Scribbles

I was sitting in my pj’s in front of the window this morning, and got an email from Sue in Luanda, Angola. I answered and less than two minutes later, I got a reply.

It made me think of the time, back in 1994, when I was working in Angola. My family was in Belgium. The only way I could communicate with them was by fax (if the telephone lines and the electricity worked) or by radio. Often days, weeks would go by without contact.

In the first hour I got up today:

• I exchanged Emails with people in Angola, Sudan and Zambia
• I updated a spreadsheet on Google Apps shared with three people (I don’t even know where they are in the world, I think one is in Nepal)
• Twittered with three people in the USA, UK and Tajikistan
• Had a Skype exchange with my friend at the Gaza/Egypt border
• Read an update from a friend in Afghanistan
• Checked a comment on our forum from a reader in Mexico
• Looked at a video posted at the Davos World Economic Forum about food security
• Saw that while I was sleeping, my blog was read by 763 people from 66 countries

If we can do all that, nothing should stop us from making this world a better place. That is the insight of the day: giving the power of communicating, gives power to the people. And that must have a positive outcome, by default. No?

“The Peter Principle” by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull is a humorous treatise of the principle that “In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence.”

It was first published in 1968, but the principle still valid in many cases. It holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted as long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their “level of incompetence”), and there they remain.

“In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out his duties”, they conclude, “”ork is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence”.

The authors illustrate the principle with a multitude of examples, the level of incompetencies demonstrated in administrations, schools, companies and councils of sorts.

While the book is depressing at best in its black humour, there is a grain of truth. In every day situations, how many times are we not faced with organisations who can only think of one way to reward performance: through promotions.

Specifically technical departments often promotes technicians to managerial positions, for which the poor people have not the skills, qualifications nor training. The person is miserably, and the organisation suffers. But demotion is often not an option.

In that way, how many times have we turned “good technicians” into “bad managers”?

My advice: The art is to stop at “climbing up the corporate ladder”, at your highest level of competency. Both you and the organisation will be grateful.

More about books on The Road.

A thought to keep in mind for those difficult moments…

Once, during a very stressful period at work, I worked very long hours. Gradually, my body gave me signals. My neck got stiff, gradually my shoulder got stiff, and before I knew it, my shoulder froze. I could barely dress myself.

After a few weeks, I flew back home, a doctor gave me a shot to put some fluid back into my joints and was advised to see a physio-therapist who “would work me back into shape”. It was the first time ever I went to a physio-therapist.

The guy looked at me and shook his head: “This will take time”. I told him “I don’t have time. I give you 14 days. In 14 days, I want to be back as I was before. Do with me what you want, I will work with you on this, but you got 14 days.”

He said: “A condition: During those 14 days, you go with me all the way. You will not give up and do what I tell you to do. No matter how painful.”
“In revalidation”, he said, “no pain: no gain. Pain shows we are at your limit. We’re moving your limit.”

He started to work with me. On me. He took an arm I could no longer move up nor down, and put some movement back in it, bit by bit. Those of you who ever got through a frozen-shoulder, or any other type of physical revalidation will understand when I tell you “painful” is an understatement.

Every day, twice per day for one hour, the physio-therapist worked on me. In between sessions, I exercised by myself. Every day, my arm, my shoulder, my whole body started to move a bit more. Every day, we went a bit further, and every bit ‘further’ we went, every time we forced that arm, that shoulder, to move a bit more, came with a deep pain.

A pain that told me ‘stop’, but my mind was stronger. I wanted to progress. And along the way, I kept one thing in my mind he told me early on: “No pain, no gain”.

Transpose this to life, and the things that we go through. Remember in the painful times, times where we are tried. A project does not work well at work, conflicts with family, a divorce, death of a loved one: these are the times where we, as a person, as a family, as a project team, learn and grow. These challenges are put in front of us, so we can grow.

So: don’t fear challenges. Embrace them and grow.

Oh, and about the frozen shoulder: yep, in 14 days, I was back on my feet.

It is not in the “what” but in the “how” we learn.

Apply this to projects at work, or in general things we do in life: it does not always matter the most IF you reach your goal, or WHEN, rather than HOW.

If you reach your project goals at work by pissing everyone off, is it really worth while?
If you head a project team, and as you move along, along the “Microsoft Project Gant charts” and “critical path analysis”, are you also wondering how your team actually functions? What your team members learn along the way? Not just in technical bits, but also in real ‘lessons of life’?

And when things go wrong, it is not “what” you do to rectify. But “how”… Do you retract into your old “securities”? Or do you really put yourself “out there”.
And are you really?

I was home in Belgium for the weekend. It rushed by. It seems like it was just a few moments ago, I packed hastily to catch my plane to Brussels, and now I arrive back in an empty apartment.

The weekend rushed by. The past weeks rushed by. The past year rushed by.

I grasp for air trying to keep up with the pace of life. Always wondering if I make the right choices. For my loved ones. For the people around me. But also for the work I do, and for myself.

Am I making the most of life? Am I enticing the positive change I would want to make? Am I making the most of the qualities I have? Or am I standing still and is life just rushing by? With little time to enjoy?

And still the joy is often so intense I could almost touch it. Counting blessings also takes time. Time that flies.