A Nice Knock-Down Argument

Sales and the Gantt "Why exactly does he want to meet again?" I could sense the exasperation in Karl's voice, faintly; the sales manager wasn't about to slip out of his professional demeanor over some perceived technical triviality. But for the fact that the request was coming from his newly-hired PMI maven, he probably would have found a convenient excuse to skip the invite. "I just don't understand why we need this meeting ... the projects are moving forward, we…

Euphemisms, and a career-extending paradox

I use a number of euphemisms all the time, in my conversations with folks, trying to balance complete yet brief communications. A common phrase when trying to show that you've seen a similar situation before is ... "In a previous life ..." (IAPL), as in "In a previous life, we did consolidated financials within the ERP ...". I find it's a bit smoother than citing the bigger company you used to work for (sounds condescending) or the smaller company you…