Why we need to evolve from ST:TOS to ST:TNG

by Steve Johnson
Pragmatic Marketing

I've found that the key to success in technology companies is an understanding of Star Trek. Most engineers, developers, and technical people are familiar with these characters. Perhaps the Star Trek characters are familiar because we work with them every day. If you weren't a fan of Star Trek and need to get up to speed quickly, go rent the movies numbered 2, 4, and 6. If you never watched ST: TNG, you'll also need to get Star Trek: Insurrection. Now you're reasonably up to speed on both series.

The characters of Star Trek give us the typical personas in a technology company. With Star Trek worked out in your head, consider your company. Is your company The Original Series or The Next Generation?

Of course, everyone can equate Spock with the typical developer: quite logical without emotion, using facts and reason to draw conclusions. Spock is willing to spend hours on a problem despite pressure to make a quick decision. As we saw in Star Trek IV (the one with the whales), Bones implored Spock to make a guess. Spock: "Guessing is not in my nature." Yet in many cases, a development "guess" is adequate to make decisions.

Unfortunately, company presidents--and sales people--are often like Captain Kirk: action without enough thought, often asking for the impossible, and frequently violating the prime directive. Meanwhile, Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy is like many marketing people: emotion without logic, frequently complaining about what they aren’t: "Damn it, Jim. I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer." Thankfully, we have Scotty as a stand-in for our sales engineers or field consultants. Scotty initially tells Kirk that whatever he wants is impossible and fifteen minutes later, says, "Okay, you've got warp drive."

But as our company grows, we need to evolve to be more like Star Trek: The Next Generation. In "Relics" (episode # 130, Season 6) Scotty has survived for three quarters of a century by keeping himself suspended in molecular limbo in the ship's transporter system. So he and Geordi La Forge attempt to work together. But Scotty listens in horror as Geordi delivers an accurate assessment of the situation to Captain Picard.

SCOTT: (Shocked) "Ye didna tell him how long it was really going to take you?"

GEORDI: (irritated) "Of course I did."

SCOTT: "Oh... Laddie. You've got a lot to learn if you want them to think of you as a miracle worker."

[source: http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/nextgeneration/season6/tng-604.txt]

Here's the difference: Picard can be trusted with accurate information while Kirk cannot. Picard never makes promises that his crew cannot keep while Kirk frequently does. And the crew knows it… in both cases. The "old school" acts more on instinct and hope while the next generation acts on procedure and knowledge.

In ST:TNG we have more mature characters in all ways: Picard leads with accurate knowledge and rarely asks for the impossible. Data, in the development role, continues to use logic, as Spock did, but attempts to understand the human elements of man, as Spock rarely did. Beverly Crusher, in the marketing role, is a good doctor, as was McCoy, but she also understands the business of the star ship, can serve as an executive officer with understanding of all roles, and uses scientific metrics to evaluate the health of crew.

Is your president more like Picard or more like Kirk? Is your company like the Next Generation or stuck in the Original Series?

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