Welcome
Welcome to the Foresight Newsletter, a free monthly publication of Prevoyance Group Inc. This newsletter shares tips for high performance IT organizations and observations that we hope will prove informative and enjoyable.
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Contents
CONTENTS
Foresight is published by the Prevoyance Group, and this month contains four sections:
Work
Life
Heard in the Hallways
Travels with Patrick
Work
When I see Dilbert cartoons affixed to the cubicles of a company, I often laugh at their contents, but cringe at what they might indicate about the workforce at that company, especially if the cartoon is one of hundreds plastered on cubicle walls. Dilbert’s antics as the lovable line employee certainly amuse and often strike close to home. When they strike so close to home that they can be found on every other cubicle, they may be an early warning sign that something is amiss.
Some of Dilbert’s most amusing antics come at the expense of his boss, coworkers and the occasional consultant, all entities that must be functioning well together in order to build a successful organization. If Dilbert is making overly frequent appearances on the walls of your company’s cubicles, investigate the following areas:
- How are leaders perceived in your organization? Are they blowhards who send flowery emails in “management-ese” while disaster strikes the company? Are you among them?
- Are meetings effectively managed and conducted when necessary, or does your organization waste hours due to latecomers, disorganization and meetings that result in more meetings, rather than concrete actions and forward progress?
- Are there organizations that are constantly in conflict, with no efforts to cross-pollinate resources? Classic examples are conflicts between engineering and sales, logistics and marketing, and IT and just about anyone. To stymie these differences, embed IT staff in other organizations and vice versa, or align goals around a project rather than measuring each group differently even though a common objective is sought.
- If consultants are running amuck, qualify their value to yourself and line-level employees. If they are no longer delivering measurable value to the organization, or are becoming an administrative burden unto themselves, seek to discipline them or dismiss them.
While I am loathe to advocate deep psychological analysis based on comic strips, if Dilbert is making recurring appearances at your organization, a quick check that life is not reflecting art too closely is in order. If nothing else, you will find everything is in order, and get a good chuckle out of those organizations at which Dilbert would fit right in as an employee.
Life
One of the odd things about human nature is our ability to assume the worst when asking for something. I think about times I have reworked a proposal fifteen times, slashed the budget for a project and scraped my resource requirements down to a skeleton crew, all before I have even presented the proposal! We tend to assume the worst, and engage in mental gymnastics before the first no or yes has even been uttered. Often, the worst that can happen is a “no” that results in a situation that has neither improved or worsened; it’s the old scolding many of our parents admonished when we were faced with an unpleasant task as children: “What’s the worst that can happen? They say no?”
The best way to trip up that gymnast in our heads is to ask for the world, and compromise from there. While it does not happen every time, I have been surprised how often asking for the world results in a quick yes, perhaps indicating the original request was not as outlandish as I had thought.
Heard in the Hallways
Remember when your mother used to chide “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all?” Perhaps some businesses could use a slightly modified version of this axiom: “If you don’t have something to say, don’t say it at all.” I hate to poke fun at Microsoft as Microsoft bashing has taken on sport-like proportions in the last several years, and they are certainly not the only ones guilty of violating this rule, but a recent comment in the Wall Street Journal by a “Microsoft spokesman” had such a fabulous combination of meaningless, important-sounding business jargon that I simply cannot help myself. The spokesperson noted:
“We believe that our partnership strategy and vision will lead to the development of a very healthy and vibrant Internet ecosystem.”
This jumble of important-sounding words conveys absolutely no meaning that I can discern. It obviously cannot be a lie, or misconstrued or used against the company, as it means absolutely nothing. If you are going to hire a spokesperson, or speak to anyone at all, I would think a simple “no comment” would be preferable to the above. It is a bit like the amazingly overinflated bags of potato chips one finds at the grocery store. Expecting to find an abundance of goodies, one opens the bag only to find it filled with hot air.
Travels with Patrick
I recently lost an old friend of nine years. We had travelled the world together, visiting everywhere from the mountains of Italy to Itasca, IL. We started our consulting careers together, and while he looked a little worn towards the end. I still believe he had several good years left had he not been taken from me so suddenly. On 2 August 2007, US Airways lost my suitcase.
The attachment I had developed to this suitcase surprised even me when it was gone. It was everything from the bearer of bad news, standing at attention Sunday night serving as a reminder of a flight at dark o’clock in the morning, to an initiator of daydreams, faded security stickers from exotic locations reminding me of past vacations with friends and family. We encountered delays and adversities together, banged around airports, hotels and taxis, both foreign and domestic, and while my scratches and bruises healed, it wore its dings and frays as badges of honor.
After two weeks of ringing various call centers and airports, the baggage call center has finally given up and suggested I fill out a claim form. I have the latest version of my old travel partner on order, its enhanced pockets and storage compartments expected to replace bent zippers and torn fabric. I like to think my bag was accidentally routed to Fiji, or perhaps somewhere in the Caribbean (it never did like the snow), and is happily rolling along some sunny beach, loaded with a cargo of rum rather than “business casual.”