I am quite sure many IS professionals often wonder about what their seniors are expressing in meetings. This mostly depends on the style and personality of the senior. It is quite common to find some senior level professionals participating and commenting quite unsubstantively. The senior could be an engineer or an executive or both!
Here are some examples to envision the scenario!
1. The code can be written in two months. The whole project can be done in 3 months really (if it were me)! Ofcourse, this estimate is on the higher end!
The novice engineer working under the umbrella of the senior engineer's team wonders with his/ her inner voice - "Are you sure of these statements. We hardly understand the "what" and "how" of the core modules involved. We have no working prototype. That includes you - "the senior" too. Fine, the requirements are being stated. What about the details? This is not "fire fighting" to just "quickly" pour some water and let nature take care of the details. What about the multiple if's and buts that need to be answered atleast to a certain extent after the initial 3 months being mentioned"?
2. We can sell "services" for about "3 to 10 million" this year to "this client".
This statement could very well come from a very high profile senior executive responsible and talking to the CEO of an organization. There will be at least 4 equally senior executives who might not open their hearts and participate in this conversation. When services are sold at much lower rates in reality (could be justified spending from a clien't end) how would this translate into reality? How are these statements justified?
Many times fellow professionals don't confront / act on such scenarios. It could be due to their own etiquette. However, such unsubstantive statements can simply distort the image of the issue at hand causing confusion to everyone involved.
Points to ponder:
Does years of experience make one loose perspectives about issues being handled?
Does experience give freedom to make unsupported statements in a professional setting?
Does a professional need refresher lessons in substantive participation?
References:
Reinventing the workplace, how business and employees can both win by David I. Levine (Chapter 3, Employee Support, pages 36 - 62)
