Author name: Lynwood

Order The Persuasive Wizard: How Technical Experts Sell Their Ideas to Non-technical Decision Makers at Amazon.com for a low price of $12.95.  However, the publisher has permitted me to offer it to my blog readers, for a limited time, at a special discount.  Go to this site, Wizard and enter the code 7PBGMXNC.  The book is an excellent gift for anyone who needs to persuade others. Our present discussion is the requirement to predict research outcomes, how much will it cost and when will it be complete.  Most technologists throw up their hands (or wave their fists) decrying, “No one knows when a breakthrough will occur!  No one can predict research!”  “You can’t just say, ‘Invent, you swine!’”  Well, that’s not altogether true and whether you wish to or not, whether you should or not, whether you can or not, management will […]

Order The Persuasive Wizard: How Technical Experts Sell Their Ideas to Non-technical Decision Makers at Amazon.com for a low price of $12.95.  However, the publisher has permitted me to offer it to my blog readers, for a limited time, at a special discount.  Go to this site, Wizard and enter the code 7PBGMXNC.  The book is an easy read and excellent for anyone who needs to persuade others. One of the most difficult tasks any technologist faces is the requirement to accurately forecast and predict research, either for an individual or a group.  If your job involves doing anything new, this impossible task of forecasting research will become one of your assignments.  But, it’s not impossible and I will show you how to make sound, accurate forecasts that exhibit foresight and establish credibility with management.  This Part II discusses the “Weights.” What

My book has just been released from the publisher and is now available!  Thanks to all of you for your encouragement, sponsorship, and sound advice during the process. You can order The Persuasive Wizard: How Technical Experts Sell Their Ideas to Non-technical Decision Makers at Amazon.com for the retail price 0f $12.95.  However, the publisher has permitted me to offer it to my blog readers, for a limited time, at a special discount.  Go to this site, Wizard and enter the code 7PBGMXNC.  (I apologize for the complex code but the publisher was intractable and did remind me I was writing for technologists.  Although, in reality, the book is an easy read and excellent for anyone who needs to persuade others). You know someone who needs this book.  That technie who can never communicate.  That coworker who cannot explain anything she is

  One of the most difficult tasks of any technologist is to accurately predict and forecast research, either for yourself or your oversight group.  If your reaction is, “How in the world can I predict research and breakthrough discoveries?” then welcome to the club.  Nevertheless, management will exact an answer from someone, from somewhere, through some means, and you are the best and most likely candidate.  This impossible task of predicting research is part of every technologist’s job.  Whether you are involved in pure research, product development, product enhancement, product improvement, or anything similar, you will face this problem.  If your job involves doing anything new, you need to know how to make accurate forecasts.  This series will discuss how to accurately and correctly make technology forecasts.  Part I lines up the issues. The Nature of the Business. Every company

This is Part V and the last in a series on how to properly terminate an employee.  Termination is an unpleasant but sometimes necessary task.  All the more reason to do it correctly and professionally.  I restrict the discussion to technology positions.  I do not refer to  union-controlled jobs or contract labor.  My discussion addresses technology positions where you pay an employee for performance, assess that performance, and act accordingly. There are two major categories that motivate your decision to terminate, either 1. You have run out of work for this employee a.) There are no other jobs available in the company because you are already long on people everywhere and the company is downsizing. b.) here are no other jobs available in the company because the person you chose to terminate does not have the skills necessary for transfer

My technology-persuasion series got interrupted by a fabulous family vacation to Glacier National Park – our second trip there and the only location we have graced twice (which includes 45 states and 5 foreign countries). The US has 58 protected areas known as National Parks.  They are located in 27 states and are managed by the Department of the Interior National Parks Service.  Yellowstone was the first, created in 1872, and the Great Sand Dunes was the last, in 2004. Glacier splendidly occupies more than a million acres through the upper reaches of Montana and stretches well into Canada.  It is surrounded by the Blackfeet Indian Reservation on the east and the Flathead Indian Reservation on the west.  Its few roads have enchanting names like Two Medicine, Many Glacier (singular, not plural), St. Mary’s, and Going-to-the-Sun.  There are 26 glaciers

In the first three parts of our series we discussed the very difficult problem of how to terminate an employee.  We do not refer to  union-controlled jobs or contract labor.  These comments apply to those technology positions where you pay an employee for performance, assess that performance, and act accordingly. There are two major categories that motivate your decision to terminate, either You have run out of work for this employee There are no other jobs available in the company because you are already long on people everywhere and the company is downsizing. There are no other jobs available in the company because the person you chose to terminate does not have the skills necessary for transfer to another job. You need to terminate for cause. Today, we discuss the “plan.”  A good manager knows when the company is downsizing.  Keep

I am saddened to report that our wonderful Willie Lee Darter has passed away.  I think her to be the only truly good person I have ever known. Only about three weeks ago, I posted a blog celebrating her 98th birthday; I did not anticipate this follow on.  Before she died, she asked me to do the eulogy at her funeral.  I took some of the prior material from that blog and enlarged upon it.  I include the full text here.  I regret that words cannot do her justice nor can they convey my sadness. I realize that many readers will think 98 years sufficient. Those readers did not know Ms. Darter. In 1888, Ola Lee Scales was born the second of what would be seven children to Hammond Bouldin Scales and Fannie Tennessee Brown. Ola was 19-years old when

In a previous blog we began a series on how to terminate an employee.  The series is not intended to address union-controlled jobs or contract labor.  It applies to those technology positions where you pay an employee for performance, assess that performance, and act accordingly. There are two major categories that motivate your decision to terminate, either You have run out of work for this employee There are no other jobs available in the company because you are already long on people everywhere and the company is downsizing. There are no other jobs available in the company because the person you chose to terminate does not have the skills necessary for transfer to another job. You need to terminate for cause. Whichever of these reasons, if you are like most technologists, just this morning you made the decision (or were

One of my readers asked me to discuss how to “fire an employee.”  Not because this particular reader needed to fire someone, but because he, himself, had been “fired.” The reality was that his company just ran out of work, but in practice, the implementation of his termination was handled so poorly as to create uncalled for emotional and financial damage. As managers, terminating an employee is one of the most difficult tasks we face.  Especially, those of us who are in charge of technology groups; dealing with people is not our strongest suite.  So, let me offer sage advice, some of it learned the hard way but much of it gleaned from others whose mistakes I observed and from whom both you and I now benefit. As a new manager of a technology group, your first statement may be, “I thought