Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Deciding quickly can be a mistake. Deciding to delay deciding can be as well.

I decide, quickly. That is my temperament. I have decided quickly and poorly on many occasions.

I know many persons who decide slowly. That is their temperament. They often decide slowly and correctly. That is, if you only count the final decision as a decision.

Every day, every hour, and sometimes, every moment that they delay their decision, they have decided—to delay their decision. Each moment of, “Am I ready to decide?” brings a yes or no decision.

Let’s not forget to count all the little decisions and the energy consumed by each. If efficiency is the number one goal…then…

Thanks to Seth Godin.

by Dwayne Phillips

We (or at least I) need a word for those little things that give us (me) headaches.

The waiter at the restaurant walked by. He had a band-aid on his thumb. “Yeah,” he acknowledged. “I just cut or burned for scraped or something my thumb and put a band-aid on it.”

The small injury was easy to explain. The band-aid was an obvious, visible display of the injury. We all understand it.

I went to a meeting at work (name just about any day in the workplace where we have meetings). Someone said something or showed something or did something that gave me a terrible headache.

I didn’t put a visible band-aid on my forehead to show everyone that what they did hurt my head. No one understood that some action gave me a headache.

And I can’t find a verb like “cut” or “scraped” or “burned” to express what happened. Hence, the title of the post. Why is it that a little cut on the thumb is seen and understood, but a major event that brings a headache and angst goes unnoticed and all that?

Here’s a tip: at the end of each meeting, the person presiding stops and asks, “Did anyone get a headache in this meeting? Did any of us give anyone else a headache? Did anyone just ___-ed their brain? If yes, let’s pause and discuss that.”

The ensuing discussion will probably be far more important than anything else discussed previously.

by Dwayne Phillips

We like to hold really big events. What is their purpose? Who benefits? How might we do them differently?

We like to hold really big events where a throng gathers and one person (who is really important) stands up in front and talks. I know we like to do this because we do it so often.

The purpose of the really big event is to present information. “Something new is here. Listen, I will tell you.” Hmmm, wouldn’t an email, text message, blog, website, newsletter, letter in snail mail, etc. do the same? There must be something else here.

The main beneficiary of the really big event is the really important person standing up in front. The gathered throng makes it possible for the really important person to say something one time in one place. Isn’t it nice of the gathered throng to gather for the benefit of that really important person? (In case I didn’t make this clear, this is a jaded, cynical comment.)

Again, the really important person could send one email, text message, etc. one time to accomplish the same.

What are we doing? What could we be doing? Well, we have a throng gathered. We hope there are plenty of smart persons in the gathered throng. Let them ask questions and discuss the new thing with the really important person. We would harness the combined brain power of the throng.

Hmmm. That would mean the really important person would talk much less and the gathered throng would talk much more. Really important persons don’t like that. I know this because really important persons never seem to host such gatherings.

Are you a really important person? Am I? What are we doing? What are we saying?

by Dwayne Phillips

Take care how we state the requirements for a database. A spot on the floor often meets the requirements.

I attended a meeting recently wherein a senior official with a long, impressive title stood in front of a crowd of several hundred persons and spoke at length (three hours). A major part of the three-hour meeting was to explain to everyone the database system that was being developed. This system had been under development for about ten years and only needed a little more time before it was finished.

The pinnacle of the three-hour talk was a PowerPoint slide (do we still call them slides?) that showed the definition of this database. I considered the definition for a while—I had nothing else to do at the time. I had the answer even though no one asked a question.

“I can building the system in a minute. Actually, I have it already built,” I said.

Well, for once my brain kept my mouth shut. I didn’t say the above, but I thought it. We could store all the things stated in the PowerPoint on the floor. Lest you think I jest, I do not. Give me the things stated, and I will put them on the floor. Viola’. Finished!

I facilitated this exercise once at a conference of really smart persons. I stated database requirements. Really smart persons scribbled on large sheets of paper to design a system that would meet the requirements. I then showed them how the floor would also meet the requirements at a much lower cost and a much shorter schedule.

Take care how we define database requirements. The floor often suffices.

by Dwayne Phillips

The self-portrait and the disappearance of the photographer.

There sure are a lot of self-portraits on the Internet. Okay, perhaps I am a little late on that observation. Everyone takes “selfies” nowadays.

See someone’s photo, or more accurately their “image,” online? Can you see both of their hands? If yes, then perhaps someone else took their photo. But then there is all this using a mirror. Is the person holding a smartphone in one of their hands? Then they are using a mirror. See any backwards writing in the background?

So all this begs the question in me, “What happened to the photographer?” Some of us remember the day when we paid a person to take our photograph, the ones that appeared on the wall in our parents’ bedroom or in the hallway. Some of us remember when the tourists would ask the locals, “Can you take our picture?” while handing them the camera.

The locals would gladly fumble with the camera and take a picture that was all too often fuzzy and contained more feet than smiles. The tourists grimaced days later when they saw the developed and printed pictures. Oh well. It was a fun vacation.

When I graduated high school, my mother took me into town to a photographer’s studio. My high school yearbook photos were awful (really). A photographer did the job right.

What happened to the photographers? Selfies are inexpensive. We get what we pay for.

by Dwayne Phillips

Trying to balance the cost of employees with their value isn’t easy. We usually do this poorly.

H-1B visas bring in labor from outside the US. Fact is, these persons are paid less. Fact is, they may speak English, but their American English is lacking. That lack hurts understanding and costs time, quality, and money.

Many immigrants come seeking opportunity to excel that didn’t exist back in their old home. This is the land of opportunity. We extend opportunity to others just as someone extended it to our ancestors.

What is the best value in our hiring? Lower-paid immigrants with lower language skills? How to we calculate the opportunity benefit? Do we? Why do I have a headache? Why does my heart tug at me when considering all this?

There must be a simpler answer to all this. Someone must have a formula. Someone must have a spreadsheet where I can plug in the numbers and the answer appears. Perhaps that someone doesn’t exist, and those magic spreadsheets don’t exist either.

If you are really smart and wise, we welcome your input on this one.

by Dwayne Phillips

We do this time and time again—hold a retreat, find great ideas, and then have a disaster. When will we learn?

A bunch of us spent the weekend away discussing this and that. We came up with some great ideas that the rest of you will love!

Disaster ensues.

This happens time and time again. I guess that means it happens so often that everyone else would have learned the lesson by now, but for some reason just about none of us have figured it out.

For “the rest of you” to love the ideas found during the weekend retreat, the “rest of you” need to repeat the experience of the weekend retreat. That never seems to happen, so the “rest of you” don’t see the genius in the great ideas, you resist them, and disaster ensues.

If I spend the weekend away with a few persons and we find some great ideas, we have to find a way for the rest of you to experience what we experienced. We have to try really hard. We have to take far more time than we want.

And sometimes we have to admit that some great ideas we came up with may simply be not so great or downright stupid when exposed to the light of day.

Changing how the persons in a group do things and know things isn’t easy. Sometimes the work needed is far more than anticipated. Sometimes the time needed is far more than anticipated.

Have a retreat. Find great ideas. Then work really hard.

by Dwayne Phillips

Our central government continues to call for technical talent while not changing the culture of the workplace. Some still believe in fairy tales.

The past President spent two terms asking for tech talent from places and industries that had tech talent to come to Washington D.C. and the Federal workplace. The current President continues the same call.

“Come here and serve your country!”

Side Note: there will be no changes in the culture of the Federal workplace. Don’t worry, you’ll adapt to it.

Second Side Note: Fairies will visit nightly and sprinkle fairy dust here and there to sweeten the deal.

One More Side Note: There are no fairies. There is no fairy dust. Fairy tales are fairy tales, not reality.

Typical Federal Government Decision: Should we perform a one-person-hour task? Let’s hold series of meetings that consume 100 person-hours to decide. That way the decision will be spread over a large group of persons and no one will be held responsible.

And some wonder why young, bright, talented persons with technical skills are not coming to the Federal workplace.

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes the best thing to do is practice once or twice. The object of the exercise is not good performance; it is learning.

The “dry run” is a term that comes from the performing arts. It is basically a rehearsal. Practice the thing a few times. Simple enough.

What we tend to confuse in the dry run is the objective. We often aim to have a high-quality or good performance. Instead, we should aim to learn.

There is a difference in how we conduct the dry run when we change the objective to learning. First, the practice audience is NOT present to learn the faults of the practice-ers. They are present to find a lack in quality in various places so that the practice-ers learn. Some audience members may be present to find learnings in presentation while others may be searching for learnings in technical correctness, etc.

Second, the presenters are present to present, present, and continue to present. No “time outs” for reflection and readjustment. Learnings will come later when the practice audience provides their impressions of the dry run.

Finally, the overall object of the dry run is to aid learning so the entire group can improve the quality of the product. This is not an exercise in grading individual presenters.

The “grade” given the dry run is proportional to the amount learned. If much is learned, the dry run was a big success. If little was learned, the dry run was a mild success. If nothing was learned, the dry run was a waste of resources and should not have occurred.

This last point goes against much of what we normally do at work. “Hey, you guys did GREAT,” means the dry run was a wasteful failure.

“We have much to improve,” means the dry run was a great use of resources and a big success.

Is your organization ready for this? A dry run won’t work if you aren’t ready.

by Dwayne Phillips

For some reasons, large portions of the population believe that the person who speaks last wins the argument.

He had the last word. That settles it.

Does it really? Does the last person who says anything pronounce the conclusion?

“Water freezes at 33 degrees F.” I can shout that over and over and over and always be the last person to speak. Does that make it true? Am I right?

No, and no. But I did have the last word.

When encountering persons who believe such, I let them have the last word. Otherwise I would still be talking with them and not sitting here writing this.

When I decide to let the other have the last word, it must literally be the last word. When they proclaim once again what temperature freezes water, I have to say nothing. Not even, “Yes,” and not even a nod.

Sometimes it is difficult to let the other person have the last word and end the conversation. They demand some sort of, “I agree with you.” Silence brings the reply, “Silence means agreement.” (I think I have written about that fallacy as well.)

Life with the I-must-have-the-last-word person isn’t always easy. Working with such a person can downright agonizing.

Solutions? As always, be honest and open. Tell people, “The last word is not always the conclusion.” And then allow others to continue speaking.