You always choose your own lunch...

Boston Legal, Series 2, Episode 22

Denny Crane: ... What did you have for lunch today?
Alan Shore: Flounder. You?
Denny Crane: Steak sandwich, onion rings.
Alan Shore: Hmm
Denny Crane: Alan, you know, one thing you sometimes forget is: no matter how hard your day, no matter how tough your choices, how complex your ethical decisions - you always get to choose what you want for lunch.
Alan Shore: Daily, I am amazed at your inexhaustible ability to just live.
Denny Crane: It's either that or die.

Love it!

Greying of Technology

Have you noticed how the average age of the technology department is rising? I am witnessing the greying of Technology. This should concern every one of us. The new generation of precocious talent like graduates or guru trainees is no longer a common sight in the technology function and I feel sure that we, i.e. senior IT leadership are the cause. The jobs that those graduates or trainees would previously have had are now often being poached by India or Poland or South America. Our talent nurseries and kindergartens are dwindling because the jobs are now seen as low-value, blue-collar and exploitable. That’s not to say the talent isn’t there, it’s just we’re not fishing in the pool of plenty as often as we used to, I’ll give you an example:

I’m recruiting for application support professionals with 3-5 years of experience. Almost every CV comes from someone with a visa that says Highly Skilled Migrant, very few are local talent. I’m also recruiting junior positions where we want recent graduates. My HR department have been inundated and as a consequence the short-listing process is taking much longer because of the sheer number of CVs we’ve received.

So, it’s not that there is no-one wanting those graduate or trainee positions, we have just blocked off the well and believe we’ve found Evian instead. Very soon we're going to have to restart this process, possibly through more formal methods otherwise by the time you and I are looking to retire, there'll be no-one to replace us!

Triple i Conference

I've just been to the Triple i conference at Whittlebury Hall. Unlike the last conference I attended this one had a reasonable volume of attendees who weren't either speakers or suppliers. I had been asked to speak on Talent Management. Fortunately I was speaking just before lunch on the first day so I got it out of the way. Practice prevents p*ss poor performance and fortunately that was the case. Gary, my coach, came over on Saturday evening and we refined the script and then over the next day or so I practiced it a number of times. This paid off. I sailed through the presentation and garnered a number of compliments afterwards which is most gratifying and suitable payback for the effort put in. If anyone is interested in the script from the presentation, let me know and I'm happy to send it out.

The conference was sponsored by about 10 suppliers which meant you had to sit down and spend time with them. I thought it would be a complete waste of time, but at least 2 of the suppliers have products that might prove useful. There's no getting away from the suppliers because not only do you have pre-prescribed chats with them all at regular occasions, they also sponsor tables during mealtimes where each meal you find you've been moved to a different tables to give another set of suppliers an oppportunity to talk to you!

I met some very nice people though amoungst the delegates and certainly opportunities to expand my network. I shall be picking up on that over the next couple of days. I shall be very glad to spend more than a few days at work each week over the next month, I don't feel that I've been on-site enough with all the extra-curricular activities I've had going on, so I need to correct that fast.

Silly Interview Questions

Why do people insist on asking questions like "Tell me about few things that you find irritating at work?" during interviews? Particularly when recruiting at a senior level when the candidate's already expecting such a question and because of that, the answer provided won't provide a real answer just a prepared answer that provides no insight. Pointless all round.

I prefer to spend my time finding out how someone deals with various situations that are valid to the role I'm Interviewing for than ask them questions like this. What other questions are there that provide no value in interview:

"Tell me how your team would describe you?"
"Can you work under pressure?"
"What are your weaknesses?" / "What are your development areas?"
"Where do you see yourself in 5 years?"

Going Green

It's been a while, but then September has been highly productive and blogging has come way down the list of things that I've been doing, but there certainly seems to have been a green tinge.

At the beginning of the month I was a speaker at The Carbon Footprint Energy Efficient Summit laid on by London Business Conferences. I spoke about the difficulties of getting air-time and buy-in from a board otherwise distracted by an ever changing business model and where that buy-in didn't occur, resorting to sneaky-green tactics to gain attention by undertaking little changes that would show tangible returns that will grab the board's attention.

Then last night I was at a 451Group Eco Efficient IT round-table discussion. This was a meeting with a number of IT Directors and CTO's to talk about green technology. At the end of the meeting, we were given one of the electricity monitoring devices. I already have one of these and it's been sitting on my mantle piece for about a year now showing me how much electricity I'm using at home and I've had a return in my investment through a reduction in my family's electricity bill. At the meal last night I asked everyone there who already had one of these devices. 4 out of 20 people's hands went up. This was at a meal where everyone had a green agenda at work and was striving to save costs at work and yet they hadn't started to monitor things to drive down usage at home. I was surprised.

When a conference isn't a conference

On Thursday and Friday I attended a conference. During the sessions I'm guessing that there were about 40 people in the conference room. I did the sums; taking away the total of speakers and suppliers meant there were no more than a dozen at most left who were just there for the conference.

Does that make it a conference or a friendly chat between various like-minded people? I confess I was one of the speakers, but it was also a good use of my time because I learnt a number of new things that would have context and be useful back in the office.

My criteria for training courses, conferences, supplier days, whatever, is that if I learn one new thing then it's been worth it. Not only did I learn new stuff, but I gained experience in talking at conference something pretty new to me. Whilst I felt my talk went well, I realised there's no such thing as enough prep and my slides could have been better - particularly more visual. So, that's good for the next one in late September!

Hopeful Cyclist

This afternoon, I was walking down the road returning to the office approaching a T-junction when I heard a faint ting-a-ling of a cyclist's bell. I looked round, the cyclist was being cut up by a people-mover as it turned left. Does he really think that a bell is going to penetrate our sound-proofed, arm-chair cars? That's someone who's either very hopeful and optimistic or not that bothered about keeping out of trouble. Surely there's something better that cyclists can buy to replace the pathetic little bell that can warn drivers? One of those aerosol can horns would do, I think I'd gaffer tape it to the bars and use it almost constantly.

On the subject of getting the attention of drivers, before now I've wondered about attaching a sound system to my motorbike and play Ride of the Valkyries as I filter down the elevated section of the M4 just to be certain drivers know I'm coming. Apocalypse Now! anyone?!

England 4, South Africa 0 - Wow!

Well, that's a turn up. 4-0 up with one game to play and if we win that one, England will go 2nd in the one-day international table. I may have to eat my hat with KP, maybe he has the capability.

KP's inspirational and people focussed leadership is a lesson for all people leaders. Whereas Vaughan got his results as England cricket captain through well thought through tactics and cerebral decision making, KP's results are being obtained through the personal touch with individuals and leading from the front - it's a refreshing change.

Whereas Harmison has bowled himself back in to form - apparently more than 500 overs for Durham - it took KP to have a personal chat with him to bring him back in to the side after Harmison had retired from the one-day game.

The lesson is not to forget how important the personal moments are with all individuals within a team. To praise strengths and to encourage development.