Change Management

The Innovation Generation – Communication Styles

I've seen many articles in recent weeks about the tech-savvy Millennials and their impact on future work. I concede, even welcome the changes that business will need to introduce in response to these new expectations, but I don't see the massive change that some writers seem to think is inevitable. The world will not change to accommodate the Millennials, but relevant and effective new working styles will definitely be adopted where they make business sense. I will certainly agree that…

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More on (sic) experience with wikis

no, that's not a typo ... Preamble: This starts out sounding like a diary entry, but some interesting wiki-focused observations are found below - including metrics! Catching up on old items in my feed reader: Back in November, TechCrunch had an item on AboutUs, which at first glance looked at little self-referential, a web site on web sites. Digging in a bit more - we find it's a wiki about web sites, which is still seemed a tiny bit redundant,…

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Thoughts on Why Tech Folks Hate Documentation

I've had some flashes of insight on why technical folks don't like to document stuff. Currently, I'm thrashing thru a skunkworks project that is evolving into something that will need to be reasonably available, robust, etc. I'm also trying to lead by example; I ask my teams to build for sustainability and document so they can "walk away". Of course, I'm also lazy - I really don't want to explain things over and over again. However, the time crunch I…

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Guidelines for Success with your Skunk Works project

I've been hearing the term skunk works a lot lately, in reference to off-plan projects that are moving forward in all that "free time" people have in the IT department. Sometimes the term sounds slightly perjorative, but I like it when a project I am involved with is referred to in this way. The term's origin is well documented, no need to repeat it here. The Lockheed Martin folks made it famous, when referring to technology projects "on the edge"…

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Euphemisms, and a career-extending paradox

I use a number of euphemisms all the time, in my conversations with folks, trying to balance complete yet brief communications. A common phrase when trying to show that you've seen a similar situation before is ... "In a previous life ..." (IAPL), as in "In a previous life, we did consolidated financials within the ERP ...". I find it's a bit smoother than citing the bigger company you used to work for (sounds condescending) or the smaller company you…

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