My computer has had some issues in the past and also today. Upon rebooting the computer, which is my first step to fixing it, my computer had more than a few issues. Some major drivers were missing and I couldn’t do a thing with my computer at all. This is a major issue since most of my work is done on my laptop. After hours in trying to fix it, I finally called and signed up for the Geek Squad remote technical support. I was so happy to be able to ‘hand off’ my troubles to some geeks. I was told by the geek that the fixes would take a few hours and I would find a message on my computer when it was fixed. Instead, I got a call from a geek giving me some bad news after many more than a few hours. Apparently, I need to reinstall the computer operating system because I was missing over 500 essential files. The worst part is that I created this problem many moons ago because I attempted to remove Internet Explorer from the computer. Dummy me. I didn’t know that Internet Explorer was tied to the operating system. Tonight, I got a quick lesson from a geek in what NOT to do to a computer.
OK. Lesson learned. Acquire a subject matter expert before a small issue becomes a bigger and more complex issue. Another lesson learned which I tend to ignore because I am smart and sometimes cheap is to ask or pay for help. If I count up all the hours I have spent in trying to fix my computer, I could have weeded my desperately overgrown garden beds, written a book and had time to spare.
Ah, those lessons learned that we point to after the deed is done. Sometimes we formally review lessons learned as in project management. Some members of a project team like to review what occurred and what could have been better. It’s even nice to be able to document lessons learned for prosperity and reuse. Those lessons learned are only valuable if the lessons we learned are actually reviewed and utilized in future endeavors.
Will I actually learn a lesson or two after unsuccessfully trying to fix my computer and then asking for help when the damage is done? I wish I could say “yes, I won’t do that again”. But I know my frugality will probably try to overtake my common sense and I will attempt to fix another thing on my own. Or I can document my lesson, as I am doing tonight, and learn from a geek.
What lessons have you learned?
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Hi Dayle,
Interesting – we have a similar thread on the PMI RiskCoP (http://risk.vc.pmi.org/Home.aspx) at the moment.
In my 2008 presentation at the PMI EMEA congress, I argued that one of the major reasons we have lessons ignored (or forgotten) is down to the fact that we do not perceive the added value of the knowledge properly. In fact with your closing comments you hint that you will probably knowingly make the same “mistake” again.
This is applicable not just to individuals but also to organisations.
So the lesson I have learned is that although you can take the horse to the water, if it isn’t thirsty, you can’t make it drink. Same thing for people – if people don’t want to learn (because its not invented here, because we don’t see the value, because its not communicated well, …) then they won’t.
Hi Mark: I somehow missed your wonderful comment until today.
Will you kindly point me to the thread you referenced above as well as your 2008 presentation? What was the name of your presentation?