Meeting the new BOSS

I am thinking we have a lot to do and no time to wait for her. The swivel chairs were anxiously swinging back and forth. I am looking at my watch; others are looking rather frustrated.

She comes into the room 10 minutes late. There are 11 of us sitting around the long wooden table. She apologizes for being late. We were at her mercy, it did not matter what we thought. Collectively, we smiled.

Now I know how it feels to have an entire room of people with more important things to do than hear a message from the new boss of the business unit we support. It made me mad, when she did not show us the respect for our time. She is from the business side of the house. We are the systems side. The business demands that we meet their time frames, their budgets and apparently to wait for them when necessary.

We are under a great deal of pressure to accomplish a great deal of work in a very short time. Our new boss, on the systems side, told us in his all-hands meeting that he wanted to do more, faster; not the cliché more with less; but more, faster. Here we had a situation, where we were doing nothing.

Bad Start. She should have hit the reset button; rewound the tape; stopped the TIVO and started over when we were ready for her.

Funny thing, though, she did not only show us a lack of respect, but she proceeded to tell us that our systems are deficient, not just insufficient, but deficient. Why would you tell the systems people supporting your systems that their work is deficient? Was it to motivate us? Or did she not know that we were the systems personnel? Or was there a secret way getting the systems personnel to feel good about themselves? I don't know, it made sit and think about how I should present myself to her.

She wanted to hear from each of us. Sort of round table what we do. I hesitated for a while. I did not know what to say to her. I was angry, but I wanted her to understand that we were the systems folks with the deficient systems.

I am also the most gregarious of the group and could not stop my self from explaining the hardships of the project we are on. Probably a bad idea, but I was very careful about how I spoke of the other teams and organizations.

I gave dates of implementation and spoke of our plans. She was kind enough to say what a large responsibility it was. I tried to deflect saying that the entire team was responsible and that it was not only I but my entire team. I am sure I came off sounding self-serving and that was not my intention.

I spoke with one of the programmers after the meeting and he said exactly what I was thinking. So clearly her message got across to the programming team.

Moral: Know your audience or they will not get to know you or your message

Mine is just a job

Mine is just a job
that's the problem
no higher purpose, no calling
card-games at lunch
my day revolves around a card game - we invented
keeps me going back to work - it's exciting
the social aspects of playing a game - are compelling
but what are games for - a pasttime
to pass the time
games are diversions to avoid the demanding responsibilities of life
a diversion to pass the time
mine is just a job that revolves around a clock marked by a noon time
diversion

stuck in a rut not in a groove

the pendulum keeps coming back to the diversion
is it time for a change? can I stop the pendulum?
make a call and find a call

Mine should be just
Mine should be higher
Mine should be worthy

Mine should not be just a job

Rules for Sparts

Objective: Take the most number of points.

Setup:

1. For three players, deal all cards. Each player will have 17 cards.
There will be a one card blind.
2. For four or more players, use the entire deck. Deal all cards. Each
player will have 13 cards.
3. For five or more players, deal a blind of the remaining cards.

Play:

1. For 3 to 5 players, Pass 3 cards left, right, across, skip left, skip
right, etc. as applicable.
2. For 6 players, pass only 2 cards left, right, across, skip left, skip
right, etc. as applicable.
3. Each player, starting from the left of the dealer bids on the number
of tricks he will take.
4. The total of the bids cannot equal the total number of tricks.
5. The first lead of the game is from the player with the lowest club.
6. Hearts cannot be lead, until a heart is played.
7. Spades cannot be lead, until a spade is played.
8. If neither hearts nor spades have been played and the player with the
lead has only hearts and/or spades, he may lead either hearts or spades.
9. Play proceeds in a clockwise direction.
10. Each player must follow suit.
11. If a player is void of the suit lead, he may play any other suit.
12. Spades are trump. Highest spade played on any trick, wins the trick.
13. The Queen of Spades is both a heart and a spade and can be played on
any trick as a trump card.
14. The blind is "awarded" to the winner of the first trick with a heart.
15. While hands may be traded prior to the bid, there will be no partial
trades, at any time!


Scoring:

IT Management Proverbs

1.1 Beware of programmers carrying screwdrivers.

1.2 Don't let programmers test their own code, they'll fix the data. (I am a programmer, too)

1.3 There is a natural conflict between Productive People and Efficient Process. Too much process will restrict productivity; too little will derail it.

1.4 Leadership is adapting to change. Management is controlling complexity. Leadership and Management are at odds with one another.

Quotes!

I like to read a good quote. And every few months my email is signed with a new one. Here are just a few that have included in my emails.

The purpose of speech is to be understood
–Confucius

Refusing to change does not recapture the past, it steals your future!
-Dr. Carl A. Hammerschlag

Never mistake motion for action.
-Ernest Hemingway

To win you have to risk losing.
-Jean-Claude Killy

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty
-Winston Churchill

Either I will find a way, or I will make one.
- Philip Sidney

The only capacities you need to be successful are: Learn to Learn & Learn to Change
- Pat Wallington

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary numbers, and those who don't.
- Anonymous

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy. - Martin Luther King