December 4, 2014
Dear Everyone:
A couple of months ago I decided it was time to get a new
laptop
computer. The idea was to
get the new one before the “old” one died suddenly and forced my hand.
It would also give me time to get used to the new one while the
“old” one was still close to hand.
After all, a completely new way of doing just about everything
involves a steep learning curve.
Then came the annual ARMA International Conference, in
San Diego this
year, and the anticipated CRM (Certified Records Manager) Workshop to be
set up, the
Homeowners Association stuff, and a myriad of other
time-sensitive issues. And I
did what any reasonable person would do:
I (figuratively) threw my hands up and cried, “I don’t have time
for this!”
So I put the “new” laptop “on hold” and went back to using the “old”
laptop.
That was October. It is now
December and I still “don’t have time for this.”
After all, there’s the
Holidays, shopping, shipping, etc.
Very busy time of year.
Maybe I’ll wait until January.
This, of course, is classic behavior.
In fact, some years ago I did a presentation on “Tips, Tricks and
Traps of Data Migration” for our local chapter of
ARMA.
One of the things I talked about was what I would call “Barnacle
Bill” (or “Barnacle Betty”.)
This was the person who steadfastly refused to get on board with the new
system, clinging to the old system with the tenacity of a
barnacle.
They always had an excuse:
“Yes, I know the ‘new’ system is better, shinier, sexier,
prints-in-color, but I don’t have time to learn it yet and
I-just-need-to-do-this-one-thing-right-now!!!’ so there.”
The longer “Barnacle Bill” hung onto the “old” system the more
out-of-sync it got with the “new” system and that caused all kinds of
problems.
During one of our migrations from an “old” system to a “new” one, we
happened to do it around the same time that “Barnacle Bill” was out on
vacation. In that case, we
simply told his temporary replacement that the “old” system was no
longer available and that he would have to use the “new” one.
When “Barnacle Bill” came back to work the next week, the “old”
system was “offline” and he had to use the “new” one.
Fait accompli.
(That’s French for “Done already.
Get used to it.”)
I even told people at the presentation, “You might want to schedule your
migration for when ‘Bill’ is on vacation, or otherwise away from the
office.” It was one of the
“Tips”, along with: “Don’t
let Management stampede you into moving too early” and “Don’t wait for
the ‘perfect time’ to migrate. Just
bite the bullet and do it.”
Ironically, “Barnacle Betty” was often the person who hated the old
system the most. Always
complaining about this, that and the other.
When the new system came into play “Betty” suddenly discovered
how much she “loved” the old system.
This is often true of all of us.
It may take a lot of time and effort to learn how to do
something, like Mail-Merge in
Word.
But once you get it down, it’s fairly easy.
Then along comes an “upgrade” and they’ve changed it all around
and you have to learn it all over again.
I blame this on “the squeaky wheel” syndrome.
People who don’t like something complain about it.
The people who are relatively happy with how things are going
don’t. The software
companies hear most from the “squeaky wheels”, not from the “happy so
far people”. So they make
changes based on input from the “squeaky wheels” because they never hear
from the rest of us.
Lesson learned: When the
software company sends you one of those “satisfaction surveys”, let them
know how much you “like things the way they are.”
Otherwise, something’s going to change.
Have you hugged your computer today?
Love, as always,
Pete
(Programming Note: With all
the Holiday stuff going on, there might not be a Letter every week
between now and the end of the Year.
Stay tuned for further details.
P.)
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