Re: In the Trenches, A Bit of Venting

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

"Gary S. Callison" wrote...

> "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.

This is a simple "if-then" logic statement.  "If A, then B." If you want to
insert your own company into that logic statement, be my guest. But it was not
directed specifically at you. 

> > 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?

My words are often misunderstood because of many reasons. Sometimes I write them
out too quickly. Other times people see a single phrase or challenge and they
instantly take it to heart and become insulted. 

Nobody ever said expressing a complex idea was easy. 

> 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.

Actually it can and often does. Many of the greatest breakthroughs and insights
in the scientific world came out of highly disorganized and unplanned
environments. When we go back and look at how these environments functioned, it
can seem almost unreal how such chaos could produce such greatness. But one thing
does seem to permeate these places - an unwavering dedication to a cause. Screw
ups are not seen as problems but as unique challenges that merely complicate an
already engaging problem. 

I like to think of the scene in Apollo 13 where the engineers are trying to build
a CO2 scrubber from all these spare parts as an example of that kind of
environment. Great minds coming together to quickly solve a problem with
virtually no process, planning, or prompting. In this case a truly ingenious
solution popped out. And when people started pointing fingers, the mission
commander told them to shut up and "work the problem, people." 

This is in stark contrast to the highly-organized and planned environments of
many companies. There is so much value placed on process and procedure, that it
isn't unusual for errors and mistakes to be totally ignored as they are hidden
under so many layers of procedure. 

> 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? 

This whole process is predicated on "maintaining the process."  If the process is
so important, than how come it even allowed crap to slip through?  One would
think that if the process was such an important aspect of the business, that
process would be built to ensure crap never slipped through.

Assigning blame FEELS important and necessary, but it does not solve the
immediate problems. Ideally, a team solves the problem quickly and then those
involved learn from the solutions process. You shouldn't have to go on an
extended "blame hunt" as the process of fixing those problems makes it obvious
what went wrong. 

" "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. 

"You" doesn't mean YOU personally, Gary. It's a rhetorical "you."  That's why
your name wasn't used. When I am referring to a particular person, I use their
name. That's why my "yous" have no antecedent. 

You, Gary, are injecting yourself as the antecedent. Which is fine, but that does
not mean YOU personally were being addressed. This is, after all, a public list.
Hence, I was addressing everybody. 

Andrew Plato 

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