Making IT Work
It's time I started putting my speeches here as it seems a good place to put my actions into a visible place that's like a reflection. Here's my Toastmaster speech this week:
Making IT Work - the beast in the computer
The joy of making a computer work for you can be taken away quickly as many of you, I'm sure have experienced. Spam comes out of nowhere to fill your inbox with way too many undesirable solicitations. Malicious software come out of the blue to take your machine for a ride which appears you have no control over. And then there are these software annoyances that take hours to figure out how to do the simplest things. Whether your at home at work or whatever setting puts you in front of one of these beastie machine, there is always a surprise in store for you it seems.
I'd like to tell you how to take the beast part of this equation, or at least make it a tolerable beast. I give lots of advise to people but seldom get asked the particular question on just how can this be done. It's usually assumed that it's like a stray cat that was welcomed into your environment for you've heard of herding cats as one of those impossible tasks so the new resident can easily be viewed in my mind take the form of animal.
The animal that comes to mind for me is an elephant. You've probably heard the term 'the elephant in the room' as a way of describing this huge beast that everyone just walks around and does not want to acknowledge is there - that describes most computer systems perfectly to me.
Now that I've planted this in your mind, let's think about how we get to such a state. The change is usually very subtle - you get a new 'toy' and you are naturally excited about it and it's like driving a new car - it's fast, it's pretty and it's so much better than what you had before. Or in a business setting, it's like getting this new 'helper' that makes your job so much more pleasant because now you have capabilities that gives you an edge in your work environment - it's 'new and improved' or so it seems.
But what happens to take you from this state of euphoria and turns this wonderful machine into such a beast? It's all those subtle changes along the way. Let's call them 'un-documented' changes. And when you have problems and getting someone to help formal or informally - now you've got 'shadow-support' that again buries it's head into your environment. It seems just perfectly fine at the time. But as time goes along it's more like Hansel and Gretel who have traveled deep into the woods and bread-crumbs left behind are all gone. Now you have to rely on memory, or the memory of someone who helped you along.
There a few people who do an excellent job of tracking changes and documenting things like configuration, installations, instruction on how to do something, but unless people are in a large corporate environment and policies are in place and enforced, this is not done adequately.
So what's the solution? Document everything? Well that would help but let's take a moment and reframe the situation. Instead of looking at this uncivilized creature in the wild or a zoo, think of the creature in a circus. Now we can picture the elephant doing tricks or least following a pre-determined path. Much more palatable don't you think?
The IT technology today is still evolving and quite rapidly that eventually these creatures will heal themselves and people have to be less aware of what's going on 'behind-the-curtain'. But now we still get surprises that we are not prepared for, unless we half-way expect them and with operating systems like Microsoft Windows we still need help or learn to keep up with the changes to the environment.
Here's a few suggestions to make computers more bearable. No I'm not going add another animal into the mix. It's the acceptable kind of bearable.
1. Simplify - Don't over-complicate your life with the computer - think of it as a hired-hand who is there to help and not hinder. Hired-hands have to be trained and typically don't need to be re-trained which makes them so handy.
2. Focus - Remember why you are using the beast - focusing on your goals can help you be less distracted by the many distractions that are presented as you go down the road with your beast.
3. Secure - Protect your computer system if you access the internet - there is no reason not to have a secure system - virus scanner, firewall and spam filters are relatively cost and there even free versions available for home use.
4. Plan for the worst - Have a disaster recovery plan - who are you going to call, where are your backups, do you keep an offsite backup, how are you protected?
5. Ownership - Don't expect someone else to keep all your important computer information unless you have a specific support agreement to do so - things like your recovery CD's, your email settings, registration and warranty information.
6. Support - If you need help ask for it - you may not be able to get it right away so make a note of it and create a list. Randomly trying things can cause lots of problem. Support is usually available, especially when you get a new piece of equipment.
7. Learn - Learn as much as you can and learn to document during the time when things are still new to you. Don't just walk away when someone is doing something for you. Knowledge transfer does not happen often so take advantage to learn what you can.
8. Keep up - Computers have a life-cycle - like dog years which are like 1 to 8 - computer years are more like 1 to 15 - so retirement age is relatively soon if you use the computer like most people.
9. Workspace - Eliminate any clutter and stay organized. Create a friendly work environment and you'll be more inclined to stay positive when things going right.
10. Budget - Be realistic about a budget to keep up your IT environment. The cost of maintaining a system almost always exceeds the cost of acquiring one. Think of it as feeding your pet.
It may be a fit far fetched to think of your computer as an animal. But you have to admit they do appear to take on a life of their own. It's the behavior that is important to acknowledged. There is a Chinese proverb that goes as follows - If you confront the dragon, it will crush you. If you ignore the dragon it will eat you. But if you learn to ride the dragon you can advantage of its power and might.
Good luck with taming your beast and don't let the elephant get in the way.
Making IT Work - the beast in the computer
The joy of making a computer work for you can be taken away quickly as many of you, I'm sure have experienced. Spam comes out of nowhere to fill your inbox with way too many undesirable solicitations. Malicious software come out of the blue to take your machine for a ride which appears you have no control over. And then there are these software annoyances that take hours to figure out how to do the simplest things. Whether your at home at work or whatever setting puts you in front of one of these beastie machine, there is always a surprise in store for you it seems.
I'd like to tell you how to take the beast part of this equation, or at least make it a tolerable beast. I give lots of advise to people but seldom get asked the particular question on just how can this be done. It's usually assumed that it's like a stray cat that was welcomed into your environment for you've heard of herding cats as one of those impossible tasks so the new resident can easily be viewed in my mind take the form of animal.
The animal that comes to mind for me is an elephant. You've probably heard the term 'the elephant in the room' as a way of describing this huge beast that everyone just walks around and does not want to acknowledge is there - that describes most computer systems perfectly to me.
Now that I've planted this in your mind, let's think about how we get to such a state. The change is usually very subtle - you get a new 'toy' and you are naturally excited about it and it's like driving a new car - it's fast, it's pretty and it's so much better than what you had before. Or in a business setting, it's like getting this new 'helper' that makes your job so much more pleasant because now you have capabilities that gives you an edge in your work environment - it's 'new and improved' or so it seems.
But what happens to take you from this state of euphoria and turns this wonderful machine into such a beast? It's all those subtle changes along the way. Let's call them 'un-documented' changes. And when you have problems and getting someone to help formal or informally - now you've got 'shadow-support' that again buries it's head into your environment. It seems just perfectly fine at the time. But as time goes along it's more like Hansel and Gretel who have traveled deep into the woods and bread-crumbs left behind are all gone. Now you have to rely on memory, or the memory of someone who helped you along.
There a few people who do an excellent job of tracking changes and documenting things like configuration, installations, instruction on how to do something, but unless people are in a large corporate environment and policies are in place and enforced, this is not done adequately.
So what's the solution? Document everything? Well that would help but let's take a moment and reframe the situation. Instead of looking at this uncivilized creature in the wild or a zoo, think of the creature in a circus. Now we can picture the elephant doing tricks or least following a pre-determined path. Much more palatable don't you think?
The IT technology today is still evolving and quite rapidly that eventually these creatures will heal themselves and people have to be less aware of what's going on 'behind-the-curtain'. But now we still get surprises that we are not prepared for, unless we half-way expect them and with operating systems like Microsoft Windows we still need help or learn to keep up with the changes to the environment.
Here's a few suggestions to make computers more bearable. No I'm not going add another animal into the mix. It's the acceptable kind of bearable.
1. Simplify - Don't over-complicate your life with the computer - think of it as a hired-hand who is there to help and not hinder. Hired-hands have to be trained and typically don't need to be re-trained which makes them so handy.
2. Focus - Remember why you are using the beast - focusing on your goals can help you be less distracted by the many distractions that are presented as you go down the road with your beast.
3. Secure - Protect your computer system if you access the internet - there is no reason not to have a secure system - virus scanner, firewall and spam filters are relatively cost and there even free versions available for home use.
4. Plan for the worst - Have a disaster recovery plan - who are you going to call, where are your backups, do you keep an offsite backup, how are you protected?
5. Ownership - Don't expect someone else to keep all your important computer information unless you have a specific support agreement to do so - things like your recovery CD's, your email settings, registration and warranty information.
6. Support - If you need help ask for it - you may not be able to get it right away so make a note of it and create a list. Randomly trying things can cause lots of problem. Support is usually available, especially when you get a new piece of equipment.
7. Learn - Learn as much as you can and learn to document during the time when things are still new to you. Don't just walk away when someone is doing something for you. Knowledge transfer does not happen often so take advantage to learn what you can.
8. Keep up - Computers have a life-cycle - like dog years which are like 1 to 8 - computer years are more like 1 to 15 - so retirement age is relatively soon if you use the computer like most people.
9. Workspace - Eliminate any clutter and stay organized. Create a friendly work environment and you'll be more inclined to stay positive when things going right.
10. Budget - Be realistic about a budget to keep up your IT environment. The cost of maintaining a system almost always exceeds the cost of acquiring one. Think of it as feeding your pet.
It may be a fit far fetched to think of your computer as an animal. But you have to admit they do appear to take on a life of their own. It's the behavior that is important to acknowledged. There is a Chinese proverb that goes as follows - If you confront the dragon, it will crush you. If you ignore the dragon it will eat you. But if you learn to ride the dragon you can advantage of its power and might.
Good luck with taming your beast and don't let the elephant get in the way.
