CONTACTS 
0201 - Digital Equipment Corporation      415 882 3600 fax or 800...
020101 - Mr. Merrill Malvini Jr.
020102 - Sales Executive =415 882 3592 car 415 269 0733
020103 - Multivendor Customer Service Sales

SUBJECTS
DigiCon, 951010, Sales Discussions
Executive Work Practices
Listening & Dialog Skills
Communication Metrics, Measures "Listening"
Time - Too Busy Being Busy
Communication Manager Ensures Time is
Little Deviations Lead to Big Problems
Knowledge Creep, Avoid
Empower Command Control, Good Management

1411 -    ..
1412 - Summary/Objective
1413 -
141301 - Followed up work at ref SDS 13 line 41, ref SDS 8 line 65 and ref DIP 1 line 30 on the PMI Event.
141303 -
141304 - Merrill responded in part to my letter last week submitting the NWO
141305 - paper.  He provides evidence about conventional executive work
141306 - practice, and offers a useful correlation of Communication Manager as
141307 - a "librarian."
141308 -
141309 -
141310 -
141311 -
1414 -
1415 -
1416 - Discussion
1417 -
141701 -  ..
141702 - Meaning of "New World Order"
141703 -
141704 - Merrill said he is reading the NWO paper subitted via ref DIP 1 line
141705 - 32, and wanted to discuss it.  I suggested he complete reading the
141706 - paper and then submit written comments.  Merrill wanted to visit about
141707 - it first.
141708 -
141709 - He has read the first page but said he does not understand it.  He
141710 - said it presents a lot of ideas.
141711 -
141712 -
141713 -      ..
141714 -     More Information Reduces Management Productivity
141715 -
141716 -     I explained page one offers an equation between small errors
141717 -     everybody makes each day; and the losses, lawsuits, recessions,
141718 -     wars and reengineering which everybody attributes to Murphy's Law
141719 -     or to somebody else's fault, as in not telling the truth.  The
141720 -     Information Highway makes people so busy....
141721 -
141722 -  ..
141723 -
141724 -                         there isn't enough time
141725 -
141726 -     ... to succeed.  Everybody is too busy to discover these small
141727 -     errors which Aristotle noted are compounded over time, causing
141728 -     individuals, organizations and nations to drift off course.  Our
141729 -     biology hides these errors and makes it easier to justify ignoring
141730 -     them, under the guise of "expediting" the work, when information
141731 -     comes too fast due to a hectic schedule.
141732 -
141733 -
141734 -      ..
141735 -     Museum, Taking It to the People
141736 -     Communication Metrics Automates Management
141737 -
141738 -     Productivity can be improved a lot by ferreting out deviations and
141739 -     fixing them before they take root.  Merrill summed up this idea as
141740 -     empowering people to "get to the musuem," ref SDS 5 line 104,
141741 -     which is a metaphor about linking to original sources and
141742 -     objectives in order to avoid knowledge creep, ref SDS 6 line 180,
141743 -     called out as traceability and continual learning in the paper, as
141744 -     critical management tasks, recognized by emerging professional
141745 -     standards, but which is only practical using automation.
141746 -
141747 -
141748 -  ..
141749 - Communication Metrics:  Generic Management Science
141750 -
141751 - Merrill asked about the membership of PMI.  He seemed to indicate a
141752 - belief that PMI is an organization for the construction industry, and
141753 - that the paper addresses management issues endemic to that field which
141754 - may not apply to the wider world arena.  Merrill feels the ideas in
141755 - the NWO paper do not reflect his experience with executives in the
141756 - high tech industry.
141757 -
141758 -     [See follow up that resolves this concern, ref SDS 15 line 73.]
141759 -
141760 - I advised my intent was to set out a body of ideas about management
141761 - fundamentals based on universal conditions in the modern world.
141762 -
141763 -
141764 -  ..
141765 - PMI Background/Membership
141766 -
141767 - I explained PMI seems to have originated in the pharmecutical and
141768 - petrochemical industries, ref SDS 4 line 71.  Construction has a long
141769 - presence in PMI.  Information Technology is heavily represented in the
141770 - membership, in part because high tech firms joined PMI to market their
141771 - project management tools.  I mentioned debate within PMI about the
141772 - integrity of the "Project Management Professional" (PMP) designation
141773 - in settings like DEC, Intel, HP and other firms where internal
141774 - projects are not performed under a charter or contract that defines
141775 - adequate authority for the project manager to be successful.  I called
141776 - PMI today to follow up on this issue, ref SDS 14 line 119.
141777 -
141778 -
141779 -
141780 -
1418 -

SUBJECTS
Executive Mindset, Overcoming Obstacle to
Executive Work Practices
Correcting Corrections, Overcome by SDS
Cursory Analysis Causes Small Mistakes
Align Communications to Adjust Course
Golf Course is Best Course for Executive so

2009 -
200901 -  ..
200902 - Communication Managers Fill in the Gaps
200903 -
200904 - Merrill said executives with whom he has worked over the past 20 years
200905 - have not seemed engaged in the details of their work to the extent
200906 - contemplated by SDS.
200907 -
200908 -     I indicated that may be why Communication Managers are needed.
200909 -
200910 -     Executive Work Practices
200911 -
200912 -     Cursory analysis to expedite cause mistakes that need correction
200913 -     before disaster strikes.  Merrill said executives give perfunctory
200914 -     orders and spend time on the golf course.  We considered the
200915 -     advantage of executives being away from the office to think things
200916 -     through before more calls, meetings, faxes and email overburden
200917 -     their ability to think.  Since they do not have SDS, they have no
200918 -     ready means to convert new information into knowlege.  Since they
200919 -     lack SDS skills, fear discovering inadequate decisions, and deny
200920 -     making mistakes, somebody else must perform the SDS function, as
200921 -     discussed with Jack Farless at the Corps of Engineers, ref SDS 11
200922 -     line 231.  The golf course is the best place for executives in the
200923 -     modern era who lack SDS skills, so Communication Managers can get
200924 -     the team back on the right course.
200925 -
200926 -
200927 -
2010 -

SUBJECTS
Voice Data Entry
Keyboard is Hard for Executives to Use
Keyboard Data Entry, Synergy in Crafting

2306 -
230601 -  ..
230602 - Voice Data Entry Could be Helpful
230603 -
230604 - Merrill said that voice data entry would greatly aid using SDS.  I
230605 - mentioned recent comments by David Vannier at Intel and Morris Jones
230606 - at Chips & Technologies, who report voice data entry is not as
230607 - productive as many people expect, ref SDS 12 line 153.  I related my
230608 - experience using SDS the past 12 years, shows that using both hands on
230609 - the keyboard in conjunction with immediate feed back from the eyes in
230610 - evaluating what the mind and the hands are creating, seems to enhance
230611 - creativity, similar to a piano player or sculptor.  Strong editing and
230612 - linking tools add to this advantage.
230613 -
230614 - Merrill said he has had that experience also.  He is writing his memos
230615 - these days on email.
230616 -
230617 -
230618 -  ..
230619 - Follow Up
230620 -
230621 - I thanked him for taking the time to consider my work, explained how
230622 - helpful it would be to receive his comments in writing so I can use
230623 - them in SDS, rather than having to rely on my memory of his comments.
230624 -
230625 - We did not discuss getting Bill Walsh's book, which Merrill talked
230626 - about earlier, ref DIP 1 line 32.
230627 -
230628 -
230629 -
2307 -
2308 -
230801 -
2309 -

SUBJECTS
Listening & Dialog Inadequate, Need
Listening, Anger from Different
Truth is a Moving Target on Information
Meeting Notes, confirm understandings
People Who Make Different Assumptions Are
Meeting Notes Metric of Listening
Listening Verbal Communication Error Prone

3410 - 2118 received email from Merrill.
3411 -
341101 - Received ref DRT 1 line 30 from Merrill setting out his understandings
341102 - from the above discussion.  This was extremely useful.
341103 -
341104 -
341105 -  ..
341106 - Rod Was Not Listening
341107 -
341108 - He feels my response to his question about the meaning of page 1,
341109 - showed I was not listening to him adequately, ref DRT 1 line 31.
341110 -
341111 -     It is unclear whether this means I interrupted and prevented him
341112 -     from setting out all of his concerns, or adequately expressing
341113 -     them.  Alternatively, I could have misunderstood them.
341114 -
341115 -     Merrill's memo indicates fairly close correlation with my notes;
341116 -     however, I will submit this record so he can clarify any shortfall
341117 -     in my understanding of his questions about page one.
341118 -
341119 -         [The next day, Merrill reported a full reading of the NWO
341120 -         paper resolved his concerns, ref SDS 15 line 77.]
341121 -
341122 -
341123 -  ..
341124 - How Does PMI Membership Impact the New World Order?
341125 -
341126 - He indicates the explanation of PMI membership gave the article
341127 - perspective that helped him understand it, but he does not say what
341128 - perspective was achieved or how it impacts the meaning of the article.
341129 - What does he gather about the usefulness of the article based on the
341130 - membership of PMI?  How does that differ from my understandings set
341131 - out above?
341132 -
341133 -
341134 -
341135 -
3412 -

SUBJECTS
Feel Good Management v. SDS
Executive Work Practices
Feel Good Management Supresses Conflict,

3706 -
370601 -  ..
370602 - Feel Good Management - Common Sense
370603 -
370604 - Merrill describes our discussion as asserting executives use "common,
370605 - accepted knowledge" to make decisions that might be enhanced by using
370606 - a librarian, ref DRT 1 line 38.
370607 -
370608 -          [See follow up on use of "librarian" to convert informtion
370609 -          into knowledge, ref SDS 16 line 52.]
370610 -
370611 -     I seem to recall using the phrase "official view of reality" to
370612 -     reflect that executives make cursory decisions.  The phrase
370613 -     "common, accepted knowledge" seems to be essentially the same
370614 -     thing.  "Common sense" and "fools gold" are other ways to describe
370615 -     executive decision making.
370616 -     ..
370617 -     This reflects in part Morris' observation at Chips that
370618 -     executives work differently from the "Welch management method" of
370619 -     plan, perform and report, automated by the SDS program.
370620 -     Executives base decisions on what feels right at the moment and
370621 -     then adjust when problems arise later, ref SDS 1 line 148.  Recent
370622 -     discussions at Intel seem to confirm this "common sense" approach,
370623 -     ref SDS 12 line 267.
370624 -
370625 -
370626 -
3707 -

SUBJECTS
Librarian to Get Information
Com Manager Title Name Other than Com Manager

4705 -
470501 -  ..
470502 - Communication Manager is Part Librarian
470503 -
470504 - Merrill's use of "librarian" in his letter today, ref DRT 1 NS6M,
470505 - shows one kind of mental anchor people may have about the idea of a
470506 - "Communication Manager" proposed in the NWO paper. ref OF 2 6369
470507 -
470508 - An article reviewed on 940510 cites some industry efforts to use a
470509 - library role for organizing the record and facilitating access.
470510 - ref SDS 2 WJ4H
470511 -
470512 - Librarian might be a helpful bridge concept from the passive librarian
470513 - role of information provider, to the proactive role of Communication
470514 - Manager that connects up information to discover and correct
470515 - misunderstandings, deviations from contracts, correspondence, calls
470516 - and email, and to maintain shared meaning over time, as explained in
470517 - the NWO paper.
470518 - ..
470519 - The "librarian" role is a good way to begin building awareness
470520 - about Communication Metrics, unless it causes a mental trigger that
470521 - turns off further consideration of added value beyond what librarians
470522 - provide.  Executives may object to having their work scrutinized, but
470523 - typically would object less to discoverying their mistakes to avoid a
470524 - loss, than to being "reengineered" out of a job.
470525 -
470526 -      [On 960626 article proposing "librarian" role to convert
470527 -      informtion into knowledge. ref SDS 16 0001
470528 -
470529 -
470530 -
470531 -
470532 -
470533 -
4706 -

SUBJECTS
Not Enough Time to Understand
Common Sense Substitute for Analysis,
Time, Not Enough, So Need to Work Faster
Not Enough Time to Analyse and Understand
Common Sense Ignores Data uses Experience

5208 -
520801 -  ..
520802 - Not Enough Time to Create Knowledge & Ideas
520803 -
520804 - Merrill correctly notes my view that executives are overburdened,
520805 - however, I did not intend to convey that this burden reduces the time
520806 - available for an executive to tap into information repositories, cited
520807 - by Merrill, ref DRT 1 line 42.
520808 -
520809 -     My sense is that executives and everybody else do not have enough
520810 -     time to convert the information they receive and create, into what
520811 -     they and everybody else needs: knowledge and ideas.  They rely
520812 -     instead on the quick fix of "common knowledge" Merrill mentions in
520813 -     the prior paragraph, with the result that mistakes occur.
520814 -
520815 -     Communication Metrics fixes those mistakes before they cause harm.
520816 - ..
520817 - Merrill confirms my understanding that he plans to finish
520818 - reading the NWO paper and submit further comments.
520819 -
520820 -    [See follow up at ref SDS 15 line 75.]
520821 -
520822 -