You can't play tennis with a bowling ball

On my trip last week, I was in a row of three on the aisle. The person in the middle was planning to give a talk while the person at the window seemed to be a more experienced fellow. I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but they were being so passionate that I couldn't help but overhear the advice.

One particular line struck me and I felt that I had to write it down. These gentlemen both work in information technology. Perhaps the most difficult task for any IT organization is to tamp down the expectations coming from the business for the latest technological marvel. While it may be true that Google can develop an artificial intelligence that can beat the world's best human player at the game of Go or that FedEx can track a package shipped across the country at any transfer point along the way, those facts obscure the heavy investment both companies made in getting their computer systems to perfect those business tasks. Without a major commitment from executive levels, these types of miracles do not occur.

In that spirit, the senior partner shared a favorite line that he cribbed from a VP he knew. The company was attempting to manipulate one of their computer systems to achieve a result that would be improbable at best. Her expression was, "You can't play tennis with a bowling ball."

I thought it was a marvelous image to share.