Mike Holt Fails in His Myth Busting Efforts

 

By Mike Holt

 

Dear Newsletter readers,

Last Tuesday I sent out a newsletter with the intent of busting electrical myths. The subheading of the newsletter stated “This is the first installment of a new series we’re developing to uncover industry myths. But the manner in which I handled the entire topic was totally inappropriate. The tone of the newsletter was such that some, if not many of my readers interpreted it as ‘me against IDEAL’ when in fact IDEAL and Mike Holt have a close working relationship.

 

The intent of my Mythbuster newsletter was to highlight the fact that numerous articles and training books use old terminology and phrasing that does not reflect the current Code language and purpose of Grounding versus Bonding of premises wiring, which has seen a radical change the past two Code cycles.

 

To illustrate my point, I happened to highlight an article in electronic circulation by IDEAL. But, some readers extrapolated from my comments that IDEAL does not have an understanding of the current Code language and theories of Grounding versus Bonding.

 

The undated article happened to be several years old and more representative of older Code language.  I can assure you that this loose inference is not accurate of them as IDEAL has an active training initiative and new product program that stays current with customers’ needs to comply with the latest Code revisions.  IDEAL has and still does actively support my grounding seminars, maintains close relationships with the apprenticeship programs, and frequently conducts up-to-date hands-on training in the field. 

 

I owe IDEAL, its employees, distributors, as well as their customers an apology for how I handled this feeble attempt of Mythbusting. This newsletter developed into a misperception that IDEAL and I had polarizing views on the topic and resulted in many viewers taking sides. I was 100% wrong and if I had to do this again, I would have done it differently.

 

Lessons I’ve learned:

• Do a better job of introducing the issue and goal of the newsletter.
• Do not highlight a myth based on an individual article from an individual company, unless I’ve contacted the company in advance and have given them the opportunity to make the necessary correction to the offending web page.

 

IDEAL has communicated to me that they are using this as an opportunity to diligently review and date all of their literature and to distinguish short articles designed for marketing brevity from white papers designed to explore technical avenues and application development.  As a highly customer-focused company, their mission continues to be to provide their customers, you, with the products and support that you need from a leading manufacturer of test equipment.

 

If you have been a reader of my newsletter for a few years, you have seen me fail in my efforts to make things better (http://www.mikeholt.com/mojonewsarchive/AFCI-HTML/HTML/AFCI_-_Update~20021209.htm). All I can say is that when I do fail, it hurts me that I’ve hurt others and I can only do the responsible thing and that is to ‘man up’ and make things right.

 

To my buddies at IDEAL, I’m sorry for my actions and any hurt it has caused you.

 

Mike Holt

 

P.S. I want to encourage all manufacturers of grounding devices, fitting, tools, meters, as well as those who write magazine articles, books, etc. to follow IDEAL’s lead to review and date all of your literature and distinguish short articles designed for marketing brevity from white papers designed to explore technical avenues and application development.