Managing The Thing You Cannot Touch
Yesterday I wrote about The Thing You Cannot Touch. Today I'm going to tell you some ways to manage the situation.
First, try to determine why You Cannot Touch The Thing. This is invaluable information in charting the waters ahead - especially if you're consulting.
Second, accept the fact that there's better than a 90% chance that you will not, in fact, be allowed to Touch The Thing. In my experience, three things must be true for you to overcome the business friction imposed by The Thing:
- You have to try everything else first.
- Everything else must fail to sufficiently address the issue.
- The source of the issue must be mission-critical.
Regardless, your best knee-jerk reaction is acceptance. This is tough for a professional. In your heart of hearts you know what it takes to solve the real issue. And yet, you've been told You Cannot Touch It.
The good news? There's also a better than 90% chance you can find a way to solve the issue - or at least alleviate the client's pain - without Touching The Thing.
Modern enterprise applications are comprised of lots of moving parts. The Thing is probably not the sole source of pain. Addressing other bottlenecks may do the trick - at least for now.
And, if you're the person they called last time they had an issue and you solved it (and weren't "difficult" to work with), you'll likely get the call next time.
How cool is that?
:{> Andy
Technorati Tags: Consulting Software Development Satisfying The Customer Leveraging New Business