Bit's Rules

While working at IBM I had a collection of rules sort of like Gibbs on NCIS. Some were more like guidelines. Most are related to my career, but I suppose several can be life rules also. I can't say that I kept all the rules all the time. In fact, I learned some of the rules the hard way. These will pop up in various videos. About nine months prior to retiring, I shared the first 34 rules below with the IBM VM team as part of sharing my plans. I've added a few comments below for those that are specific to the VM team, but could apply elsewhere, to help non-IBMers to understand. Since retiring, I've started to add a few rules. Enjoy!

1. Nobody gets hurt. 

2. We’re all still friends when it is over. 

3. No whining. 

4. It depends. 

5. Know the factors on which “it depends”. 

6. Always carry a pen. 

7. If you don’t make progress with email, then pick up the phone. 

8. Sit as close as reasonable to the person likely to be the most upset. 

9. When communicating risk, know the difference between acceptable risk, unavoidable risk, and compounding risk. 

10. Know the difference between conjecture and fact. 

11. Get the full story before you start talking. 

12. Customers forgive mistakes, not excuses. 

13. Correlation doesn’t mean causation. 

14. Hand things over like in a relay race. 

15. Equal lead time for equal slippage. 

16. Be yourself because everyone else is taken. 

17. Treat customers like people. (People that you love.) 

18. If you’re too busy to have fun; you are too busy. 

19. Practice self-awareness every day. 

20. Know the org-chart. 

21. As the Design Approach Review goes, so goes the project. (A Design Approach Review, or DAR, is a review very early in the lifespan of a new enhancement. The smoother that review goes, the smoother the project goes.)

22. Expect the unexpected. What’s your plan for when you don’t have a plan? 

23. Big rocks go in first. 

24. You need to know the size of the rocks if you’re going to put the big rocks in first. 

25. Learn to ask forgiveness. 

26. Many times, there are three sides to a story. 

27. There are enough hours in the day to do God’s perfect will for that day, otherwise the earth would spin slower. 

28. If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. 

29. Everyone behaves in a way that makes sense to them. 

30. Leaders embrace extreme ownership. 

31. Leadership is achieved not by title, but by character and actions. 

32. Do not present everything you know, present everything your audience needs to know.

33. Don’t miss an opportunity to express gratitude. 

34. Know when and how to finish something. 

35. For each decade of your life, you get to celebrate your birthday an extra day!