11 Feb 10 The Walk to Freedom and Beyond
20 years ago today Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years behind bars. It was Thoreau who said “under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison” and, as much as we all believed it, Nelson Mandela was one of the few who was willing to live it. His sacrifice started a legacy of hope that lives on today and his unwavering commitment to justice has changed the face of Africa forever. Of course we cannot laud the significance Mandela’s release without acknowledging the courage of the man who made it possible, F.W. de Klerk, but it’s Mandela’s presence that has shaped the South Africa we know today.
The constitution of the new South Africa has a preamble that goes something like this;
We, the people of South Africa,
Recognise the injustices of our past;
Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land;
Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and
Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.
These words are the embodiment of everything Madiba means to me. He remains a living symbol of what’s possible if you truly believe in something. He will always be a reminder of how democracy should never be taken for granted and when threatened (I’m talking about you, Mr. Harper) is worth fighting for.
I haven’t seen very much in the news about this very special day. I hope we haven’t forgotten. I know I haven’t.
“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
-Nelson Mandela
10 Feb 10 What’s the Cost of NO?
“Most of us go to our grave with our music still inside us.”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
There was a great post by Michael Cote of Redmonk about Agile Development and Cloud Computing last week. Two topics that are near and dear to my heart. Till now, most of the arguments for and against Cloud Computing have have been considered mainly operations issues but its high time we take the discussion outside of operations as Cote has done in this presentation.
When I was at Social Media Group I was determined to build an IT infrastructure that existed entirely in the cloud. It included groupware, contact management, collaboration, file storage, presence apps, a development infrastructure for web applications, and was implemented without installing a single physical server. Besides being cheap and flexible, it meant we could be connected from anywhere. But the real value of this infrastructure was that we could turn on a dime when responding to requests from clients for web applications. Developers never had to worry about servers and licenses and databases but instead could focus on doing what they did best, develop stuff. Now I can almost hear the rumbling from the traditional IT folks about how this is fine for a small agency but could never scale for a large enterprise.
My response to that is, RUBBISH, of course it can.
Over the years I have spent a lot of time in meetings listening to people making impassioned pleas for IT resources to help them explore ideas to solve their business problems. The standard response was to throw up as many barriers as possible to avoid having to do anything. Do any of these sound familiar?
- which server are you going to use?
- do you have the appropriate OS and DB licenses?
- our developers are busy, which of your existing projects are you willing to sacrifice for this?
- have you filled in the 10+ page application development request form?
- do you have the appropriate approvals and signatures?
- who’s going to pay for this?
Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.
There are probably tons of ideas being generated in organizations everyday, some are silly, some are brilliant and some need further exploration. Most of them never see the light of day. But what does it cost to say NO when the alternative is to try some the of solutions available in the cloud? Like this solution from Rackspace that allows you to spin up a server in the cloud in a matter of minutes. For the price of a latte a developer can get a dedicated sandbox to build a prototype and validate any or all of the ideas being proposed. Combine this with the principles of Agile development and E20 collaboration and suddenly your IT department is smoking hot and adding real value to the business. So what if half of the prototypes are duds that never go anywhere? It’s still cheaper than taking the traditional route and, for the ones that show promise, a prototype gives you something to touch and feel that can be expanded on and improved.
I know Cloud Computing is a scary topic for a lot of folks but it’s early days yet. The vendors need to be aware of the what’s preventing adoption and work to find solutions that people will feel comfortable with. But in the meanwhile it doesn’t have to be an “either or” situation. The cloud is perfect for low risk, cost effective incubators of innovation. Perhaps it’s a way for some of us to actually have our music heard.
04 Feb 10 Swing like Basie before you can fly like Lester
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
- Thoreau
I’ve just left my job at Social Media Group after two great years. I was originally hired as the Director of Project Management but somehow along the way I added Finance, HR, IT and some Product Development to my list of responsibilities and my title changed to Director of Operations.
Now, for as long as I’ve been working, I can’t say I have ever had much time for Operations. They were always the folks who tried to tell you what you couldn’t and shouldn’t do. They controlled access to all the cool stuff and spent an awful lot of time trying to prevent you from getting to it. Yet, here I was, Director of Operations at Social Media Group, and it seemed that the only time that people talked to me was when something was broken or they wanted money.
So there I was, driving back from the Toronto office last summer after a day of dealing with slow PC’s, missing printer drivers, a flakey wireless network and an erratic phone system, when April in Paris by the Count Basie Orchestra popped up on my playlist. While I’m not a big fan of swing bands, this tune swings so hard it made it impossible for me to keep feeling sorry for myself. But as I listened to Thad Jones, Benny Powell and the rest of the band swinging it got me wondering if it would sound quite as good without the legendary Basie rhythm to lay the foundation. While this recording doesn’t feature the “All-American Rhythm Section” of the Count, Walter Page, Freddie Green and Jo Jones, widely recognized as the best ever in jazz, there is no mistaking the classic Basie sound on this tune.
The rhythm section in a band is a bit like the plumbing in your home….you don’t think about it when it’s working but you know when it’s broken, a bit like Operations really. It sets the tempo and keeps the time. You don’t need a trained ear to know when a rhythm section isn’t working, the beat sounds ragged, the tempo is inconsistent, and everything just feels out of sync. But when it clicks you don’t even notice the drums, bass, guitar and/or piano, instead you can focus on the lead instrument or voice playing the melody, again, just like Operations. This epiphany has given me a new found respect for Operations and what they do. It’s a thankless job but if all the pieces, Finance, HR, IT, Facilities etc., aren’t working together, the rest of the organization has a very shaky foundation to build on.
The Basie band produced some absolutely brilliant musicians and singers like Lester Young, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Jimmy “Mr Five by Five” Rushing and Joe Williams but I wonder if their careers would have been quite as notable if they didn’t have the Basie rhythm supporting them early on.Sheer talent will always find a way to shine but there is no doubt in my mind that if an organization wants to soar like Lester they should probably first learn to swing like Basie.
12 Oct 08 Why I Vote
It’s election season in North America. In two days, Canadians go to the polls and a few weeks later our American neighbours will be doing the same thing. I was talking to some colleagues from work the day after Barak Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic convention when the announcement of the Canadian election was imminent and everyone was talking politics. We mused about how democracy, such a simple concept, has been implemented in so many different ways around the world. Here in Canada, you may as well vote for a street sign because you are voting for the party not the candidate in your riding. In the U.S, you vote for the man (hopefully one day soon we’ll be able to say “man or woman”) you feel is most qualified to lead the country, not the party. We have leadership conventions where you have to be a party member to vote and presidential nomination campaigns where the electoral college decides. I was born and raised in South Africa and I didn’t have the right to vote until I was 36 years old. Democracy meant “one man, one vote” and every vote was fair and equal. It was the vote that was important not the logistics of the election process and I can’t help thinking that we’ve lost sight of that in North America.
A few days later I had an opportunity to enjoy the company of my extended family on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I found myself sitting by the pool listening to a conversation my uncle was having with an old friend from South Africa. We come from a culture of story telling where the truth isn’t always allowed to get in the way of a good story, but these stories were being told with beautifully understated grace. They talked about the old days in South Africa. About the things they had seen and lived through. About the struggle to preserve your dignity without the right to say or do anything about the decisions that affected your life.
“these four well dressed African men all wearing these smart hats were standing on the corner when suddenly a police van pulled up. They were all thrown in the back and driven away because they couldn’t produce their passes quickly enough. And as the van drove away I saw their hats laying in the dirt, they probably never saw them again”
“he was a small man who spoke in a hgh pitched voice. He kept pacing up and down demanding to know what we were doing there. His wife, who was very calm, said please sit down they’re here to help us keep our house”
“we saw such cruelty, unspeakable cruelty”
I felt humbled as I heard them speak about life without the right to vote. And thankful to them and the thousands like them who were never afraid to speak out against injustice and cruelty. It’s because of them that I will exercise my right to vote on Tuesday. For my father who died at the age of 61 and never had the right to vote. For my mother, who passed away last year, who never let us accept what was so clearly unjust. For my grandmother, who is 98 years old today, who has more integrity in her little finger than most politicians will ever know. For my four year old son who must never know life without a right to vote.
Because when you cut through the party rhetoric it all comes down to the one simple basic right that allows us all to speak up about how we want to live our lives. Because when the unemployed worker lines up at the polling station beside the wealthy corporate banker, their votes are equal. Because it is one of the only ways we can hold our politicians accountable. Because life without the right to vote is unimaginable.
So whether you vote conservative or liberal, strategically or with your conscience, or even if you spoil your ballot because you are so disenchanted with the choices being offered, please vote. By voting we let our politicians know, in no uncertain terms, that we do care about the decisions they make on our behalf and we will hold them accountable.
That’s why I will be voting on Tuesday, what about you?
Tags: Politics
12 Oct 08 Learning from Jazz
First published on Social Media Group on April 15,2008
The subject of collaboration has been on my mind a lot this past week. I have been lucky enough to have been part of teams that have clicked on certain projects only to flounder on others for no apparent reason. Despite all the great Web 2.0 tools available to us, successful collaboration still seems to be an elusive thing. As I noodled on this on the way home one day, with Wes Montgomery, playing his heart out on my headphones, I starting thinking that jazz may very well be the ultimate example of successful collaboration. A lot has been written about the conversation that takes place between jazz musicians. It has been used as a metaphor for Organizational Improvisation, it has even been the subject of a blog post to describe the similarities between jazz and Social Media. The tune I was listening to was from an album called “Smokin’ At The Half Note” which has been called “…the absolute greatest jazz guitar album ever made” by Pat Metheny. It was recorded during a series of live performances with the Wynton Kelly Trio and when I listen to it I hear a band that’s totally tuned in to each other. It is probably one of my favourite albums but it is only one example of what jazz musicians do every day the world over.
So what are they doing that makes it work for them so consistently and how can we incorporate their formula into making collaboration work in business? I started thinking about what they do so well and this is what I came up with.
1. They all speak the same language
- They have taken the time to learn the vocabulary. Knowing the language allows them to contribute and collaborate as equals.
2. They listen, truly listen
- Without prejudice. Their response is based on what they hear, not what they’ve been planning for the past 12 bars while they wait for their turn to solo.
3. They are all totally committed to creating something special
- Until Wes calls for “Four on Six” in G minor, they are just a good band playing scales. Even great musicians need direction and when they get it they give each other the space and respect necessary to create art.
4. The sum of the whole is greater than the parts
- I happen to think that Wes Montgomery is the greatest guitar player that ever lived, but if the Wynton Kelly Trio didn’t swing as hard as they do on this record, it wouldn’t be half as special.
5. They know when to stop
- Wes plays a nine chorus solo on Impressions that I think works because he stops at nine. He knows his audience and he knows when an idea has run its course.
6. They are willing to be amazed
- They don’t let their egos prevent them from hearing great musical ideas from the rest of the band.
I’m sure there’s a lot more but that’s all I could think of. Nothing earth shattering, nothing new, nothing lots of people haven’t been saying for years, yet successful collaboration in business remains a hit-or-miss proposition. So why do we sometimes, despite all our best efforts, end up with “Kenny G Live” but every now and then we get “Smokin’ At The Half Note”?
I’d love to hear your thoughts and some of your secrets to successful collaboration.
Tags: Collaboration
22 Sep 08 Everything I Know About Life…
Hi and welcome to my blog. In it, I’d like to explore jazz as a metaphor for life. A little while ago I published a post on my companies blog called Learning from Jazz. The response I received has inspired me to continue the theme, not only with respect to collaboration, but to other topics as well. There’ll be lots of Social Media, Enterprise 2.0 and Collaboration but there will also be some politics, social causes and even some pure jazz. I’ll try to post at least once a week but, since I still tend to agonize over each post, that may be difficult to accomplish.
Thanks for stopping by.
