have a
good plan and simply fail to execute it. "Which is more important, the
planning  or the execution?" is very similar to the other great pointless
flamewar, "Content or Style?". You need both. Doing one really well does
not compensate for a total lack of the other.

>| Failures happen. Those failures are the responsibility of one or more
>| people- the guy who signed the contract, the project manager, the team
>| lead, the person actually doing the work. After those failures happen,
>| and those people are identified, the grownups among us will say "Yeah,
>| I screwed up there. I didn't give myself enough time to do X" or "I
>| didn't spend enough time bugging the SMEs" or "I didn't plan this as
>| well as I could have", or what-have-you.
> Sounds great. But unfortunately, what you describe and why I speak of
> are more rare than you may realize. I've been inside a lot of companies
> in the past 10 years. And blaming people and processes for failure is a
> lot more prevalent that you might think.

How do you solve broken processes without finding out what or who is
responsible? Assigning blame is _important_. Once you discover a problem,
the next step is to isolate it. It is someone's responsibility- maybe even
mine. Geez, did I screw up? How do we fix it? 

>|> 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.
>| I've been called a lot of things, but never a lemming. Please spare me
>| your ad-hominem and stick to the subject.
> Again, you're inserting yourself into my example and then getting
> insulted. I was not attacking you personally.

"You are not doing them any favors... ...you're just following the
lemmings over the cliff". Feel free to explain how that sentence can be
parsed differently. 

Then, in another thread (Re: Proof that content is more important than
style), Andrew Plato (gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com) wrote:
: ...I am glad we all agree. Content is more important than design. Let's
: all keep that in mind and try to practice it now...
: ...Just because I used the word "you", doesn't mean its specifically
: directed at YOU...

Content is more important than design. Please use 2nd person pronouns when
you are talking to an individual or group, and "this hypothetical person
I'm talking about, who is of course none of you" when that is your
intended meaning. (Look, Ma! I'm telling another tech writer how to write
clearly!) Otherwise, everyone is bound to continue merrily following
these misinterpretations of what you (the unhypothetical Andrew Plato)
seem to be trying to say. 

...like lemmings over the cliff, even.

--
Huey



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Check out SnagIt - The Screen Capture Standard!
Download a free 30-day trial from http://www.techsmith.com/rdr/txt/twr
Find out what all the other tech writers, including Dan, already know!

Order RoboHelp X3 in November and receive $100 mail in rebate, FREE WebHelp
Merge Module and the new RoboPDF - add powerful PDF output functionality
to RoboHelp X3. Order online today at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.