Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution. – Albert Einstein That is excellent advice, but when you are a software implementer, sometimes you don’t have a choice in who you work with – so you have to plot a new course that works within these constraints. A few years…
As we write this, we are stranded along with millions of people this holiday season, thanks to Southwest Airlines (SWA). What’s shocking is that Southwest Airlines, which contributed to 87% of all canceled flights on December 27th and 99% on December 28th, is known for providing the best customer experience—ranked #1 in Customer Satisfaction…
If you give an exec an eclair, he’ll probably complain that you should have brought it to him earlier. That’s, of course, if he doesn’t just throw it in the trash. If he doesn’t throw it in the trash, he’ll shout, “This isn’t an eclair; this is a donut!!” and then reluctantly take a…
In the book, Play Bigger by Al Ramadan et al., a lot can be learned about the Organizational risks and benefits of creating a new category. A new category is a new market space like Amazon with online shopping, Salesforce with CRM cloud software, and IKEA with furniture. I maintain that many of the…
In the implementation world, there is often the Proof of Concept (POC) stage where you have to implement a portion or enough to prove the technology and showcase how it maps to the strategy. A POC is typically a condensed version of delivery. In our experience, there are two main variations of a POC:…
When you implement software, you can face any number of “change personas” from the over-zealous go-getter to the Luddite who is still learning e-mail (yet, was somehow hired as the Social Media expert). One other type you’ll run into is someone who wants to know the absolute minimum. They’ll stop you when you talk through…
A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling together. At one point, they came to a river with a strong current. As the monks were preparing to cross the river, they saw a young woman who was also attempting to cross. The younger monk noticed the woman, said nothing and walked by. The…
The above cartoon was first created nearly 20 years ago. It’s incredible how appropriate it still is. Since its creation in 2003, several websites have expanded on the story. See http://www.projectcartoon.com/create/ if you want to create your very own version. What’s great about the cartoon and has made it last as long as it…
Paper over Something (verb) to hide an unpleasant situation, especially a problem or disagreement, in order to make people believe it does not exist or is not serious. Whenever I enter an implementation, and I have the time and space, I love to do the “How’s this going to fail?” exercise. In short, I ask the core team to explain how what I’m about to do will fail. I remember…
Shoshin is a word from Zen Buddhism which means “beginner’s mind.” It refers to an attitude of openness, eagerness, and a lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even at an advanced level – just as a beginner in that subject would. The idea is that as an expert, you have a limited perspective,…