Discipline makes Daring possible.

Musings from The Disappearing Boss on People, Process and Responsible Autonomy for small-business employers.

Category: Discipline makes Daring possible

Semiotics
March 25, 2021

Semiotics

I keep thinking about yesterday’s recorded message, about how simple it was, how effective.  And how creating such a message isn’t rocket science.  It probably doesn’t even need the latest tech or AI.

It reminded me of a visit to a care home a few years back.  It was more like a hotel, or serviced apartments, actually.  The decor was lovely, the amenities were plentiful, a lot of support was included.

But the main thing that made it attractive was the attitude.

“This is home for everyone who lives here.  They should be able to live as they would at home.  So we run this place around them.  There are no mealtimes, no prescribed activities, no common routine.  Just lots of extra support, from simple things like extra deep dado rails to a hoist over the bath and onsite carers.” 

In other words, the attitude drove the design of everything – the building, the services and the atmosphere.  It showed.

It always shows.

When everything behind the sales pitch sends the same signal, nobody can be disappointed.

Recorded messages
March 24, 2021

Recorded messages

On the whole, I prefer to interact with a human than a bot, or a recorded message.

There are times though, when the recorded message is the right response.  Yesterday afternoon, my internet went down.  I did all the usual things – turned the router off and on again, tested the connection to the wall, waited to see if it woud resolve itself.  Nope.  Still down.

I rang my provider.  There was no wait for the call to be answered – because it was a recorded message:

“We can tell your account from the number you’re calling on.  We already know there is a problem with your line.  We’re working to fix it as soon as possible.”

For once, I was glad to hear a recorded message.  Something constructive, that told me exactly what I needed to know and allowed me to get on with something else.

By doing that for me, and probably countless other customers, this message also enabled the provider to concentrate resources on fixing the problem instead of holding angry and frustrated users at bay with the “All of our operators are currently busy…”, or “We are currently experiencing high call volumes…” or “Your call is important to us…”. 

Recorded messages that signal “We don’t care about you.  We can’t be bothered to see things from your perspective.  We probably don’t have to because you have no choice.”

Until someone gives us that choice.  And we tell the others.

Escalation
March 22, 2021

Escalation

If you don’t carry a big stick, you can’t be tempted to use it.

Which makes turning up with no stick, the best and most believable demonstration of peaceful intent.

On both sides.

Purposes
March 18, 2021

Purposes

What’s your business for?

Is it to give you a job?  Is it to make you money?  Or is it to make money for someone else?  Or for a cause?

Is it to make you happy?  Is it a means for you to express yourself?  Is it a means for you to do what you really enjoy outside of work?

Is it to give other people a job?  Is it a means for them to express themselves?  Is it a way for them to grow and transform? Is it a way for them to make money, or do what they really enjoy outside work?

Is it to make your clients or customers happy?  Is it a means for them to express themselves?  A way for them to grow and transform?

Is it your way to make your me-shaped dent in the universe?  Or your way to help everyone involved make a we-shaped dent in the universe?

The answer is rarely simple.  And it probably changes over time.

Depending on your answers, it may or may not matter that the business will end when you do.

If it does matter, what are you going to do about it?

Family firms
March 16, 2021

Family firms

Someone from a small, long-established family firm near me was meant to come out and install a new waste pipe to my washing machine yesterday.    It didn’t happen.

Someone rang me this morning to say sorry, and re-book the appointment.

“I’m soooo sorry.   One of our engineers was taken ill, and a family emergency meant we had to shut the shop suddenly too.”

“Well, these things happen, I guessed something must have gone wrong.”

We’ve re-booked.  Hopefully this time the process will run smoothly.

The thing about family firms is that they are families, not machines.   And that’s why I chose them.

I’d rather wait an extra day or two than turn someone into an overworked cog.

 

PS Only a man who’d never done a load of washing can have designed that machine!

Software
March 15, 2021

Software

Way back in the early 1980’s, when I decided to make the switch from modern languages to information technology, some people were astonished.  How could I possibly think I’d be any good at writing software?  I was a woman, and I didn’t have a maths, or even a numerate degree.  How dare I think of becoming a programmer?

My answer was simple “It’s the same skill isn’t it?  Translating from one language to another?  It’s just that in this case I’m translating from human to machine instead of human to human.”

I was good at it too (to the ongoing astonishment of some of my managers), because I realised early on that writing software isn’t just about translating from one language to another, it’s about translating ideas into action, and you can’t translate effectively if you don’t fully understand those ideas and the human desires that drive them.

It turns out that coding well isn’t about numbers at all.   It’s about people.  It’s about empathy.  It’s about logic.

In other words, it’s about being human.

Nobody has a monopoly on that.

Labour-saving
March 12, 2021

Labour-saving

Slaves and servants enable the translation of my desires into someone else’s action.  I don’t have to actually do the work, but I can reap the benefit from it.  It always involves coercion of some kind – beatings, death, imprisonment, the threat of starvation.

Machines and software enable the translation of my desires into something else’s action.  I don’t have to actually do the work, and I can amplify the benefit from it.  This appears benign, but somewhere (often far away) coercion remains involved – for the people who make the machines or the software, or the machines behind the software, and the people who do the physical jobs hidden behind it, or controlled by it.

Teams, collaborations, co-operatives, movements – these enable translation of our shared desires into our shared action.  We do have to do the work, and there’s no reason we couldn’t build our own machines or software to amplify it because together, we share the benefits of it.

The only thing we have a right to from others, is the ability to ask for their help.  It’s up to us to put in the kind of effort that moves them to say ‘yes’.

Spring
March 11, 2021

Spring

I’d kind of forgotten about blackthorn blossom, until I took the car out for a last run on Monday.   It … Read More “Spring”