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Archive for the ‘Mindlessness’ Category

Today I was setting up a VMWare Workstation instance. I tried to ping the host. It did not work. Figures. I thought to myself, what's the setting to enable that again? I get tired of hunting this down for the Windows Firewall and my Norton Firewall.

I also wanted an excuse to play with creating HD quality YouTube videos. So here goes.

How do you say "I don't know"? More often than I would like I am presented with an opportunity to tell a client or potential client how little I know about topic XYZ. In consulting, each opportunity presents itself as new twists to an old problem or some completely new animal that catches you totally off guard.

If you have had success in your past endeavors you usually have an answer or a process that quickly derives an answer in your back pocket. For those days when you get blind-sided, just how do you say you are clueless without coming off as inept?

1. Discuss something you have done that is similar
2. Demonstrate some degree of familiarity with the problem space (though perhaps not a solution)
3. Admit you simply do not know

I have found that trying to know everything is generally a recipe for disaster. It comes back to bite you in the end. I will usually opt for total transparency whenever possible and point out where I may be lacking in hopes of fostering a trust relationship with the client. This in turn sometimes leads them to grant a little latitude or even an allotment of time to learn something new.

Since I am always looking for new ways to not look totally moronic, how do you say "I don't know" gracefully?

I typically have a hard time in meetings and conference calls when the term Best Practice springs to life. What is a Best Practice? Perhaps I should ask what it means in the context of this post. You can read all about what Best Practice might mean here. 50% of the time I view this as one of the eighty thousand buzzwords that get tossed around during requirements gathering or the whole RFP, RFI, RF* process.

Problems with best practices:

1. There may be NO Best practice for your particular issue
2. Using a Best Practice can easily fail because you used it instead of investigating the root problem

Having problems figuring something out? Arguing over the best course of action? Ask the consultant what the Best Practice is. This is a great tactic. We grant our consultants a chance to prove themselves, absolve our self of responsibility, appear to be acting in the best interest of the project and get to check off another buzzword. All with a single question. I find this course can elude talking about the real issues. We fail to decide on a real solution for a tough business problem we are facing.

Sure, there really is such a thing as a good course of action or a Best Practice for various issues. News Flash: Not every problem HAS a Best Practice. In fact, a fairly large number of the problems we are trying to solve are likely not going to be solvable by a Best Practice. If there was a specific, well known, highly adopted and strongly verified process to solve the issue we are dealing with it would likely mean our company is not doing anything unique or special. That would be bad because then we would have no competitive edge now would we?

Having established that a Best Practice cannot solve at least a portion of our roadblocks, and having noted we should not avoid tough, lengthy discussions we need to be aware of one more danger. Occasionally there IS a Best Practice that fits fairly well with the problem on the table. Please do not just follow the process blindly. Think for yourself. Sometimes you can just tell that there is a fundamental flaw in the process for your special scenario.

Finally, an example. I tell you, when I was a small child my parents would get upset if I would yell across the house at them. It was quickly set forth as a rule that you went and found them and talked to them normally instead of yelling at them. I offer this as a Best Practice. Now I offer an example where following the Best Practice was not the Best Solution:

Directory:  C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation

Settings:

MemTrimRate=0
sched.mem.pshare.enable = "FALSE"
mainMem.useNamedFile = "FALSE"
prefvmx.minVmMemPct = "100"

There has been a fair bit of banter on the concept of Enterprise 2.0. If you want to find out more about what it is or the core concepts behind the subject then follow up over at Billy Cripe's blog. You will find his explanations and the links he provides a good place to get started. He has even collaborated on an entire book with a lot of information about it.

The problem as I see it lies less with whether or not Enterprise 2.0 is a good idea and more with how the economy is driving corporate structure away from adopting new process. Certainly everyone wants to hear about how to accomplish more with less or all about new ways of intelligence discovery. The crux, however, is not many feel like funding a foray into this new frontier.

With the economic uncertainty attaching itself like the proverbial 800 pound gorilla there will still be market leaders that forge ahead, willing to take risks like introducing new technologies and fundamentally different approaches to interoffice communications, but a majority will not at this time. Those that do make an attempt and survive may enjoy a competitive edge in the end.

Most will shy away. This may mean the sound of the death knell for Enterprise 2.0, a premature ending to a promising approach. I for one suspect this will only slow or postpone adoptions instead of kill this direction all together. Ultimately, I find the whole process fascinating and I find the fervor with which people discuss the usefulness or lack thereof even more fascinating.