Are we falling or flying …

I’ve often wondered how companies succeed when so much inside seems to be broken. 

If we’re lucky, work only consumes 10 or so hours a day, 5 days a week - but if you work in technology, frequently it consumes a lot more time, even if it’s only mental bandwidth and not in the office face time.

That’s a big chunk of my life/all of our lives. 

My friend Tim! had a saying while at one of his former companies: “Hey, we put the ‘fun’ in dysfunctional.”

I think that is a brilliant way to sum up the good and the bad -  often what makes a company good or bad, or a job good or bad, are the people you have to work with every day. (and - if you/your company need or want an amazing customer/solution sales focused Solution Manager or Senior/Principal Sales Engineer - Tim! is your man, I promise; email me for his contact info).

I appreciate Scott Berkun’s weblog essay on “How to Survive a Bad Manager,” including his “short list” of characteristics to identify a bad manager:

• Inconsistent: Says one thing, does something else.
• Arrogant. Always believes they are right, and makes sure you know it.
• Egocentric. Makes every issue and decision about them.
• Doesn’t listen: is offered advice but ignores it before even considering it.
• Self-centered: Doesn’t support, encourage or look out for their team.
• Mean/Abusive: Makes people feel bad for no reason.
• Micro-manager: Refuses to delegate anything, despite what they say.
• Coward: Backs down when challenged; or my addition: tries to bully others into backing down.
• Isolated: doesn’t involve others in decisions, and rarely looks for ways to support/encourage the work of their team.
• Incompetent: Lacks basic communication, intellectual, or emotional skills needed to for their role.
• Checked out: Isn’t committed to their work or their team.

I also include the following additions:

• Reproduces by cloning: Great managers hire great talent; similarly, bad managers hire themselves.
• Lacks self awareness: bad managers won’t acknowledge, and frequently don’t believe they have any skill areas which need improvement.

Does this bring to mind one or more of your current or former managers?  Several of my past managers are almost an exact match. 

I believe bad managers who survive more than 9 months in the job are problems in their own right, but more importantly are symptoms of bigger problems the next level up.

Keeping in mind Randy Pausch’s excellent life rules, particularly “Find the best in everybody. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out,” I can usually think of a good trait of each person’s - but often not enough to mitigate the other issues.   

I’m working on a new blog entry which expands upon these ideas - “how work teams go bad…;” so check back soon for that one.

My friend Susan believes the real answer is companies succeed despite themselves; I think she may have something there.

“It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.”  - Lewis Carroll

I’m a big fan of Randy Pausch, and rewatch his Last Lecture about once a week. 

I had hoped he would outlive us all, but he died early this morning.

I believe in wakes and not in funerals, and appreciate the world is a better place because Randy was here:

The Academy is… I am Superman (R.E.M Cover)

Barenaked Ladies I am Superman (R.E.M. Cover)

Remy Zero I am Superman (R.E.M. Cover)

And - one more for the man who achieved his childhood dream of experiencing zero gravity - Jason Mraz’s awesome cover of Elton John’s Rocket Man.

Life Lessons from Randy:

• You’ve got to get the fundamentals down because otherwise the fancy stuff isn’t going to work.
• When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care.
• Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
• Head fake learning is absolutely important, and you should keep your eye out for them because they’re everywhere.
• The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.
• It’s pretty easy to be smart when you’re parroting smart people.
• It’s very important to know when you’re in a pissing match. And it’s very important to get out of it as quickly as possible.
• And he (Andy Van Dam) said, Randy, it’s such a shame that people perceive you as so arrogant. Because it’s going to limit what you’re going to be able to accomplish in life.
• You just have to decide if you’re a Tigger or an Eeyore.
• I have a theory that people who come from large families are better people because they’ve just had to learn to get along.
• Loyalty is a two way street.
• You can’t get there alone. People have to help you and I do believe in karma. I believe in paybacks. You get people to help you by telling the truth. Being earnest.
• I’ll take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short term. Earnest is long term.
• Apologise when you screw up and focus on other people, not on yourself.
• Don’t bail. The best of the gold’s at the bottom of barrels of crap.
• Get a feedback loop and listen to it. Your feedback loop can be this dorky spreadsheet thing I did, or it can just be one great man who tells you what you need to hear. The hard part is the listening to it.
• Don’t complain. Just work harder. That’s a picture of Jackie Robinson. It was in his contract not to complain, even when the fans spit on him.
• Be good at something, it makes you valuable.
• Find the best in everybody. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out.
• Be prepared. Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity.
• It’s not about how to achieve your dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.

Gleaming 3/4″ solid hickory sure beats the old carpeting. … Next up: replacing those (funky) yellow 1972 wavy glass windows; new paint; new molding; and …. ripping out, then replacing the master bath…. (or - it…just…never…ends… ;-) )

For better or worse, it’s impossible for me to do the same <task, phone screen script, etc.> the same way every time; I need to change one thing, no matter how small.

So - perhaps not suprisingly, when I like a song, I soon start to seek out cover versions of that song as well. Over the years I have built a somewhat eclectic collection of mp3 cover versions of songs which cross multiple genres.

Today Cover Lay Down featured a new cover version of Death Cab for Cutie’s (DCFC) “Soul Meets Body,” which incented me to share two other versions of that song as well…

If you liked the original song, I suggest you check out Rose Polenzani’s and Catie Curtis’ takes as well an acoustic version by DCFC:

Catie Curtis, Soul Meets Body (Death Cab For Cutie Cover)

Rose Polenzani, Soul Meets Body (Death Cab For Cutie Cover)

Death Cab for Cutie, Soul Meets Body (acoustic)

This is what he looked like when he first arrived in Seattle, in early May 2008, after an unknown period of time of being a stray in southern Puerto Rico: 

This is what he looks like now:

… but am amazed other people haven’t:

• If you’re doing things you feel compelled to hide from others you shouldn’t be doing them. 
• You can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.
• Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you wanted; but at the same time, be very careful what you wish for.
• All sales are solution sales; while you or I may not understand someone else’s decision points and drivers, those drivers are definitely there and often in (or out?) of control.
• Flying monkey launchers are a must have when in a target rich environment.
• Eventually, all shit rolls uphill.  For example: each person in a work group is responsible for their own actions; but if an individual repeatedly acts in a way which is detrimental to a business and/or to other people, the root cause responsibility rolls uphill to the decision maker(s) who condones/enables that situation to continue.

Things I learned from Albert Einstein:

• Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.
• Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.
• If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.
• We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

Things I learned from Antoine du Saint-Exupery:

• A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
• A pile of rocks ceases to be rocks when somebody contemplates it with the idea of a cathedral in mind.
• Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward in the same direction.
• The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.
• What makes the desert beautiful is somewhere it hides a well.

Things I learned from Randy Pausch:

• Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.
• It’s very important to know when you’re in a pissing match. And it’s very important to get out of it as quickly as possible.
• Loyalty is a two way street.
• We cannot change the cards we are dealt–just how we play the hand.
• Focus on others.  The other people on your team are often the key to your success. Take care of their needs and yours will be taken care of.
• Find the best in everybody. No matter how long you have to wait for them to show it.
• If you live your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself, and the dreams will come to you.

Tying this all together: The people who are good and also good people are the well in the desert.  If  each person focuses on the others the karma will take care of itself - and while you may periodically walk separate paths, you will meet up with them again further down the way.

Cheers.

Despite my original good intentions, it’s been a while since I last blogged, and a lot happened during the time I’ve been away:

• I changed companies/jobs

• The new hickory floor was installed in my bedroom; 1/3 of the master bedroom/bath renovation down, just 2/3 thirds more to go …

• I took a (too) short vacation to El Yunque,and Ponce, Puerto Rico, and returned with a new dog, Rico, a Sato (Puerto Rican slang for “street dog,” or or a stray)  I found near Ponce, P.R.

After two months of regular feedings of Science Diet he is thriving and acts like he is a Seattle native.  While not active in Ponce, there is an amazing non-profit organization based in San Juan, PR, dedicated solely to saving Satos, please check them out if you’re considering adding a dog to your family: Save A Sato.

Each of these should be a blog entry in itself. I’m actually on the road again, in Madison, WI, to meet with one of my new client groups, but will have time to blog more about each of the above during my flight home on Wednesday (and promise to post “then and now” pictures of Rico, too).

Sidenote about being in the midwest again:

I grew up around Chicago, and went to college in Iowa (Go Hawks!) , but haven’t been back here much since - and forgot how hot and muggy it is during the summer - and how hard it rains during thunderstorms - and this is the thunderstorm season here…. I didn’t bring my camera but right now it’s raining much harder than it would be in Seattle…It’s supposed to storm here again tomorrow morning - whoo whoo…!