વર્ષો પહેલાં એક ટોળું, my boss asked me to train some users on a product called Results. Results is an end user reporting tool. It’s roughly analogous to SQL Server Reporting Service or Crystal. સમયે, તે લીલા ટ્યુબ પર ચલાવવા માટે ડિઝાઇન કરવામાં આવી હતી (e.g. Wyse 50 અંતિમ) connected to a Unix box via telnet.

My default answer to any question that starts with "Can you … " is "Yes" બધા મુશ્કેલી શરૂ જ્યાં છે અને તે છે.

ક્લાઈન્ટ દક્ષિણ કેલિફોર્નિયામાં એક કેમિકલ કંપની બહાર હતા અને માત્ર વિશે પર આધારિત મુખ્ય ERP અમલીકરણ અપ આવરિત હતી QAD માતાનો MFG/PRO. The implementation plan now called for training power end users on the Results product.

I wasn’t a big user of this tool and had certainly never trained anyone before. તેમ છતાં, હું અન્ય તાલીમ વર્ગો સંખ્યાબંધ હાથ અને મારા પગ પર ઝડપી હતી, so I was not too worried. Dennis, વાસ્તવિક સંપૂર્ણ સમય પરિણામો પ્રશિક્ષક, had given me his training material. હવે તેના પર પાછા છીએ, it’s really quite absurd. I didn’t know the product well, had never been formally trained on it and had certainly never taught it. What business did I have training anyone on it?

Logistically વસ્તુઓ જટિલ કરવા માટે, I was asked to go and meet someone in Chicago as part of a pre-sales engagement along the way. The plan was to fly out of New Jersey, શિકાગો જવા, meet for an hour with prospect and then continue on to California.

કૂવો, I got to Chicago and the sales guy on my team had made some mistake and never confirmed the meeting. તેથી, I showed up and the prospect wasn’t there. Awesome. I pack up and leave and continue on to CA. Somewhere during this process, હું ક્લાઈન્ટ કરતાં ઓછી શીખવાની છે કે શોધવા 24 hours before my arrival that "Paul Galvin" વર્ગ શીખવવામાં આવે છે, not Dennis. The client loves Dennis. They want to know "who is this Paul Galvin person?" "Why should we trust him?" "Why should we pay for him?" Dennis obviously didn’t subscribe to my "શરૂઆતમાં ખરાબ સમાચાર આપવા" philosophy. Awesome.

હું એરપોર્ટ પર અને કેટલાક ઉત્સાહી મૂર્ખ કારણોસર આવો, I had checked my luggage. I made it to LAX but my luggage did not. મારા માટે, સામાન ગુમાવી મારફતે જવા જેવી ઘણો છે દુઃખ સાત તબક્કામાં. Eventually I make it to the hotel, આ બોલ પર કોઈ સામાન સાથે, થાકેલું, ભૂખ્યા અને પહેર્યા મારી (હવે દ્વારા, ખૂબ ચોળાયેલું) business suit. It takes a long time to travel from Newark — to O’Hare — ક્લાઈન્ટ માટે — back to O’Hare — and finally to LAX.

I finally find myself sitting in the hotel room, munching on a snickers bar, exhausted and trying to drum up the energy to scan through the training material again so that I won’t look like a complete ass in front of the class. This was a bit of a low point for me at the time.

હું આગામી દિવસ ઉઠે, did my best to smooth out my suit so that I didn’t look like Willy Loman on a bad day and headed on over to the client. As is so often the case, વ્યક્તિ તે સરસ હતી, polite and very pleasant. This stood in stark contrast to her extremely angry emails/voicemails from the previous day. She leads me about 3 miles through building after building to a sectioned off area in a giant chemical warehouse where we will conduct the class for the next three days. આ 15 અથવા 20 વિદ્યાર્થીઓ ધીમે ધીમે ભેગા, most them still expecting Dennis.

હું હંમેશા મારી જાતને રજૂ મારા તાલીમ વર્ગો બંધ શરૂ, giving some background and writing my contact information on the white board. As I’m saying, "Good morning, my name is Paul Galvin", હું મારું નામ લખી, email and phone number up on the white board in big letters so that everyone can see it clearly. I address the fact that I’m replacing Dennis and I assure them that I am a suitable replacement, વગેરે. I have everyone briefly tell me their name and what they want to achieve out of the class so that I can tailor things to their specific requirements as I go along. The usual stuff.

We wrap that up and fire up the projector. I go to erase my contact info and … I had written it in permanent marker. I was so embarrassed. In my mind’s eye, તે આ જેમ જોવામાં: There is this "Paul Galvin" વ્યક્તિ, last minute replacement for our beloved Dennis. He’s wearing a crumpled up business suit and unshaven. He has just written his name huge letters on our white board in કાયમી માર્કર. What a sight!

તે બધા happily અંત, તેમ છતાં. This was a chemical company, છેવટે. A grizzled veteran employee pulled something off the shelf and, કદાચ ઈપીએ નિયમનો ઉલ્લંઘન, cleared the board. I managed to stay 1/2 day ahead of the class throughout the course and they gave me a good review in the end. This cemented my "pinch hitter" reputation at my company. My luggage arrived the first day, તેથી હું વધુ સારી પેઠે સારું ટ્રેડીંગ હતો બે અને ત્રણ.

હું ઘરે પાછા લાલ આંખ લેતી હતી, I was contemplating "lessons learned". There was plenty to contemplate. Communication is key. Tell clients about changes in plan. Don’t ever check your luggage at the airport if you can possibly avoid it. Bring spare "stuff" in case you do check your luggage and it doens’t make it. I think the most important lesson I learned, તેમ છતાં, આ હતી: હંમેશા લખતા પહેલાં સફેદ બોર્ડ ઓફ નીચલા ડાબા ખૂણે એક માર્કર પરીક્ષણ, વિશાળ પત્રો, "Paul Galvin".

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