My new obsession, twitter

I must say I really love the web2.0 revolution... These new services are targeted at exactly at me! I've become obsessed with twitter! Learning about tags, #followfriday's and gathering followers (I'm up to 37 at the time of the writting). I love the fact that a service like twitter, which has yet to come up with some kind of business model, has gathered such a large and devout following. It makes me laugh on the inside the shear volume of traffic that yet to be monetized at all, but I love it!!

This service really speaks to the geek in me... I now have twitter on my cell phone and connected to facebook. I use multiple twitter clients and I'm always musing about different ways to integrate the tool into different web ideas. I love integration and twitter just seems to be integrated with everything!

Anyways, I'm going to enjoy the long weekend! Just sharing my new obsession (Go check it out and follow MrBrockman on twitter).

Laurence

Tech tools - Help us out with some collaboration advice

Everyday a new tool floats across my inbox... Today wasn't a new tool, but Gmail added an "Undo" to sent emails... What an awesome idea! This new feature gives us 5 seconds to recall that email and look it over for one more round of edits or to throw it out completely. No more forgetting to attach a file, no more nasty emails... I now have five seconds to recognize that I shouldn't have hit the send button.

In the last two weeks I have run across so many tools including Twine (Twine.com), Google Reader (Okay, this one isn't new, but I've fallen in love) and Twitter (Again, not new, but man, I can't get enough).

All of these tools further our connectedness and potential for collaboration, but how does this translate into the work place? The Gmail "Undo" sent option sure would translate, but would Twine or Twitter?

Clearspace and other new collaboration platforms are now being adopted in organizations as they try and capitalize on the existing knowledge capital they've acquired over the years. Lots of companies have had success, but many have not realized what they had intended. Why? We are embarking on a journey at our company and what do you think it will take for us to be successful?

I've got no answers for anyone, so I'm hoping that readers of this blog can help us share their stories (Good or bad) about experiences with collaboration software in a corporate environment. We are hoping to drum up some advice to help us with our implementation, so please share! Help me and my team out!

Thanks in advance!
Laurence

Innovation as an excuse to write software

I've worked at a number of development shops in the past and I've had the pleasure (And pain) of working with many different developers. I've come to recognize a trait amongst many of the developers that I've worked with; most of them have a passion for Software Development. That passion is great; it leads them to learn new ideas and to development interesting software that we love to use. The downside to that passion is the vast majority of developers always treat every problem as a development problem. They skip past the step where they look for existing solutions and immediately jump to development (Or, those more experienced jump to the planning of the development).

Now, I'm not saying that development isn't important, especially when it comes to innovation. Development is key and without Software Development, we wouldn't have any new products to use! The most important decision is not whether there is going to be development for an IT innovation project, but where you will focus your expertise, time, effort and dollars. Every time a company goes to put up a new web application, they don't start off by building a new operating system. They leverage what is already in existence. They don't go an write a new database. They use one that is tried and true. Smart companies pick where they are going to develop and where they will plug in components to help speed up their innovation initiatives and reduce costs.

What many developers and companies fail to do is to take the next step beyond picking out an OS, Database, web server and development language. I've seen many projects embark on an "Innovation" exercise where they end up re-creating the wheel. They don't go and put rubber on tire, the rebuild the whole tire all over again. Companies and more importantly the developers that work for companies need to take some time (Albeit a short amount of time) to investigate what components exist in Commercial Off The Shelf offering (Or Open Source, or even what other products exist within a company).

We all need to learn where to best spend our time to add value to a company and I believe that building on top of existing software allows us to do things quickly.

Doing things quickly is extremely important when it comes to innovation (Or most projects for that matter). Time is money as they say and the more we risk investing in innovation projects, the more we have to lose if they fail. We shouldn't be concerned with "Gold Plating" our projects and we certainly shouldn't be wasting time on software development when we have existing and appropriate solutions to pick from. We should strive for rapid prototypes and make sure we are on the right track at every point along the way. We don't want to have invested millions of dollars and years of development in a product that no one is going to use.

Communication Skills Presentation

I ran across this today and I thought it was definitely worth sharing! Excellent presentation so check it out.

Communication Skills

View more presentations from Yodhia Antariksa.

Innovation in the work place

Innovation is the driver for future revenue generation, without it all organizations will become stagnant and not be able to adapt quickly to a changing environment. We need to recognize that the world is changing and if we don't, we will end up in the same situation as the auto industry. Innovation is the key to our success, and in order for innovation to be successful in an organization, we need the support of that organization. Everyone needs to be on board!!

Cheap, cheap, cheap!!!!

A common argument against innovation is that it is expensive, that we will have to invest a lot in R&D and we won't realize the benefits for years to come. Innovation is not expensive, not long term and it can highly engage employees!!! An example of a cheap, quick innovation strategy to increase employee engagement and encourage groups to cross collaborate is the creation of a rubber stamp. Something that can be custom designed by a team and purchased online for less than $20. If every employee is given a passport of sorts and and every team designed a stamp, when they contribute to a project or a team, that team can then recognize the employee by stamping their passport. Employees can recognize other employees and there is an implicit motivator to collect as many stamps as possible, all for $20. Another key item to keeping innovation low cost is to rapidly prototype for customers and present to them early and often.

Rapid prototyping

Continuing on with a focus on cost, organizations need to get away from expecting perfect prototypes. The longer we spend on a prototype to demo a customer, the more we've invested in the creation. If we spend months creating a prototype that doesn't meet our customer's needs then we have spent a lot of money that did not need to be spent. If we create a culture of innovation where good is good enough (The key being that the prototype is good enough to communicate the idea or message), then we can save money and succeed sooner. "Fail faster, to succeed sooner," is a motto that I love. The faster we get a prototype out the door, the faster we can respond to our customer's demands.

If we shorten the delivery of a prototype, it also opens up the possibility to deliver more than one prototype to a customer. Why would we deliver more than one prototype you ask? Well, let's start off by looking at a common situation: I come home from work and my wife is standing in front of me with a new dress. She asks the question that every husband dreads: "What do you think of my new dress?" ... What's the response most every man going to give? Of course it looks good... We have no other choice. Our wives have put all their eggs into one basket. If we give negative feedback, our wives are crushed and we've hurt their feelings. Now how about if they've taken us to the store and presented the same dress along with six other dresses. We have the chance here to give honest feedback without the potential hurt feelings. People feel more comfortable with giving honest feedback when presented with multiple options and our customers are no different. We haven't put anyone in the awkward position of having to tell us the dress we've selected doesn't flatter us or suit their needs.

Rapid prototyping is an area to really get creative!! Don't think that these rapid prototypes need to be done in the medium of final delivery. I'll explain what I mean by giving an example. We are currently developing a new piece of software at work called SDPNet. Rather than have our software developers mock up two interfaces for our customers to review (The medium of delivery), I asked the project team to come up with two prototypes (In one week), the first done on a computer, but without a single line of code written and the second done without any computer intervention what so ever. Both of these prototypes were not to be done in the medium of final delivery. The project team decided to model the UI for this new piece of software using Connectix!! What an awesome idea and it actually opened up new ways of looking at user interaction!! Imagine a 3D UI! Not only creative but time efficient!! The project team was able to bring it together in a matter of hours!! We could present many different versions for a customer to look at and interact with and the cost was right!!

Not just products

Innovation is not limited to the realm of physical product development. We can innovate with service delivery and even process definition.

Let's take an example from the work place that those of us working in large companies are probably familiar with: Department transitions or hand offs. We have three teams within our Information Technology department at work and we are required to hand off development, sustainment and support between these three teams all the time. These transitions tend to be high stress and typically involve a lot of conflict and negotiation and someone is always unhappy with the way things are transitioned. Why would we continue to do this? Why not innovate? Why not look for a different way to transition between these teams that will de-risk and at the same time make people happier? While looking at this area for improvement the analogy came to light that this is really like a relay race. We need to transition from one team member to another team member at top flight, just like the 4x100 relay! Our Olympic team certainly wouldn't show up to the relay final without every having practiced, so why should we?

The solution was abundantly simple: practice the hand offs!

We follow an Agile software development methodology and we decided to hand off at iteration end (Usually a 2 to 6 week period). This allows us to identify problems early and correct mid project, while at the same time really creating a team atmosphere. Because the hand offs are smaller, there is less risk and less anxiety. By the time the project is ready to go into our production environment, the support teams are ready to go and we've practiced the hand offs many times! Sure there are still bumps in the road, but we correct them early and with less conflict.

Tools

No matter what you are going to innovate, you need basic tools! For our organization, we found that we need a collaboration platform to help distribute information across our distributed teams. This collaboration in turn helps us produce more innovation ideas, which fuels future growth and collaboration. You might need slightly different tools than I will, but don't forget about having the basics for creativity!

Conclusion

As I mentioned at the start, innovation will be the key to future growth! No one wants to end up in a company that's being left behind. Start small, be a champion for your company and seek out resources (Books, mentors, etc) that can help spur your innovation on!

Do you have any innovation success stories? We'd love to hear about them!

Laurence

Life outside the job

Your job is important and part of what defines you as who you are. However, in order to be truly successful in life you need to be balanced. After fifteen years in the Information Technology industry, I have learned a few lessons that have helped me maintain my sanity at work.

Hobbies

Key for me has always been to have hobbies and interests out side of work. It doesn't matter what you do, but you need time away from your work, time away from your family and time that is strictly yours for enjoyment. This blog for example is one of my new hobbies and a way to stretch my mind. For others it might be some board game or even something like Geocaching (Ties into the active life I talk about below). Without hobbies, or at least a time to decompress, I feel that by the end of the week I'm dead and no use to my family all weekend long.

Family

Put family first... This doesn't mean to be a clock watcher at work, but make sure that you leave your work at work and make time for your family. I have kids and I make sure I'm there for supper almost every night. Make sure that you spend time with your wife, husband, significant other (And watching TV doesn't count). My life overall runs a lot better when I make sure I give time to my wife and kids.

Active life

This is my #1. If I don't run, play soccer, rock climb or do something active, I tend to be grumpy and irritable. This is the way I deal with my stress, this is not only something that makes me feel good, but it means that when I'm at work, I can focus on work.

Take time a few times a week, look at what is offered in your area and go for it. If you can't find anything, consider running. Running is easy to get started and cheap... You can also do it anywhere in the world. I've traveled quite a bit in life and running is something that you can do no matter where you are (Sometimes it can be hard to find the motivation when its below -25C and you need the right gear, but you still can do it).

Time for personal reflection

Personal reflection means that I take time for myself, make sure my life is where I want it to be, and if it isn't, to think about how I can get it to where I need it to be. I know this sounds cliche, but we only have one life to live and I feel like I'd better not waste mine. I love my work, my family and the experiences I have had in my life and taking the time to reflect makes me feel like all those goals I haven't reached yet are attainable if I stay focused and on course.

Let me know how you cope with work and balance.

Laurence

Problem employees - A manager's presepctive

It took me a long time to decide if I wanted to move into management. I've always loved the technical side of the IT industry and I've excelled in many different technical roles. Moving into the Leadership arena was something that I had a huge desire to do, but a large fear of as well. We've all experienced those difficult employees in our career and they can make work life hell. Imagine having to discipline and manage those people? Could I handle it? Would I let my team down? Would I have the skills or the patience? Would I be able to effectively communicate with the higher-ups?

As F. John Reh says in his "Dealing With Difficult Employees" article on about.com (http://management.about.com/od/employeemotivation/a/DifficultEE0605.htm), "All managers will have to deal with difficult employees during their careers. First, there will always be difficult employees. Second, it's your job as the manager to deal with them. If you don't deal the problem, it will only get worse."

Was I up for the challenge? Are you?

Open, blunt feedback

Here I sit today, having been in leadership positions over the last 5+ years and you know what I've learned? The most effective way that I've found to deal with those difficult employees is to have the straight, open, honest and blunt conversations. No one is going to understand the impact of their behavior if you don't tell them and they certainly won't change their behavior if they see that they are getting away with it. I've made mistakes in the past, trying to sugar coat performance and attitude problems and it has never turned out well. Employees don't get the direct feedback they need and the rest of the team suffers as the performance wallows and the attitude continues to stink.

Follow through

What happened when your parents would threaten you with some kind of punishment and then never follow through? Would your behavior get better? Mine sure didn't. I started to learn that my parents, and my mom in particular, were not able to follow through on their discipline and that opened up a whole range of possibilities for me, none of them good! The same will happen at work! If you as a leader do not address bad behavior, you can expect that bad behavior to continue and progressively get worse. To put it simply, you have no option here, you need to follow through. You need to be trustworthy to the team and live up to your word, or people will not follow you. This means executing on performance improvement plans and getting employees back on track.

I'm not saying that we should go out and fire every employee right off the bat or that we shouldn't cut people slack when things get a little rough for them. We as leaders need to be understanding and compassionate, but we also need to look out for the best interests of our entire team and everyone around us. That means having the tough talks, putting people on performance improvement plans if required, and in the worst case scenarios, that means terminating problem employees.

There are may faucets to human behavior and understanding why people do the things they do. These two points are only my observations and have helped me make sure that I have a high performing team that is successful within the organization.

Laurence