As I approach retirement, I wish to share the wisdom that I have acquired from working over half a century.
There are certain rules that businesses follow. These are not prescriptive, nor are they written down anywhere, but businesses gravitate toward them the same way that moths gravitate toward lightbulbs. I am neither condoning nor endorsing these, I am merely sharing my observations.
- Any problem in business can be resolved by training.
- Q: Poor customer service? A: Training!
- Q: Defective merchandise? A: Training!
- Q: Nuclear radiation leak? A: Training!
- Q: Cicadas hatching? A: Training!!
- Q: Romulan Warbird uncloaking? A: Training!!!
- Training must always be conducted by expensive external consultants.
- It is always best to develop expertise within a small group and carefully protect it. It must remain within this cylinder of excellence and is not to be shared.
- When working with another organization that has processes and procedures that work perfectly, they must be replaced since they are NIH (not invented here).
- Every organization conducts drills, simulations, exercises, etc. When these are complete, meetings are held, after action reports written and other efforts undertaken to ensure that all lessons learned are captured. After the last meeting, the reports, data, etc. are either filed or shredded, never to be seen again. This allows the same wheel to be reinvented over and over.
If you look around the company or organization where you work, don’t be surprised if you see all or most of these.
sfnowak 