Comments on: The Cranky Middle Manager # 42 Tech for Managers with Dave Taylor http://cmm.thepodcastnetwork.com/2006/04/08/the-cranky-middle-manager-42-tech-for-managers-with-dave-taylor/ Don\'t let the weasels get ya down... Tips for being a better manager and dealing with the insanity of the workplace Mon, 6 Oct 2008 20:13:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Rod Adams http://cmm.thepodcastnetwork.com/2006/04/08/the-cranky-middle-manager-42-tech-for-managers-with-dave-taylor/#comment-349 Rod Adams Fri, 05 May 2006 13:49:42 +0000 http://cmm.thepodcastnetwork.com/?p=79#comment-349 Wayne: One of my favorite sayings is "A good engineer is a lazy cheapskate". The longer explanation that I provide when I get the typical quizical response is that no engineer worth his salt will design a system that needs constant attention and repair, especially when it is for his or her own use. He will use the minium amount of material and the simplest possible approach. He is always one with the idea that "there has to be a better way" when confronted with a task that seems repetitive or requires too many individual steps. In other words, I am also not a Luddite or a technophobe but I rarely buy version 1.0 of any product and I am a very difficult sales prospect for people who want me to change if I already have an elegant tool that works. BTW, thanks for playing The Atomic Show promo recently. I cannot remember which show it was on, but I know I heard it sometime in the past week or so. Keep up the great work - it is very useful in my day job and in my preparation to avoid being a weasel in my future life as an executive. Wayne:

One of my favorite sayings is “A good engineer is a lazy cheapskate”. The longer explanation that I provide when I get the typical quizical response is that no engineer worth his salt will design a system that needs constant attention and repair, especially when it is for his or her own use. He will use the minium amount of material and the simplest possible approach. He is always one with the idea that “there has to be a better way” when confronted with a task that seems repetitive or requires too many individual steps.

In other words, I am also not a Luddite or a technophobe but I rarely buy version 1.0 of any product and I am a very difficult sales prospect for people who want me to change if I already have an elegant tool that works.

BTW, thanks for playing The Atomic Show promo recently. I cannot remember which show it was on, but I know I heard it sometime in the past week or so.

Keep up the great work - it is very useful in my day job and in my preparation to avoid being a weasel in my future life as an executive.

]]> By: Pat Williams http://cmm.thepodcastnetwork.com/2006/04/08/the-cranky-middle-manager-42-tech-for-managers-with-dave-taylor/#comment-190 Pat Williams Thu, 13 Apr 2006 11:52:27 +0000 http://cmm.thepodcastnetwork.com/?p=79#comment-190 Wayne - Excellent topic! Dave's really dialed into this stuff and his site is a great resource. I have a couple of clarifying points to make here though: 1. My inner-HR person cannot help but echo the concern of another listener about the relative security and control issues of allowing / encouraging people to put your company's recipe for "secret sauce" outside of your own walls.... I grant the wonderous benefits of this type of tech, but once those secrets leave your domain, the risks to the company multiply like rats on a fruit freighter~! 2. The key issue for managers to focus on relative to tech is that IT HAS TO WORK! Period. I dont want to read manuals or consult oracles... I want it to be intuitive, secure and ALWAYS WORK. Any time-saving or efficiency inducing application that takes more time to install, tune and maintain that I earn back through efficiency is not adding to my day and will be shunned. 3. As Dave said - communication is the key to it all. If we use technology as an adjunct to existing channels of communication, that's great. BUT if we use these new media as an alternative to them.... were heading in the wrong direction and our relationships with our team, managers and customers will suffer. Great work ! Keep it coming.... Wayne -
Excellent topic! Dave’s really dialed into this stuff and his site is a great resource. I have a couple of clarifying points to make here though:
1. My inner-HR person cannot help but echo the concern of another listener about the relative security and control issues of allowing / encouraging people to put your company’s recipe for “secret sauce” outside of your own walls…. I grant the wonderous benefits of this type of tech, but once those secrets leave your domain, the risks to the company multiply like rats on a fruit freighter~!
2. The key issue for managers to focus on relative to tech is that IT HAS TO WORK! Period. I dont want to read manuals or consult oracles… I want it to be intuitive, secure and ALWAYS WORK. Any time-saving or efficiency inducing application that takes more time to install, tune and maintain that I earn back through efficiency is not adding to my day and will be shunned.
3. As Dave said - communication is the key to it all. If we use technology as an adjunct to existing channels of communication, that’s great. BUT if we use these new media as an alternative to them…. were heading in the wrong direction and our relationships with our team, managers and customers will suffer.

Great work ! Keep it coming….

]]> By: Rod Schiffman http://cmm.thepodcastnetwork.com/2006/04/08/the-cranky-middle-manager-42-tech-for-managers-with-dave-taylor/#comment-157 Rod Schiffman Sun, 09 Apr 2006 16:03:26 +0000 http://cmm.thepodcastnetwork.com/?p=79#comment-157 I can appreciate the discussion on wanting simple intuitive interfaces for software. Using Web interfaces is a great idea. However, his primary example is a great example of what SHOULD NOT be done by an thinking middle manager. His reasons for telling managers to break half the rules in the company for doing projects do not hold water at all. Microsoft Outlook provides a Web interface that sits outside the firewall, provides secure access from anywhere using SSL and has an interface that also provides cantact lists, group scheduling and other tasks that Gmail doesn't. It also provides looking at threaded messages just like Gmail. Perhaps he needs to read the manual -- so to speak. He did not give one reason to break company rules that cannot be done better within a company framework of security, backup, and management. I'm as big a maverick as anyone when it comes to getting work done. However, there are web based tools for managing all respects of projects far better than anything he proposed without going rogue. In general I appreciate the concepts of simplifying interfaces and removing the technology barriers for business workers. It's just that this guy didn't have any reasonable answers after explaining the problem. I've done recently some work with a couple other EDS fellows who are working on this very problem, and there are some good solutions coming down the road. There are a lot of good solutions that exist now. Thanks for the effort you put into these shows. They are appreciated. I can appreciate the discussion on wanting simple intuitive interfaces for software. Using Web interfaces is a great idea. However, his primary example is a great example of what SHOULD NOT be done by an thinking middle manager. His reasons for telling managers to break half the rules in the company for doing projects do not hold water at all.
Microsoft Outlook provides a Web interface that sits outside the firewall, provides secure access from anywhere using SSL and has an interface that also provides cantact lists, group scheduling and other tasks that Gmail doesn’t. It also provides looking at threaded messages just like Gmail. Perhaps he needs to read the manual — so to speak. He did not give one reason to break company rules that cannot be done better within a company framework of security, backup, and management. I’m as big a maverick as anyone when it comes to getting work done. However, there are web based tools for managing all respects of projects far better than anything he proposed without going rogue.

In general I appreciate the concepts of simplifying interfaces and removing the technology barriers for business workers. It’s just that this guy didn’t have any reasonable answers after explaining the problem. I’ve done recently some work with a couple other EDS fellows who are working on this very problem, and there are some good solutions coming down the road. There are a lot of good solutions that exist now.

Thanks for the effort you put into these shows. They are appreciated.

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