i thunk so

“And I say to everyone: no more. Israel will not be held hostage - not by terror gangs or by a terrorist authority or by any sovereign state… Only a nation that can protect its freedom deserves it.”
- Isreali Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

This man knows what leadership is all about. The world should take a free lesson from Israel’s playbook. Israelis may live in fear of rockets and terrorism daily, but they needn’t fear that they are led by a spineless appeaser. That is what defines the character of a nation and its leader — when they will stand together against what is wrong and take action.

[Via Haaretz.com]

Filed by JP at 2:08 pm under News Clippings, Opinions, War
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You have a keyboard. You have the Internet. You have thousands — no millions — of random thoughts bouncing off the walls of your grey matter. These thoughts…they’re too deep for words. Or are they?

Now you’re typing feverishly, trying to put those restless emotions to words. Nobody in your world seems to understand you. No one cares. No, I’m serious. No one cares. About you. About your blog. About your stupid ideas, your poetry, your poor emo self.

Editor’s Note: Notice I said YOUR blog, not mine.

Filed by JP at 12:14 pm under Rants, Opinions, Humor
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I’ve always had a problem with authority, so it only makes sense that I would want to introduce a new wrinkle to the corporate bastion that is middle management.

Yes, it’s time for a makeover. You perpetually resource-wasting corporate slugs may as well enjoy your last days. There will be no place for you in your current form at I Thunk So, Inc. I’ve always said that when I become the ruler — I mean leader — of a legitimate place of business, I will take with me everything I’ve learned during my years spent in corporate trenches, mired in politics and small ideas. Let’s take a walk through a few lessons I’ve learned.

Company Loyalty
Remember company loyalty? Neither do I. It’s a fallacy. There was a day when someone might have proudly proclaimed “I’m a Company Man.” Well, I guess that when your kids grow up without ever having known you, at least they will be able to tell everyone at your funeral that you were “a Company Man.” Now there’s something to hang your hat on. The idea that someone would actually be loyal to a business entity should never resound with any business leader. I suppose there was a time, say, during the Great Depression and thereafter when unions became en vogue, that an argument could be made that corporations took care of their employees with things like paid lunch hours, health benefits, and profit sharing. To be clear, though, those things were never truly done in the interest of the worker. They were merely a mechanism to keep the production lines moving and the union ringleaders quiet.

We work hard, but we play hard, too
Let’s stop kidding ourselves about work and real life. Forcing people to reconcile work with family or leisure time is simply bad business. People are the most productive when they have clear and attainable goals to strive for. The most obvious daily goal would be leaving work on time to get back to the life they really care about. The sooner you get over the idea that people enjoy your company when they come to work every day, the sooner you will be able to move on to creating an environment where people can actually get work done, unencumbered by your presence.

That’s right. Nobody wants you around. You are what they talk about as soon as you leave the room. You are the reason they are Alt+Tabbing all day long. You are the reason they have rearview mirrors mounted on their monitors. They already have an established early warning system in place to thwart your best-laid plans for quashing office fun. In fact, the one thing that gives them the most pleasure is finding new ways to make you suspicious and paranoid.

Oh, and people don’t go to after-work parties to fraternize with management (or each other, for that matter). They’re there for the free drinks. Don’t believe me? Don’t pay for the drinks one time and see how many of your “buddies” show up next time.

More to come in Part II of this series. Stay tuned.

Filed by JP at 10:50 am under Opinions, Business
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For years now, I’ve been involved with both the management and the production sides of projects. As a result, I’ve been in too many meetings. I’ve thought about it for awhile, and I’ve decided that web project meetings fall into one of these four categories:

1. The aimless project with ambiguous agenda kickoff meeting
   • This type of meeting tends to occur near the beginning of a project (ideally, anyway), and generally centers around vague project “requirements” and flippant timeline considerations. Priorities may be discussed and shifted during this phase. Roles and responsibilities are also discussed in this meeting, but almost always only as a CYA measure for reference when the fingerpointing meeting (see below) occurs later.
2. The “Free thinkers unite” meeting
   • This meeting is usually the bottleneck of any undertaking that kills the spirit of anyone who is actually tasked with real work on the project being discussed. Companies with no firm grip on project management are strangled by the lack of organization and the non-existence of a defined project team. This opens the floodgate of ideas from unaccountable sources. Non-stakeholders who are still perceived as “experts” are often invited to these meetings (usually by other non-stakeholders) in order to add complexity and unrealistic goals to the project.
3. The fire drill meeting
   • This is the meeting which is ultimately called near the end of every project timeline. It is where most of the real work gets done. Of necessity, the previous offending non-stakeholders are left off of the invite list. Unfortunately, though, their damage has already been done. The original requirements of the project will now be quickly redefined to water down the original goals of the project, while still including as much of the flair and garnish piled on by the free thinkers. The end result is usually an overbearing and ineffective product which will ensure the job security of all involved since it will lead to glaring flaws in the ability of the worker ants to produce quality product. This results in the need for endless revisions to the already ineffective product. It also creates the need for more specialized managers to be brought in to manage the ineffective managers already in place.
4. The fingerpointing meeting
   • This meeting generally takes place immediately following the late or delayed release of an untested product — untested since any time alotted for testing was hijacked by the need for endless revision requests from upper crust non-stakeholders. Usually, one or more of the upper crust will attend this crucial meeting to sternly evaluate the team’s many failures. Communication — more specifically, the breakdown of it — is always established as a primary culprit in the project’s derailment. Accountability issues are raised, and finger-pointing begins. This meeting typically ends with a directive that “this will never happen again at this company” and a promise to formulate a plan to ensure it.

This stale, corporate environment is the killjoy of many a career. It is the reason people ultimately decide in favor of looking for work elsewhere or becoming an independent contractor.

You may be asking yourself “What can I do to stop meetings where I work?” The key is to state your demands before agreeing to attend any meeting. Set your attendance status to “tentative” and request a meeting agenda from the organizer. You also have the option to decline a meeting. Doing so may raise the ire of the organizer, but will at least open the dialog about why you feel the meeting would have been ineffective. This brings me to my most important point when it comes to combatting useless meetings.

Managers yammer on about openness and communication. They have open-door policies, but they love to be intimidating. The first time you speak your mind, you may be shocked at the result. Managers whose methods and practices are questioned openly in meetings are often left with nothing to say. And wasn’t that the point all along?

Filed by JP at 11:26 am under Opinions, Work, Business
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Morale around work has been pretty low lately. I’ve been scrambling to think of ways to lighten things up. I don’t exactly come off as the playful, fun-loving guy that I am (I think I’m usually just too deep in my own thoughts to notice or acknowledge others much of the time), so it was an interesting study in quick creativity.

I mulled over the idea of an awards program, and settled on the Easy Button Awards (a.k.a. “The Easies”). Now I’m not a manager or a director or anything, but I have been in the past. I think that peer recognition is cool if it’s done in a way that is not embarassing to the recipient — nobody likes to be elevated above their peers in front of their peers….at least, nobody who’s normal.

It’s kind of a silly idea, and probably short-lived; but I think it is a start. It didn’t help morale much in the short-term, though. One of my co-workers actually announced her departure shortly after I nominated her for and awarded her with the first Easy Award. I hope the two aren’t releated. Hmmmmmmmm….

Filed by JP at 6:45 pm under Ideas, Opinions, Business
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I’ve been discussing business a lot lately with one of my close friends and business partners. We have some lofty goals but no time to execute them.

The internal wrestling has begun. Do we start turning down work to make time for us to reach our long-term business goals, or do we continue to worry about paying the bills and making what has become a nice, steady supplemental income?

We’ve been in business for five years now. There are three of us in the core management team who also do most of the design and development. Like most small business that are still young, we all still rely on our day jobs for the bulk of our financial sustenance. This leaves little time for paid work, let alone internal housekeeping and in-house projects.

Last night on Skype, my friend and I began to hash out a plan for the upcoming new year. We are beginning to believe that it is important for us — as a company and as a team — to finish an internal project and see it through to launch. Over the years, our path has been littered with great ideas (some of which are still viable, but others have long since been launched by others who weren’t so aloof) that never saw the light of day.

I feel very strongly that to have a successfully launched project to point to, we will be establishing ourselves as a legitimate and competitive firm. In addition, with the potential for long-term sustainable income we can begin to fund other, more robust projects.

Business, like life, is ringed with delicate complexities. I suppose that’s why it’s not a total bore to get out of bed each morning, even when I’ve only had a couple hours of sleep.

Filed by JP at 11:37 am under Opinions, Personal Drama
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