Creeping
I started this blog with the idea that I would write about project management, PRINCE2, MSP, risk, etc. Instead I have spent more time writing observations about the world around me.
So I shall return to project management for a moment to say the scope of my project has creeped.
Feeling less guilty, I shall now return to my book.
Stuart
Racism is poison regardless of how you choose to serve it
No racism Lietuvių: Ne rasizmui (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Two big racism stories are in the news this week: first we have Liam Stacey abusing footballer Fabrice Muamba on Twitter, now we have a story of police racism being recorded by the victim’s phone. A lot of people are concerned about the disparity in the treatment of the offenders with the CPS failing to press charges against the police officer, whilst Stacey received a 56 day jail sentence.
A common view seems to be that Stacey’s sentence is harsh in comparison to other cases and that he probably should not be in prison, which is odd as I thought prison was the right place for people convicted of hate crimes. If it’s harsh in comparison to other race crimes and we have to balance the scales, we should not be looking to reduce the penalty for one case of racism to match another, we should be more harsh on the ones that get off lightly!
Racist language is a poison in our society, it does not just injure it’s target – it injures us all. If we encounter it in a public place (including social networks) we can’t just delete the experience from our minds, we can’t just forget we encountered it. It stays with us and tells us something about the world we live in. It tells us our society is ugly and hateful.
The argument for the necessity of free speech can not apply to words that exist solely to assault individuals, families and communities. These words are weapons. If you choose to use them to harm others, you should know you will be punished. You will be tried, you will be convicted and you will be made to pay for your behaviour. It doesn’t matter where you do it, whether it is on Twitter, on the street, at a riot – it is a crime, it is evil, you will – and should - pay.
Getting strip-searched on your way to Geography
I’ve just been hearing on the radio that a school in Derbyshire has been in the news. Police received intelligence that a gang of kids were carrying drugs into the school, so they separated the identified kids, teenage I think though the report wasn’t specific, and carried out strip searches on ten of them.
Turns out two of them were carrying drugs.
There’s a big debate about whether the police have the right to do this. Angry parents have called in saying they’re not happy this was done, that their kids feel violated, etc.
As much as I sympathise with the innocent in this case, fact is the police are trained to do this and they are in these circumstances allowed to carry out this – and more intrusive – searches.
There was intelligence about a gang, it wasn’t 10 kids grabbed at random. So for the 8 innocent kids, instead of feeling sad about the whole situation, maybe instead you could take this as an important lesson. Don’t hang around with people that fill their pants with drugs. End of lesson.
Fear, Loathing and Bad Parenting in Walsall
I’ve just returned home from spending a weekend with family in Walsall. I’m feeling a little disturbed by something I experienced in the town which has made me fearful for the future. Whilst at a takeaway I found myself in the company of two women who were talking as their two children (age around 8 perhaps) played around. The kids playing wasn’t an issue, but the conversation between the parents was.
I missed the start of the conversation, but Mother #1 was explaining how she was going to f***ing kill someone for some f***ing doing whatever he’d f***ing done, whilst Mother #2 was f***ing agreeing and would f***ing do the same if any f***ing person f***ed with her in the same f***ing way. Mother #1 didn’t seem to notice her f***ing kid too much, perhaps the f***ing conversation was too f***ing engrossing, but when she did f***ing notice him she didn’t have the most encouraging f***ing things to say to him, if you catch my f***ing drift.
Poor kid. His future isn’t bright. I felt so sorry for him. I suppose I could have felt equally sorry for Mother #1 who must have received the same upbringing, but I only have so much pity left, so I’ll save it for the most vulnerable. This kid is growing up with a disadvantage that is all too easy to identify, but that no-one is able to tackle – bad parenting. It’s such a sensitive issue though, no-one admits to being a bad parent. The general measure of being a good parent claims to be “I love my kid and my kid knows they are loved.” I grant you, this is better than the monsters that beat their kids but saying you love you kid is not the goal you should be aspiring to – it should be the bare minimum.
If you really love your kid, you will give them the advantages they need to succeed in life. Here a few suggestions:
Teach you kid how to read. You may assume you can leave that to the school, but your kid will be left behind by kids with more loving parents that have invested the time and effort in them. If you can’t read, okay, get training and get reading. Don’t let anything be an obstacle to that. (By the way, well done on getting someone to read this blog to you… I’d love to have been there when all those f***s were being read to you. Did they say “F-star-star-star”?)
Don’t swear in front of them. Okay, the odd expletive may leave your mouth if shocked, hurt, etc, but don’t make swearing a regular feature of the language you use with or around them.
Choose your partners carefully. I remember a few months back I was accused of starting a witchhunt against single moms because I had the nerve to suggest that any single parent should avoid getting involved with people with violent or criminal tendencies. Kids learn from what they see around them. If you want them getting beaten up by their partners in future because they thought it was normal, go ahead and date someone who beats you. If you want that kid to grow up and spend lots of time in prison, date a criminal and watch you kid grow up to copy their behaviours. But, I thought you loved that kid…
I’m not suggesting these are the only steps to improving your childs chances in life, but you’ll be giving them a huge advantage just by following those suggestions. And if they seem too hard to you, maybe you should just accept you don’t love that kid so much after all?
A starting point:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Schoolslearninganddevelopment/HelpingYourChildToLearn/DG_4016579
Clare’s Law – Questions that needed to be answered
To this day it surprises me whenever I discover that friends have been victims of abusive relationships. It amazes me that this crime is still able to exist in a society that is no longer accepting of such behaviour. There has never been a time when more support groups, therapy and other preventative measures exist to tackle the problem. Yet I can guarantee that every few months another – usually female - friend will tell me about the partner that used to abuse them. Occasionally I get one that mentions it’s happening right now. I know my limitations and I know the simple answer (“just ditch the asshole”) is rarely the helpful one. There are reasons people stay in abusive relationships and I lack the skills to manuever anyone out of them. Typically, the only person that can end an abusive relationship is the victim when they find the willpower to move on. Outside intervention doesn’t seem to help as much as we would like to think. So I just point friends to local support groups so they know there is somewhere to go where help is available. And then I hope for the best. And then I worry – lots.
Prevention is better than cure, and I like to think that the proposed Clare’s Law is a way of actively preventing the problem. It is designed to enable people to contact the police to find out if their partner has a history of domestic violence. Anything that helps prevent relationships becoming abusive should be welcomed, but I find myself asking a few questions about how this could be implemented. There are pilots planned to take place in Manchester, Gwent, Nottinghamshire and Wiltshire, but information on how it will be implemented seems to be limited. I’ve not found any details on how the following will be dealt with and would be grateful to anyone that can provide the answers:
Who has the right to ask? I’ve read that you can ask about your partner, but how can you prove you are that individual’s partner? What measures are in place to prevent general snooping? Are there limitations on how many enquiries one person can make in, say, a year? Can this be used before a first date?
How will queries be prioritised? Will it be first come, first served? Or will it be people with children first? Will suspicious behaviour get a query pushed to the front of the queue? Will this only run for new relationships?
Will it be run like a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check? Does this mean there will be a fee? How long before you get your results?
Will front-line police services be diverted to manage the queries?
How effective will it be? Will the findings be based on a national search or just on local police records? How much of the individual’s information would you need in order to make a search – full name, national insurance number, date of birth, address, etc? The majority of my friends that were victims never reported their partner to the authorities - their abusers would be invisible to this system.
How does this affect the rights of the individual searched? Apparently unproven allegations will be disclosed here. What scope will the search have? Will non-violent crimes be reported? Will the context of the crimes/alleged crimes be revealed? Will individuals have the right to know if a search has been made of them, and who by? Could there be a case for defamation if inaccurate information is reported by these organisations?
It probably looks like I am throwing stones at this proposal, but I am not. I support any initiative that will reduce the number of abuses, but sometimes a new service needs a critical friend who will ask the awkward questions so solutions can be found before they roll out. I would like to see these questions answered.
But what I would like to see most of all is this – the first warning bell you get when you’re seeing someone, that first hint that this person is abusive, the first time they threaten or demean you – just end it. Do whilst it’s easy. Prevention is better than cure.
Links
www.nationaldomesticviolencehelpline.org.uk/
and if you are in immediate danger call 999.
Lessons from the good bosses
- We could do with more of these
Hands up if you have a good boss. Oh dear…
Okay, most of them are awful, but that’s not really their fault. I’ve noticed you tend to find people in management roles who arrived there because they were a really good nurse, social worker, or engineer. At some point in their work life they ended up being pointed towards the path of career progression and moved away from the things they were good at. The next job up was too appealling. It probably paid more or provided greater status. But most of all, it just seemed right to apply for. Afterall we are urged to be ambitious and be the best we can be. Staying in a job that you excel in could be seen as cowardly, lazy or unambitious. The truth is though, a lot of lousy managers would have been superstars had they stuck to the career they started out in. I can think of a number of individuals who would have done their whole sector a favour, and the public too, had they just stayed doing what they are good at.
I could spend all day writing about the bad bosses out there and the likely causes. Most probably these individuals don’t have the personality profile to be a good boss. Or they didn’t receive the proper training. Or maybe they didn’t see good examples. I’m lucky that I have seen so many good examples. Yes, they are outnumbered by the useless bosses, but the good ones are out there and I like to think I’ve learned at least one good thing from each of them. So, in the absense of great bosses for us all to learn from, I shall share the lessons I learned from my great bosses. I should say now that these lessons were never taught directly, just learned from observation and trying to deliver to that particular boss’s expectations. And I’m only going to mention their first names, wouldn’t want to make anyone blush.
From Darren – The Lesson of Personality
Darren taught me an interesting lesson about how personalities are a factor in the success of a team. I’m not sure if Darren had ever read “The Prince”, but it’s author Machiavelli had suggested it is better to be feared than loved. Darren pointed out if you have two leaders then it is beneficial if each leader takes an opposing role, one being loved and the other of being feared. The leader that is loved is often sensitive to the needs of the team and will work to achieve harmony in the organisation. The leader that is feared will be driven by the business goals and delivering the customer’s expectations with individual/team member morale being a distant second place. This boss is ruthless and will not be available for a hug. Darren’s opinion was that if the organisation has two similar personalities at the top then the organisation’s leadership would either be too busy being everyone’s friend or too destructive to team morale to be successful. So, if you are in a dual leadership role – decide if you want to be the loved one or the feared one. Chances are your personality type will make that decision for you though, so it’s probably smarter to choose your opposite when you start your partnership.
From Mark – The Lesson of Innovation
Mark was the boss who, before he was even my boss, pointed me towards the study of IT. He told me that this thing called the Internet was on it’s way and was going to be quite big. He explained to me how it would influence our lives in incredible ways and that eventually every home would need a PC. A few years later when I completed my Computer Science degree he gave me my first contract, a web design job. He spent a lot of time explaining this new thing called broadband that would make downloading music so much faster. A few years later he was telling me on an webchat program about how mobile technology would be advancing so much that we’d be replacing our bulky computers with elegant handheld devices operating wirelessly. Mark is the boss who knows what’s coming next. He is looking to the future and seeing how technology will arrive, not just as a fad to get a quick buck, but as a means of developing your existing business model and to secure additional revenue streams. It sounds a bit geeky to some, but look at what’s coming next and have a think about how you could position yourself to benefit when the new technology arrives. Or ask Mark.
From Elaine – The Lesson of Determination
Despite the amount of change taking place in the public sector, it is surprising how completely resistant to change many organisations really are. The leadership makes all the right sounds but once you get away from the executive level, there is a generally pessimistic view of change. The general belief is that change is pointless because a) it’s been tried and failed before, b) thing’s are fine and don’t need messing with and c) we are stuck in a loop of changing from a to b, back to a, back b, etc and it’s pointless. Additionally many department heads and managers are threatened by change as it is possible it will reduce their influence, expose their ineffectiveness, or could involve some work/resources from them. To get through these impenatrable walls of resistance you need someone with drive. Elaine demonstrated an astounding ability to smash through resistance and deliver the goals. Everyone likes to see themselves as determined and resourceful, but it’s not until you see someone operating in that way – day in day out – that your realise you need to up your game. Develop it if you can, imitate it if you must, and stay focused on the goal. And let everyone around you know that goal will be realised, even if you have to drag the whole organisation along with you.
From Adrian – The Lesson Of Quality
I shudder when I look back on the day Adrian surprised me and asked for an advanced review of some documents I’d been working on. I handed them over, pointing out that they were some way off completion. However, contributions from other managers had been included and reviewed so I felt comfortable handling them over. I accepted if they were graded right now you’d score them as a D grade, but I was confident with the time remaining I could get them to A grade material. It turned out that Adrian agreed they were D grade, but what I considered A grade was closer to a C grade in his opinion. If there is one single event that told me I needed to improve my game to continue advancing, this was it. By this stage in my career I’d settled into the attitude of believing what I was delivering was good enough. Big mistake. I was taken back to school over the next two days as Adrian and I worked on the documents and sure enough the end result was something way beyond my expectations. But in those two days I learned a vital lesson about quality. Any time you work on something, make it perfect. Review it, revisit it, get someone else to read it, challenge it, look for what’s missing, check it makes sense, check it flows. If there is a single improvement you can make if you had a little more time, it’s not ready to hand over. If you are working to a deadline and run out of time, place a comment to show you’ve considered the missing content and that you will add it at the first opportunity. Trust me, it’s better for you to do this than for your boss to do it. You won’t be wasting their time, and you won’t get a bruised ego in the process. As painful as the experience was, I rate it as one of the most important of my career and when I leave my current post I will take some time to thank Adrian for the lesson. (PS If Adrian ever reads this – this blog is a first draft!!!)
From Wayne – The Lesson of Capturing Everything
Capture everything, Wayne says. Every risk, every problem, every assumption – get it in a spreadsheet, database, or wherever it needs to be so you don’t forget about it. If you are at a meeting and not capturing every detail of who is delivering what and when it will be ready – you are wasting time. Meetings may or may not need someone to take minutes, but someone has to capture the actions. And if you don’t see someone doing that, or if your success is dependant on those actions being delivered, then you’d better start jotting them down somewhere. Your success depends on it! In nearly every project job I’ve worked, I have attended plenty of meetings with suppliers who don’t take notes. And the result is always the same, they end up missing something and having to come back for another meeting. If you also haven’t taken notes, then you risk not being able to prove that you discussed a specific requirement that is missed. You can’t verify exactly what was agreed. Your expectations remain vague because they were words and now they are just a memory in your head. So capture everything. Then share what you have captured. People deliver things more effectively when they know there is a record of what they have agreed to. It takes a while to get the hang of it, but do it. It’s worth the effort.
That’s all for now, but I’m sure I’ll be writing in the future about lessons learned from bad bosses. Meantime, feel free to message me with lessons you’ve learned from admirable bosses.
Stop Protesting and Start Studying Physics!
Image via Wikipedia
Time Magazine announced in 2011 that their Person Of The Year was “The Protester”. It seemed a lazy option for Time, to avoid selecting a specific person for the honour. Weren’t they aware of my pioneering work in combining brilliance with modesty? Perhaps they could have made protesting the Activity of the Year or Hobby of the Year. It certainly was popular. Especially for students. Every time I turned on the TV there was a student protesting. None of them had bought their homework either. Tragic!
Students took to the streets over the issue of tuition fees. The government had allowed universities to charge up to £9,000 per year for undergraduate courses, up from £3,375. This means that students are going to be left with a sizable debt when they finish their studies. The students claimed this was unfair, the government claimed it was necessary. What no-one mentioned is the country is up to its eyeballs with debt. The students are in debt, the teachers are in debt, mom and dad are in debt, even the government is in debt. Too much war, not enough oil it seems.
It is widely known that investing into your next generation through education will create benefits in years to come. However, I don’t see the benefit to this country if our students are getting worthless degrees. I know a guy that got a degree in American History. He never went to America, he probably never will. All his degree proves is he can write a report and swat for an exam. Maybe this is why we had to create so many public sector jobs for guys like him? Maybe this is why the cure for cancer continues to elude us?
What people haven’t accepted yet is that the world has changed. We’re no longer a manufacturing power, we’re a service culture. So rather than fire up the furnaces and try to compete with China and India in a futile battle over raw materials, how about using our heads. Really. Let’s invest in the kids to become the next generations best scientists and engineers. We can’t compete on mass production and cheap labour, but we can compete on brains. Invest in innovation.
So when the students are screaming for reduced student fees, give it to them. But only on the condition that they drop their worthless degree and actually study something useful to the country. The greater the gap in the skills, the greater the reduction in the fees. Everyone wins. The nation gets its boffins and some neat inventions and cures, the kids get a cheap education. The taxpayer stops feeling ripped off and anyone that wants to study their hobby gets to pay for it themselves. Why should society pay when society doesn’t benefit?
Taking a stand…against people taking a stand against St Valentines Day
Image via Wikipedia
It’s St Valentines Day and suddenly we are surrounded by highly principled people. A sense of anti-materialism appears to have been conjured from thin air as people declare their refusal to participate in this conspiracy designed to fund card manufacturers. But that’s okay, because these brave rebels happen to spend their whole year expressing their love. There is no shortage of love and affection from these romantic heroes; indeed their partners must struggle to describe the erotic bliss they experience 24/7 to friends and colleagues without causing jealousy or nausea. It is a little strange though, how these campaigners against commercialism managed to spend so much money at the end of December, and why they decorate their homes with cards on their birthdays…
Truth is, I actually enjoy hearing about people like this. I enjoy hearing about women having this view because it reminds me how fortunate I have been in my choices of generous partners - particularly current ( yes folks, she reads my blog…behave!) I really love hearing about guys being anti-Valentine because I know it makes me look so much better in comparison.
So here’s my suggestion to all the anti-capitalist, anti-commercial, anti-saint and anti-fun readers – have principles every other day. Stop being a cheapskate and buy your partner a present. You can go back to “making every day Valentine” tomorrow, you romantic superstar. Have fun.
The 22nd Century is calling – they’re calling you a wimp…
People live in the moment, even the cautious ones. We don’t really look too much to the past for guidance in difficulties and we never consider the long, long term future. Sure, we contemplate how our lives will turn out in the next few years and we worry about the lives we will face when elderly and vulnerable. But we never think much further than that. It could be that we’re so pessimistic that we think the human race will fall victim to some ecological disaster, be wiped out by a devastating war, or we may all die in our beds from some horrible infection that could have been prevented by people being more hygienic. Let’s face it though, it’s much more likely we’ll survive. Our children will grow old, so will theirs, and so will theirs. They’ll all be scared witless like us, but they’ll make it.
As we’re so busy living in the moment, we don’t have a sense of perspective. We judge everything as it happens to us, just dealing with things as they land in front of us. We’re so busy getting stressed and depressed about our current situations that anyone watching would assume we enjoyed it. I imagine this problem isn’t unique to this generation, but this generation does carry an additional burden that makes our lack of perspective even harder to bare – a false sense of entitlement.
I grew up in comfort, as did all of my friends. Okay, I know there are a lot of bad things that happen behind closed doors, so I’m not going to imagine everyone had the sweetest of childhoods. I spend my adolescent years growing up in Walsall, an area recognised by local authorities as an area of deprivation. But despite Walsall scoring pretty badly in areas such as health, employment and poverty – I never knew anyone that starved to death. Despite the violence in the town, I never knew anyone that got killed by a hostile invader. Despite the Manor Hospital scoring badly every time I dare look at CQC’s scores, I’ve not buried my family because one day someone came home with flu. So trust me people, I grew up in comfort and if you are of a similar age and from a developed country – odds are you did too.
As we’ve spent our lives in comfort, we actually feel it’s what we are entitled to. However, that sense of entitlement has crept past the justifiable enjoyment that we aren’t in a constant life or death struggle. It’s crept into our materialism with a belief that we are all entitled to the latest technology and entertainment. It tells us we should all be earning a minimum wage, even if market forces say otherwise. It lets us believe that we should have free (at the point of service) health services, even if they are unaffordable. It fools us into believing that our savings and pensions are guaranteed to deliver our expected quality of life without consideration that all financial investments are made at risk.
Our sense of entitlement has made us sloppy, but worse than that – it’s made us weak.
A government changes and everyone has to look at whether they are standing in the winner’s camp or the loser’s. Whether you happen to be rich or poor, you will find one party is prepared to throw you more money whilst the other is trying to take it away. Nothing new there, but our over-inflated sense of entitlement makes us vulnerable to such changes. A pay freeze, a pension that’s not growing, a bonus that’s been denied – suddenly you’re suffering. You’re looking for the new job because your current one’s at risk; your salary is reduced so say bye bye to Sky Sports for a few months; your profits are down so you may only get one holiday this year – ski or beach?
But here’s the good news buddy, you’re not going to starve. Not even in Walsall.
The bad news, I suppose, is you’re going to have a terrible reputation. All of us will. In a few decades people will look back on these times and will see how we cried about all the things we had “lost” without considering all the things we have. And they will judge us as the wimps that we are. That’s something we are entitled to.
My complaint(s)
I’m getting cranky with age. I must be, I’m constantly complaining. Well, that’s not completely true. I’m complaining about poor customer service whenever I encounter it. It seems to happen a lot these days. Have companies moved away from valuing their customers?
Do companies even try to understand their customers? Consider parcel couriers Yodel. Their task is a fairly simple one. Take an item from someone and give it to someone else. Addresses are fixed; it’s not like they have to track you down. But they will only deliver on weekdays, during the day. If you happen to be working and don’t live with anyone that’s a shut-in, then you get home to find a slip instructing you on how to reschedule your delivery – on another work day! So you either have to use your annual leave to sit home waiting for a parcel or you have to lose your job and hope your package doesn’t show up whilst you’re trying to sign on.
Take a moment to go on Twitter and search the keyword Yodel. See how many happy customers there are in comparison to angry, frustrated customers. And these guys never asked to be customers. That role was forced on them by stores that present a range of choices for products, but none for delivery. These include O2, Amazon and Early Learning Centre. How about a choice of couriers? I’d pay an extra pound or two for delivery from Royal Mail if I could. Go ahead, take my money. And this is costing the seller. I opted to not buy from Virgin Wines last week as they deliver with Yodel. I could arrange to pick up the parcel from their depot, but would rather not travel over 60 miles round trip to the nearest one.
As you’ve guessed, a lot of my complaining coincides with dealing with companies like Yodel who lack even a basic understanding of the customer. But my biggest complaint is aimed at a company that doesn’t even have to deal with your complaint. A company with a monopolistic hold over telecoms in this country.
If you move house and there wasn’t a phone line connected or activated at your new address, you will have to deal with BT Openreach. Doesn’t matter if your service is provided by BT, Sky or Virgin – it has to be Openreach that will show up and connect you. Which would be acceptable – if they actually showed up. On the two occasions I have (unwillingly) used their service I have lost a total of 5 work days waiting for these jokers to show up. No notification that you’re being cancelled, no call to rearrange. So you waste day after day sitting at home for a guy that’s not even coming. Is this what house arrest is like? Is this what unpopularity is like?
So you complain, but they’re not listening. They tell you to complain to your provider. Well, the best that achieves is your provider gets a complaint for failing to handle their suppliers whilst the true culprits go unpunished. So why do your providers use them? Because there is nobody else. BT Openreach have no competition in the market. As a result they are unaccountable, untouchable and completely secure in their position. And don’t waste your time complaining to BT, they’ll tell you (accurately) that they aren’t the same company. Yet their relationship looked a lot cosier when the BT sales guy was selling you a phone line and Internet.
Currently I work in the NHS where complaints actually have an impact. You may think nothing happens after you moan about the state of hospitals, the quality of care, etc but it does. They receive less money. Allocations of money are withheld in contracts unless performance targets are met. This has the negative effect that they are unable to spend money to improve if they are being penalised for failure, but I’m sure you could imagine the implications in the private sector. Imagine if an engineer doesn’t show up on schedule, so the company gets a fine. A delivery doesn’t arrive, so the courier gets a penalty. Wouldn’t this improve services?
So I’m complaining more. But I’m also doing more than complain. Wherever possible I refuse to do business with companies that use shoddy partners like Yodel, and I explain to them my reason. I tweet about it. I sign the petitions. And now I write a blog. I guess I can’t blame my age if I’m young and handsome enough to write a blog. I guess it really is their fault!
Rant over…for now! Feel free to comment, but no complaints. I hate moaners. 
