Re: Summing up and moving on (I hope)

On Thursday, December 12, 2002, at 11:35:23 AM, Bill Walton wrote:

> Level of Passion, either positive or negative, is generally a contra-indicator for decision
> makers in the business environments I work in and am interested in discussing here.  The
> decisions these folks make impact the lives of hundreds, more often thousands of people;
> employees, customers, stakeholders of all sorts.  They do not trust emotion as a sound basis for
> decision making.  Passionate presentations are discounted as unreliable.  Decisions made on the
> basis of passion are considered unreliable.  People who make decisions on that basis are
> considered unreliable.  The folks I hoped to engage when I created this list are unlikely to
> spend the time to participate in a discussion here if it appears that passion, rather than
> reason, is the basis for discussion.

In my forty-plus years as a programmer, manager, executive, consultant and
custodian, I have not found the above to be true. I have found that the best
people in every organization are driven as much by passion as by reason. They
use reason to choose actions about which they are passionate.

One of the big buzzwords in corporate management is the "Vision Statement" or
equivalent in other terms. The point of the vision statement is not to be a
rational statement of numerical objectives, but to provide some notions about
which to rally the troops. "Have the highest customer satisfaction in our
industry; hire and create only the best people; honor civil and moral law" and
so on.

After the vision statement typically comes "objectives". Objectives are also
often not numeric, at least not at a detailed level. "Become the premier widget
provider within four years; become the acknowledge source for information about
widgets" and so on.

Then we have goals. Goals are supposed to be finite, measurable. "17,000,000
widgets in 2003, 24,000,000 in 2004" and so on.

> Passion has it's place.  It does not have a place in the discussions I hope to see conducted
> here.  I apologize in advance to those who are offended by my position on this topic.  I'll
> understand completely if you choose not to participate based on that constraint.

You seem to be saying that we should discuss things here that we do not care
about. I'm almost sure that's not what you mean. So please clarify?

Ron Jeffries
www.XProgramming.com
The opinions expressed here /are/ necessarily those of XProgramming.com.
But I might change my mind.


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