The Cranky Middle Manager # 42 Tech for Managers with Dave Taylor
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #042 (MP3 11.4 MB 33:19 Min)
Hi everyone. Today we talk with one of the better known bloggers out there, Dave Taylor of the Intuitive Life Business Blog and Ask Dave Taylor. The topic is how managers in non-tech fields can use technology to make their jobs easier.
SHOW NOTES
0:00 There’s no dedication to this week’s show… not that I couldn’t think of any historical managers, but because I’ve been pondering a question- why are so many of my listeners in the tech fields…and more to the point, why aren’t more managers in the non-technical arena using podcasts, blogs and other tech tools to further their careers and help their people?
In fact, I’d really like to start a dialog on these pages on that topic.. if your’e a tech-savvy manager, what can you do to spread the word to those who arent? If you’re not particularly technoliterate, what can those in the high-tech arena do to help you? This is more than a blatant attempt to grow my listenership to those who could benefit but don’t even know what a podcast is or how to listen to one.
How can we solve the techno-gap. Post to the blog, write me, adopt a Luddite and turn them on to the show. I’d love to hear from you on this topic, gang.
4:00 Our quote of the week is from Lucretius. You can read about him in my book- he ain’t one of my favorites, but this quote is worth keeping.
5:29 Welcome Dave Taylor… host of The Intuitive Life Business Blog - a favorite of our prey Tom Peters- and Ask Dave Taylor.com. Dave starts by siding with those of us who aren’t necessarily early adopters. God love him.
7:30 This is as good a time as any to plug our Frappr map… join us and let us know where you’re listening from. It’s also not a bad example of tech that works intuitively. It devolves into a conversation about the design of the PT Cruiser and how it makes me look even dumber than I am.
10:05 We take a look at tech for the average manager. Dave has an MBA so it’s not like he sits in Boulder divorced from the real world of the modern office. He gives us some healthy examples of realpolitik.
12:22 G Mail…. okay what’s the big deal and we already use Outlook? Think about it for project teams or other activities with long threads.
16:20 Word Press for blogs…. it’s free and even I can use it (it’s what this blog is done on).
18:40 We have a good deep conversation about open source and why people who aren’t coders should support it. some support it for idealistic reasons, some of us fear it because it’s not “done”.
24:40 We talk about Luddites… I confess i”m not a Luddite.. I’m lazy. There is a huge difference darn it….
26:18 What’s out there for managers.. what’s going to happen? We plug Charlie Bess from EDS and something he said on this show.. “The future’s out there, it’s just not widely distributed”. Check out his episode of the show if you haven’t yet. Watch for everything being on the web including calendars, word processing and storage.
30:00 Dave’s resources for the rest of us is something of a surprise…no books, no blogs, but check out Google, and its Advanced Search. This is worth the time invested in listening to the show, I promise.
That’s it gang. EMAIL ME if you’re so inclined, post to the blog or send me a SKYPE message. My address on Skype is wayneturmel. Thanks, I thought it up myself.
Don’t let the weasels get you down.
April 10th, 2006 at 3:03 am
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.
April 13th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
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….
May 6th, 2006 at 12:49 am
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.