The Good Life

End of the Wild: Shipwrecked in the Pacific Northwest

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 17:54:00 +0000

Over the winter I took the time to write my first novel - a lifelong dream that has finally come true! This is a story that has been brewing inside of me for a very long time, inspired by the sailing voyages I've taken with my family up and around Vancouver Island. I hope that I've been able to share with you some of the adventure, mystery, and beauty of this very wild and very special place - a place that few people have ever had the opportunity to fully experience. ----- Avoided by the Coast Salish tribes for generations, Hurst Island is one of the last remnants of untracked wilderness on the British Columbia coastal frontier. As their boat sinks, Amy and Ian find themselves stranded on this island, unaware of what they are about to face. A sailing adventure. A story of survival after losing everything. Dense and atmospheric. A feast for the senses. Rich in coastal history and legend, End of the Wild will lead you to question the nature of wilderness and what it can mean to the human soul. A memory of a distant and brutal past. A vision of a ruined future. When turning back is impossible and forging ahead means risking everything, where can you turn? ----- I hope you enjoy it!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CN8TKGR

Check Out My Family Adventure Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 22:06:00 +0000

I know I've been quiet for a while, ok a really long while, but I'd like you to check out another blog where my family and I have been quite active.

If you are interested in free range families, raising kids on the road (and on the water), living a nomadic life while working in the tech industry, or just want to see what we've been up to, check it out here: Free Range Family

It has sailing, adventure, a really cute dog, a VW Vanagon (complete with many break downs), at least one fire, travel through Europe, a crazy cooking show and more. I think you'll enjoy it.

See you over there!

Security Innovation Values

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 20:57:00 +0000

We recently completed our values exercise and Security Innovation and I'd like to share the results. These were also shared by our CEO Ed Adams in a corporate blog post.

Introduction

The following statements represent core Security Innovation values. These are the foundation on which we’ve built our success as a company, both in terms of delighted customers and happy long-term employees. We have an enviable track record of customer success, in which a vast majority of our business is repeat or word-of-mouth. We have an incredible record of employee satisfaction with turnover that is significantly lower than the average technology company or application security vendor. As the company grows we want to hold onto that success and maintain the SI feeling that we all love.In the sections below, External values are those that most directly affect our customers, how we interact with and provide value to our customers. The Internal values are those that most directly affect us as employees, how we interact with each other and maintain a high quality, professional environment and great work-life balance.

External

- Everyone has the right to secure software

- Everyone has the right to use a computer without fear

- We focus on the fix

- Development team education is a key means to achieving better security

- Everyone can create secure software

- Increased awareness of security risks and mitigations will result in a healthier software ecosystem

- 3rd party assessments of software can be used to keep development teams honest with themselves and their users

- We can add the most value when our customers see us as a trusted advisor to improve security long term

- We believe in measuring and holding ourselves accountable to customer satisfaction in our services and products

- We honor our customer’s expectations regarding ethics and good conduct

- We respect our customer’s right to privacy and do not share or publish sensitive information without consent

- We follow the best-practices that we recommend, especially when it involves transmission or storage of sensitive customer information

Internal

- We empower our employees to learn and develop their skills

- We create an environment of trust and open communication among all members of the organization

- We focus on results, trusting our employees to work in the ways that are most effective for them

- We create a flexible, rewarding work environment that supports a high quality of life for our employees

- We believe in trustworthiness with our employees and with our customers and hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards in order to meet that goal

Vision Mission Values

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 23:52:00 +0000

As Security Innovation gets bigger we've realized we need some way to preserve what makes the company special, for our customers and for our employees. I think it all comes down to Values, since that's what describes the 'Why' of what we do. Why is so much more important than What since it is the foundation, the motivation behind everything we do and in the end I think its the best way to capture the magic of who we are as a company. I think many people would start an excercise like this by defining Vision and Mission first, a top down approach. We've found its more powerful to start with values and build upwards from there.

First some definitions:

Vision: Where do you want to go? What's over the horizon?
Mission: Who are you? What do you do?
Values: What do you value? Why are you doing what you do? What's important and if you gave it up would destroy the value of the company?

I've also added in a couple of goals which I think of as a tactical approach to achieving the mission. Maybe they should just be folded into the mission itself.

Here's what we've come up with so far, its not complete, just a work in progress. What do you think?

Vision:

A world free of security vulnerabilities
To be the most trusted application security partner on the planet.

Mission:

To enable the success of our customer's application security programs.
Improve the security of every application we touch
Provide the world’s best combination of security expertise, trustworthiness, effectiveness, and technology to our customers

Goals:

Apply Standards, Education and Education (the Three Pillars of Success) to create a customized solution for each of our customers.
Drive the success of each customer's application security program through a targetted set of standards, education and/or assessments based upon our understanding of their unique culture, process maturity and application security goals.

Values:

We believe everyone has the right to secure software
We believe everyone has the right to use a computer without fear
We focus on the fix
We believe developer education is a key means to achieving better security
We believe increased awareness of security risks and mitigations will result in a healthier software ecosystem
We believe 3rd party assessments of software can be used to keep development teams honest with themselves and their users
We believe that can add the most value when our customers see us as a trusted advisor to improve security long term
We believe in measuring and holding ourselves accountable to customer satisfaction in our services and products
We believe in empowering our employees to learn and develop their skills
We believe in an environment of trust and open communication amongst all members of the organization

Zurich

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 08:08:00 +0000

I arrived in Zurich with a couple of days to kill. Plans had changed. Instead of meeting the family in Lisbon I would meet them in the Zurich airport and then we would all fly to Lisbon together. Upon exiting the airport I had the choice to take a taxi into town or ride the train. All my life I'd heard stories of the efficiency of Swiss trains, so the decision was easy. I puzzled through the German instructions, bought a ticket and before I knew it I was on a very clean, very on-time train heading into Zurich. The trip was short, but I had the chance to speak with a fellow traveler who was on his way home, somewhere in the French speaking areas of Switzerland. He had been in Italy and confided in me that after six months of travel he was ready for a little down time. I can understand, I've been away from home for six out of the last twelve months. Twelve out of the last twenty four. I love to travel, but after a while I too feel the pull of home.

The Zurich train station was large, busy and just far enough from my hotel that I needed a taxi. While I re-arranged my bags I caught the eye of a young swiss girl. She was probably 18 months old and stared at me for a very long time. Eventually, much to her parent's surprise, she decided I was OK and ran up to my leg, grabbed it and made the universal toddler noise of delight.

Zurich is quiet. Well mostly quiet. At 7am most mornings all the church bells would ring at once, a loud cacophony that would wake me no matter how soundly I was sleeping. I never determined a pattern, but some mornings were quiet and some started with a blast of bells. Other than that, the streets were quiet, the people were quiet and the weather was quiet and grey with an occasional cold wind blowing off the lake. Snow was in the mountains but I was told it would be at least another month before any serious snow would accumulate in the city. Zurich is expensive. Really expensive. I looked at a few online indexes and Zurich was always in the top 10. I attribute it to the bankers, they were everywhere and just like any other commodity, money follows the rules of supply and demand. I talked to a few of the locals and they attribute it to taxes, which I guess are very high. The hotel seemed empty, but the rates were very high. The restaurants were all empty but everything cost two or four times more than what I am used to. I was on my own but at least my wallet felt like my family was with me.

One of the restaurants I went to was in a very old meeting hall, built in 1348. I was one of three tables, the other two were bankers in quiet lunch meetings. In Zurich I quickly learned to spot the bankers by their clothes and demeanor. The waiter was middle aged and wore a permanent frown. He took his food very seriously. I ate a quiet lunch, pondered the solutions to problems at work and watched as the two other tables left. One of the bankers, to my great surprise, walked out with a dog that had been under his table. I finished up my lunch in total silence, alone with the frowning waiter. As I was paying, I asked him what the typical tip was in Zurich. "You don't have to tip anything, nothing at all," he frowned. I pressed a little further and he admitted that five maybe ten percent would be the most anyone would ever tip him. I gave him a nice tip and his demeanor changed. He smiled. He spoke with enthusiasm. We had a nice conversation as he walked me out of the restaurant. He told me about his plans for the day, what he was going to do when he got home and what he expected to happen in the restaurant later that night. The floodgates had opened. I got the impression that he was speaking the truth, he hardly ever got a tip. What is it with those bankers?

On the last night of my stay I went downstairs to the hotel restaurant and was quickly intercepted by the hotel staff, "Oh no, you can't go in there tonight. Would you come sit in this room instead?" The dining room door was closed and I could hear strange noises. Was it singing? Maybe synchronized grunting of some sort, followed by applause. During dinner I asked one of the waiters to explain and learned that in Zurich they have 'History Clubs'. These are very old organizations and each one picks a banquet hall to be their own. In fact this hotel had been built and later re-built to the exact specifications of their resident history club, to ensure the rooms would give good service for their needs. I learned there is a rival club across the river in the restaurant I had eaten lunch. The clubs have four meetings per year, some of which require traditional dress, some of which require eating lots of different fish parts, and some of which require singing or grunting of some kind. I didn't fully understand it and I had to work very hard not to say anything flippant because it was quite clear that the waiter took the event extremely seriously and I got the impression that it is a very important part of Zurich culture.

The next day I took an early taxi to the Zurich airport, checked in and waited for my family at the top of the escalator leading out of passport control. I had about an hour to wait so I played a game of trying to guess the nationality of the people coming out. I was especially curious to see if I could recognize Americans by sight when the flight from the US arrived, so I examined each person as they came up. Nope. Nope. Nope. Maybe? Nope. Just as I was starting to lose confidence, a huge stream of Americans and then, to my great delight, my family emerged, bleary eyed and blinking into the light.

Click here for pictures from the trip.

Istanbul

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:37:00 +0000

I found myself having to go to Istanbul to meet with a customer and due to complicated rules of international chihuahua travel, I had to go alone. The plan was to leave home on a Wednesday, arrive in Istanbul on Thursday, meet with my customer on Friday (hopefully without too much jet lag), and then I had a day to myself on Saturday to see the city. After that I was to fly to Portugal, work from Lisbon for a few days and then meet the family, one week after I had departed, when we would all reunite in Portugal.

The flight was about as good as I could ask for given that I traveled for 20 hours straight. I arrived reasonably fresh and well rested, which is a good thing given the madhouse of an airport that I found in Istanbul. I had managed to sleep a few hours over the Atlantic and had caffeinated myself in Zurich, where I found an airport so quiet, efficient and well managed I almost didn't recognize it as an airport. On the flight from Zurich to Istanbul I sat next to Walad from Dubhai. He was, of course, in the oil business and had flown with his family to Paris for the new year. When he said Paris I thought he was saying Belize, so for the first part of our conversation I had the surreal experience of learning that Belize didn't meet his expectations for new years due to a lack of fireworks, rude natives and a total disregard for the English language. Once I understood it was Paris he was talking about, everything made a lot more sense. Maybe I wasn't as well rested as I thought. For the rest of the trip Walad regaled me with tales of the United Arab Emirates, how wonderful a place it is and how different it is from Saudi Arabia. In Dhubai you can go to the beach! And wear a swimsuit if you like! You don't have to though, you can go to the other beach with all the people who wear full arab desert gear in the water if that's more your style. You can also wear shorts that are above the knee. In public! Compared to Saudi Arabia this is quite a relaxed culture because in Saudi Arabia you can get in trouble for what seem to outsiders like very mild infractions. He told me about the day his wife wasn't wearing her robe thingy quite right and maybe a little of her ankle was showing. A man in the street yelled at her and then raised a stick as if to hit her. Plucky Dubhai lady that she is, she took the stick from him, beat him about the arms and chased him off the street. I took a look at her from across the aisle and while she seemed very sweet, she was at least double my weight and apparently handy with a stick. I wouldn't mess with her.

In the Istanbul airport, I found myself surrounded by masses of people forming half a dozen lines all going to various spots that looked like important components of my goal to exit the airport. I paused near an airport person who looked like he could help and listened as a loud American from Washington DC yelled at him in an American accent while loudly proclaiming where he was from, what he thought of the chaos and what he needed the airport guy to do to fix it for him. I think this is how many Americans make their way in the world. It does make us easy to pick out in a crowd.

Eventually I made it to my hotel and had a chance to explore the area. Istanbul is huge. Really huge. It spans two continents, both sides of a large river (Bosphorus) and edges out into two seas (Black and Marmara). It feels big driving through it. It looks big from the air. When speaking with people in the city I heard anywhere from 13 to 20 million people in the metropolitan area. By any measure that makes Istanbul the second largest urban area in the world by population, just behind Shanghai. It is also high energy, vibrant and an interesting mix of east and west. It feels completely different than a Christian, Western country but it has recognizably strong connections to the west. I could walk the streets and pretend I was in any European city, I stepped into a Porsche Design store and looked at $30k watches, but then the call to prayer would echo over the streets, my eyes would lift to the nearest mosque tower and I would realize I was very, very far from home.

On Friday, after all my meetings were done, I had the chance to see the city. I hopped in a taxi and directed the driver to take me to Sultanahmet, to old Istanbul. The driver drove and we talked. He was a college student, studying public relations and hoping for a good job when he gets done. He has a brother in Bulgaria studying engineering. The rest of his family is back home. "Where?" I ask. "Syria." He explained that he was from a little part of Turkey wedged between Syria and Iraq but he thinks of himself as Syrian. It struck me in the cab at that moment that it is very easy to be scared of what you don't know. I mention Syria or Iraq to people back home and it sounds dangerous, exotic and foreign. But riding in the taxi I was just talking with another human who is studying and working to make his way in the world. We had a friendly conversation, he dropped me off, I left him a nice tip and wished him luck. With that he drove off and merged with the millions of other people and all the other bashed, dented taxi cabs roaming the streets.

I spent the morning touring the Blue Mosque, the Haghia Sophia, the Basilica Cisterns and then made my way to lunch at the Medusa Cafe. I was on my own and I felt strangely uncomfortable. I didn't know the rules and wasn't sure how to behave without giving offense, either personal or legal. At the Blue Mosque there was a sign with rules, including behavior and clothes, but I wasn't able to make it beyond the courtyard. The faithful were praying and outsiders weren't welcome. I walked along a wide parkway sprinkled with obelisks and towers erected in the 3rd or 4th centuries. I witnessed women getting harassed because they had no man with them, young men would grab an arm, "Hey, what are you doing here? Where's your boyfriend?"

While walking between historical sites I was approached by a young man myself. I made the mistake of making eye contact. Its hard for me, I'm from Montana and used to being friendly. He asked me a question, "Where are you from?" I made the mistake of answering and that encouraged him, "Oh I love your country, I've been there before, is it near Toronto?" He walked next to me, closely, like an old friend, his body language said he was taking me into his confidence, "Want to come see my shop?" I ended the encounter as quickly and conclusively as possible and could still hear him trying to get my attention as I walked away. The behavior here is forward, rude even. There isn't the civility and polite distance I am used to. It never felt physically dangerous, but I felt that there was a constant threat of uncomfortable interaction or confrontation.

Ahmet joined me at lunch, I'd met him the day before and he'd offered to show me around the city. He took me to the Topkapi Palace and explained to me the things I was seeing. We walked through the entrance and into the harems where a maze of brightly tiled rooms once held all of the Sultan's wives. Anyone is allowed in now, where only the Sultan, his wives and his eunuchs were once permitted. After the harems we went to see the sacred relics. Behind glass were the keys and locks of the Habab, the Beard of the Prophet, the Staff of Moses and various other relics from people famous to Islam. When we first entered I took out my cell phone and asked Ahmet if he thought it would be OK if I took pictures. Before he could respond a security guard approached me and asked me if I had taken any pictures. I said no and he became agitated. I iterated, and re-iterated, that I had not taken a picture. He began to yell and it became clear his English was not serviceable. Ahmet spoke to him in Turkish and that wasn't working either. He yelled about pictures, about video and then asked me to show him what I had taken pictures of. After my repeated attempts to explain, including showing him all the pictures on my phone, he suddenly smiled and said, "I understand" and left me alone. Feeling a wee bit trembly, I put my phone away and resolved to leave it in my pocket until well away from the sacred relics. As I looked around I saw many other cell phones, cameras even, and pictures being taken. Ahmet had told me earlier that I didn't look like a tourist, he felt I fit in, perhaps due to my subdued clothes and quiet manner. After the security guard I no longer felt so sure of that.

As we left the relics Ahmet mentioned that he had never made it into the exhibit before. He has always come in the summer and it is extremely full of Arab tourists, in the winter, however it was much less busy. He pointed over to the treasury, which was full, and stated that while the Arabs like relics, the Europeans seem to like the treasury best.

We wandered to the palace walls and paused to enjoy the view of the Bosphorus and Marmara Sea. "Do you see that island between the continents?" Ahmet asked. "That's Maiden Island, legend has it that the Sultan put his beautiful daughter there to protect her from the men who wanted to marry her. Or maybe from a snake, there are different legends. It was built a very long time ago. The daughter died when a snake hidden in a basket of fruit bit her. Now it is a famous and very nice restaurant. Expensive for Istanbul but maybe not so expensive for America." He paused, "The tower over there, that's the Galata Tower. Also a restaurant now. Everything is being turned into a restaurant it seems." And in this way old Istanbul is re-used for the purposes of new Istanbul.

We walked through corridors on our way out and Ahmet explained about the lives of the Sultan, the Queen mother and the various broods of children, "Have you seen the Tudors? It was like that but the mother kills all the brothers. It is to make the empire strong."

From the palace we took a tram to the Grand Bazaar and walked through its many covered streets. Ahmet used to walk through the market every day on his way home from school and knew it very well. But on our way through we happened upon a section he had never entered before and he had to stop to ask directions several times to point us towards the Spice Market. The Grand Bazaar is a labyrinth filled with an incredible collection of goods, exotic and kitsch, cheap and expensive, commonplace and rare. What chance would I have had to ever find my way out without a guide?

We walked from the enclosed streets of the Grand Bazaar to an open air market where we were regaled by the sales cries of the various vendors and shop keeps. All the sales pitches were in Turkish so I understood nothing, but Ahmet explained to me that in this market each vendor was making personal appeals to the people who passed by, "Here it is personal, not someone trying to sell to the crowd."

The Spice Market was much smaller and extremely aromatic. I felt as if all the spices of the orient were trying to make their way up my nose at once. After stopping to admire the goods we made our way through to the exit. Ahmet explained to me that the Grand Bazaar was mostly for tourists these days but the Spice Market is still used by people from Istanbul, "There is nowhere else that I can find spices this fresh and flavorful. They are wonderful."

We stood on the verge of the Galata Bridge which spans the Golden Horn from Sultanahmet to Galata. I admitted to Ahmet that I was beginning to get tired and perhaps a little cold. He looked at me strangely and said, "That is good, I was beginning to wonder if you are human." I guess my talk of Montana and the temperatures we experience had made an impression on him. We walked the lower level of the bridge, framed on one side by restaurants and on the other by dangling lines of fishermen above, tiny sardine-like fish wriggling on their way up. We could have stopped at any of the sea-side tables for a meal of flash-fried whole fish. On a nondescript corner we dodged traffic and entered a subway entrance. It is one of the oldest in the world, just after London. But it is also very short, we hopped on at one station and rode the subway uphill to the only other station where we hopped off.

Before dinner we sat down for drinks at a rooftop bar in a building that is owned by his school, surrounded by people he knew (handshakes and kisses all around), and enjoyed a panoramic view of the city as the sun set. The conversation turned to politics and to American culture. He explained to me how American culture has given him a common ground with people all over the world. When he works with engineers his age in India, for example, he can strike up friendships that would otherwise be impossible. They've all grown up with American culture and have a foundation they can build upon. The older generation dislikes America and the conservatives who feel that way have been gaining more power, it makes life less comfortable.

We walked through the crowds to dinner. A street hawker was showing off a small children's toy. All day Ahmet had been asking if I wanted to buy anything, the opportunities for shopping were endless but I hadn't taken advantage of any of it. I'm not a shopper I guess. But this toy caught my eye and I wanted one for my kids. Ahmet stopped, talked to the vendor and insisted that he would pay for it, he couldn't let me buy it myself. "For me it will be 5 Lyra for you 20." After a short exchange in Turkish, he paid for one and he was given two.

For dinner we had sheep-gut sandwiches and fried mussels, both much more delicious than they sound, or looked. We got a taxi out of Taksim square and after a short ride I found myself safely back in my hotel.

For the most part, the story ends here, but there is one more thing to add. I took a taxi to the airport and as I was getting my luggage out of the back I heard an insistent voice behind me, "Hurry up. Hurry up! HURRY UP!" I was used to Istanbul at this point and I ignored it until my bags were all ready. When I turned around I saw none other than Walad standing on the curb in his suit and giving me a crooked smile. He had hoped to play a joke on me I guess. We stood in line, the first of many lines in the airport, and talked about our days in Istanbul. Do you believe in fate? I think some things happen for a purpose. What are the odds of me seeing Walad ever again? What are the odds of running into him in the airport? We exchanged contact information and he urged me to come to Dubhai with my family so he could show me his country and his culture. I encouraged him to come to the US so his family could see my country. After the line ended we parted ways, south to the Dubhai for him, north to Zurich for me.

Click here for pictures from the trip.
Click here for a video of the Blue Mosque.
Click here for a video of the Hagia Sophia.

Getting Results

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:20:00 +0000

My friend J.D. Meier has written a new book focused on how to be more effective, entitled Getting Results.

I came to Getting Results with a history of effectiveness and success. I had a solid sense of what I felt were the best ways to get things done, a set of process and principles that had worked well for me over many years. I am a process guy, a details guy and a lover of great strategy. I sweat the small stuff and I look at the big picture in order to guide myself and my organization to maximum results. Then I met JD...

I started with JD on a project to build security guidance for the ASP.NET development platform. A huge undertaking that involved discovering, consuming, and analyzing a huge amount of information from a huge amount of sources both written and verbal and then turning that into specific, contextual, prescriptive guidance for Microsoft developers. The goal was nothing less than to change the way in which web applications were written on the Microsoft platform. In order to make consumers more secure, the applications needed to be more secure. In order to make the applications more secure, developers needed to know what to do. That's where JD and team came in. What I saw in the course of this project, changed my view on how to get things done. JD accomplished what seemed impossible. In too little time, with too little resources, with a staggering amount of chaos to deal with, JD coaxed the team into writing a masterpiece. I couldn't see how it was done, but I was curious. Luckily for me I had the opportunity to work with JD on a number of other projects over the course of several years. I learned the process as it was developed and maybe even had a chance to contribute to it a little here and there. Whether I had any impact on it or not, it had a huge impact on me.

Before I explain what I learned, I want to set some context to explain how I used to get results. I was a huge believer in up-front planning. For a new project I would spend a lot of time designing and planning what needed to get done, how it would get done, when it would get done, who would do it and in what order. I was a master of this style. I could plan a complex project with a dozen team members and have an 18 month plan with all of the tasks laid out to the day and then we could execute to that plan so that 18 months from the start we had accomplished exactly what I had laid out at the start. Impressive right? Well, not really. I learned, the hard way, that I was focusing on the wrong things. I was focusing on tasks and activities. I was focusing on what got done, which I thought were the results, but I was neglecting the real results. Most importantly, I had the wrong assumptions. I assumed that a rigorous planning process could remove risk. I assumed that I knew up-front what I wanted to accomplish. I assumed that my plan was helping me when it was actually a prison.

So what did I learn from JD and how did it change how I do things? What kind of a difference did it make? Here are the key lessons I learned, my most important take-aways:

Focus on scenarios and stories. I'd always used scenarios and stories as a tool, but I hadn't used them correctly. They were something I considered, they were an input to my plan, just one more thing that mattered. What JD taught me is that they are the only thing that matters. If you get this one thing right you win. If you get it wrong you lose. Planning should be about determining the right scenarios and stories you want to enable. Execution is about making these scenarios and stories real. You know you are done, you judge your success, by measuring against these scenarios and stories. Everything else is a means to this end.
Expose risk early, fail quickly. Planning is an exercise in risk discovery and mitigation. You plan so that you can create a path to success while imagining the pitfalls and avoiding them. Planning is a mental exercise, it is not doing, it is imagining. JD helped me realize that the world is too complex to plan for every possible problem and it is too complex for you to be able to plan the best possible path. I learned that I should be exploring and optimizing as I go instead of trying to do it all up front. If the price of failure is not extreme (lost lives, destroyed business) and I can afford the exploration, I discovered I am better off reducing my up-front planning and jumping into the 'doing' sooner. By 'doing' I can expose risks early and I can determine if my chosen path will fail so I can pick another. I think JD calls it "Prove the Path". I like to think that mistakes and failure are bound to happen and I'd rather discover it fast while I have the chance to correct than discover it too late when I'm over-committed.
Ruthless effectiveness. I thought I was ruthless already. I thought I went after results like a Pit Bull and didn't let go till I'd chewed it to a pulp. I was right, but that's not the most effective path. Ruthless effectiveness isn't being a Pit Bull and never letting go. Ruthless effectiveness is knowing when something is good enough and knowing when it will never be good enough. Ruthless effectiveness is learning to let go. I am a perfectionist, I like things to be more than good. I want them to be great, exceptional even. I can forget the rule of diminishing returns once I have my teeth into something. JD taught me to let a project go, to ship the book, to release the software when you've maximized its value and when it will make the most impact. Let go when there are external reasons to let go, don't let your own internal attachment cause you to hang on to something too long. It felt crazy to me when I first saw it, almost irresponsible. But it works. Its a ruthless focus on results. Nothing personal.

I'm sure your take-aways from Getting Results will be different from mine. We are all different, have different goals and are all in different places in regards to our abilities and motivations to be effective. There is so much in this guide, it has so much to offer, that I think anyone who reads it will get something out of it. If you are lucky, it may even change your life like it did mine.

Our Brains are Wired for Seeking

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:47:00 +0000

I love this article on seeking from Slate magazine, I think it is one of those ideas that can help you gain a new perspective on human behavior (including your own). The article describes how the act of seeking is hardwired into our brains as an end to itself. The article then goes on to describe why this brain circuitry can be overactivated by Google, Blackberry and other common technologies

J.D Meier gives a great synopsis of the article in his post, Seeking is the Granddaddy of Emotional Systems. He boils the article down to five bullet points:

You can’t stop doing it. You have an insatiable need to search. It’s stronger than the basic drives for food, sex, and sleep. We’ll even seek at our own expense.
Seeking is the granddaddy of the systems. “Seeking” is the master emotional system that influences the rest of our emotional systems.
Each stimulation evokes a reinvigorated search strategy. It’s self-reinforcing. Stimulating the lateral hypothalamus puts mammals in a loop of foraging, excitement, and craze.
Seeking is the motivational engine that gets us out of bed. “Seeking” is the natural drive that motivates us each day.
Abstract rewards excite us as much as tangible one. Our “Seeking” circuits are the ones firing when we get thrilled about the ideas or make intellectual connections.

The word seeking is overloaded with meaning, so it took me some thinking to parse out what the article means to me. I don’t think it means people are seekers in the sense of seeking philosophical enlightenment, or amazing impactful results, or even new meaningful knowledge. Some people are, but that’s not the norm. The people who do amazing things have channeled their base-level seeking to achieve more powerful results, plus they have the innate capabilities that allow them to get those results. As a species we are seekers for tidbits, like mice searching for nuggets of food. The base level seeking impulse is very simple. Search for something that fulfills a simple need (food, shelter, comfort, etc). Its the searching for something that matters. The acquisition matters less and wears off quickly. Then we are off to seek again.

Its the happiness conundrum. You think you will be happy if you get X. Where X could be money, partner, knowledge, results, reputation, house, status, etc. But this is where we are tricked by our own biology. We are not meant to be happy or satisfied for extended periods of time. We are restless creatures and our biology gives us the happiness ‘high’ for a small amount of time and takes it away. We go back to seeking. If we were truly happy and satisfied we would stop seeking and evolutionarily that is a very bad thing.

We think happiness is good, therefore we seek it (its a meta-search if you will :)). But the search for happiness is endless and we will never truly reach the goal. So what are we to do? I think there are two choices, not necessarily mutually exclusive. While its cliche, I think we can choose to enjoy the journey - the seeking - as much as possible. If you consciously realize you are seeking and are ok with that, not fooled into thinking this search will end your constant seeking, then I think you can choose to enjoy it for what it is. The other choice is to try to make a conscious decision to be satisfied. I think satisfaction means you are happy with what you have and what you are. You can rest for a while and maybe stop seeking. Careful though - stay satisfied too long and you may become like the little creatures in H.G Well’s “The Time Machine” who have evolved into a state of feeble satisfaction due to having conquered all possible challenges in their environment.

Telling Stories

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:50:00 +0000

The way we think of our lives and how we fit into the world is in the form of stories. That’s why narrative is so powerful, it taps into the essence of how we think about being human. Most of us have a subconscious narrative that runs through our lives, whose power we may not even realize. If you can tap into that narrative, understand what your story is, then you have the power to change it! Its like lucid dreaming. The power of a lucid dream is that you suddenly realize you are sleeping and you have the power to modify the dream in ways you hadn't previously realized were possible. Likewise, if you are conscious of your internal story you have leverage to change your life in ways that may not have seemed possible before.

Once you understand your own narrative, what’s to stop you from learning others? If you can get a glimpse of someone else’s story then you can gain a deeper understanding of their perspectives, their priorities, and their motivations. People can be motivated by a wide variety of things (money, approval, achievement, etc). Understanding someone’s internal narrative can help you tap into their values and motivations in powerful ways!

Finally, you can use narrative and story to get your points across and share your perspective. Try this exercise sometime. Try to convince someone with plain facts and data and then try to convince them with a story that explains where you are coming from and how their decision or actions fit into that story. Which is more effective? By sharing stories not only can you get understanding you get the chance to modify your own understanding, your own story, as a result of the interaction.

Belief

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:09:00 +0000

Michael Michalko wrote an inspirational article on choice, how we can choose our attitudes deliberately and consciously.

I’ve been reflecting on the nature of belief lately. Belief in a God, or not. Belief in a caring Universe, or not. Belief in personal power to do good, or not. Belief in free will and the ability to change outcomes, or not.

It strikes me that many of these questions are unanswered and unanswerable. Nobody can prove to me that free will exists. Nobody can prove to me that there is a power in the universe that cares about my well being. Nobody can prove to me that consciousness is more than a set of electrical impulses in the mechanical system of my brain. Philosophy is the study of that which cannot be proven, we are unable to know truth in some areas, we have to cast about to find that which we believe in. Belief is a choice, is it not? And what you believe is the bedrock on which you form your attitudes and outlooks upon life. So if you have a choice, choose that which gives you the most happiness and allows you to be most effective in your life. Unexamined belief can lead to foolishness. Purposeful belief that improves effectiveness by shaping your lens on life can be very powerful. What do you want to accomplish and what beliefs would help you get there?

I saw a study in which people were given the choice to cheat or not in a simple game. The reward for cheating was a few extra dollars at the end of the game. The price of cheating depended on a personal belief system, on whether they could feel good about the choices they made. Before the game began, half of the people were given information that refuted the possibility of free will. Once they started playing, the people who had been told free will did not exist were much more likely to cheat. If they could not be responsible for their actions then why not make a little extra cash? This doesn’t prove anything about free will, and if you think about it you’ll understand why, but it illustrates how our beliefs and preconceptions influence our actions.

I choose to live in a universe in which I have free will, my actions matter, there is a loving force that cares about my well being and rewards that which is good (perhaps it's my wife :)). I believe I can make a lasting impact if I choose to.

Its worth asking yourself, what kind of a universe do you choose to live in?

Application Architecture Guide is Available

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:41:00 +0000

After many months of work, we've released the patterns & practices Application Architecture Guide - http://www.codeplex.com/AppArchGuide. You can download the pdf or you can view it all on the web, whichever is easier for you.

This is a 381 page playbook to designing well architected applications on the Microsoft .NET platform. It covers web applications, mobile applications, rich client applications, services and rich internet applications (like Silverlight). The guide is a distillation of many lessons learned from architecture experts both internal and external to Microsoft. It’s principle-based and pattern-oriented to provide a durable, evolvable backdrop for application architecture that you can use for many years to come.

Some key features of the guide:

Canonical app frame - Describes at a meta-level, the tiers and layers that an architect should consider. Each tier and layer is described in terms of its focus, function, capabilities, common design patterns and technologies.
App Types - Canonical application archetypes (such as web application or rich client application) are used to illustrate common application types. Each archetype is described in terms of the target scenarios, technologies, patterns and infrastructure it contains.
Arch Frame - A common set of categories for hot spots for key engineering decisions. These include categories such as authentication and authorization, caching, state management, composition, configuration, transactions, validation, workflow and more.
Quality Attributes - A set of quality attributes that shape your application architecture, such as performance, security, scalability, manageability, reliability and more.
Principles, patterns and practices - Using the frames as backdrops, the guide overlays relevant principles, patterns, and practices, such as model view controller pattern, data transfer objects, service gateway, facade and more.
Technologies and capabilities - A description of the Microsoft platform and all the relevant technologies. For instance we provide guidance about which data access technologies to use, which UI and presentation layer technologies are best suited for your scenario, and when to use WCF vs. ASMX.

If you are an architect or a developer on the .NET platform, I highly recommend you pick it up. Its free, so you have nothing to lose!

How to Get Results

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:17:00 +0000

Inspired by the Zen of Results E-Book, the members of my team had a spirited discussion on personal productivity. The book contains great information but it didn't address a burning question on the mind of one of my team-mates:

Interesting --- but I think it's overly simplistic and misses the hard stuff.

To me the challenge is really: how to best manage the inevitable disruptions to my plans?
How do I balance working towards the objective against the immediacy of a 'crisis' -- and not just
poor planning on my part. I'm not abrogating my responsibilities, but I'm unwilling to accept that
failure to achieve an outcome is a negative. Is that excuse making?

I think the key insight from the Zen of Results is that you need to free yourself from your tasks, free yourself so you can focus all of your energy on the creation and delivery of real value. I've seen many people create tasks with some goal in mind (the value) and then stick to those tasks through hell and high-water without realizing that the completion of the tasks is no longer leading them to the goal. I really like the workkflow in the Zen of Results because it reminds you to think about each week as a way of creating and delivering value and reminds you to reflect on your results each week to see how you can improve.

Here are the techniques I use to help me focus on results and avoid falling in the trap of becoming overly attached to my backlog of tasks:

I keep a list of my strategic goals in Evernote. These are my large, long-term objectives that may span many months or even years. I use these to remember what my big targets are.
Every Monday I build a list of the outcomes I want to achieve for the week. These map to the strategic goals and are usually sub-goals that are achievable within a week's time.
Every day I create a list of tasks I want to accomplish. These are short-term activities that I can accomplish within the next 48 hours. As I finish the tasks I delete them and then replenish them the next day.
Every Friday I review the results I achieved and reflect on how they differ from what I set out to accomplish for the week.

When I, or my team, misses a planned outcome I do some investigation to figure out why. I don't look at the missed result as a failure, but rather an opportunity to improve planning and thinking for the future. I've found missed outcomes are usually caused by one of the following:

I misjudged scope and got less done than I hoped for.
I was surprised by a new priority that I hadn’t planned for.
The planned outcome was wrong and I needed to adjust mid-week.

If I understand the 'why' then I can plan more effectively in following weeks. Its important to remember that things don’t always go according to plan – you have to plan for that too. Outcomes are your target, like any marksman you will not always hit them 100%.

This led to a new question from the team:

I guess I'm balancing the incremental steps required to achieve a major objective (like iterations building to a release) with the 'crisis du jour' syndrome that can overwhelm. Sometimes (not often) there are more
unplanned activities than planned ones -- endangering the critical goals for sure!

so -- say you've had 2 weeks where you accomplish nothing that has meaning to you --
not one of your objectives -- what's your trick for trying again?

I think in a situation like that you need to first ask yourself what happened. Were your planned outcomes interrupted by new outcomes that were truly of higher priority? In other words did you sacrifice two weeks but in the end it added more value than if you had stuck to your planned outcomes? If so, it was the right choice. On the other hand, it could have felt necessary but still wasn’t worth it – we get trapped in these kinds of binds from time to time due to randomization, poorly planned objectives, fuzzy priorities, etc. Or it could be the work needs to be done but it should be done in parallel and you aren’t the right owner – delegate!

This is how I think about it:

Reprioritize
Delegate
Defer

Reprioritization works if you really need to drop everything and the new work is critical path. Delegation works if it is important but can be done in parallel by someone else. Deferring the work is a good fit if the crisis is not really a crisis and it can be set aside to cool down. I found many times a crisis isn’t as big of an emergency as it seems and it can be slotted into the work queue to be deferred till later. If there is an ongoing stream of unplanned crisis that continue to take top priority, thereby pushing back other important work, then there isn’t much point in planning, right? You need to understand root cause and attack that first so that the environment is conducive to planning again and is no longer anarchy and chaos. This is similar to the change frame I wrote about in an earlier post.

Prioritization is critically important to make sure you are focused on the right tasks each day. Focusing on outcomes is a good technique, but there were a few other techniques discussed, for instance:

If too many things are “ultra high priority” I have a hard time prioritizing the things at the top of my list. When this happens I find that it becomes even more important for me to feel like I’m making progress, or I can spiral into a pit of despair. When this happens the best thing to do is to select something from your high-pri list that you know you can really sink your teeth into quickly. As they say, even the longest journeys begin with a single step, don’t focus on the how far away the destination is, focus on the steps.

Another technique I use is to walk away from my computer alone, or close my eyes, for 5 min. This gives me just enough time for the really urgent stuff to rise to the top, and the other stuff to fall away. It’s a short enough time that I can convince myself to do it, without feeling guilty for doing something else.

Once I’m back down to a manageable list of tasks I prioritize again, and group small tasks together in 30-60 min blocks, then prioritize those as one unit. I find that if I don’t group small tasks together that they’ll fall off my radar and won’t get done. This also reduces context switching which can be a killer.

At this point I have my über-list of tasks that need to get done, in the morning I look at my list, reprioritize, and take my first step.

Key Insights

Focus on outcomes first, tasks second.
Understand how what you are doing will help you or your team create and deliver value.
Create a workflow that will help you stay focused on delivering value.
If you are having trouble hitting your goals, understand why and then use a technique to improve your results - don't spiral into the pit of despair.
Results build upon results - if you are losing effectiveness, find something you know you can sink your teeth into and get results quickly. Build on that momentum.

My Related Posts

Improving Web Services Security Guide is Available

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:39:00 +0000

In an earlier post I wrote about the experience of working with Microsoft on a guide to help teams use Visual Studio Team System more effectively.

I'm happy to announce that we recently completed a new guide - Improving Web Services Security. The goal for this guide was to collect best practices and guidance to help architects and developers create more secure Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) applications. Much of the guidance is also generally applicable to any Web Service development project, so if you are focused in that area its worth checking out.

You can download the guide here:
http://www.codeplex.com/WCFSecurityGuide

The Change Frame

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Do you ever find yourself in a situation you don't like? Most of us find ourselves in difficult situations in our professional or personal lives from time to time.

In a tough situation you can adapt yourself to the situation, adjust the situation, or avoid the situation entirely. This 'change' frame is a great way to think about how to handle difficult situations when they occur.

Adapt. Adapt yourself to the situation by changing your approach or your mindset. If you are in a situation you cannot change but don't want to leave then this is your best choice.

Adjust. Adjust the situation to better suit you. Many times an intractable situation can be adjusted to become more bearable. If you are in a tough situation which would require you intolerable adaptation to make right and you see that there is a possibility of adjustment then this is your best choice.

Avoid. Sometimes the best choice is to run away. If the situation is intolerable, you cannot adapt to it, and you see no possibility of adjustment then this is your best choice.

Here is an example to make it more real:

Imagine a work situation in which your manager gives you incomplete or vague direction. When you follow this direction you often end up getting criticism that you completed the task incorrectly. As a result you end up repeating work in what feels like a wasteful cycle. You may feel that your manager is mistreating you and that you cannot succeed in the situation.

Here is how you could apply the 'change' frame:

Adapt. Change your work habits to ask for feedback more often so you can correct your course quickly and have more confidence in your work. Change your mindset to see the situation as an opportunity to learn how to be more effective at working with uncertainty.

Adjust. Speak with your manager and explain your need for more specific direction. Provide positive feedback to your manager when he provides you with the specifics you are looking for.

Avoid. Look for another job.

I think most people have a tendency to fall into one of these strategies by default. Some people tend to avoid too often, depriving themselves of opportunity. Others tend to adapt too easily, bending themselves when the situation should be changed instead. Others tend toward rigidity and will work hard to adjust a situation when a small adaptation on their part would have accomplished more.

I tend to adapt more often than I probably should. What do you do?

Special thanks to JD for teaching me the 'change' frame and blogging about it first.

What Makes an Achiever?

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:43:00 +0000

J.D. Meier asked me:

Do you see a pattern where some are “achievers” and some are not?
Achievers tend to produce, but just need coaching.
Some people (Non-achievers or whatever to call them), seem to need more than coaching -- it’s more like a bad fit for a job that produces results along the way.

That got me to thinking:

How can you tell when hiring someone that they will achieve the results you are looking for?
How can you tell when someone on your team is worth investing in and when you need to look for a replacement?

When interviewing I test for aptitude, attitude, knowledge and experience and I usually hire with pretty good results. There are times, however, when someone will slip through that interviewed very well but doesn't do well on the job. My conversation with JD reminded me of this problem and got me to thinking about what I could do to improve my interview 'hit' rate.

I think the best indicator of an achiever is where they focus their energy. Do they focus on process? Do they focus on theory? Or do they focus on results. If they don't focus on results they will not ever get those results. You get what you focus on. A lot of it has to do with how you are wired - what makes you excited? Some people truly get excited over theory. They make good scientists. Others get excited about results. They make good engineers!

What is Your Management Style?

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:49:00 +0000

I recently conducted an interview for a highly capable developer. I was the last person in the interview loop and I already knew I wanted to hire him, so I opened the time up to allow him to ask me as many questions as he wanted. Normally this translates into a few easy to answer questions. In this case I was asked a bunch that really made me think.

One of the more interesting questions was - "What is your management style?"

There are so many ways to answer this that at first I was stumped. Does my style even have a name? Should I talk about examples of what I've done to manage my team or talk more abstractly? In the end this is what I said and I think it rings true as a good, though not necessarily complete, answer:

I believe in treating people like professionals. From the start I believe in giving and expecting trust. You don’t have to earn trust when you join the team. You receive it automatically and keep it unless you do something to lose it.
I believe in delegating responsibility and authority. I want to give each person the chance to grown and reach for the stars, not be hobbled by low expectations or some ceiling I’ve put into place.
I believe in personal accountability. If you make a mistake, own up, learn and move on.
I believe in making mistakes. No one should be afraid to make a mistake. If you are going to fail, then fail fast.
I believe in results. I measure people on results not activity. Activity without impact is poison to me.
I believe in building a team. Each member of the team should be clear on their role, know where they fit in and feel they can depend on and lean upon others in the team to achieve group goals.
I believe in adapting my management style to the needs of the employee. Some people need a very directive approach, some just need goals and the freedom to achieve them.
I believe in real-time feedback. If you do something wrong you should know it immediately. If you do something right, you should hear about it right away. The further removed feedback is in time, the less effective it is.
I believe in continuous improvement. On a daily and weekly basis we look at what went right, what went wrong, what needs to be tuned to improve effectiveness.

When I was done talking I realized that I was the wrong person to ask. The best way to understand my management style is to ask my team - not me!

My Related Posts

How to Get Things Done - Colin Powell Version

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 23:37:00 +0000

My brother recently sent me a paraphrased list of Colin Powell's 'rules'. This is a man that has experienced the highest echelons of power, has been thoroughly tested, and knows how to get things done. I found his list doubly interesting. First, I think the rules are useful and insightful. Second, I was surprised by the fact that they overlap with my How to Get Things Done post. I like that some of what I've learned in the technology industry matches to lessons Colin Powell has learned in the military and in politics.

Colin Powell's Rules

Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
The day employees stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
Don't be buffaloed by experts and elites.
Don't be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.
Never neglect details.
You don't know what you can get away with until you try.
Keep looking below surface appearances. Don't shrink from doing so (just) because you might not like what you find.
Organizations and plans don't really accomplish anything. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved.
Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.
Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.
The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team's mission
Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
Rules for Picking People: Look for intelligence and judgment, and most critically, a capacity to anticipate. Look for loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a balanced ego, and the drive to get things done.
Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.
Use your gut:

Part I: "Use the formula P=40 to 70, in which P stands for the probability of success and the numbers indicate the percentage of information acquired.
Part II: "Once the information is in the 40 to 70 range, go with your gut.

The man on the front line is always right and management is wrong, unless proved otherwise.
Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.
Command is lonely.

My Related Posts

Visual Studio Team Foundation Guide is Available

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Wed, 23 May 2007 21:05:00 +0000

For the past couple of months I've been working with Microsoft on a guide to help development teams use Visual Studio Team System more effectively. Today we released an early version of the guide, a 360 page book, in PDF form to the CodePlex site.

This project has allowed me to combine two of my passions: team software development and personal effectiveness. I've learned a lot about how to write a book; how to avoid getting too lost in the details or too intimidated by the big picture. Writing many hundreds of pages can be daunting if its looked at all at once! I've always enjoyed writing, but remarkably this is only my second contribution to a real book. My first was a chapter in a rock climbing guide to Montana, which is still available here on Amazon.com. I imagine there will be many more to come.

If you are interested in team development with Visual Studio, you can download the guide here: http://www.codeplex.com/TFSGuide.

Lessons Learned
I learned the following lessons on writing which I intend to apply to future projects:

Passion. Pick a topic that you are passionate about, something you can sustain energy and focus on for months at a time.
Outline. Create an outline of what the book should cover so you know how each day's work contributes to the larger picture.
Iteratively Render. Don't try to write each chapter from start to finish. Instead, start by writing rough drafts that cover each chapter of the book. This process helps you maintain cohesion through the book and keeps you from getting bogged down in any one place. Once you have the rough chapters in place you can iterate over time to improve and flesh them out. Its like building a skeleton first, then building up the layers of flesh over time.
Get Help. Its hard to write a high quality book on your own. At the very least you need people to review your work, bounce ideas off of, tell you when you are writing crap, and edit out your mistakes. Don't try to do it all yourself.
Consistency. Spend time writing every day until you are done, don't let up.
Quality. Don't get stuck on perfectionism, know when your writing is good enough. Sometimes I spend so much time revising my writing that it ends up worse than what I started with.

Focus on the Solution Instead of the Goal – Effectiveness Anti-Pattern

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 17 May 2007 21:51:00 +0000

In my last post, I explained what effectiveness anti-patterns are and why they are useful. In this post I’ll give you an example of an anti-pattern that I’ve seen cause problems for a lot of people – including myself! If you are having trouble reaching your goals, perhaps you’ll recognize this anti-pattern in yourself and use the solution to become more effective.

Focus on the Solution Instead of the Goal

Problem

The anti-pattern occurs when you are more committed to the solution that you think will achieve your goal than to the goal itself. Once the solution has been found unworkable you assume the goal is unachievable, or you ignore the evidence and keep using the unworkable solution.

Context

You are working toward a clearly defined goal. For example you want to get promoted, buy a new car, move to a new town, get a date, or become financially independent.
You’ve identified a solution that you think will allow you to achieve your goal. For example, you think that if you work really hard you’ll get a promotion.
You are committed to the solution; you’ve put time and energy into it.
After time, evidence suggests that your solution is not working.

Forces

You are having trouble letting go of the ‘sunk-cost’, all the time and energy you’ve already committed to the unworkable solution
You are focusing on the current strategy instead of the larger goal
You are having trouble thinking flexibly

Solution

Define criteria for success. When you identify your goal, build a list of criteria that defines it. Instead of just saying you want a promotion, define the criteria you want to meet in order to feel the goal has been accomplished. Be precise so you know exactly what you are working for. For instance do you want more pay, a new title, more responsibilities and challenge, more recognition? Ask yourself lots of ‘why’ questions. Why do you want a new title? Why do you want more recognition? You may learn that a promotion isn’t the only way to achieve what you are looking for. This realization will give you more flexibility in meeting your goal.
Create multiple strategies. After you define your goal, brainstorm multiple strategies and solutions. These strategies can serve as backup to the preferred solution if it doesn’t work.
Measure progress. Measure your progress against the criteria you’ve defined. This will allow you to determine the effectiveness of the strategy you are using. By keeping the defined goal-criteria in the forefront of your mind you’ll stay focused on the goal and will be more willing to switch strategies as necessary.
Plan for failure. Hope for success, but plan for failure. Do your best to achieve your goal, but make sure you have a contingency plan in the case of failure. Don’t ever put yourself in the position that you must achieve your goal and have no fallback position.
Take risks. Encourage yourself to think creatively and don’t be afraid to take risks. If you punish yourself too severely for failure you'll tend to slip into a pattern of rigid thinking due to your increased fear. Unfortunately, this often results in additional failures and reduced effectiveness. If you can embrace your creativity and achieve a reasonable level of risk-taking you'll be more flexible and less likely to become stuck in this anti-pattern.

My Related Posts

Effectiveness Anti-patterns

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Wed, 16 May 2007 16:17:00 +0000

As defined by Whatis.com, “An anti-pattern is a frequently used, but largely ineffective solution to a problem… Just as a viable pattern describes the way from a problem to a valid solution, an anti-pattern describes the way from a problem to a poor solution.”

An effectiveness anti-pattern is a common pattern of behavior that leads to reduced effectiveness. It’s useful, and fun, to identify these anti-patterns in myself and others and document them so that I can avoid them in the future.

I’ll write follow-up posts with some of the anti-patterns I’ve noticed. Each anti-pattern will contain following sections:

Title – A descriptive name for the anti-pattern.
Context –A description of the conditions in which this anti-pattern normally occurs.
Problem – A description of the resulting problem, what goes wrong when you use this anti-pattern.
Forces – A description of what leads people to use this anti-pattern.
Solution – A description of how to break the anti-pattern and move to a workable solution.
Example – An example of the anti-pattern in practice.

The neat thing about an anti-pattern is that it reduces the problem down to bare bones, making it easier to spot and fix.

If you've noticed any anti-patterns in your work or personal life, leave me a comment - I'd love to hear about them!

Mountain Bike Lessons – pt. 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Wed, 09 May 2007 23:24:00 +0000

In my last post I discussed lessons I’d learned from racing mountain bikes. In this post I’ll show how some of these lessons have translated into improvements in my overall effectiveness.

Get a good start. In a race the first minutes are critical. A poor start makes it twice as hard to make up for lost time later.

When starting a new job or a new project I've found it is most effective to put forth maximum effort at the start and then settle into a more sustainable pace.

Measure. When training for a race I measure my progress over time so I can see if I am on track to meet my goals.

I focus my energy on areas that I can measure and see improvements on over time.
I make it a point to understand how my manager will measure my success.
When reviewing my goals I ensure they are aligned with the goals of my team and the goals of my company. I feel most motivated when I know my efforts are contributing measurably toward larger organizational success.

Keep energy up. During a race I keep my body well fueled or I am unable to keep up the pace.

I have found a sustainable pace for myself at work. Long hours may give me a short term productivity boost but if I'm not working at a sustainable pace my productivity suffers in the long term.
I pay attention to the areas of my life that fuel me. If I don’t make time for family, friends and exercise I lose the driving energy that keeps me engaged at work.

Recovery. During post-race recovery I give my body everything it asks for. If I’m hungry, I eat till I am full. If I am tired I sleep.

I listen to my body and give it what it needs. I focus on intuitive eating, intuitive sleeping, and daily exercise. The combination keeps me mentally sharp.

Frequency. The more often you show up at the starting line the more likely you are to improve and win.

Success can be as simple as showing up each day and doing my best.

My Related Posts

Mountain Bike Lessons – pt. 1

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Wed, 09 May 2007 03:46:00 +0000

I've taken up moutain bike racing over the past couple of years. Though I'm not an expert, I've realized that the lessons I’ve learned from racing have made me more effective in other areas of my life. For those of you who are interested in learning more about bike racing, I’ll list what I’ve learned. For those of you with no interest in racing I’ll use my next post to explain how these lessons can be used to improve effectiveness in other areas so you can reap the rewards without all the physical exertion.

Training

Intense Training. I train at an intense race pace at least once a week so my body adapts to high exertion levels and learns how to recover quickly.
Moderate Training. I ride at a moderate pace for distances that are further than a normal race at least once per week in order to train my heart, lungs, and legs for endurance.
Easy Training. I spin easily at least once a week to improve my recovery time.
Supplemental Exercises. I perform squats and lunges at least once a week to build power for rapid acceleration and sprinting. I use no weights, just my body weight and do three sets of each exercise with enough repetitions so that my legs are tired the next day.
Measure. I measure my progress over time so I can learn what works well for me and what doesn’t. I simply use a stop watch and an excel spreadsheet to track my time on weekly bike rides. Later I may use a heart monitor and GPS to get more data and more accuracy.

Racing

Warm up. I warm up for 10 minutes prior to the race. During warm up I ride at 50-60% of my maximum pace to make sure I am thoroughly warmed up. I try not to time it too early or else I will cool down before the race starts. I also try not to time it too late so I don't miss the start. I've found it can be scary to warm up for so long, it feels like I am using up energy that should go toward racing. However, I've learned if I jump into a race cold I put my body into a state of shock and then spend a good portion of time just recovering from the hard start.
Get a good start. I ride as fast as I can at the start in order to secure a good position. Passing areas are at a premium and it is bad to get stuck behind someone while the front-runners gain a commanding lead. On the other hand i've learned that I don’t want to get so far ahead that I run out of steam and burn out early.
Use psychology. I want the riders behind me to feel I am unbeatable even when I am suffering and pushing myself to the very limit. I try not to let other racers see me suffer. If I am in twisty terrain I give little bursts of speed when the riders behind me can't se me and and then settle back into the saddle again, this makes my pace look faster than it really is.
Keep energy up. I consume electrolytes before and during the race to reduce the risk of cramps. Endurolytes from Hammer Nutrition have worked well for me both before and after a race. An energy drink, such as Cytomax, helps keep energy up during the race.
Recovery. I eat well, drink lots of water, and stretch after the race so I feel ok the next day.
Frequency. I go to as many races as I can, nothing teaches how to race better than getting out there and doing it.

How to Be an Effective Manager

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Tue, 01 May 2007 03:20:00 +0000

I’ve learned that there are four distinct styles of management: Directing, Supporting, Coaching, and Delegating. Each can be effective when applied in the right context.

One of the most intriguing aspects of management is that each person requires a slightly different approach to realize their full potential. A management approach that yields spectacular results with one person may result in abject failure with another. Even using the same approach on the same person for different tasks on different days may give significantly different results. I think that one of the great challenges of people management is the ability to recognize the skills and motivation of an individual and match your management style so that they are primed for success.

This seemingly simple goal – match your style to the individual you are managing – is very difficult to do well. It is hard to recognize an individual’s skill, confidence and motivation, especially as levels will vary from day to day and task to task. It’s challenging to pick the right management style for each situation. And it’s very hard to become comfortable with the wide variety of styles and approaches you’ll need to handle each situation.

Over the years, I’ve used a framework to make this task easier, and I believe it has made me a better manager. I use categories for individual development levels (competence, confidence, and motivation) and categories of management style that match to each. These are not hard and fast rules, but they help to take the mystery out of things.

The first step I take is to identify the level of development of the individual I am managing. I take into account their experience, training, past performance on similar tasks, confidence, personality, and level of excitement they have regarding the present task. I use this information to determine their competence and commitment. Competence is derived from experience, training and past performance. Commitment is derived from confidence, excitement, and individual personality characteristics. Using this information I categorize into one of four mental buckets. These don’t cover every scenario but they are what I’ve found to be the most common combinations:

1. Low competence, high commitment. This bucket tends to contain inexperienced or new team members. They often lack the training and experience to be highly competent, but they make up for it in enthusiasm and commitment to the job at hand.

2. Low to moderate competence, low commitment. This bucket contains poor performers as well as good performers who are temporarily frustrated. Frustration is usually caused by someone who wants to do a good job but doesn’t yet have the expertise to perform to their expectations. Here are some statements I’ve heard that indicate a person is in this bucket:

The task is harder than I thought
No one appreciates what I do
I’m not getting the help I need
The more I learn the more I realize how much more I need to know
The task is boring
I don’t like my job

The big difference between poor performers and good performers is the time they spend in this bucket. I always assume an individual wants to do well and will transition out of this bucket as quickly as they can. The longer they stay, the less optimistic I am that they will ever leave.

3. Moderate to high competence, moderate commitment. This bucket contains solid performers who are consistent contributors of high value. These are people who have good skills, but are held back by variable confidence or motivation. This bucket may contain potential superstars, but only a few are able to put it all together to make it to the next level. Most good contributors peak in this bucket and never leave.

4. High competence, high commitment. These are the superstars on any team. They are masters at what they do, they are confident, and they are highly motivated.

Keep in mind that someone can be a level 4 while working on one task and then move to a level 1 when working on something different that requires different skills. For instance, imagine a brilliant software engineer who decides he wants to become a lawyer. He may have the potential and the commitment, but he doesn’t yet have the skills. It’s also useful to recognize that people can bounce between levels from day to day based on personal circumstance and other events that impact motivation and confidence.

Once I identify the level of development, I match my style of management to it. Bucket 1 matches to style 1, bucket 2 to style 2, etc.:

1. Directing. This style requires a lot of hands on work. I spend time explaining the task, sometimes step-by-step. I show examples of success and failure. I identify clear goals, timelines and outcomes. I make the decisions. I provide a large amount of feedback both positive and constructive in order to accelerate their personal development.

2. Coaching. This style is more interactive than the directing style. I spend more time explaining my reasoning and the decision making processes. I give more access to behind-the-scenes thinking and start training the individual to make good decisions on their own. Although I involve the person in the decision making process, I still make the decisions. Goal setting in particular is more interactive as the individual is able to start taking ownership of their career and future success.

3. Supporting. In this style I give increasing amounts of responsibility to the individual. I’ll often ask them to take the lead tasks, planning or goal setting. I become more of a sounding board and resource rather than a force driving actions and success. Rather than telling the individual what to do, I’ll take the time to explain how to make the decision themselves. I spend more time asking questions, even if I know the answer. The thought process and learning experience is as important as the end decision. At this point, my focus is to remove road blocks, answer questions, provide support and encouragement, and help them continue to develop their skills and confidence.

4. Delegating. In this style I am primarily focused on empowerment. I help define the problem and then work with the individual to set goals and outcomes. I give encouragement and support so that the individual can take the lead in problem solving and decision making. A large portion of time goes toward recognizing and rewarding the individual’s contributions to the team. I am outspoken about the value they bring to the team, my high degree of trust, and then I challenge them to reach higher levels of contribution.

I’ve realized that some of these styles are more challenging for me than others. I’ve found that delegating and supporting come pretty natural to me, I tend to trust people until proven otherwise and these styles are primarily about trust and encouragement. Coaching is the most difficult for me. I sometimes find myself feeling that I am spending so much time explaining rationale and reasoning that it would be easier to do the job myself. However, coaching is an important style, everyone needs it at some point and if not given the proper guidance and management they can stagnate. I have found that the more time I spend on coaching the more competent I am in its use. I regularly challenge myself to become a better coach!

There are many ways I measure myself as a people manager, but these are the two that I think are most important:

Am I able to consistently move members of my team from low levels of development to high? Ideally everyone would move from bucket 1 to bucket 4 over time. I realize not everyone can make it to level 4, but I don’t want to be the one holding them back.
How effective is my team when I am gone? This is really a measure of the overall development level of my team. The more directing they require, the more impact my absence will make. If I return from a vacation and things have proceeded as if I had never left – I know I’ve been successful!

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Mind Control and the Friendly Mouse Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 23:37:00 +0000

Mind Control and the Friendly Mouse has been one of my most popular posts. I've gotten lots of comments and questions on this, one reader even going so far as to add a comment with a link to pictures of a mouse getting friendly with a cat!

It seems there is pent up curiosity regarding the incident. If you are interested to see what it looked like, check out the following pictures.

1. Mario, the cat, inspecting the friendly mouse. Notice the mouse showing no fear in his beady little eyes.

2. Mario sniffs the mouse to make sure it is what he thinks it is.
3. Mario is confused, this isn't how mice normally behave!

4. The mouse just before I threw him out into the field. He is so relaxed that he's nearly asleep.
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Mind Control and the Friendly Mouse

How to Get Things Done

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 23:40:00 +0000

A couple of years ago I tried the following excercise - In 30 minutes, write down as many things as I could about how to get things done.

This is far from a complete list, just what I could complete during my self imposed time limit, but I think it is pretty useful. I won't go into details in this post, but will probably follow up with additional posts in areas I think warrant it. In fact, one of my previous posts is an expansion on one of the items in this list - Priorities for Tough Decisions.

How to Get Things Done

Know your values, be consistent

Do you want to manage or do you want to do?
How much influence and responsibility do you want?
How much time are you willing to devote to work?
What makes you excited to come to work in the morning?
What do you expect from the people around you?

Know your strengths and play to them
Know your weaknesses and pick what needs to be improved and leverage the strengths of people around you
Know how you react when under pressure – what does ‘unbalanced’ feel like?

Recognize when it is happening so you can adjust your thinking and become effective again

Don’t build technology for the sake of technology

Solve real problems, don’t treat work like a hobby

When making tradeoffs use the following priority stack

Company
Customer
Product
Team
You

Don’t take it personally – focus on getting the job done, not bruises to your ego
Set up for success

Yourself
Those working for you
If you know a task is going to fail, change the conditions or abort
Don’t just hope for success, have a plan that you know will get you there

If you are in trouble, ask for help
Don’t be afraid to ask questions

Even very smart people don’t know everything, those who don’t ask questions are usually scared, not all-knowing

Beware of experts

Don’t rely on experts to give you all the answers, do your own searching

Don’t be a bottleneck

This is done out of fear of losing control – allow yourself to trust

Before delegating a task, know the task.

Do you know how it can be done?
Do you know what success looks like?
Do you know level of effort and level of skill required?

Trailblaze (related to previous)

Push the limits, learn how to do something, then let others follow behind

Take risks, don’t be afraid to fail
Sharpen the axe

Don’t spend so much time getting things done that you never have time to improve process, tools, methodology, education, etc.

Postmortem

At the end of a project/milestone step back and ask how you did, what could go better, what should continue

Give feedback in real-time

People respond best to quick feedback – otherwise the connection is lost

Ask for feedback

If you aren’t getting feedback ask and ask and ask
Appreciate praise but seek out criticism

Be careful of friendships at work

Do you value the friend or the goal more highly?

Be honest about your limitations

If asked to do something you are ill-suited for, explain to your team why you may not be the best choice
But, don’t be afraid to jump in and do it anyway

Set expectations

Describe to your manager what you'll be able to accomplish
Describe to those working for you, what you expect from them

Be explicit about what makes you satisfied, happy, upset, etc. so they know what to expect

Hire for a role not for a personality

Don’t hire someone and then try to fit that person in to your organization.
Instead perform a gap analysis – know what you need, define a position, then look for the individual who represents the best fit.

Know how others see you

Are you a leader?
Are you effective?
Are you valued on the team?

Know your manager's priorities and how he is being evaluated for success

If your priorities misalign with management then:

Change your priorities
Or influence your manager to change their priorities
Or leave for a position that aligns better

Bring something to the table

In any relationship – team, coworker, company – know what value you bring

Dig into cracks

Look for signs of a problem in results or assumptions
Dig into the problem until you fully understand it

Know your long-term goals

Know where you want to be in 5 years so your current decisions have a long-term purpose.

Keep your options open

When making a decision that balances short term gain for long term flexibility lean toward long term flexibility

Know who your friends and enemies are

Who can you trust, who is competing with you, who wants you dead

Understand the root cause of objections raised by others

Are they based in reality?
Are they based on perceived threat?
Are they based on misinformation?

Reality vs. perception

Know what is real
Know what is the common perception
Know that perception will win over reality in group opinion

Be pragmatic

Do what it takes to achieve your goals without conflicting with your values.
Don’t be too idealistic or rigid in your approach

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