Saturday, September 15, 2007
Working Title
I'm trying to get permission to write more freely about our DITA activities. It's very different in a corporation.
For most of my career, I've worked in relatively small shops where there is a reliance on outside sources for experience and information on technologies and techniques. I was always encouraged to absorb and share information and experience. In a corporation, they just hire you; if you need new input, they hire that. But, what you develop out of that combination of experience and instruction becomes both confidential and a competitive advantage. Or so I'm told. I'm curious, how can I know that my processes are a competitive advantage without knowing what my competitors' processes are?
I may never know the answer to that question.
But, I am learning how to operate within a corporation. I've started thinking of it as a fictional environment. A place where the suspension of disbelief is integral to success. To fully experience the fantasy, you must be able to leave reality at the door.
I have learnt some excellent lessons so far:
Some of that may seem cynical to you. I don't think it is. I come home after a hard day of slogging and I sit down to write. I read about writing. I love writing. But, in the amusement park of employment, there are restrictions and fictions that I need to respect if I'm going to succeed in my personal goals. I want to be happy. Trying to change how a corporation operates, from a cubicle in nowhere, isn't going to make me happy. Now, if I could write like some of my favourite authors, I could enjoy a bit of poking fun at corporations and the mad, mad world that they give rise to.
I am grateful that I'm working in a corporation and have learned to walk the walk well enough to be a kept woman. I get to play with stuff that fascinates me and I get to work with some incredible people. It's almost like being in love.
When the network gets wonky, when the engagement surveys come out, when I sit through hours of drivel from the talking heads, and when the path to my objective is strewn with cultural icons and practices that seem almost normal but leave me feeling disorientated and alienated, well, I look at the whole picture. These are the folks that have the money to pay for me to play in my sandbox. I'm not ten people. When I was younger, and had more energy, being ten people in a small company was a blast. Now I'm like the cartoon wolf clocking in and clocking out.
For most of my career, I've worked in relatively small shops where there is a reliance on outside sources for experience and information on technologies and techniques. I was always encouraged to absorb and share information and experience. In a corporation, they just hire you; if you need new input, they hire that. But, what you develop out of that combination of experience and instruction becomes both confidential and a competitive advantage. Or so I'm told. I'm curious, how can I know that my processes are a competitive advantage without knowing what my competitors' processes are?
I may never know the answer to that question.
But, I am learning how to operate within a corporation. I've started thinking of it as a fictional environment. A place where the suspension of disbelief is integral to success. To fully experience the fantasy, you must be able to leave reality at the door.
I have learnt some excellent lessons so far:
- When in doubt, defer the problem up the chain to the person responsible for you.
- Learn how to ask, appropriately. Form your arguments ahead of time, put them in writing, and be skillful in your distribution. Do not antagonize those you need on your side by leap-frogging them in the process. Give them a chance to say nothing, or no.
- Get down with numbers. Even if the person you're reporting to is not a numbers freak, the hands on the reins are.
- Regardless of the product, the ultimate customer is the shareholder/owner.
- This is your job, not your life.
Some of that may seem cynical to you. I don't think it is. I come home after a hard day of slogging and I sit down to write. I read about writing. I love writing. But, in the amusement park of employment, there are restrictions and fictions that I need to respect if I'm going to succeed in my personal goals. I want to be happy. Trying to change how a corporation operates, from a cubicle in nowhere, isn't going to make me happy. Now, if I could write like some of my favourite authors, I could enjoy a bit of poking fun at corporations and the mad, mad world that they give rise to.
I am grateful that I'm working in a corporation and have learned to walk the walk well enough to be a kept woman. I get to play with stuff that fascinates me and I get to work with some incredible people. It's almost like being in love.
When the network gets wonky, when the engagement surveys come out, when I sit through hours of drivel from the talking heads, and when the path to my objective is strewn with cultural icons and practices that seem almost normal but leave me feeling disorientated and alienated, well, I look at the whole picture. These are the folks that have the money to pay for me to play in my sandbox. I'm not ten people. When I was younger, and had more energy, being ten people in a small company was a blast. Now I'm like the cartoon wolf clocking in and clocking out.
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