Never Rely on a Single Point of Failure
“Do you have a pen I can borrow?” At a recent ASTD conference session, not one but two people around me asked this question. Here we were, about to hear one of the world’s experts in our field and two highly trained professionals didn’t have a pen!
Several months ago I read a post (I wish I could remember where) that I have thought about dozens of times since. It was about the concept of a “single point of failure”. A single point of failure is anything that, if it fails, then whatever you are doing is dramatically or fatally hindered.
- Ever been to a presentation when the PowerPoint wouldn’t work or the meeting was delayed trying to get it to work? There are at least four points of failure: the disk (or drive) you use to load the presentation, the computer, the projector, and the cable to the projector. If any one of these goes wrong, it’s not going to work. To avoid problems (and major embarrassment), have more than one of as many of these as you can. Even better, be prepared to do your presentation without PowerPoint. At the ASTD conference, one of the presenters, Lisa Haneberg, announced that she was not going to use PowerPoint and the crowd cheered!
- I work out in a gym in my building before work. I take one towel with me. If I forget my towel, I have to dry off with paper towels from the men’s room (not that this has every happened). Now, I hide a towel at my desk in case I forget to bring one from home.
- Have you ever lost your wallet? A good idea is to make a photocopy of all the cards (both sides) in your wallet. Then give the copy to someone you trust. In the event you lose your wallet, you can contact them for the information you will need.
- I love to use a digital recorder especially when I’m in the car. But sometimes, either I forget it or the batteries are dead. That’s in part why I love jott. As long as I have my cell phone with me, I can leave myself a message that ends up in my Inbox.
Even if everything comes off without a hitch, redundancy helps you relax and be better at what you do. So, I encourage you to stamp out the “single points of failure” in your world.
And . . . after I wrote this about 6:30 this morning, I locked my keys in the car at 10 J. Special thanks to my wife who came and rescued me. Any hints on how to stomp out this “single point of failure”?
If you enjoyed this post, check out my blog Tech Rest .
At least according to some tips online, some keyless entry signals can be transmitted to your car over a cell phone, so if your wife had the other key, you might be able to call her on your cell and hold up your phone to the car, while she holds the other key up to the phone and hits the door unlock button.
Worth a try.
To avoid locking yourself out of you car, attach the 3′rd (Valet) key the dealer gives you (or make one) to your house keyring. Keep your car keyring just for cars. This way, as long as your house keyring is with you, you can unlock your car and even drive it as Valet without the one of the main set of keys (usually 2) you get from the dealership. I’ve never locked myself out of my cars since doing this.
For powerpoint redundancy, have slide handouts of your presentation for each member of the audience in case the technology fails. You can print 2 slides per page and use double-sided printing to save paper and costs.
Know your material well enough and you can probably present it with a marker and white-board and/or flip chart board if you had just a few minutes before it started and needed to prep some content in advance. Cover up what you dont want to be seen until it’s time, using some paper and tape if on a whiteboard.
Great suggestions all. I really like the idea of two keyrings.
Thanks!
Never put your keys down in the car. Either have them in the ignition, where a chime should be reminding you, or in your hand, or in your pocket. NEVER put them down.
I did this once, in the trunk. Cost me a locksmith visit because I was out of town.
Get a car that won’t let you lock the doors unless you’re holding the key and/or the remote fob (as in you have to use the key or the fob to lock the door.) No “push the lock button and close the door”. VW are one example of this.
I’ve locked myself out of the house twice, but only ever once from the car.
Jim:
You are SO right. That’s exactly what I did.
Craig