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
HR and organizational behavior gurus have spent lifetimes debating the nuances of compensation, usually without coming to particularly helpful conclusions. We are told that the absence of money has a negative effect on performance, while a surfeit has little effect. Of course, determining the right balance between the two has entire books dedicated to it.
Recently spoke with David Elwart, the CIO of the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. Mr. Elwart conveyed a novel approach for compensation: toys. As one would expect, a government agency cannot usually compete with the private sector in terms of pure monetary compensation. Health plans and pensions are generally superior to the private sector, but these hold only passing interest to a younger generation that expects to frequently change jobs over the course of their careers.
Mr. Elwart made up for disparate financial incentives by providing inexpensive benefits to his people, for example, letting them purchase the latest mobile phone every 6-12 months and providing reimbursement. Employees got a cool new toy and morale boost, the CIO kept abreast of the latest developments in mobile technology, and everyone ended up happy for a few hundred dollars per employee. The cost of the phone reimbursement would be a pittance if it had been applied to their annual salary, but became an impactful benefit when provided in the form of a new gadget.
Similarly, Mr. Elwart allowed and encouraged employees to spend a portion of their time investigating new web technologies. While many employers would discourage hours wasted with MySpace or Facebook, agency employees were free to “play” with these technologies. This freedom had a direct benefit to employees, and again, Mr. Elwart would get informal reviews of emerging technologies that might impact his business, all without any direct cost.
As talk of recession grows nearly universal, explore ways your company can provide employees with toys or other soft benefits that have minimal cost and high impact. Toys do not just appeal to technologists. Everyone loves a new gadget or stylish trinket, and providing an employee with things as basic as books, training videos, a nice pen or software provide a morale boost with minimal cost.
Life
In the private sector, we occasionally forget about the universe of organizations and people dedicated to bettering humanity. With forecasts of economic doom and gloom, myriad problems to tackle at work, and families to keep us occupied, it’s easy to see the problems of the world as so overwhelming and outside our sphere of influence that ignorance of them becomes the best means of defense.
Despite this grim picture, there are people tacking the problems of the world head on, and the vast majority of them are more than happy to discuss their approach and how you might be able to help. If you are under pressure to make multi-million dollar decisions, the problems of a small organization might seem almost quaint. Despite this, providing your expertise repairs the soul and delivers inestimable impact to that organization. While you may feel out of your element trying to decide how to irradiate poverty or some social injustice, there are people dedicated to the cause that could use your help reading a balance sheet and providing operational expertise. If you wish to take a moment completely outside your day job, I have yet to find a non-profit organization that does not need bodies and hands. Perhaps hammering a nail or serving a meal will provide personal fulfillment and advance a great cause.
Take a walk on this human side on occasion. It is amazing the variety of organizations that need help, and equally impressive the opportunities that are available, from signing a check, to building a home for someone, to becoming an integral part of the organization’s board.
Heard in the Hallways
In the private sector, we occasionally forget about the universe of organizations and people dedicated to bettering humanity. With forecasts of economic doom and gloom, myriad problems to tackle at work, and families to keep us occupied, it’s easy to see the problems of the world as so overwhelming and outside our sphere of influence that ignorance of them becomes the best means of defense.
Despite this grim picture, there are people tacking the problems of the world head on, and the vast majority of them are more than happy to discuss their approach and how you might be able to help. If you are under pressure to make multi-million dollar decisions, the problems of a small organization might seem almost quaint. Despite this, providing your expertise repairs the soul and delivers inestimable impact to that organization. While you may feel out of your element trying to decide how to irradiate poverty or some social injustice, there are people dedicated to the cause that could use your help reading a balance sheet and providing operational expertise. If you wish to take a moment completely outside your day job, I have yet to find a non-profit organization that does not need bodies and hands. Perhaps hammering a nail or serving a meal will provide personal fulfillment and advance a great cause.
Take a walk on this human side on occasion. It is amazing the variety of organizations that need help, and equally impressive the opportunities that are available, from signing a check, to building a home for someone, to becoming an integral part of the organization’s board.
Travels with Patrick
I am not what you would call a “dog person,” and my experience with the first few months of dog ownership has been very interesting. I did not grow up with dogs, and was always a little bit nervous around “dog people,” the small drool splatters on their clothing and affectionate talk of their “companions” sounding a bit like the ranting of someone suffering from a strong fever.
While I have joined the ranks of those with scratches from their four legged friend’s teeth, and frequently trip over a squeaky toy left in an awkward place, I am still troubled by one of the oddest aspects of dog ownership: dog conversationalists.
To the uninitiated, this is when someone speaks with your dog, and asks it questions that you are supposed to answer. I first encountered this phenomenon in a local pet store. Someone stooped to pet our dog, and between admonitions and exclamations of his cuteness, she asked “So what’s your name?”
She was clearly speaking with the dog as I looked on, curious as to whether this woman possessed some sort of special power, and half-expecting her to illicit a response from my four-legged friend. She asked the question again, this time a bit more impatiently. While the dog waged his tail, content with stoic silence, she finally glared at me and asked his name.
Relieved that there was not a broad-based international conspiracy hiding the fact that canines could speak the King’s English, I responded “Coltrane.” Satisfied, she turned back to the dog and asked “So, how old are you?” Pausing for a few moments to check my reasoning, I finally responded “4 months.” This line of inquiry usually continues with queries about sex, breed, and finally repeatedly inquiring “are you a good boy?”
Much to my dismay, this game is played almost every time I visit the pet store. I feel as though I am some sort of interpreter for my dog, dragged around the pet store to handle his admirers. Instead of the Hollywood-inspired images of translating heated conversation between world leaders on the brink of mutual destruction, I stand aside my drooling and generally slightly stinky friend stifling the urge to say “Ma’am, I’m sorry but he has a sore throat from eating the furniture and doesn’t much feel like chatting today.”