Numerous times I/we've discussed or kicked around thoughts of how to be better, how to improve...what things we could do, do differently, or even NOT DO...to move forward. Here's another dimension that I'd urge you to consider and it's Too good not to share! (Thank you SS!)
TAFN
Monday, June 16, 2008
Monday, June 9, 2008
Falling Forward...
Anyone who’s been around me much will likely acknowledge that I use the term “moving forward” when describing productivity effort and output. I’ve used that phraseology many times to describe what I consider baseline criteria for any effort we might be discussing. In fact a recent conversation I was having I stated that my determination of success isn’t always measured in the fulfilling of the predicted outcome. Sometimes success can be measured in the forward movement, my exact words, “I won’t complain that we have fallen (short of goal in this case), as long as we have fallen FORWARD.” My thinking here is that as long as we’re trying to move forward, push the envelope, and make progress then I can be satisfied many times with that effort.
But, if we fall short by sitting on our hands or because we’ve not put 100% effort into the task…well then it’s a different story. The very nature, essence-if you will, of IT is that it’s new frontier in nature. Technology is different, new, challenging…all rolled up in one. We must expect some failures along the way…new frontiers don’t have defined boundaries or a template in which to work from.
To relates some of the thoughts above to a Outdoorsman analogy….a friend told me a long time ago as we were fishing in a Bass Tournament in Arkansas and I was struggling with losing several lures in heavy cover….he said, “Jim, don’t worry about it, if you’re not losing a few lures when you fish…then you’re not fishing for the big fish in the right spots.” His point was that I should expect to lose some lures once in a while if I really wanted to catch the big fish…fish that tend to find homes in heavy cover. It’s no different for us working in the IT arena…we should fully expect some projects to be slow in developing, some projects to be late, some projects to be over-budget and even some projects to …fail. Yes, fail!
We won’t be pushing the envelope or reaching out towards new frontiers if we can guarantee success every single time. Why? Because the future holds NO GUARANTEE’s! In an effort to be creative and to find new ways to solve old problems or even ways to solve new problems, the boundaries aren’t defined. We must develop them along the way…they are unpredictable. If we are truly pushing ourselves and this Agency forward…we will experience some shortcomings…but those shortcomings could and should also serve as a learning tool for us. Any and all “failures” should be a learning experience…although the project may not be completed exactly as we had originally thought…we must learn along the way…we must be willing to adjust our plan as new ideas and new technology develops.
A new project currently underway within the Desktop Technology group currently is to automate the IT ordering process for customer. The projects original concept was to put an online ordering system in place that allows customers to order IT related goods….to automate as much as possible of the manual process(s) that we have today. Obviously the intent here is to eliminate as much of the manual effort as possible and free up value staff time---both on the IT side, but also on the customer side. We are trying to “work smarter”…to find other ways to get the work done with less staff. I believe this project is a definite step in the right direction. Will it be 100% successful and eliminate all current manual effort…likely not the first go around…in fact there could quite possible be some things that don’t work as well as we hoped for originally. But, if that turns out to be true…I will still consider it a relative success…in that “if” we fall in this endeavor…we will be falling “forward”…we will moving in the right direction.
And frankly I’m willing to suffer some failures along the way if we fail while trying to move this Agency forward from a technology perspective. I believe there is value in that…the vision and the effort. Good will come out of those failures if we are willing to support those failures as valid attempts to grow and move ahead. It’s called risk…risk vs. benefit. There is benefit in risk taking…because many times we do (and have) succeed.
We cannot be afraid of failure….not in this line of work. If you are failure phobic…then you quite likely may be in the wrong line of work. It’s best summed up by Albert Einstein: “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” ..and to help frame the perspective I’d like for us to follow: quote by Thomas Edison: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work
Keep pushing on folks….you ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE for this Agency…
Thank you!
TAFN
But, if we fall short by sitting on our hands or because we’ve not put 100% effort into the task…well then it’s a different story. The very nature, essence-if you will, of IT is that it’s new frontier in nature. Technology is different, new, challenging…all rolled up in one. We must expect some failures along the way…new frontiers don’t have defined boundaries or a template in which to work from.
To relates some of the thoughts above to a Outdoorsman analogy….a friend told me a long time ago as we were fishing in a Bass Tournament in Arkansas and I was struggling with losing several lures in heavy cover….he said, “Jim, don’t worry about it, if you’re not losing a few lures when you fish…then you’re not fishing for the big fish in the right spots.” His point was that I should expect to lose some lures once in a while if I really wanted to catch the big fish…fish that tend to find homes in heavy cover. It’s no different for us working in the IT arena…we should fully expect some projects to be slow in developing, some projects to be late, some projects to be over-budget and even some projects to …fail. Yes, fail!
We won’t be pushing the envelope or reaching out towards new frontiers if we can guarantee success every single time. Why? Because the future holds NO GUARANTEE’s! In an effort to be creative and to find new ways to solve old problems or even ways to solve new problems, the boundaries aren’t defined. We must develop them along the way…they are unpredictable. If we are truly pushing ourselves and this Agency forward…we will experience some shortcomings…but those shortcomings could and should also serve as a learning tool for us. Any and all “failures” should be a learning experience…although the project may not be completed exactly as we had originally thought…we must learn along the way…we must be willing to adjust our plan as new ideas and new technology develops.
A new project currently underway within the Desktop Technology group currently is to automate the IT ordering process for customer. The projects original concept was to put an online ordering system in place that allows customers to order IT related goods….to automate as much as possible of the manual process(s) that we have today. Obviously the intent here is to eliminate as much of the manual effort as possible and free up value staff time---both on the IT side, but also on the customer side. We are trying to “work smarter”…to find other ways to get the work done with less staff. I believe this project is a definite step in the right direction. Will it be 100% successful and eliminate all current manual effort…likely not the first go around…in fact there could quite possible be some things that don’t work as well as we hoped for originally. But, if that turns out to be true…I will still consider it a relative success…in that “if” we fall in this endeavor…we will be falling “forward”…we will moving in the right direction.
And frankly I’m willing to suffer some failures along the way if we fail while trying to move this Agency forward from a technology perspective. I believe there is value in that…the vision and the effort. Good will come out of those failures if we are willing to support those failures as valid attempts to grow and move ahead. It’s called risk…risk vs. benefit. There is benefit in risk taking…because many times we do (and have) succeed.
We cannot be afraid of failure….not in this line of work. If you are failure phobic…then you quite likely may be in the wrong line of work. It’s best summed up by Albert Einstein: “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” ..and to help frame the perspective I’d like for us to follow: quote by Thomas Edison: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work
Keep pushing on folks….you ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE for this Agency…
Thank you!
TAFN
Monday, June 2, 2008
Post for the day....
I couldn't resist putting this one out there for those that may take the time to check in here today. I'd encourage all of you to dwell on the thought for a few minutes and see if there is any insight for you in the words...
Oswald Chambers said, "The enemy of best is good."
TAFN
Oswald Chambers said, "The enemy of best is good."
TAFN
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)