by Michael Finley
Copyright © 1998 by Michael Finley

Get your signed copy of The NEW Why Teams Don't Work by Mike & Harvey Robbins from Berrett-Koehler Publishers Just click on the book cover! A fully revised second edition of this award-winning classic by Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley Paperback Winner, Financial Times/Booz Allen & Hamilton Global Business Book Award, Best Management Book - The Americas, 1995 Table of contents and sample chapters of this book... Just click on the book cover to order your signed copy for only $12.95. Table of contents and sample chapters of this book... Why Change Doesn't Work: Why Initiatives Go Wrong and How to Try Again and Succeed Harvey Robbins, Michael Finley Hardcover Just click on the book cover to order your signed copy for only $12.95. "This is the first treatise on change we've seen that is actually entertaining. The authors cover human and organizational barriers to change and change theories, and then take a tour of management theory that's guaranteed to upset every reader at one point or another." -- HR ONLINE Table of contents and sample chapters of this book...

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Comments on this column:

" ___"
(NAME)

A Master of the Wired World?

I just got my author's copies of a new book from Financial Times Management (London), MASTERS OF THE WIRED WORLD: Cyberspace Speaks Out.

What's remarkable is that this collection of manifestos about the new age a'dawning contains proclamations by Tony Blair, Al Gore, Charles Handy, Nicholas Negroponte, Arthur C. Clarke, Alvin Toffler ... and me.

Anne C. Leer, editor

To order, click here. Discounted price is $18.87 from Amazon.

---

It was customary that all emperors be lovers of the latest mechanical and technological gadgets. This custom of early adaptation went back many dynasties, back to the day of the mechanical nightingale.

So it was expected, when the old emperor died and the new emperor was installed, that he would be fair game, like his fathers before him, for the usual vendors and their gewgaws.

One day the imperial technology tailors arrived at the palace, with great fanfare, to fit him for new wares. "We have come," the top tailor proclaimed, "to fulfill the promise of transparency."

The courtiers who frequented the emperor's computer quarters, hearing this, made snide remarks.

"What need has the emperor of transparency?" they asked. For surely transparency would allow others to see right through the imperial trappings. He would be, for all practical purposes, naked to the world.

But the emperor, with a quick gesture, bade them be silent. "Is it I who will be transparent," he inquired, "or the technology?"

The tailor bowed. "Your excellency is wise beyond measure," he said. "Transparency relates to the system underlying the computer. Its intent is to make computing easy. Instead of worrying how the computer works, you simply push buttons, and it works. You don't need to understand the computer. The computer does the understanding for you."

"Indeed, transparency sounds like a blessing to all people who communicate in this fashion," the emperor opined. "But is there a price users must pay?"

"The tailors glanced nervously at one another, then smiled. "Well, once we hide the code, it stays hidden." One said. "But that's good, another chimed in. "You never have to deal with it."

"It crashes a bit," blurted a tailor apprentice. The others quickly hushed him up.

"Transparency," the top tailor intoned, "is very complex. It requires a more powerful computer, more memory, more information storage, more processing speed. But we can provide all that -- free of charge to his excellency!"

The emperor stroked his red beard. "But if I move to this new standard, won't my subjects be forced to invest in it, in order to keep up with me? And won't many, unable to make this investment, be left behind?"

The tailors fidgeted in their robes. The old emperor, the one with the migrating beauty mark, would simply clap his hands and say "Goody goody!" when they made a presentation. This one was being -- difficult.

"You give me these remarkable technologies," said the emperor, "and for that you have my gratitude. But then you charge my subjects for these same amenities. They feel they must pay tribute to you in order to remain in my good graces. So they are forever hurrying to catch up with me, while the technology keeps changing, ever more rapidly.

"Wouldn't it be wiser to create a stable platform we could all compute on, and call a halt to this anxious, expensive race?"

The top tailor began to protest, but the emperor cut him short.

"Your transparency is marvelous," he said, "and I wish you to pursue the goal of user-friendliness. In time it will be a blessing to us all.

"But a more fitting goal for now would be a computing medium in which everyone may participate, whose code would be openly available, and whose operation is stable and reliable. And it should be free."

"But excellency," the tailor sputtered, "progress requires a continuous tension between what is and what can be. Your proposal, so thoughtful at first glance, runs the risk of eliminating that vital tension. Technology must needs stretch us in order to perform its function."

The emperor thought about this, and decided to honor the tailor's observation. So he had them hung by their thumbs in the market square.

Around the neck of each he hung a placard with the picture of a thimble, and a diagonal line running through it.

And so they twisted and turned in plain view of the populace, silent except for the stretching of the rope, as a reminder of the importance of maintaining innovative tension, and a warning of the dangers of running too transparent a game.

Get your signed copy of The NEW Why Teams Don't Work by Mike & Harvey Robbins from Berrett-Koehler Publishers Just click on the book cover! A fully revised second edition of this award-winning classic by Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley Paperback Winner, Financial Times/Booz Allen & Hamilton Global Business Book Award, Best Management Book - The Americas, 1995 Table of contents and sample chapters of this book... Just click on the book cover to order your signed copy for only $12.95. Table of contents and sample chapters of this book... Why Change Doesn't Work: Why Initiatives Go Wrong and How to Try Again and Succeed Harvey Robbins, Michael Finley Hardcover Just click on the book cover to order your signed copy for only $12.95. "This is the first treatise on change we've seen that is actually entertaining. The authors cover human and organizational barriers to change and change theories, and then take a tour of management theory that's guaranteed to upset every reader at one point or another." -- HR ONLINE Table of contents and sample chapters of this book...

Why not bookmark Mike's columns for your weekly enjoyment?

Stimulate the economy, give a poet a dollar.

I enjoyed serving this essay up for you, and I did it for free. But this writer is currently out of work, and a bit of revenue would gladden his heart. If you'd like to contribute to this site, consider dropping a $1 tip in the "Honor Box" here. Just click the CLICK TO PAY image here. Thanks - Mike