I mulled long and hard over the content of this post over on techedbackstage.net. A discussion with a few people, and reading to through with Jorke cleared my mind a little.
Should I reveal we had a medium size hiccup in the first day of netbook handout at TechEd? C’mon, corporations don’t make errors. Well, they sorta do – but never admit it. Problems are couched in corporate speak. All is well. Look over here.
My personal concept of transparency and honesty is telling it like it is. Whilst I don’t state the actual number of machines needing re-imaging: we have yet to get more data tomorrow to be more factual: telling the story as it is, warts and all, is critical. It’s closer to home here as I am responsible for the Netbooks. In retrospect, I feel I should have thought of the human factors when in production-line mode. Also, increasing the Q&A rate considering the tightness of the handout: I should have thought of that, too.
I’d like to put a big thanks out to Jorke who implemented techedbackstage.net. We really hope that you guys in IT get something out of this transparency.
Sometimes it’s painful to admit your mistakes and say sorry. Thankfully, I work in an organisation that respects the need for this level of honesty. And a great team of people who are pulling to make it right for customers.
Good post Nick, both here and at techedbackstage.
Shit happens when you do stuff like this, I wouldn’t even say anyone in particular stuffed up.
I think you’re handling it the right way, most people will understand, sure you’ll get a few unhappy campers but those people will find a way to be upset no matter what.
Nice post. Warts and all is critical. The world has evolved 🙂
Fraser is wondering where Nick is…has been a very long time in blogtime since we’ve heard from you old chap…hope this finds you well.