Does grammar matter? An interesting aside for a technologically-based blog, yet it does fit in rather nicely to the current state of affairs in technology.

I've never met anyone who enjoyed diagramming sentences, memorizing what a participle was and what it meant when it was past, or any of the other things we struggled through in grade school. At the same time, though, experience tells us communication is extremely vital.

Virtually any definition of communication contains an element of the message that is sent. Regardless of the level of complexity of the model, at some level things are put into an order that is then decoded somehow, and supplied with an understood meaning. Consider the following sentence: Open the package then make sure that you do not cut through the blue wire.

When you read the sentence, you probably visualized opening a package, then looking out for a blue wire that you have to be careful of in the hope that your later inspection will not reveal a wire issue. However, would it help you if we put some punctuation in the sentence? Let's see: Open the package, then - make sure you do not cut through the blue wire! It's a subtle difference, and you would probably pick up on it if you were not in a hurry.

Therein lies the key. So much of what we do is done under a situation of a short deadline, and the technology sector is famous for that work pressure. If we were confronted with the first example of that sentence and we had 10 minutes in which to install a network device, then we might well not be as careful in opening the package.

This may seem like a silly difference, until you look at what drives a lot of what we refer to as modern technology. Though we know technology is much broader, in application is has come to mean something having to do with computer programming. If you have ever done any programming, then you know the value of a period, or of accuracy in command placement, etc. If you do it incorrectly, you wind up with something that won't function correctly.

Why is it, then, that we don't pay attention to the way that the world's most advanced computers - our minds - interface and communicate our information? We rely on technological tools such as spellcheckers and on the belief that we cn cmmuonacte thorgh imlpied maennig. Nothing could be further from the truth. In our quest to make things easier to use, we have accepted lower and lower levels of competence to such a degree that we now hear, "Make it idiot-proof," rather than, "train and remove user error."

This is not splitting hairs. In no other area of technology is the thought even considered. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever invented a hammer that, when used improperly, would fail to damage a thumb. We know instinctively that if we keep hold of the nail through the whole hammering process that we will eventually sustain an injury.

Applied to system design, we spend all manner of resources on solving the potential problems caused by users, because the current (and incredibly faulty) logic insists it is better to treat users as components in the process instead of important stations in the 'information factory' (for more information on this matter of 'cells' versus workers for those who are not from a manufacturing background, search under 'kanban', 'lean cells', 'lean manufacturing' and 'Therbligs'). It is easier to remove the potential for error for expendable employees than it is to harness the true power of capability and require a modicum of skill when using the system. Or so we are told.

We have not raised the levels of awareness and training to the appropriate place, and since we are willing to cut so many people so much 'slack', we naturally grant ourselves the same favor. We issue documents and communiques containing typographical errors, grammatical errors and many other problems.

I'm not saying it is easy to master our language, and I am certainly not an expert in it. What I am saying, though, is that it is high time for us to ratchet up our skills and move onward with the proper communication structures. Just as an error-proof software is watered-down in power to reduce problems in practice, a technology professional who is willing to sit back and communicate at a level that isn't their best is watered-down in their efficacy.

We need to remember that we are a society of many followers and few leaders. If we desire to be followers, then we have to adjust ourselves to the pace of the rest. If we would be leaders, though, then we have to set a pace and series of expectations that allow others to remain followers, yet still grow.

People adjust themselves to do about 70% of what is expected of them (this is why we have developed the whole aura of the 'average Joe'), so picture for a moment what happens when the leaders reduce their 100% down to the 70% so that they 'match'. Eventually the followers reduce their formerly 70% to the new 70% from where their leaders are located. Do you know what that yields mathematically? The new 'standard' for followers is 49% of the former!

So, colleagues, I ask you: do you inspire people to perform at 49% of potential, or do you inspire 70%? Grammar is not the sole area of leadership, but an effective communicator who properly encodes their messages of excellence is a leader who is off to a good start in the most basic and most important aspect of professionalism - communication.