A FEW THOUGHTS

Archive for the ‘Business and Work’ Category

I am very excited, a bit puzzled and surprised, but very very happy to start working for the number one consultancy company Avan here in Norway from 01. January 2012. Since starting in the IT-industry about 15 years ago, I have had my own company for the last 12 years. Avan and myself have had a close partnership for 3-4 years, and now was the time to join them in full. The daily routines will likely not change much for me in the beginning, but I will probably feel some change being an employee – but I expect it to be to the better. . I just hope I will be able to contribute in a good way. Check out http://avan.no

Remembering Steve Jobs who passed away yesterday – wise words from one of the worlds great innovators and entrepreneurs:
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.”

This week I bought a scanner, as promised. I did not buy a Canon P-150 as I said. The Canon promises a lot of features and quality but I think it is a bit expensive (around 2500 NOK), so for the moment I am testing out a Plustek OpticSlim M12. So far it seems to cover all my needs as I may scan a couple of documents per week to send my accountant. It is not very fast but scans a couple of documents per minute. The selling point is the size. It is the size of a long remote control with the length of just over A4 size. It is powered only through the USB cable and works with pressing one of two buttons. It comes with a neat pouch and also a docking to place on the table. The price; just around 1000-1250 NOK.

Yes, I gave in. Last week I bought the iPad – imported from the US ( of course only 3 months after I was there myself). The feeling is great! It is a great toy/tool/machine that really catches the eye as soon as you get it. Even though I am more of a Windows and PC guy I think that Apple do know how to make good user interfaces and user friendly designs. That is what they do best. The iPad works in most ways as the iPhone (without the phone) which I have had for about a year, only with a bigger and better screen. This of course improves everything. The typing is a lot easier due to bigger on-screen keyboard and the applications has of course a better interface by just being bigger and more clear and easy.

By now also signing up for Apple’s MobileMe service I also change certain details in how I work. All e-mails (accounts and archives), contacts, calendars and bookmarks are now available from, and synchronized between, both iphone, ipad, pc’s, servers and web interface. In addition I will use the MobileMe iDisk for sharing of more public files. For private files and files I need to transport with me I can use Evernote.

I have no problem seeing the iPad working as “travel laptop” from now on, and I look forward to discovering new areas of “tech-joy” with it…  Sometimes I can be such a geek…

Following up on my step towards “my paperless society”; Yesterday I got rid of my Brother HL 2030 Laser printer. It was actually getting old and the prints were really bad in the end (even my accountant commented it). I have no plans of buying a new printer. We still have a small photo printer which can be used for photos, or in emergencies normal prints as well. In part 1 of this little series I told you my next step would be to by the scanner Canon P-150. I haven’t done that yet but it will be my next step. As I see it for most affairs e-mail will do just fine. I think it will be mainly for scanning letters I get (if I need to keep them) or scanning signed documents before sending by e-mail. If I by this also reduce the amount of stamps I buy it will be an added value I guess.. If the postal service didn’t shake in their boots before, I bet they will now..;)

The website SmashingShare just came out with a great list.. Don’t you just love lists ? It’s like it makes the life so much easier for all the rest of us. It is already put in order and categorised.. Alright, anyway .. the list this time, which I though was quite cool was the “10 Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make As a Freelancer” ! And I will be the first to admit I have done some. Maybe I have done them all, but they are really true, and if someone can learn from this – then cool !

I am getting sick and tired of paper. Getting paper, reading paper, storing paper, going through paper over again and again and finally tossing paper out (in the paper recycle bin of course). There doesn’t seem to be much initiative in the business world to eliminate, or reduce, use of paper even though the solutions are there. Every week I get invoices, magazine, advertising pamphlets, ordinary mail and just tons of garbage in my postbox. All these could have fit perfectly in my e-mail (and some in the spam filter of course..). I almost never buy a newspaper (in paper). I only read them online. I do like the feel of a good book, but it seems like maybe the iPad or other devices will cure that soon too.

So, today I feel like I took the first step towards my area of paperless society. I had a gigantic box filled with user manuals for everything from hard drives to tv’s, cameras and dishwashers. I took them one by one, found the electronic version online, downloaded it and stored it. I then threw the paper manuals in the recycle bin and went for a walk. I feel this is a good step in the right direction. Next step for me is to purchase a small scanner and scan all mail I receive, while I try to convince my accountant to receive vouchers and bills through e-mail. I also hope to train some of the organisations sending me mail to “go electronic”.

I am looking at a Canon P-150 , or at least something in that size range. If someone has experience on this or similar scanners, please let me know what you think.

Together with a client (large international corporation) I recently attended a workshop looking at, and discussing, cross-culture elements and awareness. I found the workshop to be very interesting and giving, so I figured I’ll try to give a brief recap of it here.

Culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one category of people from another

Geert Hofstede

What is Culture? Culture is a shared system of attitudes, values and beliefs. First of all I found it interesting to discuss all the elements that, when brought together, constitutes to what we call culture, and identify all the different types of culture we have:

• National & regional culture
• Corporate culture
• Professional culture
• Gender and age
• Religion

And within these you have different dimensions; direct vs indirect cultures, rules vs. relationship oriented cultures, time, hierarchy, individualist vs. collectivist cultures, non verbal communication. All these types of culture we can break down to many elements. Just think of the differences in language, dress code, food, public holidays, way of thinking, beliefs, attitudes and values.  All these elements are important factors that contribute to a diverse community. And for an international company it’s important to both be aware of, respect and take care of the different dimensions in this. Building and preserving a corporate culture can, in my opinion, only be done by respecting each employees personalculture.

Now, working together in a corporation like this does demand that you are able to sort out the different dimensions of this. Escpecially being aware of the non-verbal communication is extremely important. It’s not a secret that working together across boundaries like language, time zones and different tools for communication can cause misunderstandings and discontent . Being aware of this is half of it. The other half is adapting and contributing to adjustments in a positive way.

Imagine that you have a project with project members and stakeholders from United States, Brazil, UK, Germany, Norway, Russia, Malaysia and Japan. Most of the meetings are probably over web or phone, so the project teams are more or less “virtual”. Communication will be only in written or orally and you will seldom see any body language unless you use video conference. It’s quite likely that during your project you will face more than one challenge due to cultural differences and misunderstandings. Just trying to arrange a meeting that works well in each timezone will be a challenge. We also need to think about all the hidden messages in what we say. Some cultures are more direct and some have more hidden expression. Just look at  the possible meanings of these statements:

So being aware of the cultural filter of each other and the fact that when we say something we “encode” it, and the receiver doesn’t necessarily “decode” it the same way, is very important. Another important thing is also to be aware of the pitfalls of stereotyping and generalizing. However, looking at the different ways of decode/encode messages it was interesting looking at the Lewis model which in fact “stereotype” this in National Cultural Profiles. This is a way of looking at the majority of certain countries and how you can expect to experience the different types  of behaviour and leadership.

Looking at these different profiles we can clearly see how one can misunderstand one another as there are so clear differences in how we:

• talk vs. listen
• network through official channels or through connections
• plan in details or in general principles
• show or hide feelings
• do confrontations logically, emotionally or not at all
• handle direct truth vs. diplomacy

Let us remember it doesn’t have to be another country. You can easily find cultural differences, for instance between a project manager and a programmer.  Being a project manager I see some clear benefits of being aware of these issue and try to be open about them when managing cross-cultural teams:

• Bring cross cultural communication up as an issue at a very early stage and let the team be aware of it
• Define basic project team culture and rules
• Make team members curious to learn about the others
• Prepare agenda and do action minutes with deadlines in your meetings
• Limit number of participants and include the “silent” colleagues
• Avoid criticism in public and do not dominate

Cross-Cultural Awareness is a very large topic and not easy to summarize in a workshop, minutes or a blogpost. But it is important for each of us, both in working with other cultures and in our everyday life. So…

• Know yourself
• Be open and curious
• Get to know the other

And by that

• Improve effective communication and cooperation

This morning I read a post by Sacha Chua where she summarizes a  presentation she gave at a webinar for Women in Technology International. Sacha Chua is a great blogger, social networker and, in her own opinion, an introvert. She really made a good start for my day with her seven lessons in being an introvert and how to improve how you connect to others, changing your own perspective to the better and to grow with the challenge. These are good pointers for both self-appointed introverts but also for everyone else that might not fit 100% in the “extrovert” category; meaning you are not comfortable walking up to any stranger to start a conversation. So… recommended reading!

How do you raise performance in your team? How do you raise performance in a project ? How do you increase team spirit? How do you preach the true core values to your co-workers? All different aspects of the same thing, and covered in Guy Kawasakis post  How to Change a Job Title Into a Mission commenting Steve Gary Blanks book The Four Steps to the Epiphany.  The statement is that, for your company or department, to focus on its mission rather than the employees titles you may be able to raise  performance. And I think this is very true!

Having the department and its workers to identify the mission they are on, its intent and the value of the mission you will raise the awareness and the drive for your employees. Installing core values and a sense of crusade you will raise the willingness to contribute. This is something you as a leader and manager should not underestimate, and if you don’t abuse it you can achieve a lot. Here’s what he recommends:

1. Develop a mission for each department. This should summarize “why people come to work, what they need to do, and how they will know they succeeded.” The SuperMac marketing department’s mission became “Help Sales deliver $25 million in sales with a 45% gross margin.”
2. Teach the mission intent. A specific mission such as this is bound to change according to market conditions and product development schedules. Thus, employees must understand that the mission intent—achieve corporate revenue and profit goals—is the “big picture” and even more important.
3. Instill core values. The final step that Steve took was to instill core values of “accountability, execution, honestly, and integrity.” In other words, there would be no surprises and excuses. He only wanted facts and requests for help.