blandry (7/31/2008)
Although I didnt intend it, I have spent my exec management career as something of a "digital janitor", cleaning up messes that is, and I can tell you point blank that of the replies posted thus far, I was surprised to find that only Ian Massi hit the nail on the head. Ian, you have executive management potential!What did Ian hit that others missed? People! Businesses are made up of people, not just machines and software, and you dont solve problems by doing "this plan or that plan" if you dont have the people all moving in the same direction.
As Ian pointed out, you meet with the staff and find out what the problem is in the trenches. THEN you formulate a plan around that information. Why? Because NO plan you formulate matters one wick if the folks who have to implement it are not inspired and driven to do so.
With a DBA quitting, and things amiss before an important compliance activity, clealry this is a company with staff problems. Solve those, inspire, motivate, and then formulate your plan to bring things back in line.
Thank you for the enthusiastic response! That certainly made my morning. The sense I got from the editorial was that the VP didn't have the know-how to handle this piece and didn't want to. There were likely a dozen other critical things he had to deal with for this project. He was looking for someone to delegate it this chunk to. It doesn't even matter if you can take it all on yourself, if it's that important, you can always rope others into it with his approval. Building trust with people is very important and something like this would build a lot of trust. Working in a high-trust environment is much more fun than a low-trust one.
I work in a small company now (~15 people) and report to the CEO. He's the type who'll say something like the VP in this scenario does (but without blind-siding people with something as big). He's not looking for a project plan, specific questions that'll waste the time of the other 18 people in the meeting off the top of your head. Just someone to step up, say they can do it with confidence and get it done. Mind you if I start doubting my abilities he'll say, "Ian, you're a smart guy - you'll figure it out.". Then I'll either figure it out or find someone who can. In this scenario, dealing with the people was very important, but in other challenges I've had lately, it was figuring out some Active Directory stuff or coordinating changes with someone in our Australian office (dealing with people again).
I too am interested in the response given in this scenario and what the VP's advice was later on.