Internationally Renowned...

I looked at the blahgKarma stats tonight and found that in the past month or so many more of my visitors are from “away”, as in out of the US. In fact today is a great example of the reach of blogging – international visitors exceeded US visitors, with folks checking in from far-flung places like Rotterdam, a couple of places (I’ve never heard of) in the UK, Bombay (capital of Bollywood), Toronto (hi Sandy!), Tokyo and New Zealand. The last month includes Estonia, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey, Italy, Brazil and a bunch of others. Pretty cool!

The “viral” aspect of Blogging is certainly amazing. I don’t promote the blog, don’t really tell anyone about it, and don’t do anything of note to attract traffic to it… and yet the topics I write on are discovered and read by folks literally around the world. I do comment on other interesting blogs, though, which gets me a few ocassional readers, but which also validates the “extended conversation” theory of blogging.

Amazing.

Another Minute of Fame...

Well, it was bound to happen.  My blog is being found, and has me well on my way to more fame and fortune.

Maybe just the fame.  And just a little bit…

I have a Technorati scan for references to BlahgKarma and found an entry in it tonight.  Seems I got a mention in the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Blogosphere”, which is a pretty cool honor.  Only 10 blogs have been mentioned so far including mine.  The site is a new effort of Troy Worman of Orbit Now! fame and Steve Sherlock.  Thanks for the mention, guys.  That gets you an entry on the blahgRoll for Hitchhikers Guide…

Middle Class America On The Edge...

For my LEADERship class, a team of us are working on a video homework project to project the effects of this year’s hurricanes on “working families”.  You wouldn’t believe what we saw/found.

Our format will be news interview-style, with on-camera interviewers (our team) and the subjects interacting, back and forth.  All the subjects were good sports; we’re addressing a hard set of topics to ask or answer on, but so far it looks good.

One of our subjects is a single dad, running his own business and just making ends meet.  He chooses to work for himself and have a business because it provides him maximum flexibility to be with his daughter, who is elementary-school aged.  He is bright, articulate, and socially conscious – but has no insurance or benefits of any kind for himself.  So while he makes ends meet and is able to afford to live here in Martin County where he likes the community, feels safe and sees a great educational system for his daughter, he worries about that next job or the next unexpected bill like most of us have, I suppose – but its the constant, nagging kind of worry, not just the fleeting kind of worry.  Doesn’t own a home – doesn’t expect to have the means to for some time.

Our second set of subjects was a family of 6 with two breadwinners.  Who have nearly the same set of practical and financial issues as the first subject.  The mother in this family is a child care provider, and got into that line of work so she could afford child care for her own child.  She’s pursuing higher education, but even pays direct child care costs for her son who accompanies her to work (and the employer can’t comp his/her employees for bringing kid to their school/daycare based on income?).  The father is a tradesman, working in the electrical trade, but job security is not a word often used in that arena.  He’s going to school nights to study to be a barber, which he figures he can make at least the same money and maybe more and have some actual job security.  The kids were adorable, and well behaved.  Which is absolutely freaking amazing since this family – these 6 folks – have been living in a 400 square foot FEMA travel trailer since the hurricanes.  Sheesh.  Oh – no medical benefits for the family, except the kids are covered by a State program so they get some medical care.  Home ownership is not even on the radar for these folks… making monthly bills work is.

Subject three is an articulate, 40–something mother of three who works as an admin at a family member’s construction company.  Her husband has a small excavating business; she studies for a masters degree online nights.  Between her three jobs she works about 65 hours a week (plus the school time, of course).  Their excavating business was building and profitable before the hurricanes – now, not so much.  With the lack of telephones for almost 30 days the pipeline pretty well dries up, and with their type of work (site prep for new construction) not being the priority when everyone’s recovering from having their roofs blown off, etc., little income today.  These folks seems squarely middle class to me – two working parents, an educated mom seeking higher education, etc. – and yet because of an unforeseen medical crisis they’ve got a bill for $50K from hospital and they have no idea how to pay it.  What do you do – mortgage/lose your home to pay for your ruptured appendix?  Come on…

I’ve always seen a gap between what I’ve perceived as “the have’s” and “the have not’s”.  These folks would seem on any other day like “have nots” to me, but they do today.  I hope it all works out for them.  Maybe in some small way our project will help them, or the scores of other folks like them I that I bump into or walk right past every day. 

Definitely makes you think…

Middle Class America On The Edge...

For my LEADERship class, a team of us are working on a video homework project to project the effects of this year’s hurricanes on “working families”.  You wouldn’t believe what we saw/found.

Our format will be news interview-style, with on-camera interviewers (our team) and the subjects interacting, back and forth.  All the subjects were good sports; we’re addressing a hard set of topics to ask or answer on, but so far it looks good.

One of our subjects is a single dad, running his own business and just making ends meet.  He chooses to work for himself and have a business because it provides him maximum flexibility to be with his daughter, who is elementary-school aged.  He is bright, articulate, and socially conscious – but has no insurance or benefits of any kind for himself.  So while he makes ends meet and is able to afford to live here in Martin County where he likes the community, feels safe and sees a great educational system for his daughter, he worries about that next job or the next unexpected bill like most of us have, I suppose – but its the constant, nagging kind of worry, not just the fleeting kind of worry.  Doesn’t own a home – doesn’t expect to have the means to for some time.

Our second set of subjects was a family of 6 with two breadwinners.  Who have nearly the same set of practical and financial issues as the first subject.  The mother in this family is a child care provider, and got into that line of work so she could afford child care for her own child.  She’s pursuing higher education, but even pays direct child care costs for her son who accompanies her to work (and the employer can’t comp his/her employees for bringing kid to their school/daycare based on income?).  The father is a tradesman, working in the electrical trade, but job security is not a word often used in that arena.  He’s going to school nights to study to be a barber, which he figures he can make at least the same money and maybe more and have some actual job security.  The kids were adorable, and well behaved.  Which is absolutely freaking amazing since this family – these 6 folks – have been living in a 400 square foot FEMA travel trailer since the hurricanes.  Sheesh.  Oh – no medical benefits for the family, except the kids are covered by a State program so they get some medical care.  Home ownership is not even on the radar for these folks… making monthly bills work is.

Subject three is an articulate, 40–something mother of three who works as an admin at a family member’s construction company.  Her husband has a small excavating business; she studies for a masters degree online nights.  Between her three jobs she works about 65 hours a week (plus the school time, of course).  Their excavating business was building and profitable before the hurricanes – now, not so much.  With the lack of telephones for almost 30 days the pipeline pretty well dries up, and with their type of work (site prep for new construction) not being the priority when everyone’s recovering from having their roofs blown off, etc., little income today.  These folks seems squarely middle class to me – two working parents, an educated mom seeking higher education, etc. – and yet because of an unforeseen medical crisis they’ve got a bill for $50K from hospital and they have no idea how to pay it.  What do you do – mortgage/lose your home to pay for your ruptured appendix?  Come on…

I’ve always seen a gap between what I’ve perceived as “the have’s” and “the have not’s”.  These folks would seem on any other day like “have nots” to me, but they do today.  I hope it all works out for them.  Maybe in some small way our project will help them, or the scores of other folks like them I that I bump into or walk right past every day. 

Definitely makes you think…

You say "Tomato", I say "Tomahto"...

Interesting article in Intelligent Enterprise magazine (print and web) called “Prime Time for Real Time”.  Crappy headline – good content.  One part of the article tries to distinguish flavors of BPx like Business Process Management (BPM) and Business Process Automation (BPA).  I say – whatever.

What I liked about the article was the way the author abstracted Process (with a capital “P”) away from technology/development/systems.  He does so via a virtual fourth tier – like shown in in this graphic:

I like this approach.  Too many folks wrangling with process integration/management/automation are focusing on the technology and how to mash it around to fit this model or that without having a conceptual framework to fit to.  I think the opportunity is in harvesting the best pieces of the existing infrastructure and applications (web services-enable them if you can, I say) and melding them into the improved process.  This does not mean you do one little part of the process with this toolset/user interface, then have the user switch gears/systems/mindsets and do this little part of the process THIS way, etc.  It does mean hiding the spaghetti of existing systems, data, protocols, etc. from the user and presenting them with a rational interface to the (virtual) process/application.

If you’re working on these kinds of projects and want to learn something from someone who REALLY knows what she’s talking about, as opposed to me, try Sandy Kemsley’s blog at www.kemsleydesign.com.

Being a Kid...

Quarter till midnight and just got home from a 16 hour workday (6 hours of it was driving – which you know I LOVE – and maybe 2 of that making phone calls – woohoo!), and sitting down to go over the 15 or so e-mails that came in since I left my last meeting place and organize things for tomorrow, when I finally just say ‘F*** it’. Its been a very weird and tiring week with random shit happening all over the place – some good, some not so great but could have been much worse. And its only Wednesday – or I guess almost Thursday early morning. Time to trudge off to bed and start fresh tomorrow, I figured.

Then the most amazing thing happened. When I took Dakota out I was pondering all the week’s meant and all the work that tomorrow will bring, the smell of fresh jasmine reached me and stopped me dead in my tracks. And in the blink of an eye, I’m wondering when we all stop being kids and marvelling at the simplest of things, and when I did so – I guess it happens in both big and little chunks as we figure out the world, and then moreso I suppose as we figure out there’s no figuring out the world. I don’t think the inner child ever goes away – he just busies himself with all the seemingly “important” stuff and the “fun” and “amazing” and “holy shit did you see THAT!?) stuff kind of gets displaced, slinking off to a corner to gather dust.

If I could bottle both the smell and experience of my encounter with the jasmine tonight, sky black and crickets chirping, I’d do it and become rich beyond my wildest dreams. God I wish I could. It was awesome.

Of course, it wouldn’t remind everyone of being a kid burying himself in that endless sea of stark white and bright, bright purple lilac bushes. Knowing no one would or could find him if he didn’t want them to, and even then it would be a chore. Peeking out and thinking how the Maine sky was blacker than tar that August night with the stars just whiter than white, and a million of them. Wondering what that all looked like on the other side of the world, and what he looked like looking back at it, eyes big as saucers I suppose.

It probably wouldn’t remind everyone of letting go and having the vast tranquility of nature reveal itself – so silent on the one hand and bustling with the sounds of a crisp summer night on the other – ever-so-thankfully devoid of machines and people and tension and stress and winners and losers and good and bad, the soothing sound of salt water gently lapping the shore of that boyhood dream. A gazillion fireflies dancing the jig – obviously they hadn’t a care, they just flitted on with reckless abandon. Maybe they had to – who knew how long summer would last? Who ever does?

Or stopping to wonder a bit whether he’d always find that comfortable place if he wanted to… then wondering just a little how he’d find it when he really needed to, when he had to, ‘cause he’d already guessed that would prob’ly happen from time to time even though he didn’t want to believe it… And pondering whether he could or would show others the way to it when they needed it worse than he did – which he worried might happen some day – even though it was his place. If he only knew…

I don’t think everyone would feel that way, do you? But they might, if just for a moment. And if they did – hell, if I could – it would be priceless, wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t it?

What a glorious feeling, being a child again. Even just in that moment. However fleeting.

Perspective...

Before you flame me, and in case you need a reminder that the rants and raves in this blog are mine and mine alone, here’s the blahgKarma disclaimer:

The views expressed here are my own - not my family's, not my friends', not my dog's, not the President of the United States', and certainly not my employer's.

With that said, this tragic story from from today’s EMSNetwork News:

Ambulance Hits Mercedes, Kills Driver

Shortly after 11:00pm, officials say an EMS ambulance was responding to a call, heading west on south plaza trail, when it crashed into a two door Mercedes headed north on Independence Boulevard.

The impact was so hard that the Mercedes was knocked off the road.

The driver of the Mercedes, 34-year old [name removed] of [city removed], was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries and died overnight. [name removed], of [address removed], was the only occupant in his vehicle. No one in the ambulance was hurt.

Police say their preliminary investigation indicates the ambulance had its emergency equipment activated at the time. According to authorities, the ambulance had a red light as it approached the intersection.

Officials say Brandon was not wearing his seatbelt and was on a cellular phone as he entered the intersection.

I feel for both the driver and crew of the ambulance and the driver of the vehicle and his family.  No matter how you slice it, a tragedy.  If you know someone related to either side of this accident, please accept my condolences.

But where’s the outrage?  Shouldn’t the public be screaming about “the horrendous and sharply rising rate of ground ambulance accidents”?  Why aren’t the national media outlets covering this?

I’m using this story and these comments to hop up on a soapbox about the media flogging the aeromedical industry’s accident rate this year.  Many refer to a Wall Street Journal article on the subject as authoritative, but I disagree.  Some like to say (incorrectly, I think) that the pace of accidents has risen sharply.  But has it – lets say – as a function of the number of patients transported or patient miles flown?  I don’t think so.  But that’s not news now, is it?

So if ground ambulances are crashing – very - regularly (you really don’t want to know how often) and those crashes tragically kill folks ocassionally, where’s the WSJ article on that?  The answer is – there isn’t one.  Why?  In my opinion because motor vehicle crashes occur literally every minute of every day, but aircraft crashes (thankfully) happen very ocassionally.  But, granted, are much more sensational.  Which, I suppose sells more newspapers and cereal ads and the like.

Our emergency services workers, in the air or on the ground, do their best every day to safely and securely discharge their duties to the best of their abilities, and society gains as a result.  And, I think we can always improve safety and patient care, every day (see my post on “achieving” excellence) – in my experience, the industry is working hard on this.  In the end its a risky business and a dangerous job, but it has to be done, and the folks I know that do it are truly called to it, excel at it, and bust their collective asses, all the while subordinating their personal risk to the greater good.

Don’t get me wrong – ONE accident is one too many.  But if its rational to be incensed over recent air ambulance crash rates, then get ready for a march on Washington on ground ambulance accidents, sister.  You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

 

Connecting the Dots...

Its funny how blogs sometimes help the reader connect the dots on this or that topic – you know, an idea pops into one’s head, you’re reading BlogX and catch a little glimpse of what you’re interested in, then the topic or something related pops up on BlogY and…. well, you get the drift.

An interesting twist is when blogging itself helps the blogger connect the dots… consider my previous post on doing the right thing.  Little did I know when I posted it this morning how pertinent it would be to one of my business conversations today. 

It turns out in one of the organizations I do some work with, a person recently did right thing when it certainly would have been easier for them to have done something more popular, or easier, or just ignore an issue altogether and hope someone else might deal with it.  I was really proud of this person’s decision and actions, and not only applauded them, but held them and their situation up as an example of individuals making a difference in a large organization – one decision and one issue at a time.  After recognizing them, I also took the time to help reward them – something they certainly didn’t anticipate or expect when they made the decision – because that was the right thing to do, to.

The pursuit of excellence is just that – a pursuit; a never-ending journey, however often confused with a destination.  Making good choices (even when they’re tough) is at the heart of excellence, so I’ll offer a word of encouragement for those of you faced with such a situation today; do the right thing, feel good about it however unpopular it might be, and know it will work out.  Doing the right thing really does pay off – not just for you, but for others too; I’d even say it can be contagious in an organization.  And sometimes in the most amusing or amazing way…

Doing the Right Thing...

Browsing around and generally cleaning things up on my computer when I came across this tidbit – thought I’d post it. I think it offers good general guidance on doing things you might otherwise not want to do, or wish you didn’t have to. Good way to start off a Monday, I suppose.

I wish I could remember where I saw this...

Always do what's right - you've got to live with the consequences

"There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right." -Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) Baptist minister and civil rights leader

Recently a client of mine mentioned that he didn't like the way a certain colleague treated staff members. I asked him why he hadn't done anything about it. The question caught him off guard. He didn't have a good answer. Upon further reflection, he realized that he was contributing to the problem by letting it occur. He ended up speaking with the guy. And later he told me that though the conversation felt uncomfortable, it eventually improved the situation immensely.

Consider this… It isn't always easy to do the right thing. Sometimes it can feel like the weight of the world on your shoulders. In these situations, use your conscience as a guide. Don't look for the "easy way out." What looks easy at first is often tough to live with in the long run. Always remember that you have to look at yourself in the mirror each day. And it's a lot easier to do if you're proud of what you see.

Something to try:

1. Start noticing where you don't stand up for what's right (however you define right).

2. Develop some ideas on how you could take action.

3. DON'T TAKE ACTION RIGHT AWAY - chat with others to get some perspective.

4. Choose your course.

5. Take action.

How has doing the right thing paid off for you?

Martin Luther King was quoted elsewhere saying the day a man starts to die is the day he stops doing the right thing. Kind of an extreme view if you ask me, but food for thought.

UPDATE: I found the original reference! It was a Fast Company Now article/blog entry from 15 March, located here. Sorry I didn't credit you guys the first time...

Hey, Poolie...

Big day today at the hacienda – first dip in the pool in the new year.  Not much of a milestone if you’re here in FL, but for those of you who aren’t and are still dealing with winter/spring (you know who you are!), I’m officially rubbing it in.

I have to laugh, too, ‘cause our visitors to Hobe Sound think we’re nuts that we don’t/can’t swim year round.  Of course, compared to where I lived in Maine and Vermont, our weather/water is always warm; of course we could swim all year, we just don’t ‘cause we don’t have to!

Gorgeous day – sunshine, warm with low enough humidity so you can still breathe.  Not many of those days left here until September…

Something to Learn...

Are any of you out there using Mind Mapping techniques, or even better MindJet’s MindManager software for TabletPC?

Mind Mapping is a skill I’d desperately like to learn… friends and business associates know I can hardly talk without having a pen in hand and paper at ready to draw a picture.  And don’t stand between me and a whiteboard – you could get hurt.

I think I just think and work better visually.  And while I have my own crude manner of expressing and relating thoughts on paper (you don’t want to see it), having a structure/method to the madness would be great.

Trouble is I don’t really know where to start.  I have a TabletPC and will be replacing it soon with an updated/upgraded model, so I’ll even have a similar tactile experience to pen and paper, but where the heck do you start to crack the nut on the methodology, much less the software.  Any suggestions greatly appreciated, and the more visual, the better.  Oh, and please don’t suggest the "MindManager for Dummies" book – I don’t go out of my way to spend money while I’m being insulted.

JAVA = IT Job Security? SI's = Perpetual Projects?

I still don’t get why CTOs and CIOs let systems integrators sell their organizations ground-up development on stuff they could have up and running in less than half the time with twice the functionality if they used a product to do the same thing.  Do these folks do any research at all?  Do the SI’s run IT now?  Sheesh…

Sandy Kemsley from Kemsley Design posted in her BizBlog about a project like this… a good out-of-the-box fit for our COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) e-forms software that an SI preferred to build from the ground up.  Having been an systems integrator I know why this is attractive to them as a service provider – its all about billables, and getting the client to sign up for the annuity – er, I mean renew the contract.  But it doesn’t make sense.

When I was doing integration, I was happy to blend third-party products into the mix, but then again, I also worked to work myself out of engagements… that is, find the best fit, deliver the best value and then train the organization to sustain and extend it.  Since we were largely a product company that offered services rather than an integrator at my last tech gig, this worked great.  And some of the integrators we worked with HATED it.  They never learned that the quicker, less complex solution is the more VALUABLE solution, and hence commands a higher price – higher billings with less effort?  With happy clients?  Who doesn’t want more of that?  Many integrators…

Call me old fashioned, but I still think its better to show the client you can solve problems and promptly than to get the mother-of-all continuing contracts and keep a tight grip on their wallet.  In the end, the former of these models is always more profitable, as the C-level executive’s problem sets are ever-changing, and becoming a trusted advisor to them is not only infinitely more scalable, its also infinitely more interesting.

Oh well… guess all those folks who love Java or have lots of folks working for them that love Java have to have something to do.  What the hell – business needs lots of wheels.  Guess some clients will happily pay to have a few reinvented…

 

BTW – if any of you old-time SIs are reading out there, there’s a ton of money to be made in delivering solutions to your clients’ business problems (notice I did not say ‘technology problems’) using off the shelf software.  If you need to read something on how to unlink your billings from the amount of time you spend on a project, read Million Dollar Consulting or Value-Based Fees by Alan Weiss.  And if you want/need help getting the hell out of the technology business and into the problem solving/delivering business value business, call me.

Culinary Delight...

If you’ve been reading here for a while, you probably know by now that I love to cook.  Almost anything.  But sometimes its the dumbest stuff that’s the most fun – like Chex Mix.  I made a batch this weekend with my son, which was fun… he knows better than to fight me for food, but he’s smaller and faster than I am, so he got some.  As Napoleon Dynamite would say… ‘GOSSSSSHHHHHH!’

I think I first remember having this culinary delight sometime around 1980, maybe, while living in Burlington.  There’s a store-bought version of it now, of course, but its loaded with all kinds of crap that has no place in a proper Chex Mix, like bagel chips and malformed pretzel-like objects that have no food/nutritional value whatsoever and bagel chips I’m certain are stamped from particle board.

For a good recipe (leave out the damned pretzels and that other crap, though!), you can check out www.chex.com of all places.  I doctor mine up with a little more butter, between a teaspoon to a tablespoon of Tabasco or the like (who knows how much really goes in – I just shake the bottle until it seems like it might be enough), and this time threw some Goldfish in along with a cup of peanuts.

I wonder if there’s a Chex Mix cookoff anywhere – I’ll bet my boy and I could kick some serious ass…