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I love this ad.

In an office environment, it’s always great to add some colour, and variety. Looking at grey walls with grey cubicles can make for some grey faces. So, when my company decided it was time our office got a make over, I was looking forward to it.

Given almost a year later, they are finishing off the cafe and elevator hallways. The “office” area turned out nicely. My desk has more surface area, the new flat screens give more space to work. Even the colours they’ve added are nice in highlights: some mustard and burgundy.

However, as the rest is being completed, the nice highlights are going terrible wrong. My beef, especially is with the elevator hallways. They are huge walls of dry wall bubbles.

Now, the first thing I think in the morning is that I’m in Logan’s Run or 2001: A Space Odyssey. I’m thinking I should be wearing polyester winged collars and bell bottoms that are dated, and yet still supposed to look like the future.

Corporate culture is a tricky balance, especially if you are trying to bring smaller foreign cultures into the fold of larger corporations. There are loads of signals that the employee’s are looking for. Yes, a redesigns are powerful statements. But, with powerful statements come double edged swords. Because of our overhaul, I’m seeing the company very differently.

What a take for the new interior is the company is “trying” to be cooler then they really are. The design tells me, we are trying to be “hip” and “with-it”. Give this and my previous post about the secret office, and it’s clear that they aren’t.

Don’t pretend to be something you’re not. It always comes through loud and clear when the signals are mixed.

Through the blog world, I came across Change your World, Change The World. Kevin Salwen highlighted some words shared on The American Dream Project.

• If we are sick of foreign wars, make peace with our personal enemies.
• If we are concerned with our nation’s debt, save our own money.
• If we are sickened by materialism, buy only what we really value.
• If we are concerned with global warming, conserve, walk, telecommute.
• If we are worried about the environment, recycle, plant trees, grow something.
• If we are angry with our leaders, propose and post real solutions.
• If we are worried about health care costs, eat right, exercise, and sleep.
• If we are worried about crime, drugs, and violence, participate in a neighborhood watch.
• If we are sad about the decline of marriage, make ours the best example of commitment and fulfillment we can.
• If we are worried about terrorists, put some boundaries between ourselves and those who use or abuse us.

The quote continues:

“I hope you can see what I’m trying to get at. These suggestions are simply metaphors for thinking about our lives. They are not meant to be absolute or literal statements. These are simply reminders that for every big overwhelming problem in the world, there is a version of it in our lives.”

However, I say, these are not metaphors; these should be absolute and literal statements. We all have the opportunity to lead by example. If we can’t change ourselves, how do we expect others to change?

At my company, the executive team is trying to boast that the company promotes “Open and timely communication”. However, their is a downfall in their support of this.

1. If you going to say “and”, do “and”.

The word “and” is a tricky one. Especially with value statements like this one. The word implies that both are present, and always present together. If you are timely with a piece of information but not very open, then you have failed in putting the statement into practice.

If you fail, then you loose the trust of those you’ve informed. And all of a sudden, there is miss-trust or the idea that you aren’t being honest. The value looses it’s meaning and simply become more clutter in corporate propaganda, then is rejected from the masses

2. Simple acts show your sincerity

Ah, there’s the rub! Really, this is the main reason I’m writing, and my big bug. Our office has just been renovated to follow the corporate scheme. And suddenly I noticed a inconspicuous door with a security swipe key. I looked through the small window and what do I see? It’s an almost secret executive only area.

Hmmm, “open and timely communication”. Open? How does a secret locked away executive only area say “Open” to the employees.

For offices that are multiple floors, I can understand that there might be a floor dedicated. But in out 2 floor small operation, the message this say’s speaks volumes!

You can say it, but your actions have just convinced me, you don’t believe it, you don’t want to believe it. And, sorry big wig exec, I don’t believe you.

This week, I’ve been feeling drained. With some reflection and thought, I think I have an idea why. The amount of things I’m doing that drain energy from me don’t equal the amount of things that rejuvenate me.

Everyday I’m loosing energy. It’s bad accounting!

Rejuvenate >= Drain!

It has me thinking, what drains me and what gives me energy? I’m wondering how to balance the energy books. Is it a todo list like GTD? Is is something different?

Reading all these comments on Fox canceling the OC, for some reason I’m always reminded of some office humour

• Buying a stronger whip.
• Changing riders.
• Say things like, “This is the way we have always ridden this horse.”
• Appointing a committee to study the horse.
• Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
• Increasing the standards to ride dead horses.
• Appointing a tiger team to revive the dead horse.
• Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.
• Comparing the state of dead horses in todays environment.
• Change the requirements declaring that “This horse is not dead.”
• Hire contractors to ride the dead horse.
• Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.
• Declaring that “No horse is too dead to beat.”
• Providing additional funding to increase the horse’s performance.
• Do a Cost Analysis study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.
• Purchase a product to make dead horses run faster.
• Declare the horse is “better, faster and cheaper” dead.
• Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
• Revisit the performance requirements for horses.
• Say this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.
• Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.

Nowhere does it say “get off”.

Is it always a surprise?

I’ve been doing work around a personal aversion to the phrase “have to”. When I hear it, and especially when said to me, I always react “I don’t have to do anything”.

I don’t think anyone “has to” do anything.

I say let’s use more descriptive “need to”, “should”, “obligated”, “would like to”. All of which are different then “have to”.

So why? Well, I believe this term is used and beaten with a stick. It’s a dead horse, so I suggest, let’s all get off.

“Have to” came around at the end of the 16th century, which is the end of the Renaissance. Is it a coincidence that for a time when everyone is running around the countryside asking “why”, that people came up with “because you have to”? They wanted a way to shut them up.

It’s used as a blanket statement for people who don’t know, or don’t want to know. It’s used for people who want compliance.

Here is an example:

Person 1: “You have to [insert task here]”

Person 2: “Why?”

Person 1: “Because, you have to.”

Wrote an interesting little piece in creative class the other day. It was a moment when you hear the characters voice crisply, and it’s more dictation. Especially this, which was an odd mix of slang. Wasn’t sure what I was writing until I looked it over again.

The telephone rang. I looked at the call display to see who it was

“Oh – My – God! Like, you totally won’t believe!”

I saw the number, I saw the name, and yet I sill picked up the phone. Why?

“So Dave went to Lisa’s and totally found her tets up and snoggin Janet. She was like shocked. And he was like, shocked!”

Why? You’d think after a lifetime of listing to your little sister dish all the latest gossip, the voice wouldn’t sound like nails on a chalkboard.

“He asked if he could play too, but she just slammed palm on his specs. I mean, It ain’t pussy foot it they tri’d. But, you need a reboot on her thoughts. I mean seriously – with out her monkey toy it ain’t banana cream; it’s just pie.”

Half the time I had no clue. Where does she get these terms?

“Turns out she’s been fakin his grades for a semester. He ain’t her localhost and she’s changed providers! Hell she’s gone from packet to ping! We are talkin, like some serious backbone overhaul.”

What did she say?

“So, like, he went from hotmail to gmail, re-proped his DNS and is looking for a new server.”

With that she hung up the phone. What did she say?

Where have I been? I’ve been sitting on my couch and doing sweet FA. Why? Because
I felt like it. To be honest, I’ve been in a funk. It’s not about earth shattering
events in life. I haven’t gone through heart shattering events. Sometimes, I think,
we all just hear a little “snap” inside. Could be burn-out, could be a string of
unfortunate events, or it could simply be the way the wind is blowing or the
weather outside. Sometimes a little sweet FA is what the doctor ordered.

Some might consider this wallowing, and they might be right. I thought it was
wallowing. At first, my reaction towards my instincts, were that is was
counter-productive. Wallowing doesn’t do any good but change my point of view to
see all the crappy things. But then the thought occurred, maybe that’s what I
needed. In the world of improvement, to ignore the bad, is the best way to build
your own little invisible brick wall that will ultimately have your journey slam
to a stop. You won’t know why, or how, or where it came from, but when you hit
it, it will hurt bad. To improve, the bad must be looked at. We need to know when
we are beating a dead horse, or even worse, riding one. I think the only way to
really know for sure, it to put on the brown goggles, and look around you.

Not only that, but it’s like the blues. It’s called the blues because it’s
…well…blue: “My baby left me”; “I’m in a broke down motel”; “I got no money”.
Admitting it all, somehow makes you appreciate the beauty of the music. For some
odd reason, realizing how much bad, makes you appreciate that a) your still
kicking around and b) that through it all, there is still good.

Is my wallowing over? maybe, maybe-not. I’ll have some more ice-cream and decide.

Last week I was on course for Advanced Server Administration for Solaris 10. The whole experience was eye opening and insightful. Some really nifty features that we covered were Zones, AutoFS, RAID and JumpStart. In the process are started to wonder if maybe there could be something here?

Lately, I’ve been in a slump. It’s not a depression but a cross roads. I’ve been trying to find ways over this little bump. I’m at a stage where I’ve gone through and figured out what I’ve been natural at. I’ve made inventory of things I like and things I’m good at. I’ve also started to work on finding new things that cause a peak in my interest. But I’m at a bit of a stop sign because I’ve come to a point where I look at my inventor and say “great….now what?” Maybe some of you are in the same phase. I look at my little lists and try and devise a path or goal or career out of it. But from my limited knowledge of jobs, I can’t figure out what applies.

Some of this could be my artistic and renaissance nature. It can cause a bit of a conflict with todays specialist society. However, I’m not thinking so.

This is where I bring in my education. This is where, I believe, the act of learning can help. Not only does education or courses break up a day or work week. Not only do they push with labs and tests and timelines. Not only do they introduce you to new people, new things. But they shine a light on what I like to call “you-don’t-know-what-you-don’y-know”. They can add a perspective or two and maybe connect a couple of the dots. Perhaps you find out about a career or job that connects a couple of dots.

This of course is not the end of the journey, but in looking at my list, I’ve finding things that connect the dots. As we search, as with all journeys, each time we find something that connects the dots, when we follow it, there is something else, followed by something else. The journey is endless. But, at least along the way, we learn a thing or two.