Chit-chat with CEO

Feedback on the 1st 2.5 months:

• General

Doing very well across all accounts:
-presence with clients
-relationship with colleagues
-positively taking in the feedback and daily developments
-maturity

• Room for improvement

1. Understanding clients better
Relationship - develop understanding, rapport, trust
Reliability - anticipate client's needs
Response - monitor client's response, adjust the relationship management accordingly

2. Proactively seek for more exposure/interaction with a client

3. When presenting give tangible examples related to the client's context (less theoretical)

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The prep, before the chat:

• All is great.
• It’s exciting
• Appreciating the opportunity
• I want to tackle the pending project like a bull by the horns
• I enjoy the early stages of the development process
• The best value in the analysis and the design
• Appreciate the confidence, but at the same time well aware of the fact that I am fresh in the real world, thus need someone to bounce the ideas of, to do the ‘sanity/reality check’ with.

Side notes:

• Whatever he (CEO) says, request more elaboration...
• Expect that they expect more, and might explicitly communicate dissatisfaction.
• Listen, listen, listen.... and then listen some more.
• No complaints, winging, negativity... nothing, zero, zilch...!

Technical Lead - Solutions Architect

Here's the scoop after the 1st 2.5 months:

THE GOOD

Actually doing what I've been training to do for the past 10 years - pure joy!

Variety:
I have changed number of roles, and have been exposed to different industries:

• System Analyst is the role I was initially interviewed for.
• Presales Consultant was the title under which I gave the first presentation presentation to my first client - it happened on my fifth day at work.
• Senior Consultant was a fancy title I held only during the 6-day mini-project for the major telco.
• Technical Solution Architect is the latest role for the big government project we are bidding for in consortium with the creative agency.

Potential:
The company is SME that is looking to grow. I am given the position, responsibility and trust not on my experience but on my potential (and (different) looks?). I am immensely grateful (not forgetting the current economy), and appreciate the exciting opportunity it represents. If we successfully help each other grow, the rewards should will be sweet for all.

Fun:
The average age in the company is 27. The management (seniors) is on the level 8, which lovers the average of the production space on the 4th floor to something more like 23 y.o. This separation across the floors, roles and generations makes the atmosphere on the level 4 not unlike a uni lab. Needless to say, much more to my liking.


THE NOT SO GOOD

Small Company:
Is the other point of view on the 'Potential' mentioned above. Being an SME, there are only few people with extensive industry experience I could potentially learn a lot from. Though, they are constantly busy with their daily chores, making it hard for me to catch them for chit-chats, let alone some regular type of mentoring. This leaves me to focus on learning from the grandmaster of all teachers, experience. I am putting in the effort to back up the experience with relevant readings.

Culture:
Yes, it's mainly fun, but also the few bumps on the road I have encountered to date relate to attitude of me vs them. There is bit too much power-tripping and finger-pointing instead of looking at it as we - as in one company - and trying to move on by focusing on solutions and helping each other cover inadequacies every individual brings to the table. Today during the meeting, COO, the founder who expressed his scepticism regarding my lack of the industry experience during the interview last year, could not help himself but allow it to resurface. (Seems that) COO has old school mentality that to get to a role you have to go through the thin and thick of lower ranks. Ideally, yes I agree that would be the case, but it also seems the he doesn't take into consideration that being good at one role doesn't imply success at the next. The appreciation of the notion that 'every rule has an exception (which in turn proves the rule)' might be too much to expect in this environment. Luckily, thanks to my Asian-(business)-Culture-101 (e.g.) during the teaching days in Singapore, I held my usually quick tongue between the teeth, and let the boss be a boss.

On the bright side they are saying that they are trying to improve across the board, and there sure is plenty of scope to do so, though I doubt anyone expects a reward for the employer of choice any time in the near future.


THE EXPECTATION:

Two years...!

Info Addict

Whereas, I pride myself of (relatively) easily adapting to new situations, and thus not holding onto old habits too rigidly but rather finding ways to modify them and/or embrace new, the craving for the new information has been ever present one. My Google Reader feeds span many different topics and too many subscriptions that require some organisation and direction through filtering in order to acquire more focused knowledge. Than again, variety is the space of life where creativity brews readily.

This article, nicely explains our constant desire for 'more (...)' fuelled by curiosity and envy. It cites number of psychology studies to explain the information addiction. Though, it can equally help with better understanding of any other over/consumption.

More than helping with the addiction, my interest in the article is in understanding how a good advertisement makes a product insanely desirable.

Interesting...!


Credit: 'insanely' great => Apple 1984.
Article: Aaron via Twitter.

Employer of Choice

The best university to study at, the best employer to work for... there are numerous rankings out there, but what difference does it really make for people working/studying at an organisation?

For some reason I have always been attracted to this (BS) discourse, and it was no different this morning when I've seen Duncan Smith's post at LinkedIn on Employer of Choice:

Employee feedback sessions I've run have been much more effective when we start with "what's good about working here?", then go to "what are the challenges?" and finish with "what could you do to improve things?". Needless to say, people have more to say about the problems, and sometimes struggle to take ownership of solutions -- it's easier to blame "management", or someone else, than to figure out how to take responsibility. To me, part of being a real EOC would be fostering an environment in which employees were encouraged to contribute improvements as a matter of course. What's the trade-off between real engagement and management control?

MY RESPONSE:
Unfortunately seems it's quite common that rhetoric which echoes in the media and/or upper echelons of a management is hardly reflected in opinions of majority who work in an organisation (what they say, and what they do are rarely the same). In my experience, even true for SME - which is truly a shame.

Duncan, I love your definition of a 'real' EOC: "fostering an environment in which employees were encouraged to contribute improvements as a matter of course". And to answer your question directly: I don't see it as a trade of (at all?).

A scenario for a 'real' EOC:

Management asks the type of questions Duncan suggested (i.e. "what's good about working here?", then go to "what are the challenges?" and finish with "what could you/WE do to improve things?") – Furthermore, management requests for ANONYMOUS answers in order to improve the richness of information provided, and to help eliminate biases during the feedback evaluation.

1. The exercise is conducted periodicity; Say once a year to collect the feedback (if big organisation, it might be more useful at department/region level)
2. The feedback is communicated back to employees
3. Management acts upon the feedback

Through this exercise, the management would actually have the chance to improve the control while simultaneously enhancing employee engagement.

-Out of so many people providing (independent) feedback a common themes will surface (experienced employees), and even some unique gems might be highlighted (likely from newbies).

-Management will know exactly what to do in order to improve employees’ satisfaction; where, satisfaction => commitment => productivity => revenue.

(On this note: don't you find it funny when few lock themselves behind the closed door and brainstorm for days on what many on the other side of the door want. Here's an idea: how bout just ask for a change? - Alas, seems Voltaire was not kidding when he said that "Common sense is not so common.")

-Employees will feel engaged, and will be much more likely to commit to the subsequent decisions made, as they will feel the ownership of the decisions (i.e. ( not all) decisions were simply 'forced' top-down).

- Management can even use the method to (deceivingly) piggy-back their own directive that they wanted to push through, and say (lie) that it came from the feedback.

This exact approach worked fabulously in a teacher-students relationship. Please tell me why similar couldn't work in a commercial setting?

As the bottom line in this discussion (where salary and many other aspects are ignored), what really matters is the involvement: everybody likes to be asked, to have the opportunity to express themselves (their opinion). And in today's society of on-line social networks that's true more than ever. More and more of today's employees not just have the habit of expressing their opinion, but they need/demand the opportunity to do so.

And if that wasn't enough: two heads - in big majority of circumstances - are better than one. As nicely elaborated in 'The Wisdom of Crowds' by James Surowiecki.

Hope to see more 'real' EOC candidates out there.

Cheers...!

Ps: Duncan, two follow up questions for you, and anyone else willing to share their opinion:

a) In your definition of a real EOC you say: "To me, PART of being a real EOC..." What other ‘parts’ would you like to see in a real EOC?

b) What's your answer to your own question: "What's the trade-off between real engagement and management control?"

Much Appreciated.

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UPDATED, 5th October 09.

According to this article (based on a Corporate Executive Board study of employee engagement survey results) employees at the best companies rated each of the following characteristics at least 20% higher than any other category, compared to employees at other organizations:

1. Belief in Leadership
2. Personal Connection to Company Strategy
3. Innovative Culture
4. Accountability
5. Emphasis on Achievement

By: Dianne Jacobs

Inbox count: Zero

This has been my - in a day-and-age of powerful search engines and huge storage spaces - pointless ‘down-time-task’ during the last week or so. While deleting, labelling and archiving messages in my three (personal/career/fun) consolidated email addresses I have come across some interesting stuff that GMail remembered, and I long since forgot. In spite of risks, and unlike what Viktor Mayer-Schonberger believes, I’m all for the digital remembrance in a pursuit of ‘global consciences’, which - as the Internet matures - is obtainable.

The cool find is the Photoshop work by Monkey from 2005; whereas a surprising one was the apparent finding of the measurable change in my personality.

...!

Global Hypnosis

It was back during the Japan trip when Pere and I talked about the globalisation aspect that influences human minds, where everyone eats, reads, watches, thinks, does, wants, ..., the same things. He then shared with me some of the Chomisy's materials on how a few control many in the post WWII world. Not unlike it was the case in ancient times when the most popular book was the medium, a desired mind-state for masses is still achieved through the control of the media. This time though, books got replaced by 'gloving rectangles'. The article cites 'imagines' the research by Stanford University which "suggests that Americans spend the vast majority of each day staring at, interacting with, and deriving satisfaction from glowing rectangles." And what seems like a staggering number, "Researchers were able to identify nearly 30 varieties of glowing rectangles that play some role throughout the course of each day."

With every new rectangle in our world Thinking outside of the box gets harder and harder.

...!

Credit: Image source.

UPDATED: not that it makes any difference to the point made in this post, it is worth 'knowing' that Onion is not a legitimate news site. Reading their interview with Neil Armstrong where he allegedly proclaimed: "I suppose it really was one small step for man, one giant lie for mankind." prompted me to search for an explanation that justifies the popular belief. So just as the majority (under global hypnosis) I have 'no doubt' that BBC article is true, and Onion one false.

On Career

Think about it: out of the 24 hours at your disposal each day, most of your waking hours are spend at doing what?

For someone who (feels like he) just started his carrier at the first (real) job after the graduation, I sure am not a person to be giving carrier advice. Nevertheless, considering I went through quite a few eventful situations during the interesting – to say the least – path that led to this particular departure point, inevitably, I learned few things on the topic. Most of these lessons, could not be better summarised nor presented than by Garr Reynolds cute presentation on Daniel Pink’s The Adventures of Johnny Bunko:

1. There is no plan
2. Think strengths, not weaknesses
3. It’s not about you
4. Persistence trumps talent
5. Make excellent mistakes
6. Leave an imprint

Career Advice '08

View more documents from garr.

Few more points to add on to it:

• Flexible Strategy

Whereas, goals/plans do not work for me - at all (for now); I tried, and I tried harder - still, somewhere along prolonged, and at times painful lessons, I "...found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable" (Dwight D. Eisenhower).

More important than planning are values that like a lighthouse provide guidance pointing towards your target (overall objective) when decisions are to be made. And to be moving in your desired direction in the most efficient manner, it's good to have a strategy. Ideally, the strategy employed would be evaluated and modified as necessary after each step.

It was one of the conversation on job-search with Raoul when he shared with me importance of being strategic yet flexible about it. At the time I wanted to go straight through the wall; head first, naturally.

• When to jump the ship

Equally important is to recognise the signs indicating that it is a time to make a next career move; in this case, it's more like a leap than a mare step. If the fire inside is not burning as brightly as it should, if there is no more hunger, curiosity, contribution, progress, recognition, satisfaction... it’s time to move on. And when the time comes ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’. This article, elaborates eight alarming signs to lookout for:

1. Your role has become marginalised
2. You've stopped growing
3. You're missing from the big picture
4. You're being excluded
5. Your level of influence is waning
6. You no longer enjoy the work
7. Continuous improvement isn't part of the mantra
8. Greener pastures truly are greener

It was the tostmaters's session where I learned about the psychology study which found that happiness at work requires one to be satisfied with at least two out of the three aspects:

1. what you do
2. who you work with
3. your pay

Well, I had 2/3 when I left teaching at NP. The first one outweighed the sum of last two.


And if your 'lighthouse' demands serious corporate ladder climbing, then consider that it's easier to climb in a zig-zag pattern than straight up.

• Not/Every/thing matters

Regardless of which steps end up being chosen, it really doesn't matter how one feels of an outcome afterwards. As in reality - when a little bit wider (link to dir po svemiru) scope of things is considered than seen from a current vantage point - the level of control one has is insignificant. And moreover, one is completely clueless to what kind of circumstances and accompanying feelings a step taken will lead to next. Though, WHEN shit happens, laugh it off and keep rolling with - hopefully - a new lesson learned.

On this note: one of the criteria that has mostly been there for me when making a next step was to put my self in a position with more choices, the logic was that more choices one has the more free one is; and freedom is very important in my kingdom as without it there's no happiness. Loved Daniel Gilbert's presentation which completly thows this thinking upside down.

• Embrace Insanity

Last, but definitely not the least, make sure that the journey is crazily enjoyable. Fitting bottom line is Murray’s advice for the ages: “Keep your sense of humour”.

hvFun...!

Credit for reference:
Patrice for PresentationZen,
Alvin for ComputerWorld,
Chao for TED
Lighthouse analogy: The Monk who sold his Ferrari, Robin Sharma

Credit for the title inspiration: Prophet, by Khail Gibran