What Is The Term For A Doctor Doing A Procedure And Not Fixing The Problem

Opinion past Paul Glen

Communication is a trouble that tin't be fixed

That's frustrating to usa geeks, because to us, all issues accept solutions

Paul Glen By

Contributing Columnist, Computerworld |

telefono de cordel 1882 — Biblioteca de la Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias del Trabajo Universidad de Sevilla, CC BY 2.0, via Wikipedia (Creative Commons BY or BY-SA)

Have you started thinking nigh what yous're going to do with the coming new year? Most people in IT spend at least a little time reflecting on how they will best take advantage of the year ahead. Whether you have or non, I invite you to take a few seconds right at present to think almost what issues you'd like to solve and what opportunities you lot'd like to make the most of in the coming yr.

I'll bet that 1 of the things that just crossed your mind was fixing "the communication problem." It doesn't matter whether y'all're a manager or an individual contributor; we all have communication problems that nosotros'd like to fix, whether they are with our concern stakeholders, project managers, peers or other groups in IT. We all want to be more than in the loop or to more easily become the data we demand to be successful. This problem never seems to go away.

If you've been in IT for any length of time, you've seen other new years kicked off with initiatives designed to fix this trouble. In a spasm of goodwill and ambition, managers schedule training classes and standing meetings. Staffers write and distribute condition reports. Simply usually, before the end of the starting time quarter, these efforts take faded. Training is forgotten. Status reports are skipped equally the crises of the day take precedence. Meetings are canceled or attendance grows thin.

Most of us think that these efforts fail because we accept short attention spans or fall victim to the daily grind of the urgent. In reality, they neglect because they are based on a fundamental misconception that guarantees their eventual abandonment: Poor advice is a problem. Only information technology isn't, at least not in the way that we technical folks think nigh problems.

To the states, problems accept a very specific structure. They offset with a clear statement of a current reality: Something is broken or incorrect and needs to be fixed, or it's merely sub-optimal and nosotros see an opportunity to brand things better. The other elements of problems are assumptions, rules, constraints and solutions

That final element is our favorite. For geeks, there'due south little that is more rewarding than solving problems. In fact, we beloved solutions then much that nosotros see the world through a "trouble-solution mindset" that becomes so pervasive that we somewhen see everything at work as falling into the problem or solution category.

Our conception of problems and solutions probably goes back to our days in math class — even though the bug we face up every bit adults tin be quite different. A problem statement is provided: y = mx + b; solve for x. Past applying the rules of math and logic to the axiomatic statements, we find the answer (and it is the answer, non one of perhaps many answers). The end is punctuated with a QED. That's it. Once a problem is solved, it stays solved.

But the communications problem doesn't arrange to that model. No matter how you lot solve it, it doesn't stay solved. A single effect, like a communications seminar, may provide people some valuable tools that they can apply, just ultimately the communication trouble is not driven past inadequate skills. Even processes, consistently practical, while helpful in guiding people to know when and with whom they should exist communicating, will non ensure that everyone forever knows what they must know.

The reason that this problem is not subject to solution is that communication is a feature of man relationships, which are complex and ever changing. Miscommunication is a persistent hazard, even when people of proficient intentions effort their best. And people communicate much more data. They express and react to each other's emotions.

Nosotros geeks need a third category for things that don't fit cleanly into problems and solutions. We need to add together "situations to be managed" to our short conceptual list. They are bug that require abiding vigilance and effort but volition never be "solved" and finished.

Until we start thinking about our communications issues differently, nosotros volition be forever doomed to the bike of failure that our initiatives propel.

Paul Glen is the co-writer of The Geek Leader's Handbook and a primary of Leading Geeks, an educational activity and consulting house devoted to clarifying the murky earth of human emotion for people who gravitate toward concrete thinking. You lot can contact him at info@leadinggeeks.com.

Paul Glen is the CEO of Leading Geeks, an education and consulting house devoted to improving collaboration betwixt technical and nontechnical groups and people.