Anticlue

Getting the Camel to Drink

One thing you have to realize as a manager is that the key to success is not your ability to see through people, it is your ability to help people through that matters. As I have previous mentioned one of the challenges at work is to update the technology skill set of several mainframers. We haven't standardized yet, but we will. However in the meantime, I thought it would be good to just start with the basics from each arena: Crystal Reports, MS SQL Server, and CF.

I have also decided to start with the key indirect leader of the mainframers group. She is a rebel rouser with a heart of gold. She is also has an uncanny ability to see how to simplify the manner in which technology and the business process relates. I think she is an architect in the rough. A person, who is intuitively an architect, but still needs some training in the art. A one-on-one attempt would be best for coaching and would give me a good lesson in the best way to go about this transition.

Of the lessons learned from our session yesterday, I learned how powerful a new opportunity can be for a person. After years and years in the field with the same technology, an attitude of resignation to a maintenance programmer has occurred. The simple possibility of being able to be innovative again, brings back the child like gleeful glimmer. It was a cool thing to experience.

The other lesson learned is to create analogies to the current platform and programming language in order to give a level of familiarity. It seems to go smoother when beginning to explain a relational db by starting with the hierarchical file storage of the mainframe. It also is really bad practice to use any jargon without explaining the term thoroughly a couple of times.

Another item is that using a tool and gaining experience within that tool is quickly picked up. We started with MS SQL Server. The unfamiliarity came with system type items. For example, creating a mapped drive or ODBC connection was all written down. Using the DB Diagram within SQL Server was viewed and then a table and a couple of field where quickly added. It was absorbed not written.

Finally the most import lesson for me is to never touch the keyboard. It is amazing how similar, I can be to the SNL Computer Geek skit. However, the only way to learn for some is through doing and that means at the keyboard for the other person.