|
 Insanity
has been defined as doing the same thing
twice and
expecting
different results!
Given
the same circumstances, the same processes, the same tools, and the same
resources--barring miracles or disasters--we can expect the same results.
This
is a cause and effect relationship.
The processes used to produce consistent results are known as
reliable methods.
Success in every aspect of life can be attained by consistently applying
reliable methods to achieve both goals and a personal state of being.
Success is based on successful habits.
There
is a difference between a single act of the will to achieve a goal and
building habits to achieve a state of being: The habits allow us consistency
to bring peace and order to our lives.
If you
follow process, failure is not an option.
However, if you follow process for the sake of process, you will fail.
Process should never be an end in itself.
And
sometimes Process can kill badly needed innovation.
 For
the technologist, business needs to make sense and often it doesn't because
it is ruined by irrational politics. Technologists know intuitively that you
can't change the speed of light or Plank's Constant by declaring that
perception is reality and the technologists need to change them to make the
Business Model for the Corporation to work. Management keeps throwing pigs
in the air and expects them to fly. The physics doesn't support it, but the
engineers are supposed to make it work some how.
It turns out that
the Universe is not so liberal and forgiving. You can't make deals with it.
The model of fast, cheap and good--pick any two or less, not all
three--simply can't be rigged. The Universe won't let it. If you want
results from the Universe, you follow the process the Universe gives you and
the Universe will give you what you want, minus a tithe of entropy. It's the
cost of doing business with the Universe. You can't take shortcuts and you
can't talk the Universe into doing something it won't do--unlike pliable
people.
Standard business
process operates in an environment where problems do crop up. It depends
where you are, but generally speaking, if you want results in resolving
problems, you must follow the following standard process:
-
Determine that
there is a problem
-
Determine what
the problem is
-
Determine what
the cause of the problem is
-
Analyze the
problem as it is now
-
Create a list of
possible solutions
-
Stop the cause of
the problem if it has not already been stopped
-
Apply the
solution picked using the six methodologies of the quality process
-
Continue
maintenance to assure the problem does not recur
If a person has
lung cancer, they must stop smoking. Stopping the smoking will not cure the
lung cancer. Many problems are like that and remedies must be applied to the
symptoms, even if we know the underlying problems and stop the causes:
Nature will not necessarily cure a problem when the causing agent is ceased
because the damage might be too extensive.
What management
usually does is skip the process, find the solution first and not even
determine that there is a problem. This is irrational behavior.
Technologists find it privately disgusting.
Management exists
for the sole purpose of providing resources to those who need to do the
actual work. Management can serve no other purpose.
Generally speaking,
the business venue exists in three possible contexts:
There is a broad division between
the production of goods and rendering of services.
Technology and the style / fashion
change, often very quickly.
Interpersonal
relationships work the same way for millennia. For example, if one person
trusts another but is betrayed by the person they trusted, the result is the
same between any two persons, groups or even nations as it was 3,000 years
ago and will be the same 3,000 years hence. If you want apathy lie and make
certain that whoever is lied to cannot do anything about it. However, you
take your chances: As soon as the people who are oppressed by lies have an
option, they will rebel. This always works the same way. History--as long as
the historians didn't lie about it, and they usually do--is a testimony to
this truth.
For this reason,
solutions applied to interpersonal and personal services are quite different
from finding technological solutions are resolving questions of style and
fashion. Marriage counselors probably won't change much in their approaches
because humanity isn't changing that much: The same solutions offered today
for specific defined problems probably won't be much different 50 years from
now. On the other hand, unless it is a retro thing, investing in high button
shoes and buggy whips, all things being equal, is not going to make most
people all that successful. It should be pointed out that, yes, there are
quite a few combinations of personal factors. For example, there are at
least six points of view and nineteen inherited aptitudes. There are
differences in experience, nutrition, exercise. Nevertheless, even with
these differences, there are--within one standard deviation for the
population, accounting for approximately 68% of any population--standard
solutions which always work given that the conditions you start with are
approximately the same as those who have successfully dealt with the problem
previously.
The point is that
if you apply the same processes with basically the same materials and
resources for the same situation, you will get pretty much the same results.
Often, those in power want to talk you out of it, claiming there is some
magical mystical way that things will work differently because of the power
of their personality. This is utter nonsense technologically, but if the
power of the people is sufficient and there is sufficient amount of
resources squandered, then the wrong way might actually work. At what cost,
we wonder? After people get sick? After the company is bankrupt? When the
nation is in ruin?
One of the many
tools in the toolbox of the scoundrel is the process to create a vision in
the minds of those they seek to deceive. People look at the vision of
something they think they really want and will commit to it no matter how
nonsensical it is. Moreover, they will also commit to the one who gave them
the vision, no matter how wrong he is. When it is clear that the vision is
impossible, the scoundrel promotes a new vision which satisfies the people
who instantly forget that they were looking for results. They tacitly
"forgive" the scoundrel in the stupid silliness and let him or her lead them
into more distorted perceptions in hope of the holy grail.
Wrong-headed
non-leadership non-leaders have positioned themselves firmly to reap rewards
trampling the victims of non-process process: They are always in a hurry for
results, having no patience and finding process uninteresting, if downright
boring. There's never time to do things right, but there's always time to do
things over.
Technologists shake
their heads, looking at all the preventable nonsense, knowing all along that
they can't even say "I told you so," because fools will only listen to what
they want to hear. Any technologist who points out error to those in power
make themselves a prey for those who are looking to pin the blame on anyone
but themselves. Religion and politics is replete with examples.
All it would have
taken is a bit of reason, a degree of intelligence, self-discipline and
properly followed process with the right resources.
That is what this
section is all about. |
