Archive for October, 2009
ManagementSpeak, 10/26/2009
Monday, October 26th, 2009ManagementSpeak: That’s a work in progress.
Translation: We plan to ignore this for as long as we can.
Don’t ignore this week’s translation, even though this week’s contributor, quoting and translating his manager, wisely decided to remain anonymous.
Social Networking Dinosaur Syndrome
Monday, October 26th, 2009I just finished Leonard Susskind’s The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics. If you enjoy having your mind explode, you need to read it, because your mind will detonate at least three times while you do. Probably more.
The Black Hole War re-introduced me to grok [...]
ManagementSpeak, 10/19/2009
Monday, October 19th, 2009ManagementSpeak: It’s a self-limiting problem.
Translation: Ignore it and it will go away.
Thankfully, this week’s anonymous contributor didn’t ignore the problem of obfuscatory speech.
Issue Management: What the methodologies leave out
Monday, October 19th, 2009Scientists call it the observer effect. It’s what happens when the act of observation affects what they’re observing. Werner Heisenberg used it to develop his uncertainty principle. It’s why medical researchers use double-blind treatment trials and placebo controls.
ManagementSpeak, 10/12/2009
Monday, October 12th, 2009ManagementSpeak: I am shocked that this doesn’t amaze me.
Translation: I’m beyond caring.
I’m shocked, but not amazed, that this week’s contributor preferred to remain anonymous.
Threat management – the political plan
Monday, October 12th, 2009Imagine you’re no longer responsible for keeping your company’s computers up and running. Instead, you’re an epidemiologist. Rather than a new and very aggressive malware threat you read about a new and highly contagious virus … the statistics indicate 30% of those exposed become infected and roughly 1.25% of those infected die.
The U.S. has a [...]
ManagementSpeak, 10/5/2009
Monday, October 5th, 2009ManagementSpeak: You know what I mean.
Translation: I can’t support what I said and am not willing to change my mind.
This week’s anonymous contributor knew what “you know what I mean” meant.
Lack-of-analysis paralysis
Monday, October 5th, 2009The most significant challenge in communicating a new idea is convincing people it isn’t exactly the same as a superficially similar, older idea they’ve already embraced.
A classic example: During the introduction of object-oriented technology, many warhorse programmers were sure they’d been doing that stuff all along in COBOL. They then went on to write 10,000-line [...]
Bob Lewis is president of 