Friday, December 6, 2013 Day #66

Resources...
Yesterday I sent an email to my career consultant asking when the twelve-month contract ended.  "I'll look it up if we get on a schedule."  OK.  There are some resources I want to use ( training, webinars, etc.) that I want to make sure I exploit, and course I'd like to best utilize the consultant, too.

Growing up in the 1950s there was a distinct legacy of the shortage of basic goods during the years of WWII.  My father, grandfathers and uncles all had coffee cans full of nails, straight and bent, screws and nuts and bolts.  That was where you went first, probably because of the war years.  If not there you groused and went to the lumberyard or hardware store which was expensive and long before the days of competitive customer service.

When I look at the pens in front of me I think of coffee cans that will probably never be empty but will also probably not have want you want or need but certainly something you can "make work."

There are far more words  (and lines for my artist and design acquaintances) in this plastic cup than I will ever need.  Just as we've replaced screwdrivers with screwguns and hammered nails with nailguns very few of us write or create from a cup full of pens and pencils.  It's slower, less convenient and has been replaced by new devices and media.  I cannot write a blog with a pen.  iPad or Galaxy fans might say yes but QWERTY rules for words.

So I need to get on track consuming resources, and I will.  I've taken a broad approach to the next steps and I am in awe of the resources available.  If I needed a job immediately one could be found.  If I define a job or role or position or activity (e.g. creative)  that I'd simply like to do, independent of compensation, there are a lot of coffee cans. 

Day #65 Which Happens To Be A Thursday

Snow Removal...
The previous two days were good days to have a working snowblower.  Mine was in for maintenance, but now I have it for the next two days that warrant something other than a shovel.  The repair guy commented that "they don't make them like that any more."  It's a Bolens and about 30 years old.  A number of features were faulty immediately but I've worked around them.  It leaks gas, the tires leak, the auger and drive controls are lame, the insulated handlebar grips fell off a couple of decades ago and the shutoff switch does nothing.  Once off the truck I thought I'd run it down the driveway that I shoveled for hours.  It seemed work but the auger control would not move.  The first thought was to drag it back to the shop but instead I pulled out the kerosene ready heater and heated the whole thing up to near combustion temperatures.  That worked.  It's fine.

Public Health...
While leaving the snowblower repair place I glanced to my left.  I'm not sure if the hardware store sells the

bed bug killer or if there was a phone number in the snowbank.  As I thought about the -20 degree windchill, my gloves, multiple layers, warm socks, hat, etc., I thought "do bed bugs have gloves, multiple layers, warm socks, a hat, etc.?"  Probably not.  I guess it would be the time of the year where if you did have a problem with bed bugs you could just drag your mattress outside and lean it up against the garage or a tree and wait a few days.  With the wind coming out of North Dakota and the Canada prairie provinces tying the mattress to something might be a good idea.

I "Googled" something about bed bugs and freezing temperatures.  The best response was that a winter outside treatment might work if you lived in the Rockies.  Obviously that was written by someone who has not lived in six decades of MN winters which can certainly kill unprepared humans, much less, bugs.  Apparently the outside treatment in more moderate climates causes the bed bugs metabolism to slow down making them even more durable.  That's nice.

Webinar...
Today was a day to participate in a webinar put on by a company that I applied at.  Even though they are a Google Application services company and even though I entered it in my Google Calendar application I simply forgot.  The iPhone need to scream, not ring or vibrate.

Networking...
Today did involve some networking with contacts in the IT space.  Each of the conversations ended open-ended and that is good.  My Friday is clear so I'm going to get caffeine early and make it a good good wrap up for the week.

Day 64 / WED

High Points ...

• the day is almost over
• nice dinner
• heard from my trapper friends in BC...all is well 

Low Points ...

• I've been moving snow for two days 100 miles apart
• hence the short, obtuse commentary
• the temperature is dropping
• time to focus on year-end accounting & taxes 

Perspective and Opportunity ...

• there are no ticks or mosquitoes in this weather
• i've left a lot of baggage on the siding which will make for lean, expedited travel...probably post 1/1/14
• thinking denmark in feb or mar
• thursday will be a good day to hunker down, keep the fire going literally and figuratively

Day 63 / TUE

Some Days Are Totally Different From What You Expect..
Monday I believe primitive instincts kicked in.  Several cords of wood were moved closer to the location or point of anticipated combustion.  A good woodsman is several years ahead of that point.  Twice during the day I hooked up the trailer and moved some nice split and dry oak.  I could have put it off for another day but it just seemed to be needed to be done.

This morning I awoke to 8" of wet snow.  The plans were adjusted and changed to 'snow removal' activities'.  Fortunately I'd just retrieved my snowblower last week.  Making things happen under stress such as time constraints causes poor thinking and the ever reliable machine would not start.  That made no sense so I walked around and looked at the beauty about me, wondering why I would want to leave such a place (or screw up the morning with noise and gas fumes).  Not getting the beast started was a message.  It changed my day. 

It's amazing that after 63 years ( and today only, 63 days) that you can forget how nice snow looks.  Sometime in November I start to think about the last two weeks of January and the first two weeks of February, but winter is not all that harsh.  We tend to think about the worst twenty percent of winter, the coldest days, the biggest blizzards or falling on the ice.

A few years ago we were in the midst of management training and started in on a never-ending list of 80/20 rules.  As managers we spend 80% of our time on 20% of our employees and most often they are the problems or the low producers.  That's just the way it works.  That's the way organizations work and remain dysfunctional.  We talk and talk and talk and make performance plans, etc.  If good managers put 80% of their time into the top 20%, giving them all the resources and support they need we would be much more productive.  Good managers are usually not as bright, as good or as productive as their best employees; they know their value is in providing support and running interference.  Good employees leave because managers cannot do their job.  The top 20% of employees leave because 80% of the managers (or the collective 80% of company 'management') spend their time in the wrong place.

Monday was guided by intuition.  I mange by intuition.  You have do do what feels right, not necessarily what your want to do or what is logical or what 80% of the managers do.  It differentiates you.

Day 62 / Monday / DEC 2 / Late In The Day

Start Then Finish, Start Then Finish and so on...

I'm not exactly done mowing and now it's snowing.

This is the first fall in a long, long time that I've felt a little bit caught up and in synch with the weather.  Unexpectedly, snow was on the ground this morning and it continued all day.  The highway was not plowed and I only had one close call with sliding around a corner in 4WD with a full trailer of oak firewood.

Burning wood is a lot of work but it keeps one outside, working and moving about and you have to think and act carefully and strategically, especially with the chainsaw and tree felling aspects.  It's a good opportunity to consider the physics at work in nature.

Electronic Work...
It seems that hours per day at spent at the keyboard.  Today it was website updates and creation, document reviews and email account management.  When Windows first arrived on the desktop good surveys indicated that workers spent at least 25% of their day just messing with Windows configurations.  That was before the internet.  Last year I was of the opinion that workers spend at least 50% of their time cruising the internet, doing personal email and, of course, making friends on Facebook.  I'm going to re-visit my notion of off-grid days.   

Day #61

The Phone Does Not Ring...
During my last gig my phone rang all the time.  There were always issues, conflicts, problems and requests.  Sales people for telecomm companies, professional service firms, training companies and a host of others called incessantly, wanting my time and the companies money.  Filtering the requests and matching them to the IT needs of the company and the overall business plan consumed a lot of time.   Most called my office phone and others figured out my cell phone.  The good providers, the partners in our success, called my cell phone.

But When It Does Ring...
In sixty-one days I've had a few calls from my staff who were checking in.  It's entirely possible that they missed me or thought I might have something worthwhile to say on the transition.  Since I've left there have been changes in direction, new people hired and people who have left.  The company I knew exists as a snapshot on September 30th.

I've had a really nice letter and call from a former member of the Board of Directors and I'm truly touched by that.  One of our longstanding sales people has also reached out on both a friendly and professional basis and for that I'm thankful.  Others have been in touch via email and text and offered their assistance and partnership and that, too, has been heartwarming.   It was a network of good people and at a point I'll be working them as they worked me.  Somewhere I read that turnabout was fair play.

Turnabout...
Now I need to be the sales person.

Day Sixty On The Road

Still Moving Forward...
Each day provides an opportunity.  My focus has been to move forward.  What's behind me is known and tired.  Moving forward is moving into the dark (for about fourteen hours a day this time of the year) but that is just fine.

Shoes...
My daughter is a shoe junkie.  Yesterday she looked at my Columbia pseudo-hiking shoes and commented "those are the kind of shoes that South Minneapolis liberals wear...when they want to look cool.  You know."  After my blank look she added "well...you do chainsaw things and stuff like that so it's OK.  They're nice."

When I was a kid we really did not have much.  "We" was my mother and me.  There was a good pair of shoes for school and perhaps church and shoes for play and buckle boots for winter.  Whenever I buy shoes now I want to hold back.  Two pair should be enough.  About a decade ago when I started to post things on the web, probably before "blog" was common place I did a shoe inventory.  My intent was to keep it up to date indefinitely.  I failed.  I did, when interviewing people, start to ask people how many pair of shoes they owned.  Women easily were in the 50-100 pair range.  Men topped out at a dozen.  I'm not sure how many pair I own now, but I know that I have at least four new pair in boxes in my closet that may never be worn unless I go back to a formal job.  My daughter made me think about my shoes.  Today I'm wearing a really comfortable pair of Red Wing oxfords.  They are pretty dorky.  There is another new pair in the closet.  I'm going to make sure that I can wear either Columbia shoes or Red Wing shoes at my next job.  It would be interesting as the interviewee to ask what kinds of shoes were acceptable.

A few years ago our "operations management team" would meet monthly to discuss important issues about running the company. One memorable meeting of executives included a ninety minute discussion of how much cleavage was acceptable for women and whether flip flops were acceptable on "casual Fridays."  At ninety minutes I interrupted and said that it had been the silliest meeting I had ever attended and stood up and walked out.  Shortly thereafter a memo came out detailing the acceptable amount of cleavage and guidelines for acceptable and unacceptable flip flops.  I concluded that not only were men obsessed about controlling women's lives they were more concerned about controlling the lives of those with cleavage than those without.  Along with asking about shoes I'm going to ask if there are more detailed dress code details for women than there are for men.