In the movie Cool Hand Luke, actor Strother Martin famously said, "What we've got here is failure to communicate." I certainly know how that feels. Let me give you a couple of examples, from my distant past... Once upon a time, before I began writing books and novels, I spent almost two decades developing computer software. During the first seven years, I wrote and then supported components for international banking applications, as an employee of Unisys Corporation. Our Finesse banking application had been designed and developed in Atlanta with domestic U.S. financial institutions as our target market, but naturally a major bank in Australia became our first customer. My boss shipped me, the "single guy" on our team, Down Under with the software. I spent the next four months in Perth, helping a small development team customize the product extensively so it would comply with international banking requirements. Lucky me. However, I encountered the communications barrier almost immediately on the trip, during my very first pub crawl, only hours after the fourteen-hour trip from L.A. to Sydney. We had a very serious communication problem there in the bar, even though everybody at my table spoke fluent English. Our misunderstanding happened while a trio of secretaries were plying me with round after round of free beer, saying they wanted to keep me at their table, entertaining them with my American accent from the Deep South. From my own perspective, I was a very lucky man. Three beautiful young women were buying my drinks, in a very … [Read more...]