Thursday, March 31, 2005

Monkey Business?

"Monkey Business" is how the news on our SBS station described the recent findings in the United States about the behaviour of primates.

In the USA (at least) there is an obsession with celebrities. The tests which have been conducted with Rhesus monkeys appear to show that there is something hard wired in primates that ensures that they actually choose to look at pictures of a dominant female's face or her hindquarters in preference to giving in to something as fundamental as thirst.

It appears that these primates at least have a greater need to identify with the dominant females than their basic needs.

What does this tell us in the human world?

It would be interesting to see if the next person to be charged with some offence like ogling uses the research to suggest that he is hard wired - like all primates to ogle what he regards as a dominant female.

Let's bet that someone will use this defence. I wonder what the courts would make of it?

More to the point I wonder what the church would make of it? After all they are the ones telling us that we have free will. Perhaps this only applies to those aspects of our lives that we actually have some control over.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Fixing Symptoms Won't Fix the Problem

Just a few more words on the Australian Association of Social Workers.

For those of us who have actually lived longer than five minutes - the heading of this note is self evident.

We started to learn this I suspect when we were teenagers afflicted with acne. All of the creams and solutions we tried masked the problem for a while but alas unless we changed our eating habits and got our hormones under control that's all we did. Mask the symptoms.

Thankfully for most of us as we grew older the hormones came under control of their own volition and the problem did indeed disappear.

However if we all treat organisational problems, problems in communication and problems in management as if they were acne and hope that time will make them pass into oblivion then we are doomed from the outset.

ACTION is what is required in cases like this.

Social Action is a form of social work activity and one that members of the Association would be well advised to consider. Read a little Saul Alinsky and learn again about what techniques exist out there to nobble even the most 'powerful' organisational structures.

Perhaps that's what social workers in Australia need to learn again - how social action can be used to change things that you don't like.

Practice makes perfect. But to get perfect you actually have to have some practice.

So my advice is - read the theory and then start to put some of it into ACTION.

Australian Social Workers - Take Heed

I have recently received some communication from people within the Australian Association of Social Workers which is quite distressing. The Association is continuing to have difficulties with their hierarchy and continues to be split

For some time now I have deliberately remained outside the membership of the Association as in the recent past it has been managed by a group of people who, without meaning to demean either their integrity or honesty, have been unsuccessful in their roles. In short they have brought the Association to its financial knees.

I am afraid that what was once a magnificent example of volunteerism, where a group of professional people joined together to bring into existence an organisation which could adequately represent all of the social workers in this country, is in the doldrums.

Management decisions of the organisers have meant that it was formed into a company and as such run by a Board. The Board, while seemingly accountable to the members does not appear to heed them at all.

In a normal company people who pay their money into the company receive some shares in the company and the Board serves at their pleasure, because they can exercise their shares and vote people on or off the Board. This ostensibly happens in the AASW but alas does not seem to happen in any way which can be regarded as 'fair'.

The membership of the Association is centred in two states, NSW and Victoria. In these states the membership of the Association is the largest by far of all of the other locations around the country. Yet, the constitution has determined that each Branch of the Association will be represented by a Director. Thus Tasmania, the Northern Territory, Hunter, the ACT, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia which between them have less members (or shareholders if you will) than NSW and Victoria combined nevertheless have a voting block which comprises 7 votes versus the two from NSW and Victoria.

There are executive members of course and these can even the numbers somewhat, essentially it is the members in NSW and Victoria who gather the major amount of the income for the Association through their activities and their membership numbers who have the least votes on decision making.

Is this fair you ask? After all the Senate in Australia has a similar issue. The smaller populated states have equal representation to the larger ones so as to ensure that the more populous locations cannot bully those with a smaller population.

It could be fair. In the AASW at present though it is the members of the Board that appear to be the bullies.

In the last few years they have so mismanaged the affairs of the organisation that they needed to take all of the monies raised by the larger states with their activities and bail themselves out of financial trouble. This has meant of course that all of the funds that are raised by the members in the more populous states in the hope that they would receive some adequate recompense for their dues in the form of services has been squandered and people are told they should expect to raise more money so that even more can be sequestered by what seems like a Board that does not believe it is responsible to its shareholders.

In an earlier time I advocated a solution which could work within the Association - namely that the Association should be a 'shelf company' one that has its executive etc but is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Branches of the Association. In order that it continue to survive as a functioning entity it should offer to provide services to the membership which if considered useful would be paid for by the members in the Branches. In other words it would be a purchaser provider relationship. If the National Office of the Association did not come up with services which the members wanted to purchase it would go out of business.

That would be enough to make the Association's management accountable.

Perhaps it is time for the members of the Association to take stock of their management and to root out those who seem to be incompetent at delivering what is needed. That is sound management and representation for and on behalf of the membership

And a Final Word about my outage!

Having an outage on your computer is less than "fun". Frankly, it is a pain in the neck.

Every time that you manage to get a lovely "blue screen of death" and the operating system reboots your level of annoyance increases by several notches. Then when it wants to send a comment on what happened to the Microsoft site and of course the problem is that you cannot connect to the Internet without an immediate disconnection - then your level of annoyance increases proportionally with your level of frustration.

Through some judicious use of the monitoring tools on this computer I (think) have found the culprit that has been causing me so much grief. It was NOT the modem, it was NOT the set up of the permissions - it seems to have been a clash between Microsoft and McAffee. A security glitch. That has now been resolved by a simple move to another provider of firewall and virus protection and all seems to be well with the machine again.

Amazing.

I will now manage to get some more RAM into this thing so that it flies again without resorting to paging files and all will be well with the world.

Sorry about all that - I will be returning to more useful and informative commentary by the end of today when my juices have finally calmed down from their current levels.

Sunday, March 27, 2005

And one final note

I have of course called the service provider again and this time I complained about their technicians and the advice that they have provided up to this point.

Frankly had it not been for my own previous history with computers and my careful recording of all of the changes that they managed to suggest (none of which worked and all of which got me deeper into trouble) I am aghast at the technical competence of the people who now work at this company.

AAARGH!!!

I am tempted to send them a bill for the costs of the calls I have lost and the time I have put in correcting their errors.

Then again . . .

The very next day I logged on and guess what happened - AGAIN! @#%^&

I have now spent two hours going through all of the options that are required for logging on to the network and also some time checking every darned setting that exists for the modem and the connections. I have put the modem through diagnostic tests, I have checked the line quality, I have managed to finally read all of the pages of the 'troubleshooting guide' that seems to exist and then thought of something else.

If the phone line is the problem then I should be able to test for this by using the other (much older) PC in the house. Sure enough it fired up OK and connected OK and had no line drop outs. So it was NOT the modem, it was not the line it therefore had to be some differences in the settings.

A line by line comparison was done and I found only two discrepancies. One was the phone number which was being used for the connection - this was no problem either would and did work. Then I came to MICROSOFT.

I am delighted to be able to report that my friendly young tech adviser from the help desk had indicated that one of my 'problems' was disabling the Microsoft Firewall from functioning in Windows XP. Alas I followed his advice and engaged the firewall - against my better judgement I might add since I already had another firewall engaged. When I finally turned this off my machine once again began to function normally.

So much for the help desk!

By the way the service provider is OZEMAIL - I think I will have to change my subscription.

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Worry about your ISP then worry about your cables!

What a wonderful day this has been. I have spent most of it dealing with the ISP that provides me with a link to the outside world. If only I was not technologically aware it would be OK.

I have been having some problems with a line drop out sometimes as little as a few seconds would go by and then the line would drop out and I would have to ring the service provider again.

Naturally given the amount of money you pay for a service you ring up the help desk to obtain help. Equally naturally they ask for your details and then make you feel as though the fault is all on your side because after all you are the customer!

The first thing to do is to make sure that all of your settings are demolished because they may be corrupt. So you do what you are told by whoever is on the line and you make sure that you follow their instructions to the letter, notwithstanding that there are shortcuts you could take that you know about. This is followed by a cheery, "Have a nice Easter" and when you hang up and try again nothing has changed the line drops out again.

So, try number two. This time a different chap is on the line and he tries to be helpful by giving you some interesting commands for your modem. "This will stabilise your modem", he says helpfully. Once again you go off line with him and back on line with the provider to experience yet another line drop out.

Try number three (this is usually the charm). Well, this fellow has even more grandiose ideas he changes a whole series of settings including that one that I recognise from an earlier childhood - it actually sets my modem back to a V34 setting when in fact I should be getting a V90 setting with the modem that is sitting happily under my bonnet. Nevertheless I humour him as well and dial up one more time - only to experience a drop out again.

Not being a happy chappy I next ring Telstra to test the line. The line is OK.

I check my own connections using hyperterminal and find that I am OK with this as well.

So finally I go back into the connections settings, relying this time on my own dim and distant memories of how I used to do the settings before I became so lazy that I ring a help desk and reset all of the options that I had before these children started to muck around with my settings. I then go around the house and check every phone outlet that I have to make sure that there are no lose connections - after all we all KNOW that any lose connections can contribute to line noise and that this is likely to cause a drop out.

Sure enough, in the main bedroom I find the cause of the problem - a loose connection no doubt caused by the cleaner who cleaned a little too energetically, I suspect.

Pushing the lugs in properly I start my connection again and lo and behold no more problem.

Perhaps I should ring the service provider back again and tell them what the real problem was?

Nah. let someone else have fun with the children playing with their settings.

Sometimes I think it was a wise thing that I took up IT as a hobby.

A message for the rest of you. Check the cables FIRST then you can save money on all the local call costs!

Kangaroos in the paddock and all that . . .

It has been some time since I last wrote in this blog. I guess it has been a lack of inspiration that has been responsible.

Over the Easter break from work nothing exciting has been happening besides the visit of the VWs. They arrived on Canberra's birthday and at a time when exciting events were happening in the new Parliament house. The sittings were over for the time being but there was always the tragedy/comedy of the State Treasurers having a meaningful discussion with the National Treasurer about taxes and how they could benefit by receiving some 300+ million dollars from the National Treasury if only they would give up some state taxes that manage to bring in billions of dollars. I am of course not surprised that this did not work. It was not meant to. All it was meant to do was to deflect attention from the fact that the Commonwealth government is at present the highest taxing government ever and the blame for the pain in the hip pocket nerve could effectively be transferred to the responsibility of the states because it was they, after all who had been given the chance to reduce taxes and had failed.

Good on you Mr Costello - together with the recent events surrounding your colleague Mr Abbott your combined acts now have the same sort of significance that the original Abbott and Costello had in the USA when they were providing the world with their comic routines.

Meanwhile, the VWs were taken to see the local kangaroos which try hopping up and down the main streets of Canberra - unfortunately for them with some devastating results. They usually hurl themselves in front of speeding motorists and end up being either hood ornaments or road kill.

Not satisfied with the variety which could be seen off our main roads we also took them to the Tidbinbilla Reserve where they were able to get up close and personal to the Koalas, Brush Tailed Wallabies, Emus as well as Kangaroos.

Now they believe that there is wild life in Canberra - besides what the politicians can provide.

Being from the Old Country, they of course were amazed at the possibility that they could also sample the wild life from another aspect and were simply agog that Australians could eat their national symbols. So when presented with the reality that there was a game shop at the Fyshwick markets and that they could get some kangaroo to eat they leapt at the chance.

Later, when the meat was sizzling in front of them their appetites were less than they thought it would be. Perhaps I should have brought the Crocodile steaks instead?

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

An Apology for Mr Abbott

Well! All the newspapers are full of the story - Mr Abbott did not have a son after all. Given all of the publicity about the situation in which he found himself so many years ago - being told by his girlfriend that he was about to become a father and his responses to this news he is now being told the shattering story that after all that he was not the father but someone else was.

So his behaviour of leaving the girl flat to cope with the birth of the child and its adoption out while he went on his pre-planned holiday was not as callous as it might first have seemed.

So my apologies for any nasty thoughts I may have had.

Now that the truth is known I guess I should even have a tinge of pity for Mr Abbott. After all he has spent 27 years worrying about the child he never had. A good decision about adopting the child out though, after all it wasn't his!

No maintenance seems like a good idea in retrospect I guess.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

From the ABC - The Sweet Scent of Success

Ancient perfumery found in Cyprus

Authorities display fragments of perfume jars found in Cyprus.
Authorities display fragments of perfume jars found at a site believed to be one of the oldest production sites for perfume in Cyprus. Reuters

A team of Italian archaeologists working in Cyprus believe they have discovered the site of an ancient perfume factory dating back to the Bronze Age.

Pete's Points:

Now we know - the French are merely the inheritors of yet another Greek tradition. I suspect that archaeologists are even now being rushed by agents for the various large perfume companies looking for the recipes for the ancient perfumes.

Just imagine the new adverts that we are likely to see in the future.

"Scent of old"
"Back to the future"
"Eau de Cyprus"

New VWs have arrived

No. It's not what you think. The famous company from Wolfsburg has not come out with a new idea for a motor car. We have visitors from Wales.

Amazingly our two VWs are people we met some years ago on a camping trip in France. For those of you who have been around you will know the little spot near the town of St Emilion where the wine is fantastic and the fishing for red fin perch is often trying but sometimes quite pleasing.

Our VWs have just been on a little tour of Australia, managing to see some of the outback as well as North Queensland as well as Victoria and South Australia.

Now they are in the National Capital. A real whirl wind tour.

The comment we grinned about most? "Australia's SOOO BIG!"

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Hardware Update Needed

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek prison guards will go on strike next week demanding a change of their American-made weapons that date back to the U.S. wars in central America almost a century ago.

While antique shops would be eager to get their hands on them, prison guards just want to get rid of their obsolete 1911 U.S. Cavalry revolvers. The guns do not scare inmates any more as safety experts have advised guards not to fire them.

Pete's Points:

While most of us obsess about updating the software and hardware on our computers it appears that the prison guards in Athens have a different hardware update requirement.

Given the obsession of our organisational leaders with the "bottom line", at what point will the authorities in Athens finally realise that they can no longer depreciate the value of the weapons they issued to their staff?

The weapons are now antiques and their sale to collectors would more than pay for the renewal of the armoury and ensure an ability to once again start on the road to depreciation and fiscal responsibility.

Of course there is an alternate view which is indicative of how dumb some bureaucrats are when it comes to preserving assets without considering whether or not these assets are still fit for the purpose for which they were issued.

Bullying at work or . . . .

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's biggest individual lottery winner had no time to celebrate after becoming 20.4 million euros ($27 million) richer, because he was too worried about being late for work.

When the salesman, who was not identified by WestLotto, arrived Thursday to buy his weekly lottery ticket at a shop in the industrial Ruhr area he was told last week's 12-euro ticket that he hadn't bothered to check had won the jackpot.

The man's reaction left the lottery operator dumbfounded.

"After he was told he had won the jackpot, he said he didn't have time to chat because he would get into trouble with his boss," a lottery spokesman in the western city of Muenster said. Instead, he rushed off to catch a bus to work.

There were few details about the lucky man, a pigeon-lover in his 30s, except that he planned to trade in his rented apartment for something a little bigger in the country. It was not known if he would stay on in his job as a salesman.
Pete's Points:

You simply HAVE TO BE KIDDING!

This must be the most unbelievable story of the year (so far at least). There is simply no one I know that would continue to feel bullied at work after winning $27 million. A more plausible scenario would be for the individual to turn up at work and give the boss that he had been previously afraid of the rounds of the kitchen table.

Peace and the Palestinians

GAZA (Reuters) - A coalition of Palestinian militants threatened on Friday to resume attacks on Israelis despite a conditional truce agreed by other armed groups in talks with the Palestinian Authority.

Mohammed Abdel-Al, a spokesman for the umbrella Popular Resistance Committees, said the Palestinian Authority had not invited the PRC to the negotiations in Egypt and the deal reached there on Thursday was not binding on it.

"Our patience is over and it is time the Zionist entity be called to account by our fighters after the past two months (of calm)," Abdel-Al told a news conference.

Before the current lull, the PRC was second only to the Hamas group in launching rocket attacks against Jewish settlements in Gaza and communities in southern Israel. Hamas and another well known group, Islamic Jihad, both went along with Thursday's deal.

Pete's Points:

I am no longer surprised by what I read concerning the Palestinians.

The state of Israel has been in existence since 1948 and yet we still have people among the Palestinians who refer to the "Zionist entity" and who still want nothing else, but to promote the wanton killing of defenceless civilians and who have the unmitigated gall to say that their patience is at an end and so they want to go back to killing again.

Let's all look forward to yet another season of wanton killings on both sides with accusations about who is the terrorist and who is not and more families who can go to gravesides and cry about their lost loved ones.

This all makes so much more sense than sitting down and figuring out a way to live side by side peacefully and trading, making money and enjoying a long and pleasant life.

A United Europe is finally possible

The Guardian reports:

"London primary sets up bilingual school

Polly Curtis, education correspondent Friday March 18, 2005

A primary school in south-west London is to establish a bilingual class for French and English pupils."

Pete's Points

Will wonders never cease? The English teaching French in their schools? Next thing you know there will not be English people wandering around the Champ du Mars under the Eiffel tower muttering "Look at all the foreigners!"

The BBC reports

"Ukrainian arms dealers smuggled 18 nuclear-capable cruise missiles to Iran and China in 1999-2001, Ukraine's prosecutor-general has said.

The Kh-55 missiles - also known as X-55s - have a range of 3,000km (1,860 miles), the UK's Financial Times newspaper reports.

The smuggling happened while Leonid Kuchma was president of Ukraine. His administration was voted out of office in December."

Pete's Points:

Does anyone else recall that the President of the United States has been on a "mission" to bring 'democracy' to the world? Does anyone else recall recent events in the Ukraine when the USA called the first round of elections a sham and encouraged the people's revolution for democracy in that country that eventually changed the political landscape in the Ukraine into one which was favourable to the USA?

Perhaps now we know why.

It is inconceivable that the USA did NOT know that these missiles were smuggled out of the Ukraine into Iran and/or China. It is also interesting that it is only since these events that the USA has been making noises about the Iranian's nuclear capability. If the Iranians now have the delivery system and they are working on the capability to build the bomb then all of the elements are in place to make Iran a nuclear power in the middle east. Since this is obviously very destabilising to US efforts to control the Middle East and its oil supplies it is also possible that the fact that this information is suddenly available to the Western media is yet another way of putting pressure on the Iranians and at the same time increasing the level of support that the USA has for its actions in the area among its friends and allies.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Work Is Hectic

For those of my dedicated readers who wonder why I am able to get to this blog less frequently than usual I have to say that work is getting a little bit more hectic than usual. In anticipation of the holidays that are coming up in Canberra I am trying to pack a little more into the day than usual and thus have little time for writing.

In addition I have less time to peruse the news for the inevitable glitches that catch my attention and the funny stories that I find I would like to share with you.

Bear with me - as someone famous once said - This too shall pass!

[sounds like a gall stone sufferer doesn't it?]

Balanced Home and Work Life

I am simply amazed at the latest advertisement from our NRMA (National Roads and Motorists Association) - Just imagine a couple on their wedding day right when the minister is popping the important question: "will you take . . ." and the mobile rings. The bride digs it out of her gown and answers the call which is from an NRMA customer. She has to pretend - in order to deliver a high level of customer service (you know when your calls are recorded) that the caller is not calling at an inconvenient time.

I have heard of dedication, I have heard of being available 24x7 but this is ridiculous - even for ad agencies.

Someone should tell both the company and the ad company that there are laws which support occupational health and safety and a call from the medical profession to introduce a balance between work and life for most people to avoid getting sick.

WHEN are we ever going to learn?

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Social Workers

I keep running across social work colleagues who seem to have given up the ghost and become involved in a variety of other areas of work.

Some have managed, not surprisingly, to end up in work relating to the development and implementation of social policy. Others have ended up managing call centres, some have gone into private enterprise offering to coordinate a set of services from health professionals for insurance companies, some have managed to get into academia, others into management roles within large organisations where their social work skills have come into play within diverse settings including HR management, Learning and Development, IT and general management.

For those people who are contemplating a career in social work - I guess it is nice to know that you can aim to work for the rest of your life in the profession and even nicer to know that you can have many successful career options stretching before you in addition to this.

Microsoft buys Groove

Well, what interesting news. The man who 'invented' Lotus Notes which was purchased by IBM then went out on his own and reinvented a new collaborative tool within a new company called Groove. Microsoft invested heavily in this company and sure enough it made sure that the new product was highly integrated with Microsoft's software and office tools. Now Bill Gates has not only bought the company - and hence its products but it has also bought the founder who will now become a CFO for Microsoft.

So the battle is on again - Lotus Notes will be in a struggle with guess what a very similar product created by the same person only re-badged and working directly with MS products and having the capacity to integrate with Lotus products in much the same way that the current Lotus products have the ability to integrate with MS products.

I think that getting paid twice for the same set of ideas is a hoot.

Good luck to Ozzie and his crew of developers - I hope that they milk the Microsoft milch cow dry - or perhaps more to the point in this specific case - C'mon Ozzie c'mon!

Friday, March 11, 2005

Risk Management

I have recently participated in some risk management workshops which are almost always aimed at trying to identify the consequences of something untoward happening and the likelihood of that consequence occuring.

I am afraid that being the controversial figure that I am I keep asking why we cannot also try an identify the positive consequences of something and the likelihood of that occuring and then taking advantage of it.

We seem to spend a lot of time in our world and in our lives always trying to anicipate the worst and making plans to avoid it happening - I think that they call this risk mitigation.

I keep wanting to anticipate the opportunities that any event can create for me and then working on plans to take advantage of it.

I have no problems with identifying what awful things can happen, but then I want to ask how I can still find something useful in the awful thing happening, ie what are the opportunities that present themselves even when the awful thing takes place.

Take for example the recent set of horrific events in Indonesia with the Tsunami. There is absolutely no doubt that this was a horrific disaster and that we should put in place all sorts of warning devices and processes that will in future reduce the risk of such a horrific event ever having such a devastating impact and so minimise the loss of life and property that took place on this occasion.

That said, given the maginuted of the power of the event and the incredible amount of energy that it generated - energy enough to devastate entire regions, I wonder why no one has thought of ways to capitalise on the generation of that energy should the event occur again?

Is there a way of capturing the forces that are generated by a tsunami so that it not only powers electricity generation, for example, but in doing so actually harnesses and so reduces the actual force of the impact when it finally arrives on land?

It may well be that this is a nutty idea and that doing anything useful is impractical. Fair enough! However until someone actually considers the possibility and plays around with it looking at 'positive risk' management we will never know.

We have people who model earthquake behaviours and tsunami behaviours, could they not use the same models to see whether or not the energy is harvestable?

I am afraid that I have similar questions about tornados and violent storms which also generate enormous amounts of energy that seems to not only be wasted but actually require a lot more energy to recover from.

Are we capable of thinking up ways of harnessing these enormous forces of nature and putting them to use for us - at the same time reducing the impact that such forces of nature cause by channeling the energy into more productive and less destructive pathways.

Perhaps this is enough 'food for thought' on a Friday afternoon.

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Speaking about Staff . . .

I wonder how many people reading this have participated in performance assessments?

I wonder how many people have been satisfied with the processes involved.

In any reasonably well planned organisation, there is a need to align the corporate goals or strategic outcomes with the work which is being undertaken within the organisation. In other words if the work which is being undertaken does not support the organisation to achieve its corporate goals over time then it is fair to ask the question, 'why are we doing it?"

Almost all of the work within organisation is undertaken by the people who work there - these days with assistance, support and enabling being provided by our modern technology. Thus the work that individuals undertake must also be aligned with supporting the corporate goals.

Performance assessment represents the means by which organisations (or more properly organisational managers) can monitor and assess the extent to which the work of the individual worker is contributing to the corporate goals.

Generally there is an agreement which is drawn up between a manager and staff who are accountable to that manager. Since it would be neither cost efficient or effective to monitor and to measure everything that an individual does a performance assessment agreement usually focuses on a number of crucial aspects of the work being performed. The work chosen is usually closely aligned with organisational goals rather than being focused on the day to day work that simply keeps a business going.

For the agreement to be fair and equitable to all of the parties it is really important to ensure that both sides are represented in it.

A performance agreement should stipulate what a manager should be able to expect from the staff member, as precisely as possible. It should consider including behaviours (in accordance with corporate standards), specific work outputs which are then measured in relation to agreed timeliness and quality measures, and of course work methodology which should accord with organisational policies, procedures, practices and standards.

By the same token the agreement should also include the staff member's expectations of the manager. It can include content about the staff member's expectations of the manager's behaviour and communication style, clear understanding of how the manager is going to be managing the work and the staff.

A good performance agreement should be able to meet the SMART test - in other words the contents of the agreement should be:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Timely

Both managers and staff should do their very best to ensure that the final agreement contains sufficient information about what is to be achieved, within what time frames, to what standard of quality that both the staff member and the manager are able at any review period to present tangible information about what he/she has accomplished within the period. The information presented should be capable of being used as 'evidence' that the agreed measures of performance agreed between the parties.

Where performance is tied to a developmental goal there is usually no imperative for either of the parties to engage in a form of adversarial conduct.

The manager obviously wants the highest level of performance which is possible from the staff member and can generally be persuaded that it is in this interest to ensure that the staff member is as skilful, knowledgeable as possible. Such skill can generally be aligned with competence and hence high levels of productivity. The staff member also wanting to be as useful and as 'marketable' as possible will strive to acquire the best possible level of skill and knowledge that is possible as this will make his/her job easier to do.

In this environment, it is usually a good thing for a staff member to be able to admit to a lack of knowledge and skill so that the appropriate training and development required to overcome any shortage can be supplied.

In most performance agreements - alas, there there is a monetary reward attached for better than agreed levels of performance. This can have the disadvantage for both the staff member and the manager that revealing a weakness can be construed negatively and hence put at risk the achievement of the monetary reward. This can unfortunately lead to a staff member hiding a developmental need and having to work extra hard to obtain the necessary knowledge and skills that may be required to undertake some specific work.

It is in the interest of both parties to discuss this and to discuss how developmental requirements will be considered during the term of the agreement and what provision both sides are prepared to make to ensure that lack of developmental opportunity is not a hindrance to accomplishing the work and hence supporting those corporate goals.

This is not generally an easy task and most team leaders and staff members would be well advised to consult someone in their organisation who is skilled in the management of interpersonal relations so that a successful approach -tailored to the circumstances of each staff member can be developed and operationalised.

Anyone who would like to discuss performance agreements and their management further on line or off line should drop me a note and I will be happy to oblige - within reason. Beyond reason we move into a fiduciary relationship - in other words I would expect to be paid for my intellectual property ;-)

Monday, March 07, 2005

Staff - Our Most Valuable Asset

Does your organisation subscribe to the notion that "our staff are our most valuable asset"?

It does?

Then what does this actually mean in practice?

For some keen observers of organisational behaviour this question is a non sequiter. As organisations 'down size' or 'right size' (in other words sack employees) in the search for increased levels of productivity, the meaning becomes obvious. People cost money - lots of money. Thus, one way to fix high overheads is to get rid of this 'most valuable asset' and replace it with assets that are obviously less costly. Automation and cheap outsourced labour come immediately to mind as the solutions which appear to be most in favour at present.

There are some interesting alternative solutions to the problem represented by the cost of labour.

Increase the work load while maintaining the same level of staff.

The technique seems to involve a simple statement to managers at the commencement of each financial year about how much funding they will receive for their operations. "You will get what you got last year, less x% set by the management because of productivity dividends."

A translation of this management gobbledygook is as follows:

"All of you did a fabulous job last year, you figured out how to save the organisation some money by being really efficient and effective and getting the job done.

So, as an organisation we are going to harvest this saving so as to reduce costs.

Given your demonstrated effectiveness, we will also add more work into your work area, without giving you any further staff or money, so that using your ingenuity you will once again have to figure out how to get the work done thereby giving us even more efficient and effective work practices so that next year we can once again cut the amount of money we pay you and load you up with even more work."

There are numerous outcomes from this sort of management practice.

One, of course, is to throw into doubt the oft stated maxim that staff are our most valuable assets. Another is the increase in the number of people who simply fall over at work because they are stressed out of their brains on a daily basis.

There is much pious bleating about the care with which the occupational health and safety of employees are being looked after by the management. The reality and experience from the perspective of most employees is considerably removed from this however.

What is being experienced more and more frequently is the demand that the work be done regardless of the impact on the health of the individual worker.

There is unfortunately more.

The literature and the research of what is needed for sound management in organisations tells us that staff need to be supported by continuing professional development in an environment in which change is the only constant. Organisations set up all sorts of fancy responses to this need and in some cases actually do send their staff to various forms of training on a regular basis.

So let's explore this for a moment. Do they also ensure that the work load of the staff member who is having a developmental opportunity is done by someone else while they are away or is it simply backlogged so that the person can try desperately to complete it when they return? Is there support in the work place for the new things that the person has learned? Is there an opportunity to put the new learning into practice? Is there an acceptance by the organisation of the new practices that the person who is returning from such a developmental opportunity would like to implement?

Generally the answers to all of these questions is negative. This of course means that the benefits which the learning opportunity is supposed to provide is lost while only the cost remains visible.

Another solution to the problem of overwork is to cut corners. Let's explore this for a moment.

One of the most wonderful outcomes of the technological revolution is the destruction of that most boring of all tasks documenting and filing.

Who needs it after all, the stuff is always available on some directory on some server or on some web page somewhere in the world - isn't it?

It probably is - but try finding it. Research has shown that people spend something like 5 - 8 hours per week trying to find things. Think of this as a salary cost and the mind begins to boggle at how much money is being wasted each week in each organisation just trying to find things.

When we fail to document things it has consequences beyond simply not being able to find things.

A new staff member has no idea how things are done in the place and requires someone to teach them. Of course the someone is too busy trying to do his or her own work to be available to the new starter. So he/she learns by trial and error being incredibly inefficient while doing so and annoying the heck out of fellow workers who have to pick up the load.

It also affords people a wonderful way of being unaccountable. If things are not documented then really it's your word against that of someone else about what actually happened.

Let's imagine a conversation between a worker and a manager - have you experienced and of the following?

"Why is the work not done?"
"You never told me to do it"
"Yes I did - last week at the meeting"
"Sorry, there is no record of that in the minutes - you may think you told me to do it but your memory is faulty"
"I want the work done NOW!"
"Now you are victimising me and behaving like a bully. I am offended and stressed by your comments - I can't cope - I think I am going home on stress leave and will submit a claim for compensation and a report to your boss about your inappropriate behaviour."

It's never as neat as that - but I think you get the meaning.

Are we serious about staff being our most valuable asset or are we just kidding around?

Saturday, March 05, 2005

New Team? New Work? New Ideas?

What are the most important things to do when you first come into a new job which requires both supervision of staff, an excellent knowledge of the subject matter that the team you have joined is working on and a strategic outlook which can help the organisation achieve its corporate objectives?

I don't know about you, but I want very badly to understand what the team actually does, who does it, for how long and when and when I feel a little more confident - to what level of quality and timeliness.

Usually I ask for a work schedule from each of the staff who have been working there and ask to be pointed to the documentation of the work which the team does.

Unfortunately I am more often than not, disappointed by the results of my inquiries.

There are very few teams I have encountered which actually keep well documented processes, work flows, decision trees and the like. Most teams seem unable or unwilling to produce a work schedule either, and both requests usually result in a hostile reception, because there is a perception that the new 'boss' is 'checking up' on people.

The reality is anything but that.

The new boss is ignorant about how the team does its business and wants to learn about it - fast. The new boss is really worried about what needs to be done by when - assuming from past experience that most teams have a range of functions that are generally undertaken and required by certain deadlines, as well as many other functions which are undertaken on a more ad hoc basis.

With documented processes and work flows it is possible to see how regular and irregular work requests come into the team, are distributed among the team members and acted upon. In combination with information about deadlines, lead times, schedules and work loads it is possible to ensure that no staff member is either overloaded with work or underutilised.

One rule of thumb to remember is if the work is really difficult then do it more often. By having to do it more often necessity usually becomes the mother of invention and a way can usually be found to take the pain out of the activity or task.

My advice to new team leaders is that they sit down with the staff and set out what they would like to learn about the team and how they propose to do it and what information they would like to have. If the information is not available then I seriously recommend that one of the first tasks is to ask to have it made available.

Happy to hear other views.

Thursday, March 03, 2005

There is nothing new under the sun

This is the supposedly definitive description of the origin of the bikini.

Bikini
A two-piece women’s swimsuit. The origins of the bikini date back to 1946 when Jacques Heim sought to make the smallest swimsuit possible, naming it the “atome” after the most miniscule of scientific particles. Louis Reard went one step further and split the “atome” in two at about the same time the atomic bomb was tested on Bikini Island. The bikini really exploded in the 1960s, however, when beach party movies and Brian Hyland’s “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” hit the airwaves and made this eye-popping style a seaside favorite.


The picture above is of a mosaic on the floor of a Roman villa in Sicily at Amerina

The site where this information is featured belongs to Ralph Lauren. I have of course suggested to them that just as they would not appreciate anyone creating a "knock off" version of one of their designs it may be equally inappropriate to attribute credit for the invention to someone in 1946 when in fact the costume that gives rise to the name was already a fashion item during the times of the Roman Empire.

Spring Cleaning!

Well it would be if we were in the northern hemisphere!

I don't know what you are doing today but my day is going to be filled with getting rid of old and unwanted clutter and finally cleaning out those trays that hold bills, correspondence and other paper detritus.

In short, today is not one where I would like to encounter anyone.

If it is early in the morning then I will resent them because they are tempting me to defer yet once again this unpleasant task. If they catch me later in the day when I am foul tempered from having had to do boring chores then I am likely to be most unpleasant to them and will have to spend months apologising and gaining forgiveness.

It is amazing how having to do chores brings out the worst in some people!

I know this is what happens to me. So be kind to yourselves and leave me alone for today - I will be my more pleasant self in the morning.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

This is what having a Labor government does for you in the UK

More maternity benefits "will cripple firms" - Management-Issues: "The government's plans to woo women voters with extensions in maternity leave and further rights to request flexible working could cripple thousands of small firms, employers' groups have warned.

Under the proposals, maternity pay is set to be extended from six to nine months – and increase of £1,400 - by 2007 with fathers able to take over some of that leave for themselves.

Mothers are currently entitled to 90 per cent of their average earnings for the first six weeks after giving birth, followed by £102.80 a week until the baby is six months old.

In addition, the “right to request” flexible working, currently open to 3.7 million parents in Britain with children under six, is likely to be extended to all 4.5 million parents of school-age children and 1.8 million people who look after sick or disabled relatives."

Pete's Points:

"Come on Aussie Come On!"

A theory of metadata

Random Walk in E-Learning

"Say we have a collection of learning resources. Let call it S with elements s1, s2, s3, ... sn.

S = { s1, s2, s3, ... sn} --- (1)

Now, apply a "meta" operation, μj on each of the element in S which will produce a set M with elements m1j, m2j, m3j, ... mnj where m1j is the metadata of s1. These elements (m1j, m2j, m3j, ... mnj) are the metadata of the learning resources.

M = { m1j, m2j, m3j, ... mnj } where mij=μj(sj) μ sj ∈ S --- (2)

Note that elements of mij are data as well. These resources may themselves be learning resources and hence we can apply "meta" operation on these as well to produce another set of metadata. This is infinitely recursive.

What is interesting, and perhaps confusing, is that there exist more than one meta operation. In fact, there are infinite numbers of meta operations.

∃ j for μj where j ∈ {0,1,..,n,..} --- (3)

Explanation: Up to here, each element of any metadata schema (e.g. LOM or DC) is a meta operation because the result of the operation of each of the element is a specific characteristic of the underlying resource. For example, DC-creator extracts the "creator property" of the learning resource.

An agreed set of meta operations is a metadata schema, ∏.

∏ = { μ1, μ2,.., μn}

Applying all or some of the operations in ∏ on a learning resource produce a metadata record for the learning resource.

Since metadata record may be learning resources, applying all or some of the operations in ∏ is allowed. This is infinitely recursive. [Note: this concept goes beyond just a single reification, e.g. when the metadata operation is the DC creator. A second application of DC creator on the metadata is the creator of the metadata (not the original learning resource). Hence we can also describe the creator of the creator of the metadata of the learning resource.]

A subset of elements Si in a set of learning resources may have an easily identified common characteristic or property. We further define an operation, Λ, as an operation on a set Si which will extract the common characteristics/properties among all elements in the set Si to produce ζ.

Λ( Si)=ζ --- (4)

Explanation:A subset of learning resources, e.g. thesis, will have common characteristics such as "degree awarded", "Institute granting the award" or even some characteristics of the content structure. By applying an Λ operation on a set of learning resources, some learning resources will fail the Λ operation (i.e. ζ = null) while some will produce a valid value (e.g. thesis). Here we are only interested in the cases where ζ ≠ ∅ by looking at more general characteristic that applies to all learning resources or a subset of the learning resources.

Each meta operation will also produce a set of metadata carrying the implicit characteristics of the meta operation. We can

Λ( Mi)=ζ --- (5)

If all possible value of ζ is finite, we say that the meta operation μ is listable and can be constrained by a finite set of value. This set of value can be defined by a set of controlled vocabulary. In other situation, ζ may have been well defined in other community, we can leverage on the work of these communities and create better inter-operability.

Explanation: The remark on this note "In education, some resources are inter-related (e.g., academic papers may be related by citations; a PhD thesis may be related by some commonly accepted formats). In other situations, there may be dependency among resources (e.g., a lesson plan may include dependent resources such as reading material, testing items, examples)" is an application of equation 5 above."
Pete's Points:

Can someone PLEASE explain this to me?

Mean what you say and say what you mean!

Ask The Team Doc: "Creating a Professional Organization
Monday, February 14, 2005
What steps can I take to inculcate professionalism in our organization? Which areas do you think are important to highlight? How can I encourage team members to seriously start thinking about what it means to be professional, as opposed to just doing a job? All suggestions are welcome!

The Team Doc Says...

Professionalism can be demonstrated by many factors in your organization from dress to behavior. I suggest you start at the top. Work with the leadership of the organization to determine what message they want to send to the outside world about the company.

Define values for the organization and then go further to identify specific actions that support those values. Once defined, make sure the values and actions are communicated -- often -- to the employee population. Gather feedback from team members on what's working and what's not. Form teams to help resolve any issues that arise."

Pete's Points:

Then make sure that the leadership practices what it preaches. Leading by example means exactly that. If you say one thing but DO another then people will eagerly follow what you DO and ignore what you say.

Ask The Team Doc

Ask The Team Doc: "Turn That Team Whiner Into A Winner
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Convert a whiner on your team into a winner. Listening to the complaints of a pessimist on your team may help you find gaps in a new process or procedure. Ask that person what they recommend, what actions they would take, and how it could it work better. Put them to work on the solution."

Pete's Points:

Could not have said that better myself.

An Asian Lunch and subsequent events . . .

Today loomed as a hot one. Over 30 degrees Celsius. What better way to celebrate the first day of Autumn than to head off to a local restaurant that serves Asian cuisine. After all, the last time I was in Singapore it was also above 30 and steamy and I know how wonderful it feels to have a really hot Laksa which clears the sinus cavities just from inhaling the aroma and then enables you to create that most desirable of all things on a hot day - the necessary precondition for latent heat of evaporation - namely perspiration.

Then again, after an operation which really does a massive job on your stomach there are side effects to be considered.

With a charming work colleague for a luncheon companion, I contemplated the menu and decided that perhaps the stomach could not quite handle the spices. So instead I chose one of those most satisfying of dishes, a hot noodle soup, which fulfilled all the requirements that my partner is trying to teach me about sensible eating. It had all the relevant food groups, carbohydrates, protein, green vegetable matter, a small dollop of fat and of course that most necessary ingredient, water and plenty of it.

Pleasant conversation, some insights into some work related issues and a slowly filling stomach go a long way to making a day almost perfect.

Coming home from this little outing I realised that perhaps the rest of the day would not go as well, when I noted the mail.

First there were the bills. Well you can't really complain about those, after all I had to have purchased something to have incurred them, so I guess fair is fair, the trader needs to get something out of the deal as well.

Then there was an announcement that if only I had waited to do a deal with my telephone company, they were now offering a much better deal than the one they offered me three months ago. A ten percent discount on all of my utility bills if I signed up for Internet provision with them as well as phone line rental. Of course I would have to pay the penalty for having signed up on their earlier offer and it was likely that the difference between what I would gain on the merry-go-round I would lose on the roundabout.

CHARMING!

Then there was a note saying that a parcel was awaiting collection at the post office.

I dread receiving parcels! You never know these days if it's someone wanting to make a comment on your blog in a most inappropriate way or just something innocuous. So with some trepidation I went to the post office and picked up the parcel and looked at the return address.

It was from my tax agent. Now I knew it was most likely a bomb, happily, only a financial one.

I have to say, I do not mind working, but I resent paying for the privilege - especially when certain people of note in private enterprise, who make as much as my annual salary, in the matter of a few hours, seem to be able to hire lawyers who can offset 100% of THEIR income.

Still, I guess I should not complain. After all my taxes are doing a good job.

They are helping us in this country feel good about ourselves, because we contribute to world peace by sending our soldiers sailors and airmen overseas to protect a form of democracy that is imposed by military might on various groups of people around the world. We can also feel good because we volunteer to spend our money helping people less well off than ourselves and of course we deny our own citizens nothing. After all, we give them access to fantastic hospital treatment - if they live long enough on the waiting lists to get into one. We encourage them to participate in the wonderful growth of the global economy by joining the work force and of course offer to look after their children while they are work, at prices that are larger than their weekly rental costs.

I could go on, but time is money and mine has to go to the tax office. [sigh]