And these hounds have real personality. When they throw back their heads and howl, ears flapping in the breeze, we're talking Soul here. Now this is not Anthropomorphism. Any dog or cat person will tell you. Animals usually have more personality than humans. Some are Natural Born Killers and some are Pussy Cats. Most Dogs are Pussy Cats.
Like Jones. Mind you Jones is more of a Natural Born Killer Pussy Cat. He is now teaching Beagie to Guard the Perimiter. This consists of them walking jauntily along the inside of the fence and barking at stuff. Sheep, birds, waving grass, the subject matter is immaterial. Attitude is the important thing.
The Tail is an indicator of Attitude. When Jones is happy he draws circles in the air with his tail. Beagie keeps his tail straight up in the air, just letting the very tip do a happy wriggle. Diva keeps her tail in a precise 30 degree downward slant. Smokey doesnt actually do a lot of tail movement, apart from twitching the tip, but his eyes follow you about.
Petrus/Petronella, alias PP, our teenage Plover delinquent is full of Attitude. He/She is almost the size of his/her parents. Who are wilting visibly, but are hanging in there.
Attitude is also important when dealing with Y2k.
Now that we are well into the middle game, and the deadline for those in the process of starting out on the road to compliance is ultra-tight, free flowing information is crucial.
I am surprised that the Professional Organisations have not done more to foster a spirit of information sharing within their member organisations. This should be encouraged.
What companies who are now racing to catch up desperately need is "peer" support information. In other words, those who have been clever enough to bite the bullet early should now share their experiences with those less fortunate.
This of course is not happening. Several reasons are given. "The Information is confidential". This is PHM-speak for "let the competition rot". The other one I hear is "Legal will not approve". PHM-speak for "we didn't even dare to ask Legal, we get fired if we talk about this".
Because what has happened is that exposures have been detected. Faces are red, and pants are down. Ranks are being closed.
The Attitude is "Deny and Withold. Admit Nothing". This is understandable. But highly dangerous. If your supply chain is damaged, then even if you are compliant and ready, you still don't win. You don't even score brownie points. Now this is a bitter pill for Management to swallow. It goes against the grain to offer assistance and share information with others.
Manufacturing companies, who are a very high risk Y2k group, are probably a little ahead of the pack in this regard. They have been force-fed on Japanese facilitative concepts and JIT and cooperation with Vendors is a well-defined concept. I am sure that Banks are a little startled by these new requirements.
Entire PR departments are probably being force fed with Valium as we speak.
The bottom line (revolting phrase), is that you had better be speaking to everybody with whom you do business to produce a cooperative approach to the problem. Or else.
The other thing that surprises me is how close to the chest we are holding our cards even within our own organisations.
Common sense, if nothing else, dictates that we should be telling our own people about the problem and how we are handling it.
One of my current soapbox ploys is to suggest to corporate audiences that a simple statement of intent could do wonders for Y2k efforts.
"By 1998-07-01 (1 July 1998) this organisation will adopt the full ISO8601 YYYY-MM-DD date format for all correspondence and reporting".
Simple. Direct. That should do nicely. That should get the troops marching together to the same drum beat.
I wish that we could get our fearless leaders in Government to do the same. But I don't really believe in Utopia.
Oh well, i must stop babbling and go and get changed. My cousin and I are going out to ingest Pizza.