How did we get here

I work for an established company.  The company has changed since I've been a part of the company.  Partly because I keep driving change.

Why in the world would I want to do that?

And that, is the essence of this tirade.

It's very easy to sit back and say you are an original thinker.  It's also very easy to sit back and criticize someone else's plan.

So I present the Dale Carnegie/man solution.  The next time you find something that doesn't make any sense at work, don't gripe.  Seriously.  Don't gripe.

Ask people why that policy is in place.  Ask questions about how the policy was put in place in the first place.

If the answer becomes "because that's the way we've always done it" then you are ripe for revision.

"I don't know" is also a good one to work on.

Whether you believe it or not, there are many policies and procedures that end up "because that's the way its always been done".  And there is a lot of "I don't know" in the procedure.

So... once you've find something like that, figure out whether you have the ability to change it.  If you are in IT, you aren't going to change marketing without some deep evidence.  You aren't going to change operations.

Initially, look to change your own department.  Because then you are dealing with people you know and policies you have internalized.

There are two ways to approach producing the change.  The first is to get permission.  The second is to implement and ask forgiveness.

I usually go with the second approach for two reasons.  1) No one understands the need to adjust the policy, and rocking the boat is probably not going to happen.  2) Your idea might sound great on paper, but suck in implementation.

So implement the easiest possible answer to the problem, and start using it.  You might come to the conclusion that your idea sucks.  Good.  Kill it then.  Go back to the drawing board and come up with a new solution to the problem.

If the idea is awesome, show other people.  Get them to start using your idea as opposed to the other policy.  See if people gravitate towards the new policy or the old.

I ended up implementing a Cacti server in this way.  I think it was a great idea, but no one uses it other than me.  So to me that's a partial success.

What I've been working on recently is a different way to document.  It's mostly a combination of PHP, Apache web pages, and a MySql database.  So far, the implementation doesn't work.  But the idea seems valid.  So I'll keep working on it until the idea is operational.  Documentation is always the hardest part of the IT world.  The second hardest part is designing a knowledge base that people are going to use.  You want a solution that is easy to implement and follow.  And a webpage seems to be a good idea.  But the non-technical parts of my team aren't going to run queries against a database.  That's beyond them.  So I have to provide a solution for them.  And that's what this approach is.

Try it.  You may find the cruddy company policies go away.

And you may find yourself with a load of new work.

Either is good.