How to detect sneaky incompetents

After the last post about Brandy's propensity to bite the hand that feeds it, I've had to endure countless innuendos about Zorro's manliness, and, by association, my own. 

So, last night after dinner and a few stiff digestives, I decided to post a picture of Zorro making his scary face (on the left).

A picture fit to make Cujo wet his panties and go hide under the bed.

Proof beyond doubt that he is in fact a testosterone pumping, bad-ass Labrador.

A man amongst men. A baby eater. A ball chewer.

Not.  

Zorro is not so good at being a guard dog,  but will prentend to be (for my amusement).  That brings me to the subject of incompetence:

We all know and understand overt incompetence: The kind that creates a burning desire to grab someone by the head and smack it down on the table until it stops moving.

Governments of the world actively recruit these people. Eventually all overt incompetents end up in government. Viva.

When I say "incompetence", I don't mean the "healthy" kind. The kind where you know you don't have the right competencies for the job so you do something about it. Healthy incompetence (acknowledging it) is a driver for improvement and growth.

Unhealthy incompetence is people who know they don't have a clue and they don't give a hoot.

They flock together in governments. Viva.

But there is a third, more insidious and much more dangerous incompetence: Covert Incompetence. 

In technical industries they are not only covertly incompetent, they are sneaky too:

They know they don't know. They know you don't know they don't know. They know they will get away with it.

Sneaky incompetents flock together in the IT industry.

The IT industry is so diverse, so over complicated, so over hyped and so scary to Joe Rapalalamisimangtangnang and Mary Koekemoer, the sneaky incompetents thrive here. A huge and poorly con

tested hunting ground full of willing prey because people (wrongly) think IT is so complicated they do not have the mental capacity to ever understand it. 

Too many movies about computers building robots and taking over the earth and all that.

Forget about computers taking over the world. A much greater danger to you, your sanity, your wallet and your company is the sneaky IT incompetent. These people are the real danger to the rest of the world.

Here is 5 ways to detect Sneaky IT Incompetence (SITI). It works like garlic lip gloss for Dracula's wife:

1. Super relatives (aka hyped hype).

When communicating the SITI will use adjectives and hype to convince.

Example: "This computer is EXTREMELY old. It is TOTALLY hopeless to upgrade because it will cost a HUGE amount, and anyway XP is FULL of bugs and NEVER EVER work as expected. Trust me: ALL my clients have EXACTLY the same problem."

Professionals use reason for an argument - not language.

2. The Titanic speech (aka nothing ever goes wrong):

Competency is required to understand risk.

Example: "Nothing can go wrong, don't worry. What? Loose all your data? Me? Never. Can't happen."

Professionals know things go wrong. All the time. When you least expect it - and they plan for it.

3. Nerd speak (aka dictionary attack):

In the old days the pagan priests made up a language just before they chopped someone's head off. Much simpler to intimidate than to communicate effectively.

Example: "It looks like a RAM party error on the MB or CPU S1-Cache or perhaps the IDE or USB bus interrupt event cueing"

Professionals will help you understand the problems and solutions - at least at a conceptual level.

4. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail:

Remember the SITI cannot be bothered to learn new skills or tools, so don't dare suggest using something he does not know.

Example: "What? You want me to use that tool? It sucks! It kills baby kittens! My tool is much better. You can do anything with it from tuning pianos to deep sea fishing."

Professionals will either refer you to a colleague or learn the skills to use the new tool.

5. The WMD (aka omnipotent certainty)

Only the wrong and ignorant fear new ideas.

Example: "You do it like this. There is no other way. Other ways kill baby kittens...and melt the polar caps."

Professionals study the new idea first, and have an opinion after.

So. The moral of the story?

A scary face does not a guard dog make.  (Zorro apologized  - see the pic left)

I'm sure you compete with sneaky incompetents in your industry too.

So, how do we professionals win this fight?  

By educating our clients.  

The more they know about what we do, the easier it is for them to spot the incompetents: your most effective sales technique is clear, honest and quality information.