Archive for November, 2008
Microsoft Sharepoint… some JavaScript code from that fantastic piece of software
Someone needs to skip Marketing 101 at Microsoft and learn JavaScript…
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function DeferCall() {
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if (arguments.length == 0) {
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return null;
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}
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var args = arguments;
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var fn = null;
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if (browseris.ie5up || browseris.nav6up) {
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eval("if (typeof(" + args[0] + ")==’function’) { fn=" + args[0] + "; }");
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}
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if (fn == null) { return null; }
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if (args.length == 1) {
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return fn();
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} else if (args.length == 2) {
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return fn(args[1]);
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} else if (args.length == 3) {
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return fn(args[1], args[2]);
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} else if (args.length == 4) {
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return fn(args[1], args[2], args[3]);
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} else if (args.length == 5) {
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return fn(args[1], args[2], args[3], args[4]);
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} else if (args.length == 6) {
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return fn(args[1], args[2], args[3], args[4], args[5]);
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} else if (args.length == 7) {
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return fn(args[1], args[2], args[3], args[4], args[5], args[6]);
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} else if (args.length == 8) {
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return fn(args[1], args[2], args[3], args[4], args[5], args[6], args[7]);
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} else if (args.length == 9) {
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return fn(args[1], args[2], args[3], args[4], args[5], args[6], args[7], args[8]);
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} else if (args.length == 10) {
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return fn(args[1], args[2], args[3], args[4], args[5], args[6], args[7], args[8], args[9]);
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} else {
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var L_TooManyDefers_Text = "Too many arguments passed to DeferCall"
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alert(L_TooManyDefers_Text);
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}
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return null;
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}
Influencing change, in face of fear
In line with my management posts, another important element of the picture is how to influence change and why do most people resist change, especially in a business environment.
One of the main reasons why people resist change is fear. Challenging the status quo puts individuals out of the comfort zone. So what is so strong about this fear? It is not fear for physical safety, or fear of embarrassment as much as it is fear of being wrong, of making a mistake. We are thought this throughout our education, that mistakes are bad, that if we make them we won’t get the grade. These ideas are drummed into us from early age and when we transition from school to work we enter an even more rigid environment. Organizations are for the most part dictatorships at best, one or few people at the top, hierarchy below. In this type of environment, mistakes are considered unacceptable for the most part if not always.
Now we know that our world is emergent, change is inevitable and the world we live in today changes so much from year to year that even the top experts do not know what the world will be like in their field five or ten years from now. So the world changes despite of our fear, but change guided by fear is not a good change. We need creative solutions to issues that face us, but one cannot be creative if one is not prepared to be wrong.
When I push for different solutions to problems within my profession and that change is against the “standard” for the organization I am working for, the resistance is simply fear of making a mistake. If I do what we have always done then if the approach turns out not to be the best approach, I am not wrong, we were all wrong. That is much easier to swallow for most people. Or we prefer a certain technology, not based on the fact the technology in question is the best for the challenge at hand but in most cases it is based on fear of being wrong. How many Microsoft software houses or Java software houses or Open Source software houses there are? There are situations when different technologies will make sense, but we pick solutions to challenges that are not based on best solutions but to solutions we fear the least.
Creativity is the only way forward, and in order to be create we must accept and be ok with the possibility that we might be wrong. There are no mistakes except a mistake of fearing mistakes.
