Dynamic Alternatives
PO Box 59237
Norwalk, CA 90652
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 11:28 AM
Mr. Morris E. Jones
morris.jones@intel.com
Intel Corporation
350 East Plumeria; Mail Stop CHP3-105
San Jose, CA 95124
..
Subject:
Bridge to a New Way of Working Begins with Study
Morris,
I agree. No matter what tools are used, they will be used by people to
support their approach to whatever is under discussion.
.. Whatever the tool, some will use it to attempt to control the judgments of
others and to attempt to become ascendant at the center of things. Nearly
everybody falls into this category.
A really good tool allows an individual who wishes to do so to pursue the
facts rather than merely to support his own opinions.
This is one of the reasons that I am not optimistic of the benefits of
allowing millions of people to "collaborate" in arriving at decisions. More
than 10 people in a room can't agree on when and where to go for lunch.
.. This goes beyond the "if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything
looks like a nail," to something more like "if the objective is to drive
nails, then any tool becomes a hammer."
As to 5h3 "25 words or less," I confess to an inability to do that in my own
work, but I do try to write in such a way that the issues, my proposal, and
the reasons for it are all clear. I do try to provide an introduction that
is as close as I can come to the "25 words or less," following the classic
formula of "tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then
tell them what you told them."
.. Having said that, there has to be *some* change in the way people work if
there is to be any change in the results they achieve. If we continue to do
what we have always done, we will continue to get what we have always
gotten. Unfortunately, the changes needed are more fundamental than any
tool, though better tools can help.
One of the major flaws in work practices that I see is that, at *all*
levels, *nobody* ever defines what the desired outcome is before setting out
to achieve them. There is always an assumption that *everybody knows* what
we are trying to do, so let's just get on with it. There are no defined
results, not plans based on those results, and no ways defined to determine
if we are actually accomplishing what we are supposed to be accomplishing.
Since "it all pays the same," and "that is the way we have always done it,"
this seems perfectly normal, so nobody ever notices that there is anything
wrong with this approach.
.. Thanks,