Do you enjoy your work? I do. In fact, I often tell people that I feel like the little kid who grew up and didn't have to give up his Tonka toys. And I mean it. Sure, it's challenging and sometimes downright hard, but I love what I do.
Right now I am very thankful to have a place to go do it everyday. I've been bored and I've been busy. Busy is more fun and pays better.
I was reminded last week that not all toys are Tonka toys, be they big or small. If you're as left-brained as I am toys come in all kinds of forms. Last week it was a six sigma refresher course and man, did we have toys to play with! Fishbones, X-Y Matrix, FMEA sheets and on and on and on. Yeah, it was fun.
I've been thinking about my next car. Naturally I want it to be green but hey, I'm a speed freak too. What's a guy to do? How about this?
OK, a slight diversion here. What I really want for my commute is one of these. Not bad for a home built, eh?
Speaking of Continuous Improvement projects (we were, right?) I must admit to a failure. Last year I took on a large project mainly out of frustration with the status quo. The result was predictable. Any time you try to "boil the ocean" you shouldn't be too surprised when it doesn't work. And this project didn't deliver the goods. But, we still achieved a lot. Project checklists, design and building standards, a PM toolkit in our collaboration environment, staff who can now process map with the best, a shorter cycle time on major project provisioning processes. I'll take those results as a satisfactory "silver medal." And I will remember to check the size of my ego the next time.
I am thinking about my FM friends on the U.S. east coast and wishing you all well. I'll bet you've built up some pretty good arm strength these last three weeks with all the snow shoveling. Keep your chin up, Spring Training camps are open in Florida and Arizona - better days are just ahead.
I am helping a non-profit with a site search and have been playing around with GIS tools. We're not quite where we need to be in the shareware world yet but they are moving fast. Assuming you are familiar with Google Earth and Google Maps, try doing a batch upload of target information. There are a few sites that try, but none that I've found that do it well. Anyone have advice?
"The Age of Consumer Capitalism" by Roger Martin in the current issue of the Harvard Business Review suggests that corporate attention to shareholder value over the past three decades has actually hurt shareholder value. In a nutshell, "next quarter" decisions motivated to improve shareholder value often come at the expense of decisions that improve customer value. In the long run customers vote with their purchasing decisions and then....guess what happens to shareholder value. Seems so simple, doesn't it?
OK, that's enough for this week. Work hard, and enjoy it.
Speaking of that large project you took on last year. I don't see any mention of the scheme you came up with for numbering your projects. I am guessing you went with a simple numbering scheme.
ReplyDeleteAs a proud resident of the east coast, I might add that the snow gave me a chance to interact with neighbors that I don't often see and lend an extra hand to those who needed help. All in all, we survived with the knowledge that spring and the return of baseball was nigh.