tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post2581263373383999240..comments2024-03-28T02:54:46.537-04:00Comments on The TOF Spot: Keep the ChangeTheOFloinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756711106266484327noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-30584503402289827452015-03-12T17:15:10.302-04:002015-03-12T17:15:10.302-04:00"What is important is not what people say, bu..."What is important is not what people say, but why they say it."<br />- Bishop Fulton SheenAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-11806341383846535802015-03-10T13:33:56.611-04:002015-03-10T13:33:56.611-04:00There's also a lot of punishment for insuffici...There's also a lot of punishment for insufficient excitement. If you ask any of the obvious questions about implementation, a lot of times people will assume that you are dragging your feet. Most of the time, I don't really care what the new policy is; and I'll go with any reasonable idea. But I don't want to hear happy talk as much as I just want to know what work activity is associated with it, and how we are going to avoid Things Going Wrong.<br /><br />I mean, I can just make up my own procedures if you like, but if you don't give me any information, then you don't have the right to be surprised if I'm unaware of their effect on other people's procedures. Or contrariwise, if my procedures are really good but other people in my position make up procedures that are really bad.<br /><br />But apparently, asking questions is negative talk. Sigh.Bansheehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12594214770417497135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-43079721020101726632015-03-09T13:50:02.291-04:002015-03-09T13:50:02.291-04:00Now that I've thought about it a while, it occ...Now that I've thought about it a while, it occurs to me that the incomparable Marge's fellow students needn't all be resistant to change. Some of them may have had persuasive reasons to select the seats they did the first day, and those reasons still being persuasive, chose the same seat the second day, knowing that the cleaning people wouldn't have been privy to their reasons.thefederalisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17514099991587503764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-54515599950759669772015-03-09T13:18:44.551-04:002015-03-09T13:18:44.551-04:00Now that I've thought about it a while, it occ...Now that I've thought about it a while, it occurs to me that the incomparable Marge's fellow students needn't all be resistant to change. Some of them may have had persuasive reasons to select the seats they did the first day, and those reasons still being persuasive, chose the same seat the second day, knowing that the cleaning people wouldn't have been privy to their reasons.thefederalisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17514099991587503764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-43983512178014038152015-03-07T11:33:40.171-05:002015-03-07T11:33:40.171-05:00No matter where you go in the world, there you wil...No matter where you go in the world, there you will find Chesterton, quaffing a beer and laughing.TheOFloinnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14756711106266484327noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-29657045071421164982015-03-07T00:04:45.444-05:002015-03-07T00:04:45.444-05:00“Suppose that a great commotion arises in the stre...“Suppose that a great commotion arises in the street about something, let us say a lamp-post, which many influential persons desire to pull down. A grey-clad monk, who is the spirit of the Middle Ages, is approached upon the matter, and begins to say, in the arid manner of the Schoolmen, ‘Let us first of all consider, my brethren, the value of Light. If Light be in itself good—’ At this point he is somewhat excusably knocked down. All the people make a rush for the lamp-post, the lamp-post is down in ten minutes, and they go about congratulating each other on their unmediaeval practicality.<br /><br />“But as things go on they do not work out so easily. Some people have pulled the lamp-post down because they wanted the electric light; some because they wanted old iron; some because they wanted darkness, because their deeds were evil. Some thought it not enough of a lamp-post, some too much; some acted because they wanted to smash municipal machinery; some because they wanted to smash something. And there is war in the night, no man knowing whom he strikes.<br /><br />“So, gradually and inevitably, to-day, to-morrow, or the next day, there comes back the conviction that the monk was right after all, and that all depends on what is the philosophy of Light. Only what we might have discussed under the gas-lamp, we now must discuss in the dark.”<br /><br />—G. K. C., <i>Heretics</i>Tom Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16067031472666752839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-82511253006492633112015-03-04T17:23:26.373-05:002015-03-04T17:23:26.373-05:00Cool, thanks.
Change examples - At my tiny compa...Cool, thanks. <br /><br />Change examples - At my tiny company, moving from an ad hoc development environment (where the owners decide what they want and tell people to build it) to trying to coordinate several people's development goals and habits with actual customer input. I've long made the mistake of believing that, if I just made a good enough logical case, people would go along. Nope. Even having demonstrable results - having the things I run objectively work better - isn't enough. <br /><br />1. We're working on a new product. I defined the goals, and laid out a series of steps for research, marketing and development, which I showed to everybody involved, revised on the spot according to their observations and questions, and got them all nodding along. <br /><br />Next meeting, almost all the issues I thought we'd settled in meeting one came back - it was a disaster. So I took the original plan, boiled it down into a short PowerPoint, met with the two chief designers (who are the key gate keepers - nothing gets done unless they want it done) and took them through it again, slowly, asking for feedback every inch of the way. I also asked what they'd like me to do to help make them happier about the project. Then, I followed up with an email, restating the goals and process, stating what I'd be doing to make them more comfortable, and asking them if I'd gotten it right. They both replied, I made a few clarifications, got them to bless it, and sent out an OK, this is what we're doing email. <br /><br />Next meeting, the noise was reduced, but not eliminated - several of the basic questions came up again, some even from one of the designers who'd signed off. But it's sort of working, progress is being made. I think. The beta is supposed to be available within 2 months - I drop in on the guy doing the actual design, he now even calls me to get my opinion about look and feel and functionality. I also never miss a chance to tell the people involved how excited I am by what they're doing (it's true) so that they at least get warm fuzzies from me. So, there's that. But experience has me waiting for the other foot to fall. <br /><br />2. Long ago discovered that one of the chief designers basically hates anything that isn't his own idea. His self-image is tightly bound with being the smartest guy in the room. BUT - if you wait long enough, and stay quiet about it, your ideas will become his ideas, and everything flows nicely from there! I've caused several people who work with this gentleman to laugh out loud when I've mentioned that this is my strategy. The laugh because it's true. <br /><br />Anyway, have never thought this way about writing - very helpful. I've gotten 75% through with a couple stories recently, where I ceased to be convinced that the characters were sufficiently and correctly motivated to justify the ending - to achieve the level of reader satisfaction that a good ending should achieve. This will help, if I don't murder the stories completely thinking about it. Joseph Moorehttps://yardsaleofthemind.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-30381160816284092932015-03-03T13:54:31.620-05:002015-03-03T13:54:31.620-05:00And another wants to piggy-back his own agenda on ...And another wants to piggy-back his own agenda on top of the change.TheOFloinnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14756711106266484327noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-82437481390509065492015-03-03T01:57:15.567-05:002015-03-03T01:57:15.567-05:00Not necessarily. To insist on the change being han...Not necessarily. To insist on the change being handled badly is in some cases to *require* an Idiot Plot.<br /><br />You can have all sorts of conflict arising from other sources during a period of change, such as characters disagreeing over the pace of a change. One wants to have the change happen faster, another wants to slow it down (but not to stop it).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-13421688773998560742015-03-02T08:49:37.606-05:002015-03-02T08:49:37.606-05:00Though, if one is writing fiction, wouldn't on...Though, if one is writing fiction, wouldn't one want to write it so that the change is handled badly so that there's plenty of conflict going on?Sarah McCabehttps://sarahmccabemythopoet.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-42719399470033833382015-03-01T09:26:39.509-05:002015-03-01T09:26:39.509-05:00I think you handled this issue very well in The Wr...I think you handled this issue very well in <i>The Wreck of the River of Stars.</i>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-22606648165274251232015-02-28T14:50:31.643-05:002015-02-28T14:50:31.643-05:00This is fantastic. I have both bookmarked it for r...This is fantastic. I have both bookmarked it for re-reading as part of that rat's-nest of links I refer to as my "writing research," and will be sharing it with my parental units, who are in the business of advertising (another sort of storytelling, really) and often help clients interested in getting people to make changes.Ceehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13482821484517709012noreply@blogger.com