Welcome
Welcome to the Foresight Newsletter, a free monthly publication of Prevoyance Group Inc. This newsletter shares tips for high performance IT organizations and observations that we hope will prove informative and enjoyable.
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Contents
CONTENTS
Foresight is published by the Prevoyance Group, and this month contains four sections:
Work
Life
Heard in the Hallways
Travels with Patrick
Work
From a personal perspective, I love the month of December. In the US, the last week of November marks the start of the holiday season with the Thanksgiving Day holiday and begins a month of focus on family, friends and general merriment. From a work perspective however, December seems like a lost month. For the many companies on a calendar-based fiscal year, budgets are running dry and projects are stuck nervously in the starting gate, like so many antsy horses before the starting bell of a race.
Strategy and planning take a back seat to end of the year activities, as people rush to complete the year’s business before heading for vacation. You can almost hear people thinking “this can wait until the New Year,” whether it’s planning a new campaign, product or project, or tackling that long slumbering resolution to lose weight or get in better shape. While most of these activities are delayed with the best of intentions, upon returning from the holidays after an overabundance of merriment and a cruel deluge of new tasks, these well-intentioned plans fall even further behind.
December need not be a total loss in terms of moving work and personal goals forward. In my mind, it is an ideal time to take stock of where you are and where you intend to go, so that you may accelerate immediately into the new year, while your peers scramble about trying to determine their next action. Rather than attempting to bury all things work-related to the back of your mind over the holidays, take a few moments during flights, car trips or other downtime to jot down a list of potential projects, be they work, family or personal development-related. You need not develop a detailed plan of attack; rather, clear the mental decks and capture anything new that pops into your mind during the holiday season.
When you return in January, rather than taking a week or more to simply get your bearings, you will not only have a list of projects to consider and plan in more detail, but will arrive with a fresh mind rather than one that has been wracked by all that is left undone, all the while feeling guilty as you try and bury each task into the back of your mind.
Life
Several recent business books and articles have mentioned “the power of free”: the concept that we as human beings tend to throw rationality out the window when something is perceived as “free.” From buying more of something than we really did not need during a “buy one, get one free” sale, to choosing a product that will be more expensive in the long run because some component or ancillary product is “free,” this magic word can adversely affect even the most rational.
The worst aspect of “free” items is when they turn into a black hole for our time, costing several hours of irreplaceable time for something that would have cost a pittance had it not been for the power of free. The internet is rife with offers of some fabulous product or service that is “free,” if you give them a credit card and agree to be billed some astronomical amount when the trial expires. I have been suckered into a few of these and, like most, find that when the time comes to cancel I have either missed the deadline or spend hours trying to find the right number to call to cancel the service or battling a voice response robot or ornery operator on the other end of the line.
“Free” also can end up costing a boatload of time even when intentions are good. I have worked with several schools where well-intentioned parents and supporters donate old computer equipment that really should have been “donated” to the local recycler. At best, this equipment sits collecting dust in a corner of the school and, at worst, becomes a vacuum for scarce school funds as administrators attempt to make repairs and upgrades that cost more than simply buying a new and far more functional machine in the first place.
Think twice before accepting you next “free” offer, whether it is for that extra tub of ice cream you probably really do not need, or the well-meaning donation of something that will cost you more time or headache to use than it is actually worth.
Heard in the Hallways
One of the critical assets in the game Monopoly is the “Get out of jail free” card, allowing the bearer to escape the confines of the on-board jail with no cost in time or money. I think this concept also applies to a select group of words, that either give their user permission to make unfounded claims, let fly a stream of insults, or purposely obfuscate what they are really trying to say.
Perhaps my favorite in this collection is “allegedly”. Seemingly a favorite of reporters and talking heads, placing “allegedly” in front of any dastardly deed allows you to let fly with all manner of allegations, while superficially maintaining that you remain impartial. “The man allegedly beat the poor, innocent and amazingly cute kitten in a brazen and violent manner befitting only someone nearly as evil as Satan himself.” “Allegedly” allows you to subtlety accuse before a verdict is rendered “The young woman, allegedly a cruel and violent sociopath…” and detail whatever salient or succulent detail you desire, proven or unproven with one simple word supposedly making it all acceptable.
Along a similar but perhaps less nefarious line, one of my favorite expressions since moving to the southern United States is “bless her heart.” It is truly something magical to behold a couple of southern women laying into someone (it invariably proceeds a string of insults directed towards an individual) with the most colorful insults imaginable, only to end the tirade with a sad shake of the head and “but bless her heart.”
The third “get out of jail free” phase is from the corporate realm, my old favorite “managing expectations.” What managing expectations loosely translates to is “Go give someone a whole bunch of really bad news, then tell them that they should be happy about it.” Allegedly, I’d rather run through hell with gasoline drawers on then have to manage expectations, bless my heart. (And yes, I really have heard that line about “gasoline drawers” used in conversation!)
Travels with Patrick
I have seen my share of hotel bar bands and they range from the fantastic to those that are one step above bad karaoke. On my most recent trip to China, after a long week of work a colleague and I decided to have a couple of drinks in the lobby bar at the Renaissance Hotel in Tianjin. The bar itself was well stocked and well staffed, with an impressive selection of spirits and extensive cocktail menu, something that seems to be lacking at many hotel bars. It seemed to be shaping up to be an enjoyable evening.
As we sipped on a drink and ate some dinner, we were pleased to see a trio of musicians mount the stage, and begin plugging in microphones and various other musical paraphernalia. I have a theory that the worse a band is, the more they must check their microphones, and this band engaged in the phenomenon for several minutes, using the universal sign of impending musical doom: system of saying “Check, check…. Check one, check two, ad nauseum” into the microphone.
Finally they begin to play what could best be described as the bedtime hits of the 1970’s and 80’s. After about 15 minutes of slow and monotonously soothing vocals, backed by an overly synthetic-sounding keyboard, my colleague’s eyes began to droop. Next thing I knew, the waiter was gently shaking my shoulder asking if I’d like another drink after having completely nodded off. Finally accepting the fact that this would not be a Friday full of action and excitement, we retreated to our rooms and called it an evening.