I wasn’t sure whether to file this under my “be more assertive” goal or this one because it relates to a problem that arose from my not being assertive enough. Resolving the problem, however, will involve some “faking”, so here it is…

In a project I was working on I discoverd a flaw in a particular existing methodology that was in wide use. My initial instinct was that this flaw was minor and did not materially impact any analyses relying on the method, but I didn’t speak up loudly or authoritatively enough at the time and so was asked to devise a new method to deal with the problem. So, after hours and hours and hours of work (some of it a team effort) over several weeks, I have a new methodology that is much more complicated and has its own serious flaws. I think I may need to revert to old methodology as being a better method.

So, my task is, if I decide I need to revert to using the old method (with a bit of tweaking), to justify the value of having spent so much time on testing a new method (i.e. not look like a wasteful fool). I know I can do this. I will show the value of the understanding of certain process that were acquired in the testing of the new methodology. Now, I need to be very organized and thorough to be convincing…