Conference 7.286::digital

1304.0. "Why problem solving is noisy at Digital!" by MAGOS::BELDIN (Pull us together, not apart) Fri Dec 07 1990 12:31

    After reading a series of NOTES in this conference, CONSULTING,
    DELTA_IDEAS, and MARKETING (among some others less often visited) I
    think I have learned some things that I would like to share.
    
    1) Only one person can be the *first* to identify a problem.
    
    2) When the first person starts to exercise his/her influence, many
       others become aware of the problem.  Many of them extend the
       originator's influence by commenting in more or less public forums
       about the problem.
    
    3) At some point, someone starts to react positively.  Since most
       people have an aversion to going public before the results are in,
       delays happen before the word gets out.  
    
    4) Usually this is announced by electronic mail.  Depending on where
       one is in the human-electronic network, one learns about the action
       one, two, or three weeks or months after it was started.
    
    5) During the lapse of time between the initial identification of a
       problem and the time you hear of a solution in the works, much heat
       and a little light are shed.  The apparent inaction should not be
       confused with unresponsiveness, indecision, or lack of receptiveness
       to good ideas.  It is just as natural a consequence of our 'system'
       as is the delay in hearing the sound of a passing jet.
    
    6) Many of us who are not 'well connected' would have fewer ulcers if
       we had a little more patience and gave the 'decision makers' a
       chance.
    
    Regards,
    
    Dick

    I don't have a clue as to what the title means.
    
    What I write in VAX Notes depends on moods, contexts, what I had for
    breakfast, etc.  These conferences are less brain-storming than they
    are the commiseration of battle-hardened cynics about Digital, the
    computer industry, and human nature in general.
    
    Bad companies that never recover are the companies that are obsessed
    with culture and process and lose sight of the customer.

RE: .0

At least in product engineering, almost the exact opposite tends to occur.
Lots of different groups independently recognize the problem and start solving
it on their own, usually with slightly or radically different perspectives and
solutions.  Eventually these groups discover each other and realize that they
are not the only ones working on a solution to the problem, and that if we
are going to look in any way like one company to our customers, some sort of
DEC-wide (as opposed to group-X-wide) solution to the problem needs to be worked
out.  That is usually when the fur can begin to fly.

Case in point is my own project, COHESION/Framework.  I knew we were working on
solving an important problem when I discovered at least three other, independent
efforts to solve the same problem were under way.

--PSW