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The times, they are a-changin'

the push to year-end revenue has "done wore me out." Sitting in the middle of an architecture class, I saw a micorcosm of what can go wrong in our business: our "table team," working after a class on the following day's presentation, agreed on the manner and format of the delivery. We were rotating the lead role for everyone to have an opportunity the play the lead role. The next morning, our table lead came in with only moments for us to prepare and announced he changed the format, probably for his best benefit. I quickly went into my "ready" mode, ready yet to bail out some other pre-sales engineer. He walked over to the presentation laptop with his diskette. Hmm, no floppy drive. He fumbled with trying to plug in his USB drive. "Here," I said, as aI had powered up and 'floppy-ized' my laptop, "let's use mine." He dove right in to HIS presentation and by the third slide he had to bail out, looking directly to me for help. No matter how you try, that class was a competition; and we singlehandedly and permanently captured last place as the only crew to look, well, like we USUALLY do in real life. And hence the microcosm of what we can do very wrong: In an effort to present a unified and total solution to our customers, we agree on a path; and for WHATEVER #$%^&*-ing reason a part of the team changes the approach, the whole thing starts to unravel, and someone has to try to bail the team out while trying to save the effort. Let me say one last thing: in a class with my PS, er "CS" counterparts, I have seen spirited but respectful discussions, and yet in this class where the attendance was around 80% from the pre-sales world, I have never seen such sniping and positioning and hostility. Makes me really love my job even though I am perceived as some sort of worker bee. Right up to the point when I gotta come and bail you out. ( Jul 23 2004, 06:14:55 AM CDT ) Permalink