ManagementSpeak: My door is always open. Let’s have an authentic conversation.
Translation: If you tell me what you really think and it’s not what I want to hear, I’m going to be unhappy and show you my authentic frowny face.
When I read this submission from Will Pearce it gave me an authentic smiley face.
Related: I’m reminded of a situation, not too recently of a system that was built, to support a new insurance product, as a POC, then implemented as is despite the misgivings of the guy who wrote it. The product was extended the next year and the system cobbled up to suit. Then again the next year.
All IT involved (including the original developer and they who maintained it) agreed that the POC was a POS. But it was an immense struggle to effectively communicate that so as to fund a project to rewrite / replace it.
“What do you mean ‘it will fail’?” we were asked. Exactly what will happen? What will this failure cost? Not unreasonable questions but very difficult to put an exact answer to.
I will have to find out what happened after I left.