Rework

I first started seeing the Rework book by 37Signals popping up in my Gowalla items collection earlier last year. It had a neat cover, but nothing urged me to seek out more information. Fast forward to now: my group uses Basecamp as a collaboration tool, and B has been developing his own strong ideas about how profitable businesses should operate. I breezed through the book tonight, and found it to be a very readable primer devoid of business jargon on how to build a business on your passion, shed fears and perfectionist tendencies, and treat your employees and customers like humans.

As part joke part hidden criticism, I sent my boss and his boss the link boycottameetingday.com, as they seem to be constantly in and out of meetings. Our last team meeting lasted the entire wedge of time between breakfast and lunch.

Rework: Ditch meetings. They tie up resources- a 1 hour meeting with 10 people is actually worth 10 hours, and a very small amount of information is actually shared, especially if no clear agenda is set beforehand.

I furtively conduct my daily blog rounds, not sure as to what the official policy is on distraction, but knowing full well that a person cannot work 8 hours straight without taking breaks. And I always get my work done.

Rework: What good is it to the company to ban Facebook/Youtube? Employees will find another way to waste time. Realize that people needs breaks to stay productive.

I yearn to be in an environment where I can get to know my coworkers, create an understanding between us on how each of our roles fit into the process, and feel free to disagree and offer constructive criticism. Right now we mind our businesses and act busy most of the time.

Rework: Keep the company small, so that employees will get to know one another more intimately and not be afraid to share ideas. Large companies have employees that treat everyone politely, because they are all strangers.

And many other takeways, including personal ones. Like, act now on inspiration. Otherwise, it will evaporate a few days or a week later. Don't imitate others. By taking this shortcut, you forgo the part where you develop hard-earned understanding, which is priceless.

Besides 37Signals, Twitter, Google, and some local startups, I wonder if there are any other thriving companies following this stripped-down philosophy. I would love to know : )

What else have I been up to? Preparing for my first photography show, that's what. Roshan 35, all 35mm photography show with 3 other photographers at Space12, rad poster designed by the brilliant BW/GF. I was pleased as punch to be invited to be a part of this, and after some initial anxiety over which photos I was to choose (they all started to look crappy), I got into gear and drove my negatives over to the esteemed Precision Camera for prints. And they came back looking absolutely drab! After doing some comparisons on Flickr and some old prints, I realized that Walgreens automatically applied a sort of 'S-curve' to all my photos, enhancing them with more contrast and a red hue. This made me question the validity of my film photography history. If they only looked so stunning because of a template edit, then I had nothing to hold onto. But after some external affirmation, I think I am starting to accept the natural, more moody look of my dusky shots. You'll see what I mean if you come. : ) Come! 7-11 PM @ Space 12. Other photographers featured: Evan Wilson, Andrew Stevens, Gideon Tsang (pastor of Vox Venaie).

A Good Start to a New Week

image from themagazine

So, I'm 2 days into my new job at BHI, and it's been a pretty positive experience. Even though I am hourly, I am treated like a full-time employee in that no one is looking over my shoulder to make sure I'm occupied each minute. Also, my team has a great connection and people are either joking around or speaking freely about office politics. And I get to bounce around in a sweet Herman Miller Aeron chair. It's in the MoMa Collection, for Pete's sake! There is also much work to be done. The amount of information about messy processes I have let in on is somewhat overwhelming, I must admit, but I have ample time to play around and figure out how to eliminate efficiencies so that we can all use our time for better purposes. That's my job in a nutshell- to improve on the current processes. It all boils down to the main underlying goal of all business actions: to get more profit. In fact, everyone in any position or industry is responsible for keeping this in mind. Stagnation and complacency is the mark of a bored, burnt out, or defeated worker. Not good. Do people reserve the same amount of energy and determination to effect a similar result in their personal lives? Should they? Should I pore over my financial documents, charts, and ledgers with the aim of reducing waste, charting overspending, and maximizing savings? Or should we be looser about living and seek to be happy and not so intensely attentive to every single detail.

Same thought goes out to entrepreneurs, who are always looking for the next big moneymaking thing. Is this a hobby of some people? What is the point of making more and more money? That is something I cannot wrap my head around. Make enough to live on, enjoy fancy food, travel occasionally, build some savings, clothe the children and send them to college. That's really all I desire monetarily. Don't want a huge sum looming over prodding me, "How are you going to manage me for the rest of your life? Don't screw it up!" Simple is better.

It's a real luxury getting to work 2 jobs. Because today I worked all day, felt a bit tired and used up, and cheered up at the thought of going in for only a half day tomorrow. Having some variety is good for my soul and attention. I don't have time to frequent the grocery store every day anymore, but I can go every other day. I swear, Natural Grocers has become my second living room, or a late afternoon destination (since I can leisurely walk there from our house).

On an unrelated note, I have been getting some heartening comments on my other blog. I am aware that it has a readership of sorts, but receiving positive feedback is truly instrumental in encouraging me to keep it up. Half the time I wonder to myself, "Why am I even keeping it up? There are a slew of fashion blogs and websites with similar items. What do I have to offer to the landscape?" I love to do fun things just for myself, but how much more awesome it is if other people find them useful or interesting.

Work Doodles

I forgot to bring my magazine to work today, so I doodled instead. The decision was very much influenced by the quality drawings in this good book, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet.

1: I didn't get to sit next to KK today. That took a lot of fun out of it. Rahn's the creepy guy they had to draw up a company sexual harassment policy for. And the sentences at the bottom are samples of phrases we get to test.

2: Yesterday's purchase

3: Dynastat office quirks- I always get the urge to pull the glass door handle when it should be pushed, and vice versa...

We were treated to free Amy's ice cream during a break. I haven't been 2 weeks yet and I get to enjoy this yearly perk. Like! I got the apple ice and as I wasn't going to subject my digestive system to the supremely delicious, utterly creamy confection that is mexican vanilla. Odd fact: one of my next door neighbor college students works there as well. Very coincidental, as only 10 people in town are sound testers there.

1st time: Cooking dried beans! They are cheaper than canned beans, and cans have BPA. I got large bag of 'em from my new favorite and even closer grocery, Natural Grocers. Now that I am better friends with an employee there (the gf of a bike friend) she kindly applies her employee discount to my purchases on occasion. I soaked them overnight, tossed them in the crock pot, covered them with 2 inches of water, turned the knob to low. Worried about them having no flavor, I added in some sliced yellow onion 4 hours later. I didn't have a ham hock handy. Does the flavoring come in after they are done? Does cooking them with salt make them tough? I haven't done too much research, but I'm trying to incorporate beans into our diet, so we are able to eat less meat and get enough protein.

1st time: Bought a fresh jalapeno to use in cornbread. What do I do with it? Would it be too spicy to add chopped raw into the mixture? Over the past year, I have amassed a decent herb and spice collection, and I have found that fresh herbs and spices pack more punch, flavor and brightness than dried ones. One day I will keep plants alive (even my succulents are looking dry), and when that day comes, I will have a herb and pepper garden.

Edit: I cut and seeded the pepper without gloves, and then touched my face! Intense burning for about 45 minutes only, thankfully. Tried lemon juice, baking powder, rubbing alcohol, ice. Only time seemed to help. So that's why I don't buy fresh peppers!

August is Here! Yowz.

Above is a video by Little Dragon, fronted by a shockingly soulful Swedish-Japanese singer. I freely admit that I poo-pooed their music the few times it came up on B's ipod, but after watching their live videos, I became very impressed. I spent about an hour savoring a handful of songs; you could say I was in a state of flow. What is flow? Read the article. Coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, it is a state of concentration and action, where you possess the skills to surmount a challenge. You lose track of time and are immersed in a state of active pleasure. To me, this is the holy grail of your life's actions. To achieve flow in both the workplace and in leisure is supremely rewarding. I never once encountered it when I was working, and that was partly due to my stubborn unwillingness to seek it out. I have experienced it when hearing a catchy, moving song for the first few times, and also when digging into a newfound hobby. Both occasions are short-lived, for the simple fact that novelty fades. The song becomes too predictable, and the skill or art presents challenges that seem too high to surmount. And I suspect there lies my problem in motivation. I would not go so far to call myself a Jill-of-all-Trades (except that I have in cover letters), but I do possess a shallow to moderate knowledge of most subjects that aren't overly technical or dry. It's easier to move on to something else when things start getting complicated, yeah? The only times in my childhood I have been instructed to dig deeper was in school and in orchestra. If it wasn't for the structure of schooling, I would have never been exposed to biology, music theory, grammar rules, social theory, etc. Wherein there lies the problem; it was all forced/ expected. I stopped thinking when I fulfilled the minimum requirements. Now that I have exited the system with a semi-valuable piece of paper, I find that I have no inner motivation outside of wanting to satisfy my basic needs. My most common response is to want to curl up and disappear, but this is clearly illogical and life is only getting shorter. I feel so ill-equipped for success, even for personal satisfaction. I see others pursuing their passions, taking risks, learning from failures, creating change, and talking openly about it. That's the definition of living, huh? I have always seen them from beyond a thick-paned sheet of glass, and I almost lionize them. I find that the more I think about these things, the less I act, and the more unhappy I feel. There is an infinite amount of distraction available on the internet that I've been numbing myself with (facebook, twitter, online shopping). And I'm getting tired of it. I'm lazy, freaked out, confused, scared of failure, and a neurotic perfectionist. They say it's the journey that is valuable, not the end product/ solution. If I can accept that, and also quit elevating others above me, then I have hope. Countless others have come into their own while going through a variety of challenges that are not present in my life. It seems stupid to write about this, and I apologize for the loads of self-help thoughts you readers have to slosh through. I'll be honest: I have no idea what I'm doing and approaching that realization causes me great anxiety. I hate that it does, and am trying to manage it the best that I can. I feel light years behind other people, yet I know I will be forever behind if I continue to choose inaction.

However, in a year chock full of employment possibilities and ensuing disappointments, I have a positive report! I got a part-time job working with my friend Kristi testing the quality of sound clips. Very random, I know, but I somehow managed to pass the very difficult test after two tries. At a rate of 1 word per 2 seconds, you listen to a series of spoken words (masked with varying distortion) and choose which one you hear out of two very similar-sounding terms. Ex. chad/ shad, bat/ gat, choose/ shoes. It's sleep-inducing after about 30 minutes, but having a solid part-time job will keep me busy and with maximum unemployment benefits through the year. I'm brainstorming ways in which to encourage flow in this situation, and the best I can come up with is to attempt deep thoughts in tandem.

Change happens when the desire for gain is greater than the fear of loss.

On Certainty / On Creativity

In this time of drawn-out unemployment, I've gotten used to the cloud of uncertainty about my career direction that hovers over me each day. It had plagued me much more seriously a year or two before, where I would work myself up and want to scream out in frustration. Instead of continuing this way, I took a step back and examined what was buried behind my confusion and fear. Looking back, I see that all the major decisions in my life were made somewhat haphazardly, without too much research or deep thought, and I have usually acclimated myself to how it changed my life. Overall, I am satisfied with those decisions, even the ones that were most heavily influenced by others. I am just not someone with a raging individuality. (Yet I am enticed by people with that personality.) Although I have come to terms with this, relaying to this a prospective employer usually doesn't help me along. From my interview experience, I gather that most employers want to see that you have a business-oriented passion, and then have you direct that passion towards the company's success. So, I need to change my game plan by either a) picking a career based on some research and cultivate a stronger interest in it, b) picking a career, any career, and practice getting good at faking passion, or c) if there is nothing out there I can get, create my own job.

Job articles are constantly going on about how to set yourself out from the crowd using creative methods. I have done that before, and even thinking about it makes me tired. I do not consider myself a "creative person." Sure, I have created things before, some of which I liked, some of which I felt were failures. My mind does not think outside its box on a daily basis; it is lazy in that area and I was not brought up to stretch myself that way. Success meant doing what you were told and getting A's in school. I tend to look at famous artists and artist friends alike with a mixture of wonder, jealousy and longing. How are they like that? In college, I had a friend who was so imaginative and was always coming up with neat projects for us to do while hanging out. I really craved that creative companionship, because it took all responsibility off myself to learn how to entertain myself. Now I see that it's possible to take the reins and be OK, even proud of my ideas. Reading this article helped me to see that instead of judging and censoring my occasional creative thoughts, I need to loosen up, stop comparing myself to others, just create and not stop. (My self-worth is not based on the quality of my output... or is it? And by whose standards?) As a child, I had perfectionist tendencies, as my world was so small things could often be done 100% correctly. I can honestly say that because I could not stand to not be the best at something, I could not choose a career path in college. Clear-cut success or I'll have none of it. There is no transition from being a star child to being a mediocre, ordinary adult. What a blow to my complacent ego. Obviously, that has been debilitating to me in entering adult life, and I hope to move past all that soon, and find personal meaning in my actions. In terms of a job, that may mean that I do something now to pay the bills and know that I probably won't be doing it forever. I have to be aware of the options available to me at the moment and take advantage of them while they still stand.

Steppin' Out

I just wrote a very long e-mail to my managers at my previous company trying to get them to create a new position and hire me to fill that role. I'm not used to putting myself out there by throwing out ideas and new ways of doing things, so it was good practice. Whatever comes out of it, it was the most engaging fun I'd had in a long time composing an e-mail.

Hi xxx and xxx,

How's it going? I'm doing pretty well, just figuring out what my next career moves are going to be. With that said, I have a business proposal for [Company]. I wanted to run it by you guys via email first. So, I'm sure you've noticed that most successful smaller and upcoming companies these days have a large presence in social media. It's all about live updates and relevant/ interesting news. And it looks like [Company] has caught wind of this, as evidence by the Facebook page and Twitter account. However, the majority of the 22 "fans" on Facebook already work for the company or are related to an employee. And the Twitter account is hardly active and more importantly, has a whopping zero followers. To me, it seems like this online promotion is more of an afterthought delegated to people who are up to their necks doing their actual jobs (i.e. xxxx, xxxx). Perhaps the sales team is already doing a good job bringing in new customers. But when asked about my previous job there, absolutely nobody had heard of [Company]. Besides word of mouth, the next best way to promote a company is via social media marketing. [Company] has earned some very prestigious honors from Oracle, and that is something that needs to be promoted more heavily, ie not preaching to the choir. Chances are competitors aren't doing much in this realm, and if they are, it's all the more urgent to catch up.

One company that is a great model of this is Bazaarvoice. They are a small to medium-sized startup, and yet they were named Austin's Best Company to Work for in 2009. They manage reviews for online companies, such as Overstock.com and Walmart, and they are extremely good at what they do. They have a very active Twitter account, 3675 followers, and tweet constantly when their company is mentioned in the media. I hear from friends who work there that people are just clamoring to apply, because of all the great buzz. If [Company] is so awesome at what they do (unique business model) and also wants to attract top talent, it needs to get the word out.

A few recommendations:
1. Amp up the Facebook page. Interact with client pages on Facebook and look for cross-promotion opportunities.
2. Tweet daily. Good subject matter includes company news, industry news, Oracle tips, @replies or retweets of relevant client tweets.
3. Start a company blog. Develop a focus, such as Oracle EBS implementation issues, SME's or whatever. From what I saw, all this dialogue and communication goes on over the phone and work emails between consultants, PMs and clients, so this useful knowledge publicly displayed would act as evidence that [Company] knows what it's doing. Consultants spend all their time doing their jobs well, and it would be helpful to have someone else get insights on their experience and also opinions on industry trends. Also, find related blogs and comment on them frequently.
4. Build the LinkedIn Profile. Get happy clients to exchange recommendations. Provide a blog update box for recent blog posts. Add a news box as well.
5. Start a Flickr and post company photos on it. One of my main hobbies is photography, and I would be willing to snap photos at events and gatherings. People like browsing photos to see that employees are enjoying themselves, and thus, the company is great to work for. Examples: Twitter's flickr, Bazaarvoice's flickr. Tied to this would be a strong push for the HR department to develop more team building and quality of life events, which stands out all the more during a recession.

Those are just a few suggestions, and I have plenty more ideas. If this is something [Company] is interested in pursuing, please consider me as the person most qualified for this job. To be blunt, during downtime in my previous role at [Company], I spent most of it blogging, reading blogs, checking Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, other review sites, etc., so this is second nature to me. Most companies successful in this endeavor have at least one full-time employee dedicated to this. I look forward to hearing your reply.

Thanks for your time and consideration,
Me