Stuck between mediocrity and excellence

The other day I received an Outlook invitation that had over 60 people on the distribution list. Granted I was part of the problem in that I was added to the list a few weeks ago. But still - this is a weekly meeting that has obviously suffered from invitee proliferation. If the objective of the meeting is to have any decisions made with everyone listening on how that decision is made, then mission accomplished.  It's not rocket science to figure out how a distribution list can get to be that way. Maybe the original intent of the meeting was to get a core group of people (let's say <10) together to get updates and make decisions on a strategic decision. Then those 10 people decide one day that they can't make it and assign the meeting attendance to their deputy so that he or she can attend and then that person is never removed from the distribution list. Then there's always an agenda item that involves resources working on the projects that support that agenda item ...

When I was in graduate school, my Industrial Engineering professor wanted us to write a paper on living our life 'lean.' By lean, I'm referring to lean principles that are prominent in many best-in-class manufacturing organizations today. The point of the exercise was to demonstrate how much waste there was in our everyday lives and what impact there would be as we leaned out our daily activities. Even in graduate school, where I was living off at most $13K a year, I still had too much 'stuff'. It was an eye opening experience. Fast forward to today. I now make more than $13K a year, am married, have a son, a house, and a pension / 401k plan. I'm on my 3rd job now and am in the annals of management for a multi-billion dollar client. Our 2 car garage only holds one car - because the other side is filled with who knows what. Our dining room is a play area for my 20 month old. When I go to work, I have 2 laptops, 2 phones, an iPad and more paper than I know what ...

A few months ago I made the decision to stop traveling. I took a massive pay cut, am still adjusting to life at home, and am really searching for my calling or purpose. The one right decision that I made was to spend more time with my son and wife. I did not want to regret not being able to watch my son grow and I wanted to be an influence in his life like my dad has always been in mine. That said, there are a few lessons learned that I've developed as I've started adjusting to "civilian" life. I will tell you that I am an ant's hair away from driving the Honda Odyssey with the complimentary Accord as its backup. If there was layaway for Ferragamo's, I'd be taking advantage of it. Thomas Pink, Ted Baker, and Brooks Brothers have not seen me in a while. I'm sure Simon Malls is taking a hit because of the revenue that I am not contributing right now. However, all of that is replaced when I hold my son and hear him say "airplane" for the first ...

"I emailed you. Therefore the ball is in your court and I did my job."  As I've started to work within the innards of a large IT organization, it's occurred to me that I'm in the place that cultivates passive aggressiveness. From the support person that would rather IM, text, or email you before calling you to the developer that will just nod his / her head in agreement to avoid a disagreement or not go through the pain of an explanation- I am not just knee deep in passive aggressiveness, I'm drowning in it. You can imagine the challenges facing an IT project manager. Actually you can imagine the challenges facing the business side of an organization as a specific function tries to actually communicate with the IT side of the house. As I've gotten older, I've come to realize that no matter how intelligent, witty, or articulate I think an email is- it's not the same as getting in front of a person and working through a particular problem or is...

The war room is something that I don't have and actually miss. War room, team room, consultant dungeon -- we all have a name for the one area where brilliance, flashes of brilliance, and an occasional off-color comment (or many) are made among co-workers and friends. When I transitioned off of the road into a different role I first ended up in a cube. Then I got kicked out of that cube and put into a conference room with a nice view of a subdivision and Stone Mountain. This week I'm back in a cube on the floor of an IT support group that takes in calls from the field. (Believe it or not, the drama that can happen at the support desk can be quite entertaining). I've always wondered what it would be like to get the corner office with the view, the adjoining conference room, and the mahogany desk. There's a point where meetings are scheduled for you and you are not forced to twists people's arm to schedule a meeting and spend 1/4 of your day finding a conference ro...

When I was traveling, I used to love Delta when they offered free movies as I was flying across the country. I could watch 3 in a row – although sometimes that last one would end right at the best part and it would suck because I would always wonder what happened. (Curse you Harry Potter movies!) Anyway, one of the movies that I watched was with Denzel Washington called Unstoppable. It’s about a runaway train that was basically a bomb and the experienced train engineer (Denzel) with his young protégé saved the day by diverting the train out of imminent danger saving many lives in the process. I’ve been on a lot of projects that are analogous to a moving freight train. As a consultant, they say you wouldn’t be at a client if that moving freight train was always a nice, smooth, and easy ride.   It’s the job of a consultant to become Denzel and get that train on the right track. What I’ve come to find out is that there are times where you just can’t be Denzel. Sometimes,...

Spending over 10 years working in a Big 4 environment and culture had more of an effect on me than I could have ever imagined. In the endless pursuit of chasing the proverbial brass ring, I did whatever it took and did it whenever it needed to be done. Emails were responded to as if I were on instant messenger at any hour of the night. I spent endless hours waiting in airports and dealing with all of the fun that comes with traveling the US commercial airline system. The work is one thing. But the lifestyle becomes second nature. From the outside looking in, people think you are crazy for doing what you do. On the inside, it's perfectly natural. The people you work with become your second family because you all know that this is just the way life is. Unlike many of my very successful friends that went on to big titles, more responsibilities, and bigger paychecks, I made the decision to do similar work...