A fullt af árum, 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. At the time, það var hannað til að keyra á græna rör (e.g. Wyse 50 flugstöðinni) connected to a Unix box via telnet.

My default answer to any question that starts with "Can you … " is "Yes" og það er þar sem allar vandræði byrjaði.

Viðskiptavinurinn var efna fyrirtæki í Suður-Kaliforníu og hafði bara um umbúðir upp stórt ERP framkvæmd á grundvelli Er QAD 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. Hins, Ég hafði fram fjölda annarra flokka þjálfun og var fljótur á fætur, so I was not too worried. Dennis, alvöru fullur-tími niðurstöður kennari, had given me his training material. Looking back on it now, 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?

Til að flækja hlutina logistically, 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, fara til Chicago, meet for an hour with prospect and then continue on to California.

Jæja, I got to Chicago and the sales guy on my team had made some mistake and never confirmed the meeting. Svo, I showed up and the prospect wasn’t there. Awesome. I pack up and leave and continue on to CA. Somewhere during this process, Ég komast að því að viðskiptavinurinn er að læra minna en 24 hours before my arrival that "Paul Galvin" er að kenna bekknum, 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 "gefa slæmar fréttir snemma" philosophy. Awesome.

Ég kem á flugvellinum og fyrir sumir ótrúlega heimskur ástæða, I had checked my luggage. I made it to LAX but my luggage did not. Fyrir mig, tapa farangur er mikið eins og að fara í gegnum sjö stigum sorg. Eventually I make it to the hotel, án farangri, þreyttur, svangur og þreytandi minn (nú, mjög krumpuðum) business suit. It takes a long time to travel from Newark — to O’Hare — til viðskiptavinar — aftur til O'Hare — og að lokum til LAX.

Mér finnst loksins sjálfur situr á hótelherbergi, munching á 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.

Ég vaknaði næsta dag, 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, í eigin persónu hún var nice, 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. The 15 eða 20 nemendur saman rólega, most them still expecting Dennis.

Ég byrja alltaf á þjálfun bekkinn með því að kynna mig, giving some background and writing my contact information on the white board. As I’m saying, "Good morning, my name is Paul Galvin", Ég skrifa nafn mitt, 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, o.fl.. 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, það leit svona út: There is this "Paul Galvin" manneskja, 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 varanleg merki. What a sight!

Það endaði allt hamingjusamlega, þó. This was a chemical company, eftir allt. A grizzled veteran employee pulled something off the shelf and, líklega í bága EPA reglugerðir, 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, svo ég var miklu meira frambærilegur dagar tveir og þrír.

Eins og ég var að taka rauða augað heim, 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, þó, var þetta: alltaf prófa merki í neðri vinstra horninu á hvítum borð áður en að skrifa, í stórum stöfum, "Paul Galvin".

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