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Conference 7.286::digital

Title:	The Digital way of working

Moderator:	QUARK::LIONELON

Created:	Fri Feb 14 1986
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5321
Total number of notes:	139771

2420.0. "mgmt suggestion re:DECDIRECT" by SPESHR::ROCKWELL () Wed Mar 17 1993 15:54

I have a suggestion for Management: 

Request/require the DECDIRECT/DESKTOP DIRECT organization to create and
moderate an OPEN conference with the charter to:

	 1.identify process problems and process improvement opportunities

	 2.listen to employee and customer suggestions on how to improve this
	 channel.

Anticipated writers are:

	 1.Employees with gripes based on personal experience, suggestions
	 for improvement etc.

	 2.Employees with direct customer contact relating customer
	 experience, gripes, suggestions etc.

Let me say right away that this organization has come a long, long way and I
am aware that they get blamed for a lot of problems and processes that they
do not directly control, but IMHO they have a good way to go yet before
being best in class.  There are probably data floating around that says they
are Best-in-Class, and if so , wonderful, but there is much that can be
improved.  I would need both hands to count the number of employees in my
immediate area who have war stories to tell and/or refuse to do business
with DEC for a number of reasons, ALMOST ALL based on direct experience.
SOME of these generated responsible communications to try to improve things
but were beat back by the system. I myself am fresh from an attempt over a
few weeks and several calls to try to purchase some PC memory, which
included failures to return calls and misinformation.

The suggestion to top management is that you have a potential captive market
here which is quite large. But more importantly, you have good solid
FEEDBACK which you can leverage to good advantage to improve the ease of
doing business with DEC.  Why not take advantage of this feedback.  In a
conference forum which is open, top management would get some visibility
into these issues without the filters of the good-news-tellers in middle
management.  We all want to be perceived as "positive" professionals, but if
you really want to improve things, start by getting the truth.  The person
taking the time to offer constructive criticism would have the reward of
knowing he/she would be heard and validated (OR NOT) and that change (in the
positive direction ) would have a fighting chance to be initiated (OR NOT).
I think most employees want DEC to succeed and should be professional enough
to avoid empty, emotional griping that in any case the moderator(s) could
moderate.

Also, If a section of the conference were reserved for
Frequently-Asked-Questions it might cut down some on the redundant calls
coming in from employee's.

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
2420.1	ex	NASZKO::DISMUKE	WANTED: New Personal Name	`Wed Mar 17 1993 16:07`	4
	How about the U.S. Sales and Service conference RUNTUF::US_SALES_SERVICE
2420.2	Good idea - wrong conference?	11SRUS::DELBALSO	I (spade) my (dog face)	`Wed Mar 17 1993 18:30`	4
	Or how 'bout making a DELTA suggestion out of this? -Jack
2420.3	just a suggestion...	SPESHR::ROCKWELL		`Wed Mar 17 1993 21:06`	17
	I don't intend to make it into any other suggestion for any other suggestion forum or in any other place...it stands as is, where is for a person in a position to do something with it,to use or not. DELTA has been discussed elsewhere and I have experiance with DELTA. I considered making the suggestion there for about a picosecond. Sales and service sounds like a general thing that sales and service people might use to various purposes. I think one highly visible conf for one specific purpose would stand a better chance of actually getting used by the general employee population. It doesn't have to last forever either, like a government program. Maybe a concensus idea will develop here and spawn something.... am I the only one who thinks it's a damn shame I couldn't give DEC my business?
2420.4	".....I love it !"	XCUSME::MOODY		`Thu Mar 18 1993 05:38`	7
	As I read your note my only reaction was," Darn good idea. Sure do wish I'd thought of it." Therefore, stop it, I love it ! Truly an idea whose time has come. -Bob-
2420.5	An alternative approach	IW::WARING	Simplicity sells	`Thu Mar 18 1993 07:21`	6
	DECdirect UK got ISO9000/MQA accreditation late last calendar year. One of the spin-offs of this is that anyone - customers or internal folks - can ring DECdirect UK, ask for the duty manager, and get their complaints documented, resolved and the appropriate changes made to the Quality system. - Ian W.
2420.6	This tends to be a great bit bucket	11SRUS::DELBALSO	I (spade) my (dog face)	`Thu Mar 18 1993 11:36`	17
	re: .3 > I don't intend to make it into any other suggestion for any other > suggestion forum or in any other place...it stands as is, where is > for a person in a position to do something with it,to use or not. Well, then you won't be surprised if nothing comes of it because "the right person" wasn't necessarily "tuned in to" this conference in order to do anything with it, right? > am I the only one who thinks it's a damn shame I couldn't give DEC > my business? Probably not, but did you want to see it addressed, or just discussed? This is a great place for discussion, not necessarily for resolution. -Jack
2420.7	Still waiting	VICKI::DODIER	Food for thought makes me hungry	`Fri Mar 19 1993 16:10`	6
	I already put something similar into DELTA. I would have given you a pointer but the conference was moved, and when I tried to get into it at its new location I got a "network object unknown at remote node" error. Ray
2420.8	Contact name	STOWOA::CROWTHER	Maxine 276-8226	`Tue Mar 23 1993 13:24`	4
	re .0 DECdirect manager is/was Rod Robuccio @MKO. Why not send it to him directly?
2420.9	...its only a suggestion	SPESHR::ROCKWELL		`Thu Apr 01 1993 17:50`	34
	From mail I got, I surmise that I may have angered a few. This was not my intention. I was a tad angry at the time, maybe I should have cooled a little before venting. I am sorry if anyone was offended by the anger part but I think the suggestion part is still good. The transaction which triggered it has been concluded happily. In fact, my most recent purchase had to be treated as an exception because of special circumstances, and was concluded happily due to some extra effort from both DEC and me. I never said that other feedback mechanisms don't exist, or that mgmt does not care. I am happy to hear that we have ISO9000 cert, which I gather is a good thing, but I am not sure our revenue customers care about this. I think they just want what they want when they want it. The reactions have been interesting and telling. My reaction to the reactions is some DEC mgrs are more sensitive to "perceived" bad news than the former Soviet Politburo. Not surprising in the current climate I guess. I think DEC mgmt in general too hung up on "negativity" labels, after all first step to correcting a problem is to hear it right? to get past the denial? I admit that I tend to be a little bit negative, I suspect that people in problem solving type jobs tend to be like that. Which actually supports my point... If DECie Techy's are so hard to please, please them with our catalogue service and we should have no problem delighting revenue customers.. One manager made the point that Notes conference invites a lot of emotional negativity. I think this is maybe true. But my reply (in the context of the suggestion) is to use the good stuff and ignore the junk...some pain, but some gain. Like a Code Inspection and review for a SW engineer can be somewhat painful...but the results can be worth it... bottom line...its only a suggestion, sorry to whine a little.