BNET..... read alongside Dilbert,,.....

[jmw]

I stumbled across BNET some months ago and it is nice to know that it isn't me that's out of kilter.
The latest discovery there is "The 8 STupidist Management Fads of all time".
I was keen to see if "Matrix Management" featured and it does....

http://www.bnet.com/blog/salesmachi...ads-of-all-time/12307?tag=mantle_skin;content

But don't stop there, browse and enjoy.
I can't help think engineers are the one group of employees most at risk from management stupidities so anything that helps us survive has to be good.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[Compositepro]

Some pretty good stuff there, JMW.

 

[lacajun]

I've seen a number of those.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Well, that's two hours I won't get back. ... and thoroughly enjoyed.

Save the one list of positive things for last:

Five Management Concepts that Really Work

http://www.bnet.com/blog/salesmachi...eally-work/13844?tag=content;drawer-container

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[jmw]

...there’s no idea so excellent that it can’t be transformed into crap by a bad manager.

How true.

But he hits a seem of pure gold in his five dumbest management concepts with the one about HR

http://www.bnet.com/blog/salesmachine/the-5-dumbest-management-concepts-of-all-time/13630?pg=4

Number 5 - likening business to warfare... must be the source for a current really really irritating TV ad where some twit (replace I with another vowel if you like) says "Business is warfare and I'm a General."


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[monkeydog]

Wow, these links and subequent links are perfect for those 30 minute status calls that last 2 hours.

 

[SomptingGuy]

The HR rant is good.

As a new graduate, HR feel like your bosses and protectors. The managers you actually work for don't. As time moves on, so does the balance. As you get older, wiser and greyer, HR starts looking like a trivial function, with transient staff all looking up the tree for their next job.

- Steve

 

[drawoh]

Here is a good article on 5 Worthless Acronyms to Ban From Your Business, complete with an excellent Downfall video.

JHG

 

[jmw]

Yes, NIH has to be a top killer but there are few others:
RTFM<br>Read The F***g Manual<br>The great tendency of manufacturers to produce lengthy complex manuals no one reads except to find the phone number for sales - so they can get free help from sales. If they call service they'll expect to charge for any help.<br>The great change in Europe was the requirement to publish any and all manuals in all the community languages. The translation costs have resulted in greatly simplified, too greatly simplified text and lots of cartoon illustrations.
One reason for complex manuals is the OSFA (One Size Fits All) approach to manufacturing. Clients ideal is a custom design that exactly meets their unique requirements. Manufacturing want to make just one item with absolutely no variants and sell it to everyone no matter how well or not it meets any one clients needs. <br>Somewhere in the middle we get the compromise design e.g. a master software suite that handles all possible applications. This requires a manual that describes all 307 possible applications and the client only wants one.
Net result is the client may read just enough to get the thing working after a fashion but never gets it working as well as it should and concludes it is a piece of s**t. Next time buys something else.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[drawoh]

jmw,

Manuals are a tough call. The problem is that one person designs the system, and another person writes the instructions.

Imagine you are working on a new pickup truck and you are documenting the process for tuning it up. You write up on how to get the truck onto a hoist, how to raise the truck, remove the suspension, the exhaust manifold and the engine bolts. You describe how to lower the hoist, how to winch the engine out of the block, remove the water pump, and access and change the spark plugs. If you are the technical writer, you do this. If you are the designer, you fix the design and ensure that the spark plugs are accessible.

A software guy once told me that the trick to writing software is to write the manual first. This concept is more difficult with mechanical hardware, but in my opinion, it is not impossible. It is just so hard to persuade people.

JHG

 

[SomptingGuy]

I like to leave the manual writing to a real user, someone with direct customer contact (I write engineering software). The appendices are my territory.

- Steve

 

[btrueblood]

" A software guy once told me that the trick to writing software is to write the manual first. "

Tried that. But if the software designer doesn't read the manual you've written...