Geek Philosophy

A few months ago, I wrote about professsional development for managers and alluded to listening to some podcasts on the subject of management. I’d like to take the time to call out one podcast that, in the short time I’ve been listening to it, has already paid dividends with respect to career growth and professionalism. That podcast is Manager Tools.

Manager Tools - A treasure trove of managerial wisdom

With over 400 podcasts, approaching the Manager Tools catalog can be daunting, but there’s a helpful “Basics” section that contains foundational podcasts that subsequent, more advanced episodes build on. I haven’t worked my way through all of them yet, but there are a few I feel are worth drawing attention to.

The three part Coaching Dilemma (1 2 3) offers an extremely deep look into how to pick who to coach when time and resources are tight. When given 4 team members, A, B, C, & D, do you spend your marginal time coaching super-productive star-performer A, above-average solid worker B, slightly below average C, or struggling, not-up-to-par D? Their answer may surprise you, but their reasoning is sound.

Professional Subordination (1 2) covers how to act toward the organization (your superiors as well as your direct reports) when a decision is made with which you disagree. This was the first podcast whose value was immediately apparent to me, as I was going through such a situation at the time. The terminology and thought process covered in this episode also came in useful in my recent interview experience when I was asked almost an identical question: “Give an example of a time when you disagreed with a decision that was made. How did you react?” What timing!

I expected How to Assign Work Tasks (1 2) to be largely irrelevant to me, since I support self-organizing teams with shared priorities, but that’s really an ideal – at one point or another, I’m going to need to to ask someone to do something for me, and these casts provide some common-sense-yet-useful guidance that can be found in most Manager Tools episodes.

There are several more that I really like (I recently got a lot of mileage out of the “How to Resign” episodes – more on that in a future post), but at this point it’s probably best for you to go off and listen to them yourself. It’s worth noting that Mark and Mike are very opinionated, and don’t hesitate to point out certain ways of thinking as “wrong” or “right” with great confidence. That said, even if you’re not a manager, there are usually good points that you can put into practice to help raise your level of professionalism. There’s also a sister podcast, Career Tools, that is focused on professionalism in a more generic context.

If you’re already familiar with Manager Tools / Career Tools, what’s your opinion on them? If not, do you have any other management podcasts that you’d recommend, or recommend I stay away from? Please leave a comment!

Tonight, Christy Clark was was elected to be the Premier of British Columbia. I use the word elected very intentionally, as I have heard several people complain about the way this new Premier came to power. I had no real preference for any the candidates, but I do disagree with some of the outrage that’s going around.

First, some background. Here in BC, as in all provinces, the Premier is the leader of the party with the most seats in the legislature. We don’t directly elect the Premier in the way that Americans vote for their President. Instead, we vote for a party candidate in our riding, in a first-past-the-post fashion (since we blew our chance a few years ago to move to a Single Transferable Vote system). Flawed as it may be, this is the current state of democracy in the province.

Since Gordon Campbell stepped down as Premier a few months back, an action that does not trigger a general election, it’s been known that the new leader of the province would be the winner of a party leadership vote. In such a vote, only members of the party cast ballots, and they do so in a transferable way. Additionally, people from all across the province get to vote for the leader.

I’ve heard many people talk about how “undemocratic” the whole thing is – after all, the logic goes, there wasn’t a general election, so how can this be democratic? In my opinion, this was actually a more democratic election that most in BC. Anyone in the province is eligible to join the Liberal party, at a nominal cost of $10, and a voter is able to make more of his or her preference known with the inclusion of a second choice candidate. Over 57,000 people voted in this election, from all over the province. Contrast with Gordon Campbell’s election in 2009, where he became the Premier with just over 11,000 votes from people living within a few square kilometers on the west side of Vancouver. Finally, this was a very rare opportunity for people in BC to vote directly and unambiguously for the Premier, instead of for a local candidate who will just end up having to fall in line with the eventual Premier.

For those of you in BC (or paying attention to BC politics), what did you think of the system used to elect Christy Clark?

I always find it pleasantly surprising when I see parallels and analogues between pieces of knowledge I gain from very different sources. After thoroughly enjoying the Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness, I decided to pick up another book of his I had on a shelf – How to See Yourself As You Really Are. This is a much denser book, with meditation / reflection exercises after each chapter. It’s probably the deepest I’ve ever gone into Buddhist philosophy, and I won’t admit that I’m understanding it all perfectly, but I’m enjoying it nonetheless.

One of the parts I think I understand is the discussion on the topics of emptiness, inherent existence, and dependent arising.  In particular, the idea that no object, person, or situation exists independently, but instead is dependent on  previous circumstances. I’m not even scratching the surface of what’s discussed in the book, but I found it quite interesting. The same week that I was reading about these topics, I noticed a link from Alan Shalloway on Twitter to the fundamental attribution error. A finding in social psychology from the 1960′s, the fundamental attribution error occurs when people ascribe others’ failures or misfortunes to some sort of individual deficiency but  are quick to blame outside circumstance for any personal failings.

Why mention both of these things? It seems to me that there is a lot of overlap in these two ideas from different approaches, cultures, and times. The basic shared idea, that greater context leads to greater understanding, is a powerful one. The Responsibility Process tells us that recognizing dependent arising when it applies to one’s self is part of a natural progression. The key is to look out for snap judgments that ignore the reality that others can also be victims of circumstance, instead finding fault. While this can be a natural reaction, being aware of your reactions and working to counteract this way of of thinking can help foster empathy and understand situations from other people’s points of view. Such empathy and understanding is a key component of leadership.

I’ve been playing video games, primarily on consoles,  since I was 5 and got the Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas. I certainly haven’t owned every system, but I haven’t missed a generation since I started (although you could definitely make an argument that, GoldenEye and Mario64 aside, purchasing an Nintendo64 was missing a generation).

Although I’ve enjoyed most types of games, Role Playing Games (RPGs) have always been my favourite. From the very first Dragon Warrior – single person party! – to wonderful modern RPGs like Mass Effect on today’s consoles, I’ve played as many as I can get my hands on. Reading The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches (warning, TV Tropes time sink link), I can name two or three example games for almost every one. I’ve never counted how many of these games I’ve actually played, but it’s certainly been several dozen – hell, there’s a dozen Final Fantasy games!

Today’s games have great graphics, interesting plot twists, and usually decent voice acting, but I’ve always had a soft spot for 16-bit RPGs. From the first time I saw Final Fantasy II on the Super Nintendo, I was in love, and to this day that’s probably still my favourite game. I played through some decent ones, some great ones, and even some pretty bad ones. However I definitely didn’t play all of the SNES RPGs that existed, as many of them were Japanese-only, never released in North America.

Luckily, the combination of emulators and dedicated translators have made these games available to computer-owning, non-Japanese speaking players such as myself. Conveniently, I have a 1.5 hour commute on the bus every day, so I’ve been able to tear through several of these games in the past few months. As it turns out, I find that emulation is an ideal way to play these games – the presence of a “turbo” button (which runs the emulation as fast as your computer can handle it) makes random battles incredibly fast.

I hope to get around some day to listing the RPGs that I’ve played, and also reviewing some of the lesser known games I’ve found, but for now I’m off to solve some puzzles with Lufia.

I didn’t wait in any lines this past week for a good deal on a TV, but my wife and I did spend a large part of the weekend shopping. We had reason to be downtown on Saturday and at Metrotown today, so we took the opportunity look around and take advantage of some of the deals.

The total damage wasn’t too bad – the weekend came in at under $200, and that includes 4 sweaters, a sweater dress (for my wife), and tickets to see the newest Harry Potter flick (not bad – dark, action-packed, and wizardy). Walking among the thousands of shoppers was an experience, as I usually tend to avoid shopping at busy times, but I think I’ve had enough. We don’t really do Christmas gifts, so I’ll do what I can to not set foot in a mall until next year – unless, of course, a Boxing day TV is in my future.

I’ve spent the last few weeks in occasional correspondence with someone who’s interested in working at my company. Their skill at networking and communication, especially communication of the “I want a job” variety, is worth sharing.

I met this person (subsequently referred to as “X”) at a Q&A session with a panel I was on. This session took place at a local university as part of a day-long career-building workshop. I talked a bit on how I had used my technical degree to further my career, and fielded several questions about what exactly I do at work. After the session ended, there were still a few students (including X) interested in chatting about what my company does and how my team develops software. I love chatting about these things, so I stuck around for an extra half-hour, handed out some business cards, and called it a day.

Usually, when I hand out business cards (always on request – I don’t foist them on people), I’ll hear nothing back from about 95% of people. A few may follow-up in a week, either through adding me on LinkedIn or emailing me and asking what opportunities are currently available at Sophos. The latter often comes as a blunt question such as “are you hiring?”

X has been different. The follow up email came a few weeks after the initial meeting, but it was asking about different parts of the company’s technology and how those fit in with X’s interests and specialties. It was only after a few back and forth messages that X expressed interested in working at Sophos, and he did so in a way that focused on the specific skills he had that would make him a valuable addition to the team. All of the correspondence has been very professional, detailed, and yet succinct – X realizes that I’ve got better things to do than read an autobiography, but relevant educational and career highlights are always welcome.

This is how you network, how you successfully take advantage of a friendly professional resource such as myself. Sorry, eager job hunters of the future – X has spoiled me.

One of the roles that I see myself growing into as time passes is that of change agent. I don’t mind speaking up when I see problems, I’m dedicated to seeing problems solved even if it won’t happen immediately, and I don’t get discouraged if there is resistance or setbacks when implementing change. I’ve been lucky enough to be leading a team where I can experiment with new ideas and have a lot of control over how my team works.

However, when I look at professionals in my field who are interested in team and organizational improvement, they are almost always consultants. Does it have to be this way? I can see the benefit – moving from company to company, the rate of feedback is much faster, and you can learn what works and what doesn’t work much sooner than you could working within the same system. Also, there’s always this old quote from Deming:

“As a good rule, profound knowledge comes from the outside, and by invitation.  A system can not understand itself.”

Is it that companies refuse to accept major change initiated from within the organization? I’ve heard this repeated many times (though I’ve never seen any studies), so that could account for the lack of “famous” internal change agents. It could also be that people who are genuinely good at turning companies around demand too high a price to be a permanent employee. Alternatively, maybe there’s an inherent bias of contractors and consultants to be more vocal about their methods, previous clients, and successes, as it helps them gain new business.

All that said, I like working in a single company and have always thought that I’d hate being a consultant. That distaste is changing a bit – I think it’s mostly the gathering of clients / insecurity that I’d dislike, as opposed to the nature of the work – but I’m still not very interested in jumping ship and becoming an entrepreneur.  Of course, all of this may be due to inexperience. I’ll be the first to admit I that have relatively little experience in the industry.

For now, I’m still in a good place. I run a small team in a large company, and there seems to be some opportunity for change that I may be able to help out with, so I’m definitely not out of growth options in this area. I try to keep as up to date on modern methods as I can by reading books and forums, talking to other professionals, and airing my ideas publicly so they can either be torn down or validated. Still, it’s interesting to think of the future, and wonder if I’ll ever have the desire (not to mention capability!) to go solo.

Well, it’s Friday night, I’m half-asleep on the couch, and I’m only posting because I’m so close to finishing NaBloPoMo and I want to see it through.

Things I did this week that I haven’t done before:

• Installed high-end server hardware myself. The network card had 2GB of RAM!
• Drove in snow in Vancouver. It was pretty crazy here (for Vancouver, at least), but the new car held up well.
• I went to visit a puppy for adoption. We didn’t end up going for her (she’s not our type – sorry, Sophie!), but we’re looking forward to doing more looking.
• I ate cauliflower. Intentionally.

Yeah, it was that slow of a week. Hopefully I’ll have the time and energy to come up with something more interesting tomorrow!

After seeing the pile of books I want to read grow and grow, while not actually reading anything due to indecision of what to start next, I’ve decided to implement a reading kanban. I’ve never really used a personal kanban, but I thought that having the titles I want to read laid out in front of me (sorted by category) could spur me to action.

To start out, I think I’ll have allow myself to have three titles in progress – one fiction book, and two books out of the three categories of technical, business, and personal growth. I’m already well into a personal growth book (How to See Yourself As You Really Are), and I’m just starting a business book (The Five Dysfunctions of a Team). I have a raft of technical and business books to choose from, but limiting my WIP will ensure that I actual finish some of them. I only have 2 or 3 fiction books that I’m considering, so I’m less concerned with burning through those.

I’ll try to write up my thoughts on any books I find particularly interesting, and will also try to report back in a few months to see how the book kanban is going.