Overskepticism: An Alergic Reaction to the Information Age

In the aftermath of the Polar Vortex that struck the United States this week, several stories have been circulating describing how some people did not believe that the snow that had fallen in their own towns was real. While some level of paranoia has been a constant presence on the web since its inception (and was preceded by paper newsletters), it struck me as odd that whole groups of people could be so skeptical of the world around them that they begin to doubt the evidence of their own senses.  But after some thought, I came to the conclusion that skepticism is an integral part of living in our information-saturated age.  It should come as no surprise that some people have taken it to extremes.

Let's face it: the majority of the information that is presented to you via the web, on television, or anywhere else is wrong, misleading, biased, or some combination of the three.  The legal and moral diligence that once surrounded published media has eroded in the face of both the ease in which content can be published, and the competition that the enormous quantity of content has produced, and it is now up to us, the readers, to evaluate, corroborate, and fact-check almost everything we read, watch or listen to.  We make a choice -- on a case-by-case basis -- to believe or reject the media that we are exposed to. Some do this consciously and diligently, and others do it unconsciously, but we all do it.

In the face of this, it isn't really that far of a stretch to simply reject ALL media as a lie of some kind or other.  It certainly makes a kind of sense, and some people would rather be knowingly ignorant than unknowingly mis-informed.

Unfortunately for those people, though, our brains don't work that way.  We have always looked for patterns in what we see, and in the absence of input, our imaginations make monsters in the dark.  With the only accepted truth being "Everyone is lying", it becomes all too easy to connect the dots in sinister patterns.  From there, it's a short step to disbelieving the weather report even in the face of three feet of snow in your driveway.

As human beings, we crave information.  We want to know what's happening.  We want the world to make sense.  To stay honest, we cannot take the philosophy of choosing what we most agree with, regardless of its truth.  Nor can we reject everything as false, since that way lies madness.  Instead, we must choose to accept the information that we think, based on corroboration and fact checking, is MOST correct, regardless of our agreement with it.  An open mind and a healthy amount of skepticism is a good thing, but like everything, moderation is the key.

Senior Management: A Surival Guide for Junior Employees

In this era of specialized skillsets, it is more and more likely that a very junior employee will find himself working with senior management directly, perhaps on a technology project, or as a subject matter expert. These experiences are often terrifying for the employee who is fully aware that putting the wrong foot forward (or even worse putting your foot in your mouth) can have a lasting negative effect on his career prospects.

Although Senior Managers are often understanding and forgiving in these situations, it is still better to make a good impression than to have to rely on the forgiveness of those who sign your paycheque.  If you find yourself in this situation, here are some tips:

1.  Understand. Don't Know

It is tempting to try to project confidence and knowledge when talking to senior management.  After all, confident employees are competent employees, right?  But being overconfident can strike people as arrogance, and being confident and wrong is awkward and embarassing.  Even the task you've been assigned can look very different from the perspective of different department heads, so always leave room to be corrected.

For example, if you introduce yourself and say "I'm here to assist with the planning meeting." you're taking a risk.  You don't necessarily know all the context and subtext of your assignment, so you may not be as welcome to everyone involved as you could hope.  Shouldering your way into a situation, bold as brass, where you are not really wanted by everyone is a great way to rub people the wrong way right out of the gate.

If, instead, you say "I understand from Bob (your manager) that I'll be attending your planning meeting and assisting?" you leave the ball in their court.  You've still confidently relayed that you've received, understood, and acted upon your instructions, but you've left open the possibility for revision. You've also sought the confirmation and context you may have been missing.  A response like "Yes, I'll be talking to Bob after the meeting, but for now, take a seat" reveals that an enthusiastic take-charge attitude might not be the best approach after all without getting burned to a crisp in the process.

Using "I understand" as a phrase shows that you are aware that you may not know everything about the situation, which is almost always the case when dealing with senior management as a junior employee.

2. Your Time is Worthless.  Their Time is Priceless

If you find yourself fixing the CEO's printer on your third week, it is extremely tempting to do the job and get out.  And it is often the right thing to do, given how busy CEOs are.  However, be careful not to imply that it is you who is busy as you back out of her office just shy of the sound barrier.  If you are in a large organization, it can be true that one minute of the CEOs time is actually worth more than your entire day, from the company's perspective, so be sure to take your time to ensure that the CEO doesn't need anything else from you before making your exit.

Phrases like "is there any other way I can assist you today?" are good, but specifics are even better.  If, for example, you notice that the CEO's printer is a little low on paper, an offer to refill it while you're here will not only stand you in good stead, it may also save you a later terrifying trip to the head office.

If the CEO declines, though, don't insist.  By declining, she may be telling you that she needs to be doing something, and you don't want to waste any of her time.

3.  Practice your Smile

Senior managers like to joke around, just like everyone, but as a very junior outsider, you're rarely going to get all of the jokes.  Like any small group, in-jokes are common, and these in-jokes may be at the expense of people you work with.  But, you also don't want to be the cold fish of the group, so you need to react to humor in a way that is acceptable to the managers but won't damage your relationships within the rest of the company.

The solution?  Smile.  Smiling when everyone else is laughing shows that you appreciate the humour, but doesn't put you out on a limb if it turns out that they were laughing at your supervisor.  The smile, though, needs to look good.  It can't be pained, or timid, or half hearted.  It needs to appear genuine.  As flight stewards, hotel clerks, and beauty pagent contestants have found, that smile takes practice.  Take the time, in front of a mirror, to practice a relaxed, engaging grin.  The great thing about smiles is the practiced grin becomes your natural smile, so you can feel both natural and safe when the CIO cracks a joke.

4.  When you Screw Up, Take it on the Chin and Move on.

Despite everything, you'll eventually mess up in the presence of senior management.  You are a junior employee, and experience is gained by making mistakes and learning from them.  When this happens, be upfront about it, take what advice, if any, you're given, and put it behind you.  Concentrate on doing your best and on what you learned, and not what your mistake cost you, and you'll be well on your way to taking that "junior" off of your title.

The Costs of Innovation: Why Thinking Outside the Box Needs to be kept in a Box

Innovation is the business buzzword of the moment.  To hear the business bloggerverse say it, every company in the world must embrace innovation.  Innovation is what created giants like Apple and Google, and what created the meteoric rise of anything touched by Elon Musk, and every company wants to be like that, or at least have a balance sheet like that, right?

And, of course, they have a point.  The right innovative product, well-conceived and well-produced, delivered at the right moment, can have an incalculable effect on a business.  It can catapult a business far ahead of its competition, or break into new business areas where there is no competition. 

So promoting innovation across your business is good, right?

Well, not really.

Firstly, businesses must understand that innovation is, at its core, new ways of doing things.  Maybe they are better ways, maybe not.  The only way to find out for sure is to try them.  Embrace risk, reward failure, and keep trying until you succeed, to paraphrase the innovation Gurus. 

But, if everyone is trying something new, who is getting the work done?

The cost of innovation is efficiency, pure and simple.  To promote innovation across the board is to throw out the lean, low-variation, efficient processes you've spent a lot of time and effort achieving. Not only will everyone be doing something new, everyone will be doing something different from everyone else.  Not only is it a costly way of doing business, it doesn't position you well to capitalize on a really good innovative solution. Chances are, you won't even notice it.

The solution?  Put your out-of-the-box thinking in a box.  Build structure around innovation to keep it from adversely affecting your efficiency, and to use objective metrics to evaluate its worth.

Firstly, don't try to innovate everything at once.  Someone has to pay the bills during the inescapable drop in productivity that adopting a new process or product will produce.  By limiting innovation to individual teams or business groups, the rest of the company will be able to produce a predictable amount of revenue, which allows you to gauge how long you can afford to innovate.

Secondly, within your box, go wild with innovation.  This is what the Guru's are talking about: get total buy-in, look at all the ideas, solicit incremental improvements and quantum leaps.  Map out new processes, try out new technologies, and embrace failure as the stepping stones to success.  Try everything and commit to nothing.

But while you're trying everything, measure everything.  Imagine stern-faced lab-coated technicians with clipboards peering into your box, watching and recording everything. Use technology scouts, process analysis, and trial- and pilot-projects to plan and map the effects of innovation without the cost of full adoption.  Having hard numbers will also help sell your innovation:  it sounds far better to say "This innovation led to 23% increased capability after a six-week adoption period with a maximum efficiency loss of 20%", than does to say "This innovation will revolutionize sales."

When you finally do implement your revolutionary process or product, don't forget about it.  Any new process or product will be raw, and will benefit from refinement.  This is the difference between "a new way of doing things" and "a slick new way of doing things"  Refining an innovative approach will give you something that is both innovative and efficient.

At the end of the day, innovation is a risky, costly proposition, and there are no guarantees that any innovation will actually be an improvement to the current way of doing things.  The potential rewards are great, though, and the chances of reaping are much higher if those costs and risks are managed and contained.  And, if you do create the Next Great Thing, all you'll have to do is put a bow on it.

Business Process Management: One part Archeology, One Part Detective work.

We've all been there:  first day on a new job, and the veteran is there to show you the ropes.  If you're lucky, the veteran is an experienced and motivated teacher, and you can feel free to ask any question you like.  How does this part work?  Where do these go?  What is this thing?  Who is responsible for approval?  Ask those, and you'll get a solid, helpful answer that will help you do the job the way the veteran does, which is what you really want out of any job, right?

Just don't ask him "Why?"

Not because the veteran doesn't want to go into why, most likely.  No most likely, he simply doesn't know.  Doesn't know why the processes he's been doing for years are structured the way they are.  Most likely the person who taught him didn't know, and you probably won't either.

For those of us in the role of business process management, this lack of knowledge is a key stumbling block when we begin to map out a process for refinement.  Without context, it can be very difficult to assess the value of a particular step in a process, which makes changing or removing that step a risk.

For example, in a data entry process, there is a step that requires someone to copy a value from a system, paste it in a particular spreadsheet, and save the spreadsheet.  During the interviews, it becomes obvious that no one knows why this step occurs, what the spreadsheet is for, or when the step was added to the process.

It seems like an obvious quick-win:  Stop the step, and save several minutes of wasted time. But is it wasted?  Certainly it isn't adding value to the group doing the data entry, but then it obviously was never intended to.  So, who (or, if you are in an organization with automated data systems, what) is using the data collected in that spreadsheet?  And why?

It certainly could be a complete waste of time.  That spreadsheet is perhaps sitting completely unused and is of no use to anyone.  But then again, it could be populating an important forecasting tool, or a strategic report, or the CEO's dashboard.  It doesn't make sense to recommend the elimination of a step until you understand its purpose.  Let the Wild Goose Chase commence.

In any organization that has been around long enough to have had a high percentage of the original members move on, there are going to be mystery processes.  These are things that people do because they've always done them, and no one is really certain why.  The role of business process management can often be one part Indiana Jones, and one part Sam Spade:  piecing together clues left behind by employees long gone, or inferring meaning through questioning innocent bystanders who "really-have-no-idea-why-it's-done-like-this-but-it's-a-pain-so-if-it-isn't-important-it-would-be-great-if-we-could-stop".

Sometimes, there is a pearl at the bottom of that deep dive.  Sometimes you rediscover a lost truth and can provide a "why" to the veterans and newbies alike for them to pass on to future employees, and for a more permanent record in a document or wiki. That "why" can tell you if the step is a waste or not, and you can act on it appropriately.

Sometimes, though, you just hit bottom and come up empty-handed. In that case, the choice is simple, if not easy:  Leave it as it always was, perpetuating a step that, as far as you can determine, has no value; or stop the step, and hope that if it does break something, it's at least obvious.  Generally it's worth taking the risk, especially if you've done your homework and are confident nothing critical will be affected. Still, there is always a risk of finding yourself in a different detective role: the one where an old case has come back to haunt him.

Welcome back from lunch: The future arrived while you were out

Oh hey, you're back.  How was lunch?  Did you try that new place?  You've got six messages in your inbox, and oh yeah, the future arrived when you were out.

The world is changing.  And by changing I mean that things that were parody, satire, and on the cover of supermarket tabloids before lunch are now facts of life.  Things that they told you in school were flatly impossible have happened.  And capabilities that made no sense to have this morning have become essential business tools.

Don't believe me?  Let's review some headlines:

• Amazon is preparing to ship things to you before you order them, delivered by flying robot, probably before you've told anyone you need them.
• Your fridge was sending out spam messages when the door was closed.
• Individual atoms are no longer too small to see.
• Planets around other stars are no longer too far away to see.

And it isn't just the big news that's changing fast.  Just a few years ago, the worst thing a person could do at work was accidentally click "Reply All" and send an embarrassing or thoughtless message to half the company.  Now, if you have access to the company's Twitter account, you can send that same thoughtless message to the Entire Connected World. 

Twitter itself, the essential marketing tool of the decade, was absurdist humour right up until it became a reality.  The joke about the manager talking to the engineer: "I know that with email I can send a message to anyone on the planet, but how do I send a message to everyone on the planet?" It was funny then, before the future arrived.  Mind you, the solar powered flashlight in your camping supplies was a punchline for many years as well, so Twitter is hardly alone in this category.

"But wait", you say, as you read your six messages.  "This can't be the future.  The houses look the same as they always did, and people still dress the same, and we aren't eating protein pills for lunch."

It's true that the future isn't arriving universally.  Things that last a long time, like houses and buildings, tend to keep the landscape from changing too fast.  And mainstream fashion is a product of our traditions and our insecurities, so it doesn't change quickly either.  And it turns out protein shakes are way tastier than protein pills.  But our perception of the rate of change is also clouded by the process of dealing with it. We're stuck in the moment, and since each moment is different anyway, we don't clearly see how much things are changing.  Then we look back, and everything has changed.

Here's an example from when this happened less frequently, so you can see what I mean (if you're under 35, you may not understand this).  Think back to the moment you started using email for everything.  There must have been one.  Before email was the standard, you sent paper memos, letters, and talked on the phone a lot, and then after you used email instead of paper, and sent more of them, so you didn't make as many phone calls.  But when did that happen?  If you're like most people, it sort of just happened and you didn't really notice it.  This massive shift from paper to electronic communication, which you were a part of, occurred without really leaving a mark on your life.

It was called a Paradigm Shift.  That moment when everything changes, and those changes wash over our lives like an invisible tidal wave, changing everything while you're busy living. It was the big thing in the 1990s.  If you could predict one, and get your product in place ahead of it, you were made.  But, it turns out that doing so is either a product of genius or luck, neither of which was a wise corporate business plan, so the term faded from use.

But the Paradigm Shifts kept happening anyway.  Email, E-Commerce, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, iPods, Smartphones, genetically modified crops, GM Foods.  New paradigm shifting products in technology, business, media, entertainment, finance, and communication.  The world is changing constantly under our feet, the ripples constantly changing our daily lives without really affecting them.  You may be checking out Instagrams of the food served at the restaurant where you're planning to eat dinner tonight, but life really isn't any different than it was yesterday.

The Paradigm Shifts have run together into a continuous, ever-changing Paradigm Slip.  The future is here:  Hang on.