Month: March 2010

Caffe Business Observations

I’ve spent this afternoon working in a Caffe and it’s been an incredibly interesting experiment in people observations.

PisaMy seat is in the corner of the room so I can see most of what is going on and I’ve been here for a couple of hours so far.

It’s a weekday in one of the UK’s larger cities and it has been busy in here all afternoon. There was a slight lull about 14:00 but other than that every table has had someone sitting at it.

Of the 13 tables I can currently see, four of them are occupied by single people (mine included). Only one of these people is doing anything “social”, everyone else is typing on a keyboard or writing in a report, or something similar. At least four other tables are occupied by groups of people having business meetings; some of them more overt than others.

The first thing I notice about this working environment is how insecure it is.

I know something about this city and something that is going to happen here that is all “hush hush” as the advertising executive said to the sales person he was dealing with. I also know how much it costs to advertise in the sales person’s magazine.

I know when the two people in the table opposite are next going to meet and where.

I haven’t had to do anything special to gain this information, I’ve just sat here and overheard.

The other thing I’ve noticed is how essential the mobile business device has become.

I’m the only person using a fully fledged laptop, everyone else is making arrangements and taking notes on either an iPhone or a BlackBerry. Contacts are being exchange, meeting arranged, even sales figures discussed, all on the small screen.

Another observation is how attentive people are.

I attend lots of business meetings where people look as if they would rather be sat on the toilet. That’s not the case for most of these meetings, people are talking, interacting, negotiating, illustrating, gesticulating even.  They are engaged in their business. It could be that the type of people who come to such a place are the type of people who are naturally engaged, but I suspect it’s more likely that the atmosphere in here is more conducive to debate and discussion.

The final observations is that I haven’t seen a single tie all afternoon.

All of the business is taking place in casual dress, some smarter than others.

The need for exposure

You can find me on twitter, facebook, external blogs, internal blogs, search engines, commenting on other people’s blogs and posts. I’m on linkedin, delicious, and flickr.

Why?

The Road to InverarayI update my status via twitter, and let it update facebook, and linkedin.

Why?

Well as an information addict, one of the reasons is exposure. I want people to know that I know something.

In my last post I talked about the quest for useful information and how it wasn’t enough just to have information, the information had to be useful to someone. By extending the number of people who know that I know something I broaden my net of usefulness.

The joy of getting responses is very powerful.

If I post something and someone responds then I’ve been useful to them. if I post a comment and someone follows on, then I’ve been useful.

So here I am, doing it again, exposing something to see if it’s useful to someone and hoping for a response.

All addiction has an element of risk and reward to it. If I risk something I may, or may not, get the reward. If I gamble then I risk some money on the hope that occasionally I might get a reward. If I reveal some information I might get a rewarding response, but it’s a gamble. If I look at my email I may or may not be rewarded with an email.

I’ve written in a bit more detail on this before using the term Infomania.

I’m currently trying a new experiment to reduce the impacts of these feelings. I’ve set up the auto on/off feature on my Blackberry and have taken to leaving it at home if I go out in an evening. On the first few occasions I had the Blackberry twitch, wanting to check whether I had anything to check, but these are steadily reducing as I train my brain to realise that there are no rewards available.

As I look around I see many people experiencing what I’m experiencing, but not realising that it’s an issue. One of the reasons I’m writing is to see whether my experiences resonate with anyone else, so I hope it’s helping. There is a danger in doing this though, and that is that I just end up feeding the addiction that I am seeking to understand. It’s a journey that I’m heading on.

Meeting Efficiency: Oh how true

I hate to think how many meetings I have sat in that have basically been people catching up on email with the odd nod to the presenter.

We have a presentations style at work just for this occurrence – it’s the non-stop meeting style. We present at breakneck speed without any stops and without any time for questions. At the end we say “so is that agreed then?” and in many instances the answer from the non-listening participants is “yes”.

Blessings #148 – Reading the Ancient Stories

I’m quite an avid reader and normally have something in my hands to read, even if it’s just my BlackBerry. One of the things that I try to do is to make reading the Bible a regular activity in my life.

SunsetThe Bible is still hugely relevant to today’s society. Amongst all of the words and events described, those of Jesus stand out as shining lights.

Over the last 60 days, or so, I’ve been re-reading the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each day as I’ve read I’ve tried to take time to think about what it means – to wrestle with the profound.

In our busy frantic world it’s not always easy to focus our lives on the important things. So rather than try to take in all of the passage that I’ve read, I’ve taken to writing down a single short verse from the text and thinking about that.
Taking just a small morsel gave me something to focus on and I’ve really enjoyed it.

The word “profound” is an over-used word, I find, so it doesn’t really give across the true meaning to describe the words of Jesus as profound, but profound is the best word that I could think of.

Profound:
1.penetrating or entering deeply into subjects of thought or knowledge; having deep insight or understanding.
2.originating in or penetrating to the depths of one’s being.
3.being or going far beneath what is superficial, external, or obvious.
4.of deep meaning; of great and broadly inclusive significance.
5.pervasive or intense; thorough; complete.
6.extending, situated, or originating far down, or far beneath the surface.
7.low.
8.deep.

Through the simplest of parables Jesus strikes through our day-to-day worries and shows us the depths of God’s love and compassion; he cuts away at our pride and demonstrates our utter reliance upon God’s grace towards us; he takes our gaze beyond the hear and now and shows us the source of our hope.

“Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me! I’ve found my lost sheep!’ Count on it—there’s more joy in heaven over one sinner’s rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.

Luke 15

Jesus questioned provides laser sharp answers that resolve the core question, there’s no messing about with the peripheral issues. Why answer the insignificant when there’s a real deep felt question to answer. But he wasn’t beyond using his answers to demonstrate the utter foolishness of someone’s position.

That’s when the Pharisees plotted a way to trap him into saying something damaging. They sent their disciples, with a few of Herod’s followers mixed in, to ask, “Teacher, we know you have integrity, teach the way of God accurately, are indifferent to popular opinion, and don’t pander to your students. So tell us honestly: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

Jesus knew they were up to no good. He said, “Why are you playing these games with me? Why are you trying to trap me? Do you have a coin? Let me see it.” They handed him a silver piece.

“This engraving—who does it look like? And whose name is on it?”

They said, “Caesar.”

“Then give Caesar what is his, and give God what is his.”

The Pharisees were speechless. They went off shaking their heads.

Mathew 22

Through his actions he demonstrates a way of life that I find so counter-cultural that it challenges my actions and my attitudes. Penetrating to the depths of one’s being.

I find that if I get to far removed from these ancient stories I start to wander and to let confusion come in. The words and actions of Jesus break through all of that and demonstrate to me true value and eternal worth.

The quest for useful Information

The only information of any real value is the information that is useful. The challenge is knowing what information is useful.

Castle CragMy uncle tells a story of a time in his life when he decided that he wanted to extend his vocabulary.

He decided that the best way of doing this was to pick a new word from the dictionary and to put it into use for a week and then to pick another one.

The problem was that before long he was using words that no-one else understood. There’s little point in knowing words that other people don’t understand – it defeats the whole purpose of the word, which is to communicate something.

He eventually gave up his challenge.

Having information and not being able to use it is a waste of time to the information addict, but so is knowing what everyone else knows. The quest is to find information on the edge of other people’s knowledge so that it is useful.

Like doing a jigsaw puzzle, the thrill isn’t in the pieces, it’s in putting the pieces together, and you only do that one piece at a time. But to push the analogy to destruction; the challenge is knowing what pieces other people have in place because the ultimate thrill is in putting your piece into someone else’s jigsaw.

The tools of the information addict

There are a few tools that are crucial to the working of the information addict.

In order to understand the information addict you first need to realise that information research and pursuit isn’t some kind of aimless pastime, it’s a very serious business. There is a purpose to all of this activity and that is to find really useful information and in so doing to gain insights and knowledge that others probably haven’t seen. But the real join is in the hunt.

PisaYou might think that Google was the main tool for the information addict, but it isn’t one of the primary tools. it’s a good secondary tool for finding further information on a given topic. But it’s not a primary tool because it required a question and this information addict doesn’t normally know what the question is before he gets started. The really useful tools are the ones that provoke a question that might lead to a new discovery.

The really useful tools are those tools that provide information without being asked a question, while still prompting a question.

For me these tools fall into two discrete areas:

  • Statistics
  • Feeds

There are so many statistics around that there is always something new to be gained from them. The statistics on this blog are a case-in-point. These statistics serve two purposes. They allow me to gain insights that I know are unique to me; there’s only me with access to them. These statistics also allow me to branch out into all sorts of other discoveries. “Why is that blog popular?”, “Why do I get visitors from…"?”. I have access to all sorts of statistics, and they provide all manner of stimulus.

Feeds are different. Feeds provide a constant stream of provocation; they are streams of information. Blogs, facebook, linkedin, twitter all provide a constant flow of things that may, or may not, be interesting. The “may not” is important, if the information was always 100% relevant there wouldn’t be any joy in the hunt. Addiction always has some element of “pursuit” to it, even if the result, once caught, isn’t worth bothering with.

Google, and other search methods support these two information provoking methods by allowing a chase to continue. It often doesn’t even matter where the chase is taking you, it’s the chase that is the important and the addictive part.

Confessions of an Information Addict

"My name is Graham and I’m addicted to information."

There I’ve admitted it, and as they say admission is the first step in the recovery process.

Silverdale and Morecombe BayA little while ago I wrote a blog making a joke of how I could waste a while day doing absolutely nothing at all. There’s another saying: "many a true word said in jest" and, as you’ve guessed, there is a good sized dollop of truth in that post.

I could, if I allowed myself, waste hours scanning for information, feeding on it, searching it out, getting to the end of a chase.

I don’t think I’m alone in this issue, so I thought I would share some of my journey and why I’ve got to the point where I call it an addiction.

This morning was a wonderful example of the issues that I face. Today I had two presentations that needed to be completed for sessions later in the week. I knew how long they would take, and what needed to be done. Did I sit down and get on with it – did I heck – I fed my habit, scanning blogs and emails and enjoying a trip down a few information rabbit holes. I did eventually get the presentation sorted, but just in time, and with just about enough effort.

But is addiction too strong a word for it, aren’t I just doing my job. Well I  also know a good deal about addiction. One of the things that I do outside of work is to help with a group that supports people in need, some of them struggling with addiction. There are a lot of parallels, but I’ll leave that for another time.

I’ve been looking for a new series for a while now; sometimes the obvious answer is the one directly in-front of you.

Blessings #147 – Pictures of the Past

In our loft there are several banana boxes that are full of photograph albums and piles of loose photographs. They’re in banana boxes because they’re the boxes we used to package our belongings when we moved into our current house.

Silverdale and Morecombe BayThere are parts of our life that are structured and well organised, but the photographs isn’t one of them.

The other day we wanted some pictures for a purpose that I’ll probably reveal at a later date so I took the boxes down from the loft.

Sue and I then spent an evening flicking our way through the pictures.

Photographs are a capture of a time, a place and a memory.

“A good snapshot stops a moment from running away.”
Eudora Welty

Some of these photos are well constructed and thoughtfully framed images, but many of them are simple snapshots of the family in various guises.

Many of these photos remind us that our children used to be babies, that they became toddlers, started primary school and moved onto secondary school.

Easdale TarnIn some of these pictures I am reminded that I used to have a full head of hair and a trimmer waistline.

Numerous images remind us of holidays in England, Scotland, France and America; warm places and not so warm. They remind us of sandy beaches and palm trees; waterfalls and forests; cottages, caravans and even canal boats.

The camera can photograph thought.
Dirk Bogarde

There are pictures that remind us of the clothes we used to wear, some of them are remembered with fondness, others now look like a fashion disaster.

There are memories of times when there were only the two of us, a time with thee and then four.

A photograph is memory in the raw.
Carrie Latet

Some of the images we didn’t remember, some of the people we couldn’t name.

There were pictures of people who we no longer see, and a few who are no longer alive.

Tuscany 2009As we flicked our way through the multitude of images we ride the roller-coaster of emotions as we journeyed through weddings, birthdays, days out, family gatherings, holidays, activities, first days at school, anniversaries and christenings. A rich set of blessings.

Sometimes we can get so encased in the now and so focussed on the things that surround our now. But as we looked through those pictures it wasn’t the “things” that we looked at it was the people that we were drawn to. We looked at the babies and the young children and remembered the times that we had spent together, times that pass all to quickly.

The blessing of the pictures is that they took us out of our now and caused us to remember.

(I tend not to put pictures of the family on this blog, for various reasons, but each of the images I do post is a memory of a time and a place, but most importantly of the people)

Dear Technology Luddite, why do you work here?

Lud-dite – noun

Definition:

a member of any of various bands of workers in England (1811–16) organized to destroy manufacturing machinery, under the belief that its use diminished employment.

Silverdale ViewI work for a technology company. We do all sorts of non-technology things like process reengineering, project management and business change, but fundamentally we are a technology company.

At our core we believe that technology can, and does, make a difference. And yet, we also have our fair share of luddites.

I’m not talking here about the sceptic who doesn’t see any value in the latest innovation; I’m talking about the person who fundamentally disagrees with the premise that technology can make a difference.

I have to profess that this is something I don’t understand. Why would you want to work for an organisation that delivers a product that you don’t believe in?

When I visit customers I find the same thing; people who are working within the IT organisation who don’t believe that they are making a difference to their business customers.

Why would anyone choose to work in an organisation, or within a position where you are responsible for something that you hate?

I’m not expecting any answers, I’m just intrigued.