I once imagined that I could — in my infinitesimal way — produce a kind of continuum between the language of business productivity and language that would allow lines of flight toward other types of personal and socio-political production. I was doing this for myself, as well as for anyone who was listening, which was, granted, hardly anyone.
In doing so, I became guilty of using over-simplified versions of concepts from people who have inspired me, and by offering these shrink-wrapped distortions of ideas from people like Bergson, Deleuze and Guattari, Faucconnier, Baudrillard, etc., ideas that had revolutionized their fields of philosophy, literature, linguistics, had allowed those fields to grow, I hoped I would not only help people produce enriched solutions for their immediate requirements on the job, but would help seed other kinds of solution, ones that were less immediate, but that would come with a change of perspective over time.
So in a sense, I am also guilty of attempting a kind of propaganda, but one that intended to be educational overall, and engender openness rather than the type of closed and predictable systems of behavior that propagandas generally intend to enforce. As one would expect, I have failed to influence anyone. I have realized that, and so this blog has over time become more of a haphazard array of anything that comes to mind, from stories to experimental poetry, and hybrid attempts at exposition.
It has given up hope of ever being useful, which may have been its true state of affairs right from the beginning. That said, it will continue to be productively useless as long as it is useful to be so.
You ARE an agent of change, however, whether you know it or not, since you are a living and breathing vessel of biological events. Where those events and the events of your conscious occupation, your personal and social interests, meet is a huge blurred band, not a threshold, but an unmappable criss-crossing of unimaginable complexity.
Even if your efforts press mainly toward the creating of consistencies and continual stabilization of traditional orders, the very effort of further enforcing those orders is itself a kind of change that will eventually take on shapes that will not conform to their original intent.
This happens all of the time, as there are things in us and in the world that confound our control over things, and perhaps have different intentions from what we thought we had.
Welcome to chaos. Learn how to swim.
Old intro:
We are all engaged in change at every moment of our lives, some more critical than others, and some by design. This site addresses those who find themselves in the context of change, either by profession, or by chance. Whether you are a business analyst, project manager, programmer or other interested party, you will face challenges, and benefit from the many opportunities organizational and technological change can bring about.
As someone whose life has been focused on change processes for many years, I seek to offer my experience and unusual approach to help you optimize and produce efficiencies in all change events and software implementations by taking a creative and holistic approach that involves everyone touched by the change on all levels and roles.
Not only have I worked for multiple decades in the financial industry, as a securities finance trader, pre-sales representative, software trainer, business analyst, project lead, as well as a number of other specialist roles not as easily categorized, I also have been trained in personal/organizational change methodologies, provided coaching services, have published and have taught university creative writing workshops. This unique variety of experiences has allowed me a set of insights that will help you super-charge your own expertise, and get more quickly to new levels you aspire to.
We will explore all points of contact between software and persons participating as users, to understand uses, dependencies and meanings of those points of contact, articulate overall patterns, variations and exceptions, and design a change process that will enhance the experience of all those involved.
We will also discuss how to account for both the procedural and social/personal risks of change, while uncovering potential and under-utilized strengths, in order to minimize costs and maximize the benefits of change.
Assumptions/Presuppositions
- The entire system is not limited to software data flows, but also the accumulated actions and experience of persons participating
- All systems of process are created and maintained in part by all those participating in them
- All systems are in part haphazard and emergent results of combined individual and organizational needs, desires and function at a level overall communication allows
- Systems of authority/power are defined loosely by the org chart, and are different for each person
- The defined value and value limits of each participant are always to some degree arbitrary and incomplete – further potential is always discoverable given the right approach
- Personal, organizational and software gaps form a system in which all participate
- Process changes and software implementations are good for organizations and individuals involved as they generate opportunities for systemic learning and growth
- Failure or breakage at any point in a system are signs of overall systemic inefficiencies, not always due a single person or department, and are the telltales of further undiscovered potentialities