Corporate term: “An Age of Miracles”

Definition:

A phrase used when an issue or difficulty, suddenly resolves itself, with no explanation of what was done to resolve it and no indication of what caused the issue in the first place.

Explanation:

This may be maligning people, but this tends to happen in IT more than any other part of a corporation. A problem that’s been happening persistently or suddenly effects one part of the business, will suddenly miraculously start working often with the phrase, “oh, just try again”, and suddenly, the problem has gone away. No one is able to tell you what has been changed. It’s just fixed and there is always an overtone of “Well It’s working now. No point in chasing down the why”


In context, this phrase is often used on the next management meeting. and is a very sarcastic and corporate way of saying, “We don’t believe you. We know you’re lying to us. Tell us what you bloody fixed.” This desire isn’t just for witch hunting, but so that we know what to go looking for next time it breaks. Without a root cause these things just happen time and time again.

 

Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.

Management Nugget No 19: Explain Deadlines and Reasons

Nugget 19: You will get far more engagement from the people you work with if you give them a decent and full reason why you are asking them to go above and beyond.

Explanation:

Very often managers, project leaders, or directors, just state “oh, we need to meet deadline X” when they are asking for an extra push from teams and seem to infer that just because a deadline exists that all other people regard that as in some way critical.

But I have found that spending five minutes of giving a decent explanation in your communications as to why you genuinely need it, and the end consequence you are trying to avoid by asking for extra effort works wonders, And by that I do not mean threatening “If action X does not get completed by the end of this week, then director Z will be mad”. 1

Show people valid business orientated consequence in a non threatening way. Ask for their assistance to solve a slightly more holistic problem. Don’t just demand, don’t just threaten. You can chase, you can cajole, but if you give people a good reason, then they will help you and understand why, doing it this way also aids them in providing answers as to why you are jumping the queue, If they have a good reason they can also use that to give to their boss to try and get extra resources for this kind of issue.

Ultimately, give people solid reasons, if your work is so important they should be easy to supply.

 

Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.

FootNotes
  1. The very worst incarnation of this push for deadline without a reason issue, is when the people doing the work know what the deadline is and the reasons for it, but you chase for them earlier. A perfect example is if something has to be done before the end of a day and people plan their work accordingly, But you are chasing them for an update at 9.30am. This helps no one, it doesn’t mean the project will be done better, quicker, or more professionally, it just means that the team is no longer going to give you any update unlessed force. Because you are unreasonable with your update expectations.[]

Corporate term: “Magical 5 year old football”

Definition:

A situation inside a corporation where there is one point of interest which causes everyone to cluster in one place, ignoring all of the current essentials that require that their existing coverage be maintained.

Explanation:

This is a phrase heard at a security conference that quite gave me the giggles and in context, it means that if there is a large security incident or general outage, suddenly everybody in the corporation from network and security people to management, all suddenly cluster around this one issue, getting in each other’s way and not being efficient, just kicking at the problem without any plan. Everyone wants to be seen leaping to the most important thing, abandoning their current duties and leaving the space open for a more coordinated assault by competitors or bad agents.

 

Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.

Painting Guide – The Great Halloween Pumpkin

Painter: Stickfight

Model(s): The great Pumpkin and Halloween Base, Round 80mm

Method(s):

Undercoat Both models: Chaos Black

Mud:

Pumpkins:

Stones:

Leaves:

Vines:

Cobwebs:

Crows:

Snail:

Candles:

Paint Time: about 20 hours all told (only because I’m a slow painter)

Notes: To get a decent orange coverage, its much easier to airbrush it, Jokaero Orange followed by Trollslayer Orange highlighted on the top, gave a really good consistency. I have to say on a complex model like this that is done with 3d printing, It’s an absolute son of a devil to paint because of all the little nooks and crannies you can’t take apart to paint. As the base was uneven I had to pad the ground to fit the model evenly and used black Milliput squished in place and then peeled off before it dried, flattened out and then given some grooves to give a muddy earth effect, on the wash over the orange REALLY make sure you water down the agrax, else you end up with hard lines on your orange.

 

The Poison of “On a Roll”

“While we are on a roll” is a phrase often used when a manager has just received notification of success in a number of things or for a particularly tricky deliverable, they use it to signify that while we have this momentum of success we should keep pushing at the same level and see if we can get even more done.

The use of this phrase is one of the most innocently toxic things a manager of any level can say to someone who has just delivered something.

Let me explain.

Somebody has worked their guts off for the company or project, come up with a delivery often going above and beyond and presented it to you, You have then dismissed it most likely with no more than a “Great”, and then said, “Can I have more? and have it faster than last time”

There is a line in “Cider with Rosie” by Laurie Lee that fits this situation

“And the more I got, the more I called for more. It was like feeding a fat young cuckoo”

Every time someone does something for you above and beyond 1. Acknowledge it. Respect the effort, feedback that you respect it and give them a moment to take a breath before you reload them with other things. If you do not respect, give them positive feedback and reward them, then what reason do they have to put the effort in? 2

If you are still wondering why I’m making a fuss over this, imagine you are doing housework and have just spent a hard Saturday gardening and getting some of the really nasty chores done, you complete them and invite your partner out to see your handy work. But they just reply, “Good, As you are in a tidying mood, can you do the bathroom” … do you still feel like going above an beyond with your share of the housework?

FootNotes
  1. and I do mean every time not just the first[]
  2. Now there are times when the intention behind this phrase is valid but that is nearly always to do with a third party or a set of access or resources that are not normally available, in which case be specific on what you think would be a good idea to minimise work, i.e. “while we have the XXX team on the call, is there anything else you needed them to answer for you, so we don’t have to organise another call”[]