Wednesday

[mapsedge]

It's 10:30, and because of a meeting where not a whole helluvalot was decided, I'm just now sitting down at my desk to work.

So, in answer, let me offer this quote from Terry Pratchett:

"I'll believe in thinking outside the box as soon as I see evidence that there is thinking going on inside the box."

Comments

[akaashben.livejournal.com]

LOL! I like that... I may have to steal it for my next "meeting."

[joegoda.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I'm not even sure there's a box.

[jehosefatz.livejournal.com]

Definitely lifting the quote.
- Jeho

[iarraidh.livejournal.com]

Ditto

[iarraidh.livejournal.com]

This was, to my mind, the linchnpin in my companiy's downfall.

We would spend time between meetings gathering data, brainstorming and trying to resolve the issues facing us.
Once the meeting began, you could just wipe your ass with your documents.
Every issue was revisited and "why don't we try", "maybe you could", "I have a GREAT idea" by the CEO, who although being brilliant, was as unfocused as a cheap can of hair spray.

Rather than using any of the TQM techniques I had learned in dozens of classes through the years, I always came out feeling like I needed a shower from all the mental masturbation I had just experienced.

There was never a long-term goal, short-term goal, or strategic plan. no criteria were ever put together as the requirements for a product and then steps taken to meet them. It was always rediscuss and redefine the goals every meeting; typically invalidating much of the work that had been done in the interim.

Rather than set a realistic goal and meet it, then refine it and improve it, everything was seat-of-the-pants, on-the-fly and often impossible to achieve.

If in the 4 years I was here and we were still viable, before the last year when it was obvious we needed to count parachutes, if we had someone with actual business skills, some focus to actual development/manufacturing/customer service production, and not a bazillion tangents to send us all off on, I believe we would be wildly successful today.