Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Managers want to hear the summary. The details are delegated. It is unfortunate that the summary rarely agrees with the details.

“Summarize it for me. Give me three choices. I delegate.”—managers everywhere all the time.

Simple statement from the managers. They have manager tasks to do. They delegate work to others. The others are supposed to summarize things and then do the work.

That would be nice. I guess it works in some fairy tales. I have rarely seen it work in the real world.

Here is a recent news report on algorithms—those mysterious things that seem to run the world even though we don’t understand what they are.

Algorithms are what the computer software does. The computer software is written by persons who understand the algorithms. Hence, you can regulate algorithms by regulating the computer programmers or at least supervising them.

The managers are supposed to supervise the computer programmers.

“What does this do? Give me the summary. I don’t have time for the details,” said the manager.

That is nonsense. The details are in the details. Look at the source code of the software to understand the algorithm. No time? Well, that is your job. Make the time.

Summaries in PowerPoint and memos do not contain details. The details are in the details. I have often seen summaries that aren’t quite true. The creators of the summaries are not trying to hide the details or lie about them. They were hired to write details into software. They weren’t hired to summarize. They simply do a poor job of summarizing.

They summarize (poorly). The managers approve (ignorantly). The results are not what was desired. Everyone gasps and says, “Gosh. There is no way to regulate algorithms.”

Come on folks. Let’s all do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

Special projects fail because they aren’t that special. We pretend or wish them to be so we can forego proven techniques and hard-learned lessons.

We know why fill-in-the-blank projects fail. Let’s fill in the blank:

• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• big data
• data lake
• non-profit
• whatever

Of course these projects are different from the normal project. Every project is different. And given that, what is a “normal” project? I guess we could average this and that and find a norm and standard deviation and such.

These special projects fail because they aren’t that special. They are more like the normal project than they are different from it. There are known ways to project success and there are known ways to project failure.

Telling myself that, “This is a special project, not like others so I don’t have to stick with the known fundamentals and avoid the known failure modes” is wishful thinking. Sometimes wishes come true. More often, however, they don’t.

This isn’t that special. Sorry.

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes we “know where everything is” despite outward appearances. Sometimes we have “a place for everything and everything in its place.” Sometimes both ideas work. Sometimes neither work.

Data is everywhere. Data is the new oil or bacon or pizza or something good or bad. The trouble with data is if I cannot find the one thing I need at the time and place I need it, all those data are useless.

Therefore, everything in its place. Look in the right place, as long as I can remember which place is the right place. Sometimes I can, and sometimes…the other.

Aha, I’ll just pile everything in to one place. I have a magic finder that finds whatever it is I want. Aha, that is Google search and WordPress search and Apple finder and Windows finder and … I guess there are many more. And they all work well! They allow me to simply toss new things on the pile. They “index” everything (what a bad noun-to-verb thing) and find it.

Sometimes this works. Sometimes that works. Sometimes nothing works. What am I to do?

Maybe I’ll just remember what it is I thought to be important. Then again, maybe I’ll forget it and move along happily anyways.

by Dwayne Phillips

Almost anyone can gather the material. Organizing it or creating a story from it, however, appears to be a rare yet valuable skill.

We have lots of information. Go to Wikipedia. Download PDFs of the pages. Concatenate the pages. There it is.

Go to a search engine. Find a dozen hits. Copy and paste. There it is.

Simple. Right? Everyone will read it. Right?

Wrong.

Someone needs to arrange or organize the material into a sequence that leads the reader somewhere. Some call that a “story.” Some call that a “flow.” Whatever we call it, we know it when we see it because it moves us.

Some persons do this well. Most others don’t. Natural-born talent? Maybe for 1% of us. The rest of us have to try hard(er). Let’s get to it.

by Dwayne Phillips

Regardless of position or circumstance, some people do things while others don’t.

This appears to be one of those parts of human nature that have puzzled me for years. Given a situation, some persons will talk, think, talk, ignore, and employ just about every verb there is except for the forms of “do.”

At the same time, there are persons who will use many verbs many of which are quite useful, then these persons will “do.” The persons will write the memo, update the procedure, take out the trash, cut the grass, fetch paper, go to the store, or do just about anything that moves the world in the forward direction.

Many years ago I knew a gentleman who worked in a state government. He knew many people in many offices of the state government. On occasion, persons would come to him and describe a stalemate they had reached while attempting to access services of the state. This acquaintance would give them a phone number and a name. The name was of a person who worked in the office in question. It was not the job of that person to do what was being requested, it was simply that this person worked in that office and this person worked in that office. This person was in that office and was one of those who would do. My acquaintance was always correct. The person seeking help would contact a person who would do. Work was done; the situation was resolved.

If you want something done, find someone who will do. One day I may understand how this works. For know, I simply know it exists.

by Dwayne Phillips

Lest we forget, we have always had more data than we could process. For some reason, we are now recording it with magnetism.

I just read yet another article telling me that “data is everywhere.” Then there are the usual numbers of peta-peta-something-or-other bytes of data every second or so. Cries follow of, “how are we going to use all this data?”

Eventually, the magazine article tells me to hire the writer who just happens to sell data processing this and that.

Data has always been everywhere. Leonardo Di Vinci had more data than he could process. He just didn’t have a machine that stored data using magnetism in one way or another. Now we do. Now these machines costs little compared to a rich person’s income (like me and like mine).

The poor of the world don’t seem to have data everywhere.

Funny how that works. Rich people create technologies that show what the rich people are lacking so the rich people can spend their riches on what only they lack.

Oh well.

by Dwayne Phillips

We usually understand one another better when we speak in simple, real-life terms—also know as plain English (for us English speakers).

Please speak in plain English.

Instead of: What are the Key Performance Indicators in your organization this reporting period?

Try this: What keeps you awake at night?

Instead of: Red, Green, or Yellow, how is your project?

Try this: When you are driving home from work, are you thinking about the project or about your home?

The list could go on. Find any “management term” anywhere and translate it to plain English, please.

This is not easy. This does not always work. It does, however, work more often that the other stuff.

by Dwayne Phillips

We have XaaS or EaaS. We have returned to the day of the general store.

We have almost everything as a service. Some call this XaaS. I call it EaaS (Everything as a Service or maybe AEaaS Almost Everything as a Service). Examples, IaaS, DHaaS, SaaS, PaaS, etc. (how many letters are their in the alphabet?).

We might as well call it GSaaS for General Store as a Service. The general store was (still is in some places) a rural store that (1) was the only store for miles and (2) carried just about everything that the folks nearby needed.

The days of the General Store have ended—well, sort of. In many rural areas of America there is the Dollar Store. That is a significant store as they carry dry groceries (canned and boxed) as well as this and that and everything else.

Perhaps we should call XaaS “DSaaS” (Dollar Store as a Service).

Alas, offering services to the high tech industry is a good idea. Everyone seems to need just about everything. Each company has its own area of expertise and would rather purchase other services instead of do them for themselves.

Walking through the rural areas of the American southeast (I did that in 2008 and 2009), I saw many places that offered many services. Tanning salon, income tax, accounting, baby sitting, and such were common. (I don’t understand the tanning salon as folks in rural areas generally get more outdoor sunshine than they want.) Everything as a Service. What you need not listed on the sign, just ask.

Got a tech company? Offer services. List them all, and be sure to list “Don’t see what you want? Just ask. We can probably do that, too.”

by Dwayne Phillips

As crazy as it sounds, high-level, recognized expert, professionals still read their PowerPoint to the audience.

I watch a lot of presentations. Not just a weekly briefing by someone who has relatively little experience on the job and making presentations. I watch presentations of research work. The presenters are experts, have years of experience, give presentations to international audiences, AND THEY READ THEIR POWERPOINT TO THE AUDIENCE!

Will wonders never cease? (or is it ever cease??)

The audience can read. The audience is reading. And the presenter is reading, too.

Seth Godin has an excellent video series on how to use PowerPoint and handouts and such when making presentations (see udemy.com). There are many other such series all over the Internet. Find one that makes sense to you.

Tell stories. Move people. Send a memo when that is enough. People know how to read. Let them read when reading is appropriate.

Please.

by Dwayne Phillips

Common thoughts foretell a general consensus.

Someone tells me something. Wait, I said that last week when talking to yet another person. Wait, two independent conversations with different audiences, and the same idea is stated.

There is a trend here. A consensus is forming. Perhaps great minds think alike (wouldn’t it be nice if that were true). Perhaps it is all just an accident, and we should go on and forget it.

In my experience, this is an opportunity that I have neglected too often. Sometimes different persons in different situations have the same idea. Momentum is building. If I like the idea, I should keep it going.

• We don’t have to talk bad about the person who is not in the room
• We don’t have to let work expand to the time allotted
• We don’t have to let things be the way they have always been
• We can change
• We can do something that makes a difference
• We can continue this list for a long time

Seize the moment. Seize the momentum. Keep a good idea moving. And always give credit to the person who repeated your good idea.