Are you drunk at work?

Are you drunk at work?

What? You? Never?

You’re the most diligent, responsible and hard working employee/boss/business owner in the entire company. You’d never think of turning up to work drunk! That’s unfathomable!

Think again.

According to the National Institute of Health (US), sleep depravation can have the same effect as intoxication.

Most of all, this is such old news; yet there are still people around who use lack of sleep as a badge of honor to display on their sleeve with pride. Ever heard people brag about their three or four hours sleep the night before? I certainly have. If you work in the software industry it is probably even more likely you’ve come across such braggers. Those same braggers usually spend the first half of the day fixing the problems and software bugs they caused the night before when they were being a hero and working late.

So.

Think again. Are you drunk at work?

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Some thoughts on business cards and LinkedIn

I was going through some stacks of business cards received by people I’ve met over the years and thought it would be a great idea to add some of these people to my LinkedIn connections in case I ever needed their expertise in future.

From this I gathered that it is quite important that our business cards these days must really match up with our online presence if we want to stay connected.

So I seem to have learned something from this process which revolves around the information given on business cards. Here they are:

1. Name Consistency.
Having your Chinese/Tamil/Long Form/Etc name on your business card, but your Christian name on your LinkedIn profile doesn’t help me much. (This probably only applies to Singapore and China?)

2. EMail address matching your name.
Similar to point #1. This makes it easier for someone to find you on LinkedIn.

3. Font/Typeface used on the card.
It would be great if it was readable by those automated business card readers. (Although I didn’t use this process).

4. Amount of EMail addresses used.
On some business cards I saw that people can be contacted at six different EMail addresses. I am not sure of the reasoning for that, but it sure doesn’t give me confidence that you’re going to receive my EMail invite.

5. Your proper and full name.
Using your initials on your business card (i.e. M. Ashworth) makes it difficult to tell you apart from all the other Mike, Mark, Martha, Montgomery, Moriarty, Etc. Ashworths out there.

6. Using a free EMail account is not cool for business owners.
If I can’t find you by name, then I’m unlikely to find you by your name + company name if you’re using a free EMail account.

7. Differentiate yourself.
If your parent’s called you Adam Smith, or Mark Ashworth then there’s bound to be lots of other people sharing your name. Filling in more information about yourself, such as your company, location and job title will make it much easier for me to find you.

8. I can’t think of something to put for number 8.
I wanted to make a list of 10 items though. So I will leave this in. I guess this coincides with my learning point #7, which is filling out as much information as possible on your LinkedIn profile so I know who you are and what other skills you may have. Oh yes, and keeping your information up to date is good too.

9. Pictures
It would be great to have a picture on your business card so I can match you up to your profile on LinkedIn. Some faces I might have forgotten from conferences held years ago.

10. Lastly: Have a LinkedIn account!
Seriously, which business owner or marketing professional doesn’t have LinkedIn these days? (Call me a social networking Nazi all you like).

Unless of course, you do not want me to contact you in future. Which in that case, why did you pass me your business card to begin with? (Just tell me you left it at home, or haven’t got them printed yet)

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English(wo)men in New York (Or wherever)

English(wo)men in New York (Or wherever)
(Or whichever part of The USA they may find themselves)

There’s no doubt that Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial design at Apple Inc, is a highly successful designer. Leaving the shores of Jolly Old England was a great idea for him as it led to him being ranked as ranked by The Sunday Times as one of Britain’s most influential expatriates.

This said, it makes me curious about other Brits who’ve dabbled their hands in the American markets and succeeded. So naturally, I did a search for US granted design patents held by British based inventors, and got this list:

1. Martin WF Dean
A designer for Wolverine World Wide. (i.e. the company that makes Hush Puppies, Caterpillar boots and other work-related footwear brands as well as military boots).

2. Sandra Choi
A designer for the renowned (Malaysian Born) British shoe designer Jimmy Choo. Her most cited shoe is the “coupe” she designed in 2004 (D513846) which is also referenced by designers from Stuart Weitzman.

3. Manon Belley
Another designer for Wolverine World Wide.

4. Grant A Urie
Yet another designer for Wolverine World Wide.

5. James Dyson
A household name in the UK (awful pun intended). Any self respecting product designer in the United Kingdom should be familiar with the works of James Dyson. Most famous for his iconic bag-less cyclonic vacuum cleaners.

6. Anthony Dalby
Nokia Corporation. Designer of many of Nokia’s many mobile handsets, including the N90 design.

The co-designer that Anthony Dalby has worked the most with is Ingve Holmung.

Anthony Dalby had also designed a futuristic looking design for a street cabinet that houses telecommunications equipment; assigned to Nortel. Figure this one out yourselves:

7. Deborah H Andersen
Yet YET another designer for Wolverine World Wide. This American company sure uses a lot of designers from the UK.

8. Pape John A
John Pape registered a number of designs related to baby and toddler toys for Hestair Kiddicraft Limited. His most cited design is for a teether/rattle toy for babies he conceptualized way back in 1987. Recognize it?

9. Thomson Harry S
Another designer for Hestair Kiddicraft who has worked alongside John Pape.

10. Jonathan Kelsey
Another shoe designer for Jimmy Choo. His most cited design is an open toed shoe (D501709) which has oddly been cited by a Nike design (D544691).

So there they are. Britain’s top 10 US design patent holders, by volume, as of date.

By the way, in case you’re wondering. Jonathan Ive has 327 US design patents, all assigned to “Apple Computer.” I guess with a US$1m a year pay packet he doesn’t really need to work for anyone else.

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Masters of Tacit Knowledge (Ayrton Senna)

A quote from Ayrton Senna. Tacit Knowledge? Grok?

“I was already on pole, then by half a second and then one second and I just kept going. Suddenly I was nearly two seconds faster than anybody else, including my team mate with the same car. And suddenly I realised that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a different dimension. It was like I was in a tunnel. Not only the tunnel under the hotel but the whole circuit was a tunnel. I was just going and going, more and more and more and more. I was way over the limit but still able to find even more.

Then suddenly something just kicked me. I kind of woke up and realised that I was in a different atmosphere than you normally are. My immediate reaction was to back off, slow down. I drove slowly back to the pits and I didn’t want to go out any more that day. It frightened me because I was well beyond my conscious understanding. It happens rarely but I keep these experiences very much alive inside me because it is something that is important for self-preservation.”

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On The Park Bench

On an early morning jogging visit to the nearby park, you notice a pair of unkempt men. Unshaven and shabbily dressed, their greasy hair shows signs of fatigue as it sprouts from the sides of hats that have seen better days. One reaches out a half empty can of extra strength lager and gives a smile and a salute to his friend before chugging it back.

First impressions? A pair of drunks, probably homeless. They might even well deserve to be in the state they’re in.

That’s what you see. How about what you don’t see? How about the ‘perhaps?’ Perhaps the two men might have, one time, been a pair of very successful business partners; before some seriously unfortunate event caused their demise which ultimately left them out on the street. Why is the man holding out his beer can to the other and smiling? To celebrate drunkenness? Or perhaps he was he reminiscing a time when they were once very successful and his friend pulled off a big deal.

There’s always more to a story. However, our primary impression is based on our assumptions, experience and knowledge. Sticking to our prior assumptions, experience and knowledge will seriously limit ourselves to seeing only with our eyes and not what is beyond.

I think it is our job as curious human beings to try and find out the whole story before snapping to conclusions. Our duty as innovative human beings is to challenge our own assumptions, experience and knowledge in order to create new knowledge and experience new things.

In our unforgiving societies we are often looking at the ‘obvious’ and condemning people straight away. On the flip side, we are also very quick to put people on a pedestal and fall over their every word out of admiration.

Or sometimes we just need to see what we see with our eyes at face value, and look deeper so that we can see with our minds as well as our eyes. If we challenge ourselves continually there will be no end to the amount of new knowledge we can generate.

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Differences between Asian and Western Children. A matter of context. Or category?

Given four words: Monkey, Banana, Cow, Grass.

How do you categorize them? There may be two major categorizations to consider:

Categorization 1 (By Context):

Monkey & Banana (Context of monkey eating banana)
Cow & Grass (Context of cow eating grass)

Categorization 2 (By Category):

Cow & Monkey (Category of Animals)
Banana & Grass (Category of Animals’ foods)

According to a paper written in 1972 by cognitive psychologist Chiu Lian Hwang, the majority of Asian children would categorize by context (and have a more holistic view) by associating the animal with the food that it eats. The norm for Western children was to look at the categorize the cow & monkey together as being members of the animal kingdom, which is coming from more of an analytical viewpoint. The important thing here is that neither are wrong.

Interesting study for thought. Especially in our modern environment where me might be leading a team with members from over six different nationalities on it. We are no longer dealing with topics such as ‘managing men vs managing women;’ but the differences in managing someone who was brought up, schooled and exposed to an Asian environment vs someone who grew up with Western education, environment and ideals. A modern manager must be able to sensitize themselves to such differences in upbringings amongst the members of their team.

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Grains of Sand

I woke up today with this thought in my mind.

If our existence is nothing but a grain of sand in relation to the history of the universe. Then what happens if we all work together effectively?

We might just be able to create something awesome; if just only for a finite moment:

Sand is awesome if it works together effectively!

Original image from: http://digital-tech-guide.blogspot.com/2007/06/pics-sand-art-part-3.html

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Managing Generation Y

I’ve been reading a lot of stuff on blogs and such recently about the new entrants to the workforce dubbed ‘Generation Y’

Now I’m neither a Gen X or a Gen Y myself, as I’m unfortunately born on the cusp of the two (labeled the lost generation or the MTV generation). Not to mention I’m not hip enough for generation Y, yet not greedy and amoral enough to be considered a part of generation X. Yet for the past two years I have found myself managing various staff who deeply belong to Generation Y. Previous to this two years I really didn’t feel that I was ‘getting it.’ By copying my former employer’s pressure cooker style of management I (seemed to have) caused resentment and job dissatisfaction amongst the people who I worked with. Just reflecting on a portion of, what I would call, the more successful past two years that I have spent, I’d now like to scribble about some of my experiences with the Generation Y crew.

I wont go into much detail here for the sake of anonymity but let’s call them ‘Team #1′ and ‘Team #2.’ Both of which, were great experiences for me.

Team #1
Team #1 was a team of developers that were external to my company. Team #1′s CTO has been running his own company since his university days (do generation Y even need to go to university these days?), he openly tells me that he’s failed three times, with his first venture being completely ‘dumb’ yet a humbling experience. Now he is bouncing back to run a profitable company within only two years of graduating. Judging by the work that his company has done for me so far, I’d love to engage them again in future. The energy that I see in his office is immense. People love working for him, people enjoy the environment he’s created and have no resentment about working long hours and going the extra mile when assistance to clients is needed. The team are some of the brightest people I’ve met, but at the same time some of the most humble and willing to consistently learn new things and try things that they might not be 100% comfortable with. A mix that I truly admire.

Interesting features of Team #1. a) The developers seldom start work before 10am and b) I paid a visit to the office one day to find the entire team (directors included) having a HUGE battle on World of Warcraft. Where’s my project? ‘Already complete & fully tested’ I was told, ‘time for a reward for the developers (and a team building exercise)’

Team #2
Team #2 is a team of developers directly under my ‘command,’ i.e. in the same office. I have done my best to keep ‘out of their face’ as much as possible and let them steer most of the development work by myself acting as the ‘mentor’ rather than the boss. To my pleasure they have delivered exactly (almost) what I have been expecting and I’ve not had a single day where I’ve felt stressed out by what they’re doing/or not doing.

The only thing that I’ve not figured out how to do yet is motivate them under times of extreme pressure (since there hasn’t been any). Perhaps the balanced working environment has nullified any sort of air of pressure? Or perhaps I still have a lot more to experience and learn.

Anyway, the lessons I’ve learned so far are quite revealing about our new entrants to the workforce. A new generation Y needs a new style of managing. They need an interesting project to work on which they can feel responsible for and proud of when complete. Give them the opportunity to make themselves shine and they will give their heart and soul to their work.

You might have heard it all before (and there’s probably many more which I can’t think of right now), but based on the experiences listed here; the advice to those managing teams of Generation Y-ers is as follows: (Feel free to comment and add more about your experiences too)

1. Be a mentor, not a boss. If you try the hard line approach, they are more than likely to reject you as an oppressor. Generation Y is much much less likely to want to be controlled by ‘The Man.’ Or perhaps not less likely to want, but less likely to put up with it.

2. Don’t demand them to be at their desk at 8.30am. They’ll likely come after 10, with less resentment of their ‘perceived to be’ constrained rigid working hours and actually end up putting more hours in than they would if instructed to come at 8.30am to 5pm each day. (of course, this does not apply to support staff who need to be available at all times). Let them manage their energy, not their time.

3. Let them discover. Don’t answer their questions directly. (any teacher will tell you that this is the best way to make students learn).

4. Let them play games in office time. They’ll make it up after hours; or in increased levels of productivity during an inspired moment. As in the case of Team #1, an hour or so of Warcraft isn’t going to make a project three months late but paradoxically seems to be the catalyst to greater productivity. Generation Y enjoys intrinsic rewards.

5. Generation Y don’t give a crap about your years of experience and won’t show you any respect for it. Don’t try to interfere with minor issues such as choice of methodology. In this aspect, the Gen Y-ers might come across as a bit arrogant, but do let them figure it out organically and they’ll respect you for believing in their ability to figure things out themselves.

6. Pay them well and keep them engaged. Gen Y won’t sit around complaining about their salary/bad job, yet still turn up to work each day for their resentful cheque/check (unlike Gen X). Gen Y will just leave the company and go somewhere else that engages their talent more… better still: start their own company with friends.

Those are just a couple of the lessons I’ve learned so far. I guess there is more and more for me to learn and figure out as I go.

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Where Shall We Live and Work?

This was written in 1997 by Leif Edvinsson and Michael Malone. Nice musings on how our 21st century would be, but how much of it is actually true? Has everyone rushed to the cool places?

“… the twenty-first century will see radical changes in where and how people live. In particular, the combination of powerful information technologies will make it possible for people to live and work anywhere and still enjoy most of the fruits of life in a big city or suburbia or the countryside— from culture and the arts to role-playing and simulated participation in distant world events.”

“These same technologies will also make work more and more portable, shifting jobs from centralized work sites to virtual offices located at home or on the road or in neighborhood centers”

“If we can live and work anywhere, where shall we live and work?”

“… in one of life’s bigger ironies, freedom always brings with it new responsibilities. Faced with this infinite choice of how and where to live and work, what will we choose? Will everyone race to the cities, or to the countryside? Will mountain and seaside resorts suddenly swell with new year-round residents? …”

Extracts from ‘Intellectual Capital: The proven way to establish your company’s real value by measuring its hidden brainpower. Leif Edvinsson and Michael S. Malone’

From a personal standpoint. I’d still rather live in the city where everything is convenient and it is easy to set up meetings with people (face to face communication is always the best!). The other voice inside me is telling me to go and live in the countryside where it is nice and quiet and it is fertile ground for my own creative thoughts.

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Randy Pausch. Knowledge Asset

Talk about people who give meaning to the phrase ‘larger than life.’ Randy Pausch deserves this title. Okay, given that I’m a tad over a year late but, I’ve just finished watching his ‘final lecture’ in the ‘final lecture’ series at Carnegie Mellon. The video is linked to his homepage:

http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/

Noted that in his lecture he gives thanks to his mentors, heroes, family, friends, inspirations and most notably his students. I agree and think we’d be nobody without the people who touch us from all sides of our lives.

An excellent asset of knowledge that not just Carnegie Mellon will miss, but I’m sure the whole world will.

His daily update pages, while somewhat surreal, are still up on the site too:

http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/news/index.htm

Maybe he rest in peace, and his work and legacy be continued through his students and protégés.

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