The Glade 4.0

I was assigned a project to realign my division's customer service organization into two separate groups based on the products they service. A huge undertaking involving telecom changes, system reprograms, product training, etc. When I was initially assigned to this project I could not understand why we were doing this and after several meetings of stonewalling progress by repeatedly asking why we were doing this I was told to shut up and do it. That's fine, that is my job and we are now halfway through the split. However, last week I got an email from my boss asking me to prepare a quarterly presentation for our CEO on the progress we have made and what we have left to do. No problem, wrote it up and sent it off. Today I got it back from her with the instruction to include the benefits we will see as a result of this reorg. Really? **** off. I wasn't going to move forward until you asshats told me why and now you are coming back and telling me I need to justify your wasteful expenditures?

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In that case, it would be wise to remind your boss that you asked why this work was necessary, and point out that you need to know why in order to know what the benefits are. Without knowing the objective of a project, it is impossible to assess its degree of success and trying to make this assessment without that information may make you look foolish in front of your CEO.

In an operations order, paragraph 2 (Mission) is one sentence consisting of who (the unit executing the order) what they will do, when, where, and last - WHY. These are called the 5 W's and any order that does not contain all 5 is improperly written no matter how good the actual plan is. In the next paragraph 3 (Execution) the first thing si commander's intent, during which he details his purpose (why) method (what) and endstate (more why).

The reason for all this "why" in military orders, where people imagine that you never ask why, is that subordinates must know what the intent of the order is in order to develop plans for their own sub-units, and in order to continue to pursue the objective if things go wrong. It is acceptable and expected to deviate from a tactical order when it no longer makes sense to follow the plan in light of changed circumstances.

"Don't ask why" is a line for teenagers, privates, and other people that are using "why" to argue when they don't want to do something. "Why" is essential information to the professional trying to use independent judgement.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Exactly. All initiatives by definition are to include a measurable benefit statement with an attached CBA, but the person requesting was high enough up that they bullied it through governance and dumped it on us. I get the feeling that they are trying to force me to define the benefits so that any misses on the target reflect on me. So I will be extensively pulling out bullshit statements like "enriching customer relations" and "empowering employees" so they can't hold them against me when someone finally realizes we doubled our infrastructure cost for no apparent reason other than it felt right to someone sufficiently high enough in the organization to force it through.

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Hey, if you weren't told why it's necessary, you don't know. It could be the most important project OF ALL TIME. /snark off

But yes, you need their input. Suggest developing a questionnaire and sending it up to be completed.

Benefits include: Giving me hours at work which is income I use to help me afford food and housing which facilitate my gaming.

Seriously if they can't tell you what the intended benefit to the business is of this then that is on them. Email the CEO personally if you have to let him know.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville