They don’t talk.
They don’t write.
They don’t really like dealing with each other.
Yet, they need each other, need each other in a fundamental, all consuming way.
We’re talking about Tech and Government, in case there was any question.
And do you know how we know, how we know this?
Because this is one of the things we do at How We Manage Stuff. We have a small policy office on the unfashionable side of Capitol Hill that is led by Sulley, our Policy and PR Director. From this vantage, Sulley and his staff help Tech leaders understand why they need government and Washington policy-makers appreciate that tech is not quite as frightening as they thought.
So we’ve got a new client – a hapless Tech Giant called T&S – and we’re about to start a new story. It features Debbon Ayer as the CEO Abby Alton, Kit Kuksenok as the CTO genius Ed Kowalski, Margaux Amie as Senator Christine Stassen, and Geoffrey Grier as government administrator Morris Fitz.
But before we start this narrative, the head of our Washington Office, Sulley, walks down the median of Pennsylvania Avenue to explain what is about to happen.
And so the new series begins “What Big Tech Doesn’t Know” from the audio drama “How We Manage Stuff.”
It never ends well.
It really can’t
There is an organization to renew.
There are new tasks, new demands, new technology to install, new procedures to develop.
So what do you get when a tech consulting job ends? You’re supposed to get a new company, but perhaps all you get is a trail of beans.
The concluding episode in a series on the ins and outs of tech consulting.
It’s not the slides.
It’s not the words.
It’s not the clothes you wear.
This doesn’t determine your success. Or at least it doesn’t determine it very much.
The bigger issue: What do your clients know? And when did the learn it?
In the consulting trip to Hamburg, our team is about to deliver its report. Lots of ideas. Lots of implications for the future of the client, Bohne Kaffe Logistiks.
But the report has become public. Or at least parts of it.
And everyone thinks they know what is in it. More importantly, they think they know what is in it for them.
The measure of success? Can they communicate the real message.
Tenth episode in a series on the ins and outs of tech consulting.
“Complicated”
You don’t talk. It’s “complicated.”
You don’t act. It’s “complicated.”
You don’t know what to do. It’s…
You can see the pattern.
Our consulting at BKL Coffee Logistics has been strained. This owner had this grad idea to start the job and then vanish to a retreat in the Swiss Alps. He wanted to keep out of the way, he said. He wanted to let things take their course.
He may have had a plan.
He may have been improvising.
He may have been frightened.
But today, a brave niece tries to get an honest conversation started. A niece who has a career that is only vaguely related to coffee.
Ninth episode in a series on the ins and outs of tech consulting.
If they wanted the same thing, then the decision would be easy.
But they don’t.
So it isn’t.
Our drama probes the decision making process in this episode. It uncovers two, maybe three, sharp disagreements. A split in the family. An employee with her own agenda. A consultant trying to do his best and to control the noise of the discussion.
Eighth episode in a series on the ins and outs of tech consulting.
When do they make the mistake?
When do they make a decision that limits – radically limits – options?
Our consulting team is working on a project that is only stumbling forward in the best of light. So what has happened, we ask. Has someone made a mistake?
Has our team done something wrong? Has the client chosen the wrong strategy? Have the managers failed to support the work? Any one of these might constitute the “Fatal Mistake.”
Seventh episode in a series on the ins and outs of tech consulting.
A young entrepreneur.
A new technology.
All the temptations to make bad decisions.
In the series of on the startup SidePocket, we explored the challenges posed by organizational governance, the authority wielded by investors. Our central character, Vinny, walks away from a company that was unable to make a decision and forms a new company, SidePocket, that will be under his leadership. He guides it to success but in the process has to face choices that have no obvious or unequivocally good answers. He builds a profitable firm but in the process, alienates his closest friend, reluctantly accepts guidance he would prefer to ignore and decides to sell the firm against the wishes of his board.
A series that makes you feel the problems of organization governance and appreciate the issues at stake.
A business owner.
A group of good friends. And an underlying controversy that simply won’t go away.
Florian Bohne, the owner of Bohne Coffee Logistics is holding a party in the Swiss Alps while his friends believe that he should be back with his company.
So we have a fight, a disagreement among friends. Yet it is a disagreement that seems to be about one thing – how Florian is dealing with consultants – while it is really about something deeper, more profound.
Sixth episode in a series on the ins and outs of tech consulting.
Consulting. You’re just giving your opinion. That’s it. Nothing more.
Now, in theory, that opinion is worth something on the open market. It’s worth something for two reasons. First, you have some special training or knowledge. Second, you have data. Data about what is happening.
And there’s the rub. In the modern day and age, we collect ever bit of data we can and call it good. Yet. Yet. Yet. Data can mislead. It can make you believe you know something when you don’t It can confuse when it should inform. Therefore, we need to know something about gathering data scientifically
Fifth episode in a series on the ins and outs of tech consulting.