I Like It When Things Line Up

I was thrilled to be invited to speak on a panel at AUGI CON by Kristina Youngblut discussing standards. Not the nitty-gritty technical side of things, but what can affectionately be referred to as the squishy side of standards.

I love standards. I love consistency. I love efficiency. I love lining up my silverware and making sure everything is orthogonal when I’m at a restaurant.

But the technical part is, frankly, not that hard. Anyone can do an Internet search and find some outstanding resources to work with.

Buy-in is hard. Training is hard. Adoption is hard.

It was a lot of fun sitting with Kristina, along with Chris Lindner and Steven Bloomer to dig into this. It seems like once you get through a couple of implementations (or not have gotten through them) you start ending up at the same conclusion: standards aren’t standards if nobody follows them… they’re just good ideas.

And the most important part of your job is to create standards that can be followed, supported, and will make everyone… and I mean everyone on the whole… more effective at their jobs.

Thanks again to Kristina for the invite, and I look forward to continuing what will surely be an ongoing conversation over the years.