When Expectations Change, Communicate, Communicate

Sure – the basics in this story are my fault. But I think it demonstrates a key concept that I will explain shortly!

The Furniture!

Most of us (at least in North America & Europe)have purchased and assembled Good ‘Ole IKEA assemble-it-yourself furniture.

In case you haven’t, IKEA furniture comes in a box, all pieces are numbered, and it contains a diagram of how it all fits together. Every slot, groove, tab and hole is pre-cut. Every dowel, screw and bracket fits into its assigned place. Assembling this stuff can be a bit frustrating at times, but over all, it is pretty straight forward.

So….

We bought an IKEA dresser for my daughters university apartment and were going through the assembly process when….

Boom. I ran into a problem.

Something wasn’t fitting together as planned. An hour and a half later, with several false starts, mistakes, and expletives I realized why.

Remember I said that every slot, groove, tab and hole is pre-cut? For the first time in my personal IKEA furniture experience, one of those slots was indeed pre-cut, but it was hidden under neath the vinyl exterior cladding of the part. The instructions made no mention of having to cut this vinyl to get access to that slot.

I guess it should have been obvious, and once I realized it – finishing the job was easy. Simply enough, I was blinded by my past experiences and expectations! In 30 plus years I have never had to cut, bend, fold, staple or mutilate any IKEA part or fastener. So as obvious as it may have been, I was literally blind to it.

The SMB Takeaway

There are two related lessons here. As leaders (IT or otherwise) When we are changing the expectations that we have of our staff or teams, and second, in IT no matter how much easier you think that new tool, new process, or new idea is;

Guess what – it will be going against someone’s expectations and experiences. You need to communicate the differences, the reasons, the outcomes.

And communicate it more than you ever thought necessary. And no matter how obvious you may think it is.

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Photo Credit gillicious via flickr

September 11th 2009 – A Moment of Silence

We Will Remember Them

This poem was from the War to End All Wars- it never seems to stop.

We Will Remember Them

For The Fallen ; Laurence Binyon

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Photo Credit Sister72 via flickr

Mr. Google’s Driving Directions are Weird

This past weekend I had to make the long six hour trek from Ottawa to Guelph Ontario to take our oldest daughter back to University.

Unfortunately it was not even a straight line trek, as it also included a quick stopover in Oakville to pick up some furniture being donated for her new apartment. (thanks G & L for that donation!)

So, not being an expert on driving through the Toronto area, I charted two sets of driving directions from Google Maps and set out.

Now here is why I stated that the directions were weird.

The routes I was sent on don’t make much sense! forget straight lines and simplicity – take the cow path!

If you are in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) you will see why! If not, well, just let me say that winding your way through the traffic of multiple Highways in Toronto is not what you want to spend hours doing.

First Stop

So, my first set of driving instructions from Mr. Google’s maps was from Ottawa to my stopover in Oakville. I dutifully followed the driving directions set for me, and did successfully find my way to that first pit-stop.

Hey, I thought all was good; Except that once I arrived there – my host was flabbergasted on the route Mr. Google sent me by.

You see, the straightest and easiest route to my destination would simply have been to take Highway 401 to Trafalger Rd, then hang a left, and drive straight through to Oakville. In other words a straight line, then hang a left!

But no!

Mr. Google’s Maps sent me on a twisty ride up Highway 401 to another highway, the 427, then had me switch over again to a third called the QEW and then finally up to Oakville.

I was lucky that QEW traffic was fairly light (For Toronto! meaning bumper to bumper but still moving – not parked) But my host advised I had probably added a half hour to my trip taking that twisty route through the heart of the city.

Second Stop

With that lesson learned from the first set of directions, my host then took a look the final leg of my journey’s driving directions from Mr. Google;

From my Oakville pit-stop  to the final address in Guelph.

My host then bust a gut laughing.

Again, the simplest and straightest route is to take that same Trafalger Rd. to Highway 401 and then exit the 401 at Highway 6 towards Guelph. Think about it, go straight, get on the highway and hang a right at the sign.

But no again!

Mr. Google chose to give me driving directions that sent me on a trip that included Toronto’s very nice, but very expensive Highway 407 Toll Road – and that was to get me to that very same aforementioned Highway 401. (why drive a straight line when you can loop-the-loop around the city right?)

So, Is there a point to this rambling?

Nah – I don’t think so.

Just don’t believe everything that a computer tells you!

Mr. Google was introduced to me by Whimsley

For Whom Google Toll's

Photo Credit Wikipedia

Teach Your Kids About Passwords In Social Media

My little guy, (I say that tongue in cheek as he is 14 years old and taller than I am) made the mistake of giving his Facebook password to a girlfriend.

Now an ex-girlfriend.

So she used his ID and password to login to his account and start a massive smear campaign with all his Facebook ‘Friends’.

In some she ‘fessed up after strings of vitriolic comments;

lol , kate it’s shauna .
i hacked his account . lmaaao

Some she did not.

After a discussion, in my opinion, he is doing the right thing, I advised avoiding the vitriol himself and plainly state what happened. He showed me some of the messages, and that is what he is doing.

The bottom line; have you had that discussion with your kids?

I’m Back

OK, so the auto-post decided not to work!

A few days R&R was great – weather was mixed (wettest summer in a long time).

Vacation Housekeeping

Long range forcast wet and cold.

Still taking a few days away. The joy of WordPress Autopost will keep some stuff happeing here, but alow me to apologize if spam sneaks through!

Stay Well

Big, Old, Ugly, And Amazing!

OK, so this is completely unrelated to IT!

For those of us that witnessed it?  - Well, at least for most of us -this was a once in a lifetime event.

Sorry, let me back up a bit …

It is a Canadian summer, so when it is time to celebrate some family events, what do you do? – Of course!  a family gathering at the old cottage. The weekend was gorgeous, even the rain that was supposed to fall, managed to stay away……

Surprise!

Shortly after many of us arrived – somebody noticed that the biggest, baddest, ugliest snapping turtle that I have seen in a long, long while had crawled right underneath one of our cars.

I am guessing this ‘ol gal was older than my kids, as the shell had a width  of 12 to 15 inches! And the experts tell me that  turtle size is related to age. 

Anyway!

She was being very stubborn and actually refused to be “shooed” out from under the car. And if you know snapping turtles – you don’t reach out to shake hands!

So we decided to call the experts; simply because with 3 dogs and young kids, a big snapper in the middle of the party is a recipe for disaster. Being in the Ottawa area, we are lucky,  there is a well known reptile zoo – that most people here are quite familiar with. These folks are really  popular because they will bring lizards, snakes and other critters to birthday parties and other types of events – and really know the various species. (they advocate and educate too)

So we got on the phone with the question; how to move Very Large Snapping Turtles That Are In Unpleasant Moods. Their knowledgeable staff informed us how. (and just grabbing them by the shell is not the way!- as they can apparently bite most of the diameter around their shells)

So! How do you move Very Large Snapping Turtles That Are In Unpleasant Moods?

Well, I won’t insult anyone and say “easy” – but; at a good restaurant, have you ever seen a great wine server present a bottle of wine to a customer? – Where you hold the top of the bottle in one hand with the base supported by the other forearm which is at right angles to the bottle?

Similar idea!

You grab the base of the tail, (very thick, very strong, and also very ugly) and lift up the hind-end, and then support the rear most portion of the shell with the other forearm. You can then drag the critter in the direction you wish to take them. We were advised that although they cannot bite you in that position – you still may get scratched by the rear claws – so a thick jacket wrapped around the arm can help!

So we dragged her some distance away – and then found that she turned around and headed right back towards us!

Being smart (cough) humans – we did the next logical thing and moved all of the cars away from where she was heading. (we know when we are beat!)

Then, The Amazing!

The old girl went right back to where she was when we dragged her away, dug herself a hole, and proceeded to lay her eggs. With about 20 of us from 7 year old kids to grandparents a few feet away watching.

Every 30 seconds or so – you could see a new egg drop out into the hole until there was a pretty large pile.

She then covered it up – shot us the middle finger (figuratively speaking!) and then wandered away.

As this was part of a gravel and sand driveway – we cordoned off the area so no other cars can drive over that spot.

Amazing?

You bet – something that all of us will remember for a good long while!

Snapping Turtle

Photo Credit Scott Ableman via flickr

Google Local – OOPS!

I wrote a little while ago about the benefit that Google Local can provide to SME’s. As I just mentioned,  we have not done a very good job with Web Marketing our business, and I was asked to work on it.

Step one was to set up Google Analytics . That went without a hitch.

Then I went to create our profile in Google Local. The last step of the profile is confirming your validity via an SMS or Phone Call to the primary number you specified, or via mail.

Well,

We are an SME, but we have almost a dozen incoming lines that roll through hunt groups to five people that answer. And well, (oops!) when the incoming call rolled through the hunt groups, some one hung up on it!

I had to redo the process and select the snail mail option.

Lesson learned! (I am sure there will be more so stay tuned the RSS icon on the Home Page!)

When Words Lose Their Meaning

OK, this is a random thought.

But I was reading a document that used the term clockwise.

For generations we have known what that means by referring directly to the literal usage of the term.

But what about our kids?

I know that in my family, we don’t have an old analog clock anywhere in the house, they are all digital. Our cellular phones? digital, the clocks in our cars? the computers we use?. You name it -  all digital.

For my kids, there is no literal usage of the term clockwise.

So what happens?

Does our lexicon just lose that word?

Or will it morph into some word that no longer has relevance, but still is used to identify that concept of moving in a circle from left to right?

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Real SMB IT: Open Source Office Productivity Software

First, for all the open source advocates that are going to jump down my throat, yes I use a lot of open source software.

But for the small to medium enterprise, I have to say beware what you read. Most open source advocates that get published – including one by Richard Bray in the print edition of Informationweek Canada wax poetic about the benefits of open source office productivity software including  OpenOffice among others. (note: the InfoWeek Canada Web site is so bad I can’t get a link to the electronic version – excellent for a “tech” journal!!!)

The one problem? – they are all navel gazing

They assume your business and office productivity software are all internally focused.

We all use office productivity software to create or consume text, numbers, presentations and the like, and if 95 to 99% of all your creation or consumption are internal only to your organization, definitely, Open Source or other software can be a benefit.

But Here Is My Problem

Our business (and possibly yours) does not exist in an internal vacuum. We create and consume data of this type, but that 95 or 99% is going to, or coming from other businesses outside our walls.

E-Mail Attachments

And when this data is entering or leaving your walls, new rules apply. If you look at my e-mail in box, all those attachments? Yes, most are in the format of that 800 lb. gorilla.

And while many Open Source software packages do a pretty good job at being compatible with the basic functionality of that 800 lb gorilla, they often break down if those documents get more complicated.

As an example, these two screen shots are the same worksheet in a complex Excel spreadsheet, (using multiple worksheets and pivot tables). Well, you can see the difference. And before someone says that an expert could probably ‘tweak’ the original to get it working, guess what – these come to us by the dozen per day, and it is non-technical admin support staff that receive and manipulate some of them.

Excel

Open Office

And since we have the equivalent number of documents leaving or premises, the bottom left image is what it looks like if one of our customers tries to open the default OpenOffice format. (eg. the sender forgot to do the “Save As” to put it into the format the customer can actually read)

The SMB Takeaway

I like OpenOffice, in fact for my home PC’s I use it. (it even does a good job of converting Microsoft’s new .docx format, which even older versions of Microsoft products can’t do without their conversion utility) But before jumping on the band wagon, look outside your business first.

Full size image of Excel sheet

Full size image of OpenOffice sheet

Full size image of Opening Open Office ODT

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