Drumming Up Business – When the Devils in the Detail
I’ve played the drums since a teenager. It was a saviour for me and opened my mind to so many great aspects of creativity, collaboration and people passion. I still play today as part of my overall physical and mental health routine. Nothing quite like making a noise and holding a beat to a sweat!
I stumbled across this article and read it with great enthusiasm as you’d imagine.
The Neuroscience of Drumming: Researchers Discover the Secrets of Drumming & The Human Brain
It got me thinking about how I have used my experiences in drumming, patterns, structures and creativity to overcome challenges personally and professionally. How I go about organising competing tasks or managing tight deadlines. A solid backbeat and ability to recall structures and patterns managing the interruptions and distraction of obstacles, but always back to the beat.
I love the challenge of making things better for all. Sometimes competing and conflicting but that is what makes life interesting at the best and worst of times. It can be a scary place but exhilarating. Like an intricate beat with a dynamic drum fill at the apex of the song with a complex arrangement, and getting the pace and timing just right feels so rewarding. Reading the article enlighten me to this.
Now the devil is the detail – tackle that full on and get organised – get intimate knowledge of it – as that is where we find clarity and the pace of the beat. Drumming and my passion for precision, to hear something in different ways and work the pattern (beat) differently but with an interesting rhythm has always been where I push myself.
Unbeknown to me I have been applying my drummers perspective to so many challenges in my business career without understanding why I take the approach I do. Keep an open mind, study the detail, find the beat, play the song, not the drums.
Where do you draw your skills to fight the devil that is the detail? What other aspects of your life has subconsciously crept into your professional habits?
Many thanks to openculture and Josh Jones | Permalink | for the neuroscience of drumming blog and to General Electric for the fab video on YouTube.
My Walk on the Wild Side
We all strive to do the very best we can to develop deep capability in our chosen professions. We also sometimes have to dig deep to keep the motivation and belief that our contribution is valued and our legacy provides long term sustainable contribution to our chosen discipline.
We are also told to tell stories as part of any engagement; selling, describing, explaining . . . .. consulting!
I recently had the good fortune to work with someone who in spite of his age and in spite of circumstance (business model) still shows real joy and fun in what he does. He was able to deliver wisdom, advice and stories of sheer joy of his work and accomplishments.
A confession. I was so chuffed to be asked to do this and “we” had absolutely no rehearsal prior and never played together. It was the first time I used that kit in about 5 years! But it was music to my ears.
Listen to him tell stories. Song starts about 5.50 in. Enjoy my walk on the wild side!
But what did this teach me? A team of professionals (in this instance semi-pro in my case) that all understood the part they played in the execution; their role, their responsibility, their contribution and collaboration and support all danced (played) to the same tune and pulled off an immediate and fun accomplishment. At no point did any of us doubt that the other wouldn’t do their job, deliver their part to time and beat and be there for the other.
Why isn’t work more like this more of the time? Why is it that we develop skills that are then compromised by “process” or “policies” or worse – politics and power play! Turning out a horrible tune!
If you don’t know who Herbie Flowers is check out this link http://www.herbieflowers.com/ and just think of Lou Reed Walk on the Wild Side and David Bowie Space Oddity, to name a few . . .
Herbie’s stories made me reflect on how I view my career. My contribution, my legacy and what it is that keeps me motivated irrespective of the challenges and demands that our modern work cadence places upon us. Is it creating beautiful music or wonderful stories!
So I hope you enjoy this and many thanks to Nik for providing me the opportunity to listen, learn and revisit my drumming skills for such an iconic and wonderful piece of music under the instruction of a one of the world’s greatest bass player ever. Thanks Herbie.
Gee Businesses Make It Tough To Change – Change the Tune!
The thing is everyone in the room is a solutions architect. But not one a pop star! There’s tension and their pain and emotional investment of a life time career is exposed and raw. There is great endeavours and knowledge experts that would score highly in Master Mind for their chosen subject, and a fascinating array of professional office politicking. But not one harmonious tune.
My role gives me great insight into many situations, sectors and cultures where change and design clash constantly and where ownership and authority dance to the tune of a different song to that which they think is playing. They need to change tune but more on that later.
I see this clash more and more as enterprises make that move from old platform to Cloud and the realisation that standardisation demands a new song that only a shared platform can sing.
In the room they are all looking for a solution; they are all trapped in a decision of the past and now embroiled in the challenge of change. What often astounds me are the players in the room, the leadership of risk taking and the real issue; “our business model is no longer fit for purpose and our operating practice broken!”
Large amounts of operational expense are maintained in maintaining the modus operandi. Large capital expense is questioned and fought for to establish “betterment” against the backdrop of legacy. This is modern enterprise business in a world of unpredictable change and overpowering competition of new business models of “subscription”.
The intent of all in the room is to do the right thing. The opinion of what is “right” is the challenge of culture, belief, experience and legacy at odds with each other.
When I am sitting in the room and layer after layer of conversation, deviation and ultimate indecision fills the air with noise and awkward body language, indifference, and/or dogma I can’t help having the tune “Complicated” pop into my head. You’re singing the chorus now aren’t you?
Chill out, what you yellin’ for?, Lay back, it’s all been done before , And if you could only let it be, You will see . . . .
I want these companies to go back to the beginning and try to find the true reason why the company and its product became. What drove it to success? Where is the value? What is the differentiator? Cling on to these and then ask:
Why do you have to go and make things so complicated?
I see the way you’re acting like you’re somebody else
Gets me frustrated
You fall and you crawl and you break
And you take what you get and you turn it into honesty
You promised me I’m never gonna find you fake it
No no no
If you fancy a sing alone try this!
Must thank Avril Lavigne fo adding to my corporate change wisdom and therophy.
Talking ‘Bout My Generation – Too Busy Posting to Blog – Time and Content Social Media Trash
It’s been awhile since I have written and published a blog. I’m writing all the time, in my mind, at work and in my personal life and some pretty interesting stuff may I add. With the best endeavors time beats me every time in pursuing my blogging activities. Now this isn’t an excuse as I haven’t made a commitment to any one (except myself) and frankly, my blogs are not number 1 in the blog parade! Nevertheless I punish myself in my lack of whatever that appears to trip me up. Yes time . . . .
That said I guess micro blogging, posts and comments go some way to satisfying “I have a voice” therapy even though no one may want to listen. Every time we make a comment in the Social Media sphere we are exercising our need to express and be heard.
This image is striking and adds to the plethora of statistics coming out of every “big data” sales pitch and Internet innovation post. And clearly it shows that the world has developed time to have a voice as part of the natural day-to-day order of life.
I often say “You can always make money but you can never make time”. Time is money, time makes money and various permutations of time over money and money over time and on and on. But it’s not all about money is it? It is all about time and what we value in that moment of “time”.
My last blog published in February 2015 (clearly I do not have enough time) is inspired by the need to reinvent the local library as a more 21st Century offering for this internet generation. That way I guess the act of posting aligns to a very social and open collaboration. Since then a number of articles, experiences and events have amused, confused, angered, and inspired me but clearly not enough to urge me to make time to blog. Why is that?
Is it that access to so many feeds, posts and information sources has reached saturation that the whole experience and value is becoming like wall paper? Is it that when it comes down to it you need significant determination, discipline I and creativity to maintain a frequent blog? Or is it that you need time!
For a generation it is time and tools. The tools being the omnipresent smartphone and all the Apps that captures your life in step by step posts, pixelated and videoed on every exciting memory that will hold an audience forever, and just look at the “Likes” and comments! I mean who has time to live these events as we’re so busy capturing them to share.
It will be interesting to see in 10-15 years time if the % demographic shown in this chart reflects the the survival rate of some of these platforms through the transitions of generations. What strikes me is the 25 to 34 demographic dominance of nearly all of these. So say you’re the lucky one who invents a new Social Media platforms and takes it all the way to IPO and WOW! The success if predicated on the usage of a demographic that is constantly changing it stance from generation to generation and suggests no real longevity based upon the investment you have made. Would you buy stock? Will the next 25-34s really be so drawn to Social Media? And will the technology still be valid (that’s another blog)?
This century has seen a significant change in how we live, work, communicate, socialize and behave. We can no longer live in a time bubble, safe in our local understandings and ignoring the wider world. The change in technology and the perceived benefits that it brings demonstrates that events all over the world can directly impact our daily lives through the connections that information technology has empowered through Social Media. It suggests that we have a voice and want to be heard. It suggests that this is forming part of our daily habits and part of the ritual of living.
We have a voice and want to be heard and will use anything that empowers us to do so. Or “you can post all you want to but you can’t always have something worthwhile to say”.
Requirements to Design or “just get me there soonest” – SaaS Rapid Implementation Methodology
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There are many tried and tested implementation methodologies and countless variations on a theme. Common practice is picking and choosing the bits that work best for a given target environment. Hybrid, aligned, adapted, call it what you will. The bottom line is we learn from every implementation and hopefully adapt. Or do we?
Last century expectations on delivery were well matured and mostly agreed with business stakeholders. The process that were required to deliver were mostly understood together with the expectation, speed to deploy, timeline and project management process.
Generally the sense of rapid and/or dare I say “agility” was firmly grounded or caged within the waterfall process that drove delivery in the main back then. You know how it went; Requirements definition, functional design, build, test, launch etc . . . . so last century!
Cloud computing comes along. Software as a Service explodes. The sales proposition drive speeds and agility of deployment as a key value prop and RoI. Remember Salesforce.com “Click not Code”! The rush to cultivate a successful implementation methodology to support this new paradigm and business expectation continues to march on. But that said practices of yesteryear are definitely off the menu this century.
Now the nature of Software as a Service (SaaS) demands a healthy and growing relationship with the end user to maintain renewing subscription. This is the very foundation of the business model. Execution of a SaaS project should start with that relationship fully in mind. Basing a project upon ridged and constrained scope and deliverable is a conflicting and contradictory engagement model for SaaS (see my earlier post, a subject dear to my heart Statement of Outcome). The need for a SaaS Rapid implementation methodology is vital.
So where is this going? In my experience running a Requirement Definition and Design stage is now so tightly coupled that defining requirements as a blue-sky, white-sheet, blank piece of paper process is extremely dangerous to the delivery of a SaaS solution. Take the core principles of multi-tenancy SaaS and take any SaaS solutions; “the constraint is in the SaaS solution delivery model and business complexity challenges whilst working within this which, pushes projects back into classic development mode?”
A SaaS solution needs a methodology that embraces it delivery model, speaks clearly to rapid implementation and defines business requirements within it core product capability as a win/win to renewals.
In addition, the SaaS product model must exhibit sufficient functionality for complex business requirements for its space. The SaaS Implementation Methodology therefore must speak to a requirements definition that aligns directly with the design of the SaaS product.
Merge the Requirements Definition and the Solution Design stage to address the SaaS delivery expectation model as a SaaS Rapid Methodology and align product capability road-map to the level of customisation based on the implementation feedback at the front line. The subscription economy demands it in the SaaS application space.
Doing the “right thing” by mixing your drinks or how not to wet your self
It was always going to be a challenging project. The end users had the attention span of a gnat. The delivery was to change their way of working significantly. We knew we were looking at an uphill battle of acceptance, agreement and adoption. But it was a transformational project and had benefits beyond the front line use (CRM).
My key sponsor knew how to play this landscape and knew how to navigate the culture and habitat of the business. As such he drove an extremely hard line on the project team and maintained a level of focus and engagement that ensured that we did the “right things”, not always “did things right”.
As the project manager this approach often conflicted with the fundamental way minds work in an engineering project discipline. It clearly did not sit well with the project team. “Where is the best practice?” rang in each team meeting, “this doesn’t work with the deliver dependencies in the plan!” Somehow we needed to find common ground and understanding with the business and agreed demarcation of decision making and domain respect.
I was accountable for the delivery of the solution. It had to meet the business needs but also needed to be sustainable and workable across the wider solutions and process platforms. It also must protect the long term ROI by the manner in which we engineered the solutions for several international areas of the business.
Some environments can tolerated the “do the right thing” v’s “doing things right” approach and other will push back. The birth of Agile PM as an example has been bastardised from it pure efficiency gains into a delivery expectation paradigm which is wrong, wrong, wrong. It places business, projects and outcomes at risk by setting expectation that do not align to a design and puts avoidable pressure on all sides of the project. Some things we build need foundations; it isn’t just painting and decorating!
However, in this instance my sponsor had the positioning bang on and influenced the way I priorities and multitasked the project into what would “curry” favour with key stakeholders, answers their concerns and keep the project from by flushed down the loo! The key was to make an early deliverable to the end user communities and make an immediate and important win whilst building solid reputation and greater tolerance of the project for doing thing right going forward.
I must confess, at the beginning of this journey this approach created some degree of challenge for me and great anxiety for the team. It went against all my experience and best practice as a PM. I was tasked with managing a delivery whilst my sponsor was tasked with delivering an outcome. I have since come to realise that these in essence are one and the same.
So over too many drinks one night this miss-alignment resulted in a heated debate (constructive and open) between us. My 
sponsor resolved it by setting me a test. This proved his point and influenced how I would assess delivery forevermore.
“You have been out all night drinking copious amounts of beer. You’re hungry and in desperate need of a toilet. You grab a microwave curry on the way back to your flat. Keys in the door into the hallway and you see that you have some messages on your answerphone (those were the days). So you’re hungry, desperate for the toilet and there are messages waiting for you. What do you do first?”
I’ll leave you to work out what is the correct answer and please let me know by leaving your comment below,
Suffice to say this approach has continued to influence my thoughts and approach in engagements and project management. Where there is a clear need for “quick wins” that conflicts with “best practice” it is important to find a way forward that allows leveraging greater stakeholder tolerance of the wider delivery and a more pragmatic direct focus on doing the “right things” by the team in order to do things right.
As a leader of the project team my task is to gain buy-in from all parties to identifying why a “doing the right thing” by your business stakeholders is the first deliver that any project needs to make.
To Blog or to Jerry McGuire?
Now you won’t get the girl and this won’t “show you the money”. But for me it is the starting point of acting on the impulse to Blog! I have to confess I like the film. It speaks to me on many levels; my romantic inner sense of crusading, challenge the norm, conflict of conforming and doing the right thing. That aside Magic Bus is a great Who track. That definitely speaks to the drummer in me. In fact the Who Live at Leads must be one of my favourite albums.
So when we blog do we pour open to the world our wider and/or deeper thoughts and should we give consideration to consequence, personal and/or professional, or is it just a yearning to be out there and be heard?
I enjoy reading blogs when I get the chance. Always busy, always more to do. I believe it is a crucial part of life’s learning in this modem digital and social media age and forms part of a great deal of self-therapy and confirmation in our diverse and ever changing society. Let alone a truly magnificent information gold mine as a professional blog- opedia.
For me my venture into this space is scary and also renewing. Yes we all have things to say and yes I want to be understood and contribute to the greater good of self-realisation. But what I write about and how I say it and the values I put out in the blogosphere may fundamentally conflict with my circumstance and current position. “Do as I say don’t do as I do” type scenario.
Will my statements resonate as intended from a black and white browser based delivery into the emotion, passion, belief and empathy that is intended by this blogging?
I guess life’s lesson tells you to follow your instincts and better to live on your feet than die on your knees. So give me the bag with the gold fish. Let me take on the challenging clients and let me bring these together to get the girl and show me the money.
I hope that by following my blog and commenting on this you the reader will help unravel the mystery of being out there and making a stand for doing thing differently. As the film shows, doing things the same way gets the same result. Doing things differently however. . . . Enjoy!
What Do You Do? Ask the Robot.
Having a portfolio career and an amassed array of skills, experiences through a range of roles and industries, sitting on both sides of the desk and working with people of all ranges of power and persuasion can make for a challenge to laser focus on any particular item that promotes a value or resonates with a particular job description.
It is said that variety is the spice of life. I constantly see, in today’s world of disruptive commerce, shouts for innovative and dynamic entrepreneurial people. Employers are demanding the candidate to exhibit endless flexibility, continuous learning spirit, leadership (which comes from a variety of real-world experiences) and passion above and beyond the ends of the universe. Job posts full of adventurous “go-get-em” and WOW description asking for an all-rounder with specific specialisations!
Now its great to fire up candidates imagination, and entice them to want to rise to the challenge and make a difference. We all aspire to contribute and show value. Organisations want to attract the best candidates and have the best talent available to them. That is utterly right and worth the pursuit of lengthy and diligent recruitment.
However, too often in the background is an automated candidate vetting process. This word search and pattern match process leads to exclusion of the very characteristics and experiences the candidate has, and so often desired by the hiring organisation. Adding value to the role and organisation.
Maybe AI and Machine Learning will overcome this challenge with improved fine-tuning and deeper profiling. Just maybe the robots will be able to see through the pile of noise and applications to the very gem an employer requires.
The online world offers so many data points with a clear connection to leverage the intelligent mass evaluation through automation of applications and fit for the role profiles. The danger is it will miss the person behind the logic and the personality that strikes at the very heart of what can make a company great; it’s people, not its robots.
I feel challenged by the conundrum. Putting myself in a box and meeting word pattern criteria to express who I am and what I can add. I struggle with this, as my core principle and journey through life has never been one of a closed mind or single threaded passion but an excitement to learning through new experience, the challenge of the unknown and the thrill of it all. The robots guard the gates to constructive and engaged exploration I fear.
How disciplined should one be in updating their CV and professional profiles? When promoted or role change within their existing organisation? But how often do you really need to? What is the catalyst for this? Clearly the opportunity to seek new employment, or change of role within your current organisation. Now how do you relate your content to the robots?
I took time out to read the recommendations I have gratefully received on Linkedin (me on Linkedin). I wouldn’t say I have a vast number of them (17) but tracking the period of time from the first to the latest gave me food for thought as to “what is it that I’m really good at, but don’t recognise?”, “what is the consistent comment that resonates across these?” and “how do I feel this has changed over time?”
Your skills should change and be influenced by new experiences; good, bad and ugly. But always to the benefit of your growth and learning. The relevance of any comments or observations overtime may appear to become less relevant as a consequence. They all show the journey from what you used to do, to what you can do, and now what you want to do.
What’s more, would the Robots be able to interpret these in context? And does a leopard change its spots or is it that the spots just get bigger?
Clearly, I had a good run through 2010/11 and when I think about what was occurring in my professional life at the time and the market it was driven by the need to reinvent my proposition and value to find a new role to challenge me. Digging deeper into the content of the recommendations and out of the 600 words used the top 10 words were:
With that in mind, the following is the most used (para) phrases concerning activity (not a recommendation): time and on budget and attention to detail.
So how would you use this to align your CV to what you are successfully capable of achieving as value and assuredness for your next employer? Would the robots then box you into? Computer Says No! When you really are looking to reach upward to the next level of your career.
I used http://www.writewords.org.uk/word_count.asp to analyse the text in my recommendation and manipulated these as lists in Excel to contextualise them for this exercise. The full distribution of useful words is depicted below.
Was this a useful exercise? I found it helped confirm what I know I am good at. It gave me food for thought as to what I possibly really want to do, but isn’t being recognised! And also suggested that it is too easy to fall into the trap of the easy option when really to feel alive you want more.
I sincerely thank all my colleagues (past and present), business associates and acquaintances that provided a recommendation.
I’d be interested to hear how this Linkedin Recommendation Analysis process worked out for you. And to all those seeking new employment, good luck in your endeavours.
Over Engineered – Cost of Bells, Don’t Need Whistles
I have been busy exploring the varied and wonderful world of legacy solutions and modernisation compatibility. My role has been listening, understanding and exploring business critical requirements and looking for solutions and scope from which to devise a way forward for transformation and improved efficient business practices. All at a cost! Are you willing to pay? Can you afford not to? Do you actual know what you want, what you need?
Now I really feel for the teams who after years of blood, sweat and tears and loyalty to an organisation have had to come to terms with seeing their “labour of love” criticised, or analysed as to what the future shouldn’t be like. I hear statements like “we want to simplify”, “this is far too complex and can’t adapt”, “we over engineered this” . . . .
Having to make business wheels turn under business as usual pressures, the constant demand of changes and having to lovingly safeguarded doing business using is a champions job and no small feat! However too often I am seeing this endeavour become a thankless task when modernisation comes into play. I’ve been here!
We should thank these teams for the hours of devotion as it is their past innovation, solution engineering and practices that has helped a whole software consulting industry learn what, why and the many “how” that helped develop new solutions, technologies and paradigms (Cloud/SaaS).
Decisions are made for the circumstance of the day. Solutions built to support the needs of that era weren’t meant to last a life time and be infinitely flexible and accommodating. At some point they will just not be able to cut the mustard any more. They will be no longer fit for purpose. The world matched on . . .
Business moves on, commerce and industry devise new needs and opportunities, models and processes develop, opportunities demand new support models, and yet sometime the infrastructure that is built to support the legacy business model is forced under pressure to perform above and beyond in the new world model!
I recall in another life where the development of the solution had to address the most bizarre requirements at the edge of every possible combination of circumstance and possibilities. This is often termed “future proofing”. Tell me who has the crystal ball and have really ever seen “that” coming”?
This leads to the classic costly over engineering and the long haul cost of ownership and maintenance change, fix and repair cycles, let alone integration, scaling and portability challenges.
I came across this coffee machine at a wonderful facilities provided by a very well established consultancy. It caught my attention in relation to this topic over engineering, bells and whistle and then the cost of ownership and maintenances. It got me thinking while waiting for my coffee. Will it ever be able to make a good cup of tea? Was it ever meant to?
Too many moving part, accommodating people interaction experience verse their responsibility to (place the cup under the tap head), compensating for people effort and generally build complexity for more vulnerability and cost of ownership. How many times have you designed a solution around people capability over what would work simplest?
Easier said than done when there is more than one engineer having fun!
Not Liking Professional Social Media
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It’s was a tough hard Saturday, enjoyable and painful, I ache, but good. That week was hectic and the demand relentless. I made good progress but more to do. As tough and demanding the weeks work had been that Saturday gardening core really wore me out. Nothing wrong with hard work!
I enjoyed every physical, therapeutic and deep thinking moment of it. And at the end of the day, sun setting, grass cut, patio jet washed and all things looking where they should be, I achieve a sense of “in control” which sometimes is difficult to realise in a work environment, not to mention home life.
With a glass of red, steak on the BBQ I had a chance to catch up on some Social Media on the iPad, the standard past-time activity in this day and age.
I do most Social Media places to a greater or lesser extent. Wish I had m
ore time on them especially LinkedIn and Twitter. Yah, yah I am on Facebook but that is more a family and friends sort of thing, content fleeting, often assuming and sometimes heartfelt. Funny assuming videos and pictures of pets – yawn – but yes share away, you don’t have log in!
But Facebook isn’t the source for my curious mind to obtain professional views of the state of business practice and opportunity, which is always of interest. I turn to LinkedIn for professional business like content. I’m aware that this will be governed by who I am contented with, the nature for their business, my profession, and the path by which our network contention were established along with the typical profiling analytics to ensure push content is identified, advertising targeting maximised, and as a user I am fully informed. Got to keep the shareholders happy.
Some great articles were to be found and some great comments and news as to who now works where, who connected to whom and what’s going on etc . . . and of course the plethora of job adverts accompanied by the relentless product news. Yes!
All that stuff is cool. But what’s this? A give away “prize competition”, “happy Friday cupcake” picture, a “lol”, “omg”, a caption quiz, a maths conundrum, and on and on . . . . Not what I was looking for, not what I was expecting and now a jungle of stuff that I have to navigate through to find the real voices that I was so looking forward to.
I guess I’m guilty of a “like” or two on these types of “fun” posts, but it dawned on me, what the heck, I want to distinguish between my professional working social network and my more private fun network. I’ll buy the Time newspaper to be more fully informed and the Daily Mail for a joke. I have a choice based upon the publications editorial practice and positioning. On Social Media, self-governed editorial practice rules. This could become a problem!
Is it inevitable that all Social Networks will merge? Is it that our lives will be unable to distinguish between work, play and family time and zones? Broadsheets v’s Tabloids! The tracking of our likes, responses and posts are all part of your social media history and build a picture of us as a person, a professional, our values, interests, views, beliefs, likes and dislikes.
I do think for LinkedIn members as a starting point your profile and activity history is a
fundamental part of a business transaction worth, a professional currency. Linkedin should be professional fun yes, engaging and assuming content yes, but ultimately business related . . .
So we should “Like”, we should “Comment” and we should “Share”. But I worry as to where this is going. So should I be worried? Am I over reacting?
Help get me out of here I have my serious hat on!
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