Category: Uncategorized (Page 2 of 11)

When I was young, I learned how to take photographs with a 35mm SLR camera, take the film out of camera, process it and create prints. I was fortunate my dad was interested in photography and built a lab in our basement. The cost of a picture was not cheap, the film, the processing, the time it took to do it all. Even for those who didn’t process their own pictures you needed to take them to a lab to get them turned into prints. Now there are polaroid cameras which were instant, but the costs were high. Of course, it got cheaper over time, and some fast processing but the costs of each picture and doing it was a challenge. 

In 1975 Kodak created the first camera and what followed was a slow reduction of costs in pictures. In 1989, the first commercially available digital camera to be released (Fuji) The cameras were expensive, the resolution started out very poor, but technology would advance. 

In 1997 a cell phone was released with a camera, and about the same time online photo sharing sites started going online. Ofoto, Shutterfly and DotPhoto allowed people to upload photos and share with others. Instead of printing pictures out and putting them in albums users could upload and share them. Camera companies had these smaller (pocket size) digital cameras trying to make it easier to get digital pictures, as well as they had ways to upload them. This was still time consuming and took some technical skill. 

In 2006 Facebook was available to all users (over 13), Twitter came out and in 2010 Instagram was released. Even though social networks were around before this, it wasn’t till these three figured out how to get mobile photos that were about to change.  

Well thanks for the history lesson, Larry, but I could have gotten that all from Wikipedia, in fact it might be more correct. Absolutely and you should check my work, but believing everything you see on the internet is another post. Let us connect the dots, people have phone which now has a good enough camera, (yeah, I didn’t put the iPhone in there, but you know when that came out) companies have made it easier to get those photos online (social media etc.) so the result was people started taking more pictures with very little friction (cost, knowledge etc.)  

The cost of taking pictures from the old days of film cameras you had to buy, get film, get it developed etc. had diminished to zero. Photography had crossed the chasm from just a few to mass adoption. Before you only took pictures at moments (how many birthday pictures do you have from the 60-70s) now you take pictures at almost every meal. If fact, my camera roll has so many pictures there is no way I can ever look at them all. The days of sitting on a couch and going thru a photo album pretty much is over.  

What does his have to do with AI? Over the last few months as you play with Chat GPT and other tools and some people look at it for what jobs it will take away, others look at the damage it can possibly do and lastly those who want to figure out how to get the best out of them. The one point I think about is what is this going to make so cheap its worthless. To me over time many things have hit this. 

• Photography (as mentioned) 
• SPAM (well mail) when you can email something at no cost, vs price of a stamp 
• Travel, Food etc, Guides. Remember buying books on places to travel 
• Navigation, remember going to AAA and getting a trip-tick? 
• Chilton’s Car repair guides. A simple YouTube search has made this really free 
• Wikipedia killed Encyclopedias  
• No one knows what cliff / monarch notes are 
• Why don’t you add your own… 

What is General AI going to make worth less. First, it is not 100% correct. Pre-Chat-GPT a google search required you to read some links and decide what a good answer (or confirmation bias) to your question is. I wrote about AI being the next GPS and proof is this article about a lawyer who not only used ChatGPT for his case, but he only check the sources by asking ChatGPT if it was lying.  

Though not sure anyone saw the photo becoming worthless now we don’t need to think if it is worth taking a picture as the cost is zero. With AI, we can only wait to see what makes it so friction free (writing stories, creating images etc.) that there is little value. I see the productivity gains leveraging it (images for this blog, coding etc.) and be watching to see.  

I love and hate what happened to photography. But looking at the list of things that are free/frictionless and most of this made my life better so now I will continue to experiment and find the next thing that will be friction free. 

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain, I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket, my intention is to keep it free.  I do read all feedback, I mostly wont post any of them

This Blog is a labor of love, and was originally going to be a book.  With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path.  I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content.  I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip.  I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog.  

One of my favorite books’ pre-dates the wonderful Dot-Com explosion and bubble, and one of my favorite authors has a book that I find places to apply the ideas in that one book. I wrote previously about Cult is the root of culture, but I really missed a single point.  

Changing culture is done in large corporations by having a marketing campaign and creating presentations about change. Maybe finding one or two senior managers who can act as ‘change agents.’ Does this work? (Maybe you should answer that question not me.) 

What Geoffrey Moore talks about in his book has to do with innovation, but I believe anytime there is a needed change the model works well. His book describes the diffusion of innovations which goes back to 1962 by Everett Rogers.  

Yep it’s a bell curve… And as much as people gripe and moan it works. Everyone thinks they are good drivers, but realistically most of us are somewhere in the average. But this curve has two far ends, one with innovators (Steve Jobs, Elon Musk etc.) as the top say 2-3% and the next 10-15% as early adopters (those standing in line to get some new tech.). The rest (the 68% of the people in the above average/below average) and the people trailing are going to wait till whatever change has crossed the chasm.  

That first 12-18% who are willing to change are the people that you need to focus on. If you are trying to change culture, change a process, change anything, these are the people who are willing to take the risk. You need to find those people, and work only with only those people. Treat it like new tech that is ‘invite only’ an exclusive club. If you get that first generation to change the notion of that exclusivity adds to the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out.). The middle 68% will see the success of that top group and will want in.  

Finding those people depends on what you are trying to change, but obviously anyone who pushes back is not one of those people. And as said make it invite only, and even better make it a challenge to get into the group (so they want to be there) will help drive the desire to make the change. This is not easy, and others will say change is not easy period. But using the diffusion of innovation will give you a chance to succeed, more than any marketing campaign for people who say ‘I will wait to see if anyone else gets it to work’. 

So if you want change, culture, style of work or other find the visionaries have them help build the change, find the early adopters get them on board and the rest will eventually follow.

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain, I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket, my intention is to keep it free.  I do read all feedback, I mostly wont post any of them

This Blog is a labor of love, and was originally going to be a book.  With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path.  I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content.  I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip.  I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog.   New Images are created using AI with license to use.

When I was in college, I did take a sideways direction as I realized I was not talented enough to be a professional musician but had the brains to manage bands. I took a course given in NYC about it, and there was so much information it blew my mind. The presenter (I apologize this was 87 I do not remember his name) had some interesting advice, sometimes it was contradictory. 

In the section about working with a band and the band needing to ‘self-fund themselves’ he told the story about one band that took one of the members grandmother’s fudge recipes and started selling it to fund the band. The idea was to give the band enough time to practice full time do chase their dreams. The band did not make it but ended up opening a fudge store as a full-time gig (I had to chase that down later.) Thank God I did not quit my day job…. Well, like George. 

In recent days conversations with my daughters touched on do they have a backup plan if they do not get into Med or PA school. In this case I was the pragmatic father and wanting to make sure they had a plan b. This also could be related to my up brining where my parents wanted to make sure I had a stable job etc. I could chase dreams, but my mom always said have a plan b, c, d….  

Reading what I had written previously, I noticed I wrote about Failing at something you don’t like as a reason to chase your dreams. In a research project the notion of having a fallback plan has some drawbacks. So, the downsides? 

• Not going ‘All In’ on your dream reduces the effort you can put in 
• Wasting resources on backup plan that could be used on your primary plan 
• Apparently just thinking about a backup plan reduces your chance for success 
• Falling into your backup plan due to the sunk cost fallacy 

Now the studies talk about how people just think about goals, or in some cases have small ‘monetary’ incentives. Looking back at my desire to be in the music business, I did focus a lot on a Plan B (like my mom told me.) Would I have made it with Plan A? I really do not know, but my focus on Plan B took me far. 

Now back to what I told my kids. The first make your mistakes in your 20s (well now) It is much easier to find an alternate path if you make the mistake now. Trust that you have the resources (parents/friends) to help you out, and your own abilities to find your Plan B. So, you will not hit FIRE at 40, finding happiness and your place in this world may be more important than retiring early.  

And now to think about how to do this at work. Many times, I have been asked if there is a Plan B, and now my response should be if we focus on it, it may turn into Plan A. 

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain, I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket, my intention is to keep it free. I do read all feedback, I mostly wont post any of them

This Blog is a labor of love, and was originally going to be a book.  With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path.  I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content.  I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip.  I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog.

Yes, I know for the last hundred plus posts it has been about getting better. But over the last four months I got into playing around with AI. Well, I hate to call it AI, GPT is a better name (Generative Pre-trained Transformer.) The speed of announcements and actual tools are coming so fast it boggles the mind. 

First if you do not know the history of Agile, nor read the Extreme Programming Explained book, please google that, and get some back history. One key concept in EPE is the notion of pair programming, where two developers sit together to work on a single piece of code. There is a lot of good to this, one developer can catch the other typos, opine on unit tests, and in many cases two brains are better than one. This part of Agile is what I am going to say should change based on the tools I have played with. Note I have no investment in any of these tools and will focus on the free ones for this writing. 

So, the outcome of pair programming is better code quality, faster problem solving, knowledge sharing (no single point of failure) and reduced on boarding time. A developer can be productive from day one via pair programming. 

Now pair programming does have some negatives. Finding two developers that work well together is not easy, even finding a programmer that ‘wants a partner’ is hard enough to find. Add scheduling, developers working remote (Covid) and some companies having global presence. There are even more reasons why pair programming did not take off,  

Now the curve ball, along comes Chat-GPT. And even a non-programmer can send a simple request and it will spill out code. No developer needed! Now, of course, the problem is making sure that code works, does what it says it does, has all the non-functional requirements etc. With us geeks (programmers) we have got our hands on some new tools. Codeium, Code Whisperer, Git Hub CoPilot etc. show up. And presto we now have tools to help us code. Of course, they suffer from some bad reasoning that GPT tools have. 

Some of the tools (Codeium) have a ‘chat function’ where you can ask it to write code. And let’s say now you have the business user sitting with you and giving you, some requirements (user stories) and you translate it to the correct prompts. The tool writes some code, as a developer you can enrich the code. The next step is to ask the tool to write test cases, and presto they are done.  

Of course, a developer can choose to write code and allow the tools to give suggestions to speed up the coding and correct mistakes. Again, no need for the second developer to do that. Let the GPT do these things for you. The tool is available all the time, does not have to worry about sick days, regions etc. These tools are also faster than the second programmer and can make the changes in real time where the second programmer will have to say, ‘correct your mistake.’ One last key feature is it can enforce standards (naming, design etc.)  

All of this at much less cost than the second programmer. For the same costs (about) the second programmer can be working on something else with his/her own coding tools.  

Now Agile may change, not just pair programming, but think of moving to Kanban where now the product owner (or a delegate) sits with the developer and just talks through ideas while the coder developers in real time. The possibility of productivity gain is unreal.  

There are some downsides as these tools do not have a record of accomplishment yet, setting it up for your code only, or sandboxing is coming to prevent your ideas and code being ingested in a public GPT must be perfected. And as my joke said, sometimes the idea can be completely wrong (hence the need for the first programmer.) 

I see the positives and wonder how soon it may become reality. There is this push of AI dangers, the possible loss of jobs etc. but I prefer to figure out how to use it to get better. 

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain, I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket, my intention is to keep it free. I do read all feedback, I mostly wont post any of them

This Blog is a labor of love, and was originally going to be a book.  With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path.  I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content.  I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip.  I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog.

One of my favorite movies (ok top 100 somewhere) is ‘Big’ with Tom Hanks. Tom is a 12-year-old boy that based on a wish turns into an adult, and well must ‘adult.’ It is another one of those “put a person in situation they don’t understand movie” – and yes everyone could guess the plot. But is a scene that as an adult I realize had a message all its own. 

In this scene Tom Hanks is sitting in a meeting and while a marketing person makes their pitch on something that is obviously stupid no one is responding. Everyone is nodding like sheep as they understand the pitch, not willing to be the one person who questions it. Hanks puts his hand up, and just says “I don’t get it.” And in the following parts, you can see most of the people in the room did not get it. The scary thing, it was technically a 12-year-old who is willing to raise their hand. 

In large corporate meetings I see this all the time. People nod, and since we are on zoom you can see them message someone “do you have any idea what they are talking about.” Somehow the fear is beating out of us to question things. Funny little kids will ask thousands of questions, as they are curious. Somehow by the end of school and entering the real world we do not lose the curiosity but lose the willingness to stand out. 

In the above scene this should be acceptable. Asking all the questions until everyone understands or all the information is out. Unbelievably, I have often asked the questions when someone has sent me a team message, they do not get it. Believe me, if you do not get it, I guarantee more people in the meeting also do not get it. This is one time we should act like a child; this is one example where adulting is not better.  

I am not going to go into how or why this notion of being able to question in a large group is beaten out of us, but more trying to beat into you that it is a habit that we should re-learn. Even if you understand what a presenter is talking about, and you think someone does not, step up. You will help others. To me there is no harm in being ignorant, there is a harm in not trying to educate to remove ignorance. 

As a speaker, sometimes you need to read your audience. Silence does not mean understanding or acceptance. Silence often means dissent or confusion. Just like a band/DJ needs to read a audience to get people dancing etc. as a presenter you need to read your audience. Sometimes it could include saying, “I don’t think I explained that perfectly, let me try another way.” And restart, or even better instead of asking “Any questions?” pick someone in the group and say, “can you explain it back to me?” This accomplishes two things, making sure they get it, and making sure they understood what you said. (That may need to be another blog post) 

So act Big…. well not really act like a child.

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain, I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket, my intention is to keep it free.  I do read all feedback, I mostly wont post any of them

This Blog is a labor of love, and was originally going to be a book.  With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path.  I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content.  I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip.  I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog.  

I was in my early teens and my dad drove me up to some electronic store in Fairfield NJ. We came home with a Franklin Ace 1000. It was an Apple clone, how my dad even knew about it, or knew what this purchase would lead to is beyond me. Not only did he get me the 1000, but somehow, we ended up getting a modem (hard to remember I think it was a micromodem ][ or something.) I was one of the few people in the early 80s (Think it was 1983) to have a computer.  

I was 15 or 16 at the time and had no idea what the digital divide was. I knew I was one of the few people in my town that had a computer, and in those days your town was the world. Communicating with people across town, let alone across the country or in other countries was not the norm. It didn’t take long for me to figure out how to use the modem and connect to BBS’s. Yeah, for you youngsters there was something before the internet. I won’t go into GENIE, Prodigy and other internet services that are for others to chat about. 

What I didn’t know was I was splitting away from those who didn’t have access to one. That my career was right in front of me. What I thought was cool was that a few of us had started what would be the first digital divide. As I got older and had kids of my own, my kids got laptops at a young age continuing to add to the advantage. I knew it was an advantage and being a good parent, I wanted my kids to have one.  

During my adulthood I was involved in the second digital divide; high speed internet (or even internet at all.) For those who had it got access to information that others struggled to get. Free internet at libraries does not equate to those who had it at home. Even during 2019-202x during Covid – that families that had high speed internet at home got access to schools and materials at home that others didn’t. Some were even fortunate they could work from home.  

But now I see one coming. Learning how to use Generative AI tools. From what appears to be a parlor trick and something to write cool wrap songs in Shakespeare format G-AI tools seem to be the in thing. Some people seem afraid of what it is going to do and want a pause, others saying we need to “understand” it before we let it out, G-AI will take our jobs and even more fear mongering.  

But what I see is how I interact with it. If you ask simple questions, you get nonsense, but if you learn to ask the right questions with enough detail the answers get better. If you play with other tools like Codeium or github Copilot start to see that it increases productivity. To the point I may not be a developer, but assembler of code snippets that the tools suggest. This is the new divide (well it is in two parts.) 

First you need to know how to ask questions. For Chat-GPT (or any other G-AI Tool) the better you ask your question the better the response. If you learn the right way to put data together and ask for the analysis or response you will get one that is better than someone asking a simple question. For developers it is how you phrase a comment, or name something and Codeium/CoPilot takes over. Developers who know the business can ask the right questions do not have to be the best coders. It almost becomes who asks the right questions, who can direct the tools will be the most productive. Those who don’t have command of the language or see G-AI as a parlor trick or as something going to take their job will be left behind. 

Second, companies that do not look at ways to get these tools in. Oh, I know there are risks of sending data out and code leaks hence the ‘look at ways’ to get these tools in well they may get left behind. Companies need to look at ways to use their data, their information, or information they can ingest to gain an advantage. Things like a G-AI wont replace a Dr. Companies can’t be like Samsung and issues like this one. Companies that don’t figure it out may be left behind. Just like those less fortunate to learn how to interact with it, the 3rd Divide is upon us.  

The Skillset of the future is knowing how to interact with G-AI as well as how to get to the right data set in the G-AI that you are using. If not, others will. 

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain, I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket, my intention is to keep it free.  I do read all feedback, I mostly wont post any of them 

This Blog is a labor of love, and was originally going to be a book.  With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path.  I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content.  I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip.  I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog. 

Alas, this is going to be the last of my team building posts. Not because of lack of other ideas, but more as I think digesting and acting on the first 8 will take time. I will revisit this topic later, but if you made it this far ask one question of yourself, have I actioned the first 7 parts? As Bruce Lee once said, “Knowing is not enough, we must apply.” So I ask as you read the last part, you think about applying. 

Why did I call this extra credit? I guess you need to read it. A few years back there was a NHL commercial, about ‘we.’ Everything in a team (well sports team) is about ‘We’ and not the individual. In the 2003 Stanley Cup Martin Brodeur did not win the Conn Smyth Trophy (MVP of the Playoffs) it went to someone on the losing team. When asked about it (and many people content he should have won it) he is quoted is saying “That is the one I want (pointing to the Stanley Cup.)” 

That may sound good in a commercial, and often may drive athletic teams to success, but in the business world it cannot be all about ‘We.’ People have Ego’s, people have feelings, thoughts etc. And in the business world there is no true Stanley Cup each year (or every 4 years) there is this ongoing struggle for daily success. As a manager you do not huddle up your team on Jan 2nd and say this year, we are going to win at building software and hope on December 30th the team is at the top of the world.  

So, if that does not exist what does? In an earlier personal blog, I wrote about climbing a mountain, and having to look down. What I neglected to say is that most likely there are a series of mountains, and you are going up and down constantly. As a manager, looking down means two things: 1. Celebrating Team Success and 2. Recognition of individual contributions. 

Celebrating team success is the easy part. Everyone in the team, no matter how large or small their contributions can revel in the moment. A team lunch, a launch party, or even emails from Managing Directors of the firm all go a long way in boosting morale and allowing someone on their ride home to feel they were a part of something.  

Recognizing an individual or individual(s) is harder. Every year at my company there is ‘promo’ day where you hear about all the new people who get promoted. The chatter that ensues is always ‘WTF why did he get it and not me (or someone else I know)’. The exact same thing happens in any recognition. But without recognizing someone who went beyond, that person could feel that his or her efforts were not recognized.  

To resolve this first, make sure either you or the direct manager has one-on-one meetings and hold that meeting after milestone. The first thing should be “Thanks for doing X” (be specific about something they did.). Show the team member that you notice something and thought enough about it to point it out. Just saying “Thanks for your work on project Y” is not enough. Be thoughtful, mindful and sincere.  

Second, any recognition given to individuals that larger groups would see (the whole team, people outside the team etc.) needs to be so obvious to everyone on the team. If a vote was taken about what the MVP of that milestone would be, the team would easily vote there. In fact, creating a survey after a milestone, and asking that one question of not only your team, but anyone involved to pick an MVP often is better. As it is not coming from ‘the boss.’ The boss already gave his direct thanks, this is just something fun and extra.  

Now, re-read the above three paragraphs and where I put the word recognition, replace with credit. It sounds very different, but it is the same. I manager should never take credit away from any individual, and in all conversations, emails, talks with senior managers the credit should be directed to the individual who did the work. Including in the one on one telling the individual you noted the contribution to your manager. The team should get credit for succeeding, the manager gets only credit for guidance, the individuals on the team get credit for their contributions.  

Recognition is not the same as credit, recognizing someone for contributions is giving someone the credit they deserve. As a manager, there should be no greater reward than having the individuals you manage getting “Extra Credit.” What you get credit for is guiding them to get it. 

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain, I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket, my intention is to keep it free.  I do read all feedback, I mostly wont post any of them 

This Blog is a labor of love, and was originally going to be a book.  With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path.  I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content.  I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip.  I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog. 

Hockey fans (or Football – not American but the soccer one) how many times have you say hey ‘He is a play maker, not a scorer…’ or the reverse ‘He can score from anywhere…’ The metaphor can be used in most team sports, I remember watching Magic Johnson who seemed to have eyes behind his head to make passes, and Michael Jordan who hit impossible shots in final seconds. Well, what does this have to do with team building? Yeah, you guessed it, this post is about that. 

Have you ever been on a team where everyone has great ideas, but nothing gets finished? Or a team who can accomplish anything, but lacks direction and vision? I have, and yes, I fit in one of the two buckets of a starter or finisher, and I would think most people do also. The challenge of anyone creating a team or organizing a team is getting the right mix of both.  

Take Apple, as great of a visionary that Steve Jobs was, it took the genius of Steve Wozniak to realize the vision. From the Apple 1 to the Apple ][ and more Jobs had great ideas. Woz though got it to work. Everyone knows about the stories of Jobs vision etc. but how about one about Woz. Woz created the first Apple Computer, the motherboard, the operating system, everything before working with Jobs. Woz tried to sell it to HP five times but was rejected. Jobs convinced them they could start a company and sell it themselves. It was Jobs vision that saw the Apple ][ (and more after) something people would want to buy. Woz who the one built it.  

What are starters good at? They are good at coming up with ideas, thinking creatively and getting those ideas off the ground and running. Starters also can get people on board with their ideas, get them excited to work on the project. Finishers have the dedication to details, the focus and the willpower to see things through completion. If there were only starters, nothing would make it to market. The finisher’s role is just as important (though we very rarely see it that way). As a team leader, you need to make the finisher feel just as important and key as the starter.  

Your team needs a Jobs, and a Woz. And if your team has other types of roles your job is to identify those roles and find the right mix. More complex than identifying the people you need, is back to one of previous posts that each team member needs to feel like they will be heard. Your team needs someone who can pass, someone who can score, someone who can save and one who can stick up for team members. It is a team, and for all the tasks you have, you need people who are not only willing to do them but excel at doing it. 

Oh yes, there are a few people who can do both, consider yourself lucky. Your goal, look at your team, find the starters and finishers, then see what is missing (or where you are overweight) and make the adjustments. Now treat the finishers like rock stars, because they will take your ideas to completion. 

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain, I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket, my intention is to keep it free. I do read all feedback, I mostly wont post any of them 

This Blog is a labor of love, and was originally going to be a book. With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path. I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content. I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip. I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog. 

As I look back at part 5 and wonder if hiring is important enough for two posts, yes and no. This second part about hiring is about finding the right person in what is called a ‘fit’ interview.  But it is also something you can do with your current team.  The notion that one type of intelligence is slowly being rectified.  IQ, the common measure of intelligence is the most common, recently there is the finding that EQ, or emotional intelligence has become mainstream.  But what doesn’t show up on resumes or watching them interact?  Unfortunately, I am not sure there is a name for it. 

Let us look at a sports analogy.  When my daughter is playing hockey we spend a fair amount of time at practices and of course games.  Kids when they are young really only wanted to play games.  Coaches kept saying the way to get better was practicing.  The kids would be put through a set of drills, often the same ones each practice.  My daughter played had specific practices for her as she played goalie. The coach started with the same drills.  Buidling muscle memory so that in a game it would be second nature. 

What most people who don’t know my family very well didn’t see half of it.  The whole family often went to open skates, Ariel did what is called ‘Stick time’ with her friends.  In the winters I put up a backyard ice rink.  At open skates she would race around with her friends playing tag, chasing teammates etc. All of this was fun, free time and unstructured play without a coach telling them what to do. The ability to try things, something you can’t do when a coach is watching.   

Delightful story Larry, can you get to the point? Please?  It is something I see happening first with youth sports and seemed to carry over to education.  The notion that structure is everything and the overload that everything has to follow a plan based on some research to build the perfect education.  But is it?  If everyone got the same lectures jammed into them what really differentiates one student from the other?  There needs to be something outside the classroom that adds to the education.  

So how do you interview to decide what outside and life education someone has? As I said it is not on the resume? This again takes practice, but its looking for things that are on the resume or possibly removed. Some summer jobs or volunteering could lead to experiences that teach skills that are not in a book or classrooms. Anytime someone was in any customer service industry like food service, retail etc. ask about what they learned about people doing those jobs. For those who played teamed and individual sports ask how far they went, what coaches the like or didn’t like. Your goal it to understand if the person fits within your team culture, or in some cases can enhance the team culture.  

This post is part about interviewing, but it is also part about the over structure that our society has brought on our kids. With the goal that only certain schools will define your kid’s success there is an overwhelming push to have too much organization in sports as well as education. I may write a future post about the challenges of this, but your job running a team is finding the cog for your wheel.  

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain, I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket, my intention is to keep it free.  I do read all feedback, I mostly wont post any of them 

This Blog is a labor of love, and was originally going to be a book.  With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path.  I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content.  I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip.  I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog. 

Hiring is Fifth on your list? Yeah, it is mainly most of the time, people run a team already, or just took over a team etc. and very few will be starting from nothing. Hiring is important, particularly important, but if you do not know how to run a team hiring will not solve it. 

How many times you heard the following: 

• Hire People Smarter than you. 
• Hire Someone in your blind spot 
• Hire Diverse candidates 
• Hire people who are willing to learn (not what they know)  
• Hire candidates for the role you have 
• Hire the best candidate whether they fit your role, then find a place for them later 
• Use the try to buy (consulting to convert)  
• Use the ‘why is a manhole cover is round’ (or other problem-solving question)  
• You need a minimum of X number of interviews before you know a candidate is good. 
• You need to see a minimum number of candidates before you can pick one (or just compare the ones you get)  
• Hire someone from the best schools 

I think I could just have a list of 100, start a poll and see what my readers have done, but just use those are some thoughts.

What if I said there is no ‘right’ answer and also there is no ‘wrong’ answer to any of the ideas above? Looking at the list, at different points in my career I have leveraged one or more of them. I have hired some great people, and also have hired some duds (If you never hired a dud, I doubt you hired a bunch of people.) The one thing I did do is learn from each hire, the questions to ask, the things to look at and how to evaluate to get the right candidate for my team.

I could end the blog here, but I doubt most can just rely on ‘learning’ by making mistakes. The hiring starts well before the interview, why again the first four parts were about the team not the hiring. Once you have created the culture for the team now the challenge is ‘writing’ the job description needs to reflect the culture not just the job. Your job description cannot just be ‘I need a Java developer to help build a trading app for so and so company. The required skill sets are Java, database etc..’ That will not get the right people saying ‘hmmm, that sounds awesome,’ Again, my team built tools to help file corporate taxes, and no one in kindergarten ever said, ‘I want to write tax software when I get older.’ The JD needs to show the culture, the experience, and the challenge that your team excels at.  

Next (now this is what I wish) the resume did not have name, address, or anything on it. I would like to read it without any kind of prejudice (try to remove cognitive bias.). Something in the resume needs to stand out, something other than a list of ‘what they did.’ A story, a why that connects with your that will ‘fit’ your culture. This is something that as a reader of resume’s you get better at with practice (Maybe I should create a class in this) 

Lastly, as said in the interview, with all the different theories on questioning for interviews, the key is to be consistent across everyone you hire. But one interview must be for ‘fit’ for the team. The line of questioning will be about the culture of past employment, or even things like college professors that got them excited. A question that sheds light on culture is describing the toughest problem you ran into, and how you got it resolved. What you are listening for are things like ‘I got help from….’ or ‘my team and I’ these are signals that they know how to work in a team environment. A good follow up question is, ‘what is the hardest problem someone asked you to help them out with?’ And see what they did to help.  

But Wait there is more…. after you chose to hire someone, you need to document this, answer the ‘why did we hire this person?’ ‘What did we ask them?’ ‘What did they reply?’ and ‘what led us to believe this would be a great candidate for us?’ I can honestly say I always did this, but its a practice that once in place does allow you to reflect easier. Yes, a retrospective. These notes should be reviewed yearly as part of your review with that employee. See how they are progressing and were the things that you saw in the interview correct, and the ones incorrect what do you need to change in your interview process.

This is longer than I wanted it to be (as of now) so part 6 will be part 2 of hiring….  

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain; I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket, my intention is to keep it free.  I do read all feedback; I mostly wont post any of them 

This Blog is a labor of love and was originally going to be a book.  With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path.  I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content.  I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip.  I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog.