Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

There are techniques, tools, methodologies, etc. that won’t work—until they do. They shouldn’t work—until they do. What is happening here?

Many years ago, we were sitting in a conference room watching a presentation video on a television. The television has a cathode ray tube with a curved glass cover (I wrote that this was many years ago). The display glass was covered with dust. I left the room and returned with several wet paper towels. Just before touching the screen, someone shouted, “Hey, don’t do that. That won’t work. That’s the wrong way to clean a screen!”

I cleaned the television screen with wet paper towels. It worked just fine.

• You shouldn’t clean a television screen with wet paper towels. It won’t work.
• You shouldn’t clean a chalk board with wet paper towels. It won’t work.
• You shouldn’t clean an erasable white board by writing on it. It won’t work.
• You shouldn’t document a system with a pencil and paper. It won’t work.
• You shouldn’t talk to a person in person face to face. It won’t work.

The list goes on and on. There are many techniques you shouldn’t use to accomplish tasks as those techniques won’t work—until they do.

Sometimes, the wrong technique gives 80% good results. Sometimes, the wrong technique gives 98.6% good results. Those techniques don’t give 100% good results, so they are the wrong technique.

Well, some of us have never achieved 100% on anything in our lives. Therefore, we accept what we achieve and keep moving forward. Someone in the audience, who maybe achieved 100% at some point in their life, will scream. Ignore them.

Oh wait, ignoring a scream won’t work—until it does.