Tag: adage

Mastery – Success Equals Preparation

Maxims And Truisms, Success equals preparation meeting opportunity, mastery,eminence
Success equals preparation

While flipping through some old papers the day I  saw this maxim scribbled down on a piece of paper. This maxim has proven true for many.  there is a high likelihood that folks with a military background have heard it somewhere along the way.

Success Maxim

Success equals preparation meeting opportunity.
This concept is, also sometime said as:

What is Conley’s law?

Acronyms, Abbreviations, Terms, And Definitions, Conley’s Law, What is Conley’s law
Acronyms, Abbreviations, Terms, And Definitions

Conley’s Law

Any organization that designs a system (defined more broadly here than just information systems) will inevitably produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization’s communication structure.

 

–“How Do Committees Invent?”, Melvin E. Conway, 1968

 

Related References

Harvard Business School

Exploring the Duality between Product and Organizational Architectures: A Test of the “Mirroring” Hypothesis

Information Technology – What is Greer’s Third Law?

Greer's Third Law, Acronyms, Abbreviations, Terms, And Definitions, What is Greer's Third Law
Greer’s Third Law

Greer’s Third Law

A computer program does what you tell it to do, not what you want it to do

Related References

Business Communications – Do not listen to reply, listen to understand

Maxims And Truisms
Maxims And Truisms

“Do not listen to reply, listen to understand”

Meaning

  • If you are busy formulating your own response in your head, you cannot possibly be fully hearing or understanding what the person is saying. You are more likely to make mistaken assumptions about what they are trying to say, which makes your arguments weaker and less relevant. If you had listened to understand first, then you would know how to more appropriately and powerfully respond.

 

 

Business Communications – Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood

Maxims And Truisms
Maxims And Truisms

 

“Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood”
Steven Covey – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Habit 5)

 

 

Meaning:

  • From a communications standpoint, you always need to make the other person feel “heard” before they are willing to “hear you”
  • If you are not listening to understand, then you are probably missing the point of what the person is actually trying to say or what they actually want, which puts you in a weaker bargaining position.

What is Crayne’s Law?

Acronyms, Abbreviations, Terms, And Definitions, What is Crayne's Law,Crayne's Law
Crayne’s Law

Crayne’s Law

All computers wait at the same speed

 

“The Serious Assembler” by Charles A. Crayne and Dian Girand, 1985

Related References

Definitions: Fungibility

  • Acronyms, Abbreviations, Terms, And Definitions
    Acronyms, Abbreviations, Terms, And Definitions

 

Word

Fungibility

Definition

Fungibility is the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are capable of mutual substitution.