Category Archives: Training

#204 Wishful thinking

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Dreaming big is encouraged, plenty of authors have made money selling books encouraging their readers to think big. Reading such books is soothing, because they give hope. The ones that are well researched and well written are a joy to read.

These books feed a need for “knowledge transfer” and thus will always do well. Even if the content is known and has been covered in a different book. I encourage you to read the better ones, because we sometimes have to be told something more than once to “get it.”

Books will encourage action, but they can never monitor to see if you are actually doing it. You have to hire another human being to do that. It could be a friend, your boss, or a personal coach. Fear of nagging brings about action, till the day you get fed up, and fire your coach. Unless your coach fires you first. After all, your friend or your boss have only so much time and energy.

What you need is to find that spark within, the inner motivation that will propel you without you having to put in the effort. You can read about it, but those who find the spark will prosper. The “spark” will bridge the gap, and overcome the contradiction between desire and action. The bigger the gap, the more work you have ahead of you. Better get started!

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#65 Indexing and cataloging

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Most of you may have heard of Aesop’s Fables. You may not have heard about the Perry Index. It is an index and catalog for Aesop’s Fables. As Wikipedia states clearly, “This system does not help the casual reader, but is the best for scholarly purposes.”

For scholars, the act of indexing and cataloging is immensely valuable. Such efforts create the potential for use in ways that were never imagined. The first edition of Roget’s Thesaurus states its mission in its title, “Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified and Arranged so as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition.” Can you imagine doing a writing project without a Thesaurus?

Imagine an index and catalog for your business processes. How valuable will it be for you to consult THE BOOK which lists all that your organization does and needs to do to satisfy the customer. This is called Enterprise Architecture, and is practiced by companies with budgets to burn. Meaning, such companies are large and they can afford to fund an activity that does not directly link to customer objectives. If they get it right, they will have THE BOOK. Not to mention satisfied customers.

The idea is inspirational, the execution is usually not. Is it because of a lack of talent, or because the business processes are hard to catalog? Probably both. THE BOOK currently exists in the head of subject matter experts and “old timers” in your organization. It is called Tribal Knowledge. If you depend on these folks to get things done, beware the Tribal Knowledge Paradox (See The Tribal Knowledge Paradox: Using the War on Waste to Align Strategy with Process
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