You Are An Inspiration

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the item You Are An Inspiration

  • This is a toughie. I think, Louis, that you are correct, for the most part. But I'm also aware of the fact that, in some circumstances, it is possible that innovation is not desired. That innovation can actively be stamped out. This was researched by Dr. Ron Westrum's organizational culture models which include the pathological and bureaucratic models. In the pathological model, new ideas/innovation are crushed. In the Bureaucratic model, new ideas/innovation create problems, so are discouraged.

    I work for a large state government department, which is mostly bureaucratic, but sometimes is pathological in behavior. I've been trying for years to get my fellow developers to adopt better software development practices, with no success. We have an acknowledgement program (not currently followed, for some reason) which would only recognize people who've assisted more users than their peers. But it never recognized anyone for doing anything new, better, or innovative. In large part because no one tries to do anything innovative. Or if they do, then it is never supported. For example, where I work there are no APIs in use. I've tried writing apps that use APIs, but no one will use them. They prefer to write XML or .CSV files, leave those files on network shares, then write complex, error prone apps/procedures for picking those files up by other software systems. So, what's the point of doing anything innovative, if the rest of the culture won't use it?

    I don't know which caused what. It's a chicken and egg situation. Did workers stop innovating years ago because management wouldn't allow it? Or did workers not want to do anything new, so management gave up trying to get them to do anything innovative? Whatever the reason, it happened years ago.

    I want to be clear; I'm not saying these people are bad. They're fine people who give to their families and often go out of their way to assist others. But there's a persistent attitude of just staying with the status quo.

    Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.

  • I tried replying, but that resulted in a HTTP 500 error

    and then it worked

    • This reply was modified 12 months ago by  Rod at work.

    Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.

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