Meeting expectations and understanding requirements

According to my cat, this is a completely unacceptable situation: an empty bowl!

Empty bow!?!?

No matter that the bowl actually contains food and bits are scattered on the floor.  No - from my customer's point of view, this does not meet expectations.

So, it's a good thing that I am very familiar with the customer's requirements, and can remedy the situation:

Full bowl!

Huh? There's less food than before! What's going on here?

Since I am very familiar with this customer, I know the requirement is that the bottom of the bowl be covered. 

That's all. Simple really, if you understand that "full" means different things to different people (erm...species). Lesson for today: Until the requirement is known, expectations cannot be satisfied.

Perpetual ambiguity and a tourist on the roundabout

Are you comfortable with ambiguity? Some organizations only want to hire flexible workers who can flourish in a state of constant chaos. Granted, the adrenaline high of a chaotic work environment can be exciting and rich with learning opportunities. I just don't believe it is sustainable - folks burn out and the organization suffers.

Don't get me wrong, in my own little world, ambiguity happens - it's part of the creative process, and for me, it serves as a necessary transition between starting a project and choosing a course of action. It's how I evaluate options, put a plan together and get work done.

That's not to say the plan won't change, it's just that, with ambiguity tamed, clarity reigns, and in this period I'm most effective: I analyze, prioritize, design, prototype, test and do it again, until the goal is met. When circumstances change, new goal(s) are defined and we get to start the process again, building on what we've learned and becoming more efficient.

I count on my organization to set achievable goals, to define:

• what we're doing
• why it's needed
• when it's needed
• who's the audience

That's not so much to ask, is it?

When an organization insists that ambiguity is the norm, I get a bad feeling...no good can come from perpetual ambiguity.

Without clear goals, ambiguity in the workplace is the time between decisions...sort of like a roundabout on the way to a completed project. And who wants to be the tourist on the roundabout?

Best Holiday EVER!

This year, I didn’t make my usual trip back East to see the folks. Although I love seeing everyone, I didn’t look forward to the hassles of air travel during the holidays or driving in the ice and snow. We’re a big family, with many cousins and four generations who gather together at this time of year to share food, a warm fire and the usual celebrations.

Because of logistics and our sheer numbers, with a lot of planning and pre-shipping, we do a traditional gift exchange, which makes everyone happy on Christmas Day. But the real fun is the preview event on Christmas Eve: the White Elephant Gift Exchange.

For this event, we setup a videoconference, and I participated via Skype. It was a hoot! My nephew setup a laptop and videocam in my folks’ living room, and another cousin was the designated director, angling the camera to follow the negotiations. My sister acted as proxy for me, stealing gifts and snagging the best one for me. I have a similar setup here, so they all saw and heard me in real time.

By far, this was the best holiday ever – all the fun, none of the drama. Go figure. It seems that when you gather folks in front of a videocamera, everyone’s on their best behavior…and no one shares the snarky comments or sniping gossip that happens there, in person. Wow. Gotta make this a new holiday tradition.