Aliens

One of the enduring themes of Science Fiction, one of my favorite genres of entertainment, is alien beings from another world. They are often very like us, humanoid in shape, breathe similar atmosphere, evolved under similar gravity. They may have feathers or fur or scales, they may speak using clicks or snarls, but they are more similar to us than not. Occasionally you run across a story that contains very alien life forms, but whatever their form, communication is often the biggest challenge to overcome.

I have the same problem with the owner of my company. We both are native English speakers, so we can understand the words the other one speaks, but that is the end of it. I do not speak with him anymore because it is a waste of my time. Much of what he says seems to make sense, but after being there for so long, I have realized that that as far as I am concerned, it does not. Likewise, nothing I say seems to have any impact on him. We cannot communicate. It is like we are from different planets. Whoa! Could it be he is an alien?

Actually, no. From my experience, from what others tell me, from the success of the Dilbert comic strip, this is a common situation. I suspect that some companies are successful because they somehow manage to communicate across this gap. Companies that do not find a way to do this are doomed, if not to failure, to muddle along forever.

I have heard a number of theories about how to communicate across the gap, but all of them depend on some understanding of what the other side needs and/or wants. So far I have failed in this regard. I do not understand the owner, and what I do know has not given me any ideas of how to communicate with him that are not anathema to my way of conducting myself.

I was talking to one of my brothers this morning. He has just left his job for this reason. He has been in similar straights before. You have a company that starts out with one or two bright guys who develop some software that enables the company to run. The guys in charge see how they can make money with this and start asking for more. The software guys, say yeah, okay, we can do that, but we need some things, and the principal bone of contention is money. The guys who are running the show, say screw you, we are the ones running the show, we are the ones who are going to make the money, you guys just work here. So the software guys leave. The company hires some other grunts to work on the project, but they are trying to pick up the pieces and they cannot do it. The project is too large and too complex and the documentation is wholly inadequate. And the company sinks slowly grinds into the ground and ultimately fails.