Dinosaurs in Business

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I was having a conversation with some IT colleagues the other day and it was remarkable to listen to what was being discussed about employers who have not entered the modern age. There was a bit of laughter about these people who are still operating in business as if it were the 1960s. So, I have come up with a few points of advice for those who cannot see what is going on in 21st Century business.

1. People with a clue stopped printing everything they wanted to read – instead they read online, download and/or print to PDF, etc. It is offensive to see the massive stacks of paper and tomes that you want to read (but probably never will), which you have thoughtlessly printed out with no consideration for the environment.

2. Walking around the office to make sure everyone is in their designated seats is not management and you cannot assume that people who sit at their desks are working. I cannot tell you the number of people I have seen on Facebook at work, whose dinosaur bosses assume these staff members are working just because they are at their desks. How embarrassing! Successful modern workers put in long hours, but some of these long hours are in front of the laptop watching TV until midnight, while they slave away at their work. Lazy employers wander around the office looking for bottoms on chairs, but the modern supervisor looks at the quality of work being done and understands the sort of hours that would have to go into the production of such work. Such supervisors understand the nature of work in the modern world.

3. The emphasis in the modern world is on content and not on superficial appearances. In your generation, you sat at a desk in your silly business attire and “looked busy” when your boss walked past. Modern workers dress in a way that you would consider more “casual” (not realising that what you are wearing looks like the stuff from the grandparents’ closet, which was sent to the opportunity shop years ago). One of the things I noticed straight away when I started working in Sydney all those years ago was how relaxed Aussies were in their work attire. It has been good to see this more relaxed trend developing globally. You might have been able to do little work, but convince your boss of otherwise by superficial appearances, but this is not how modern business (by and large) works.

4. Modern bosses understand what they don’t know and trust their staff to do the work they were hired for (including those who are hired for IT related work). The 1960s boss was worried about losing his or her job, so tried to keep all control of projects and other work with him or herself. Only the smallest parts of projects were delegated, with ultimate “power” and decision-making remaining with this incredibly insecure person. Modern projects require that work is delegated to responsible staff and that these staff are able to get on with their work.

5. You learned how to use some simple software, such as MS Excel, decades ago, but you need to know that this is not impressive and not everything is desirable in MS Excel. There are many more desktop applications and server based software and no one is impressed with poorly considered, planned and implemented spreadsheets. Allow your staff to bring your office procedures into the 21st Century!

One can be angry at this insecure supervisor who is stuck in an earlier age, or one can ultimately pity him or her. To tie one’s self-image and worth so much into work that there is no professional progress, no trusting of staff, no ability to let go . . . such a person deserves sympathy, rather than scorn. The dinosaur either needs to get training (and perhaps therapy), or else needs to move over and let the office become the more productive environment that it could be in his or her absence.

Here’s to the future of business and to dinosaurs being where they belong – in museums!

[Disclaimer: Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.] :)

Google+ versus Facebook – Moving to Google+

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I have used Facebook a few years now, but I have never been completely satisfied with this site/software.

First, it is not terribly simple to sort out your “friends” into adequate groups. I have, for example, different groups of people that I  like to keep separate. These groups would include:

  • My few religious friends. These are people that I have been close to since I was very young and I am more than happy to have them on my list, but not always happy to share all of my content (posts, links, etc) with them.
  • My Free Thinker friends. These are the people that I have befriended since I left religious America so many years ago. These are the people with whom I would share almost anything – including jokes about religious people.
  • My work colleagues. These are business professionals in education, online marketing, counselling and a number of different fields in which I have experience and colleagues. I prefer to share business related posts with these people, but to exclude them from some of my more “interesting” jokes, links and other posts.
  • My family. I am happy to share all content with this group.
  • My students (and former students). With this group, I want to share professional content relevant to their area(s) of study.

Facebook has never been good for channeling content at such refined levels. I tried to create a second account where I discussed more “professional” content, but this never worked terribly well. First, people on my other account began to request to be added, which sort of negated the whole purpose in having the second account. Second, I began to get confused as to which account I was logged into and posting – for example, using my iPhone with the business account and then forgetting and posting things for my family and friends. What a mess!

Google+ resolves this problem with “circles” – a bloody fabulous idea! I can create as many circles as I want and channel content to suit to each group. This is reason enough to change to Google+, in my opinion.

Second, if you have ever advertised with Facebook, you would know that whether or not your campaigns are “successful”, the Facebook team can be tight-fisted and unbending – think, for example, of the FB insistence early on of DAILY payment for adverts and their inadequate ability to deal with many international currencies.

Looking forward to developing my circles in Google+!

Indigenous Australians in the Top End

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We moved to Darwin over four months ago and it has been an interesting experience!

One of the things that appealed to me about this move was the chance to interact with indigenous Australians here in the Top End. I have always been fascinated with indigenous peoples, from the Native Americans of the Southwestern United States, to my limited experience with Maori in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Regarding Aborigines, my first interaction was in Sydney in 1999. I was working in hospitality and two aboriginal women came into the hotel where I was working. Two Australian staff were at the desk and said nothing as these indigenous Australians approached the reception desk. The interaction was eerie – the women stood there, saying nothing and feeling uncomfortable and the staff looked straight through them, as if they weren’t there. After a pause that seemed to go on for ages, I stepped up and asked these ladies if I could help them. This was my introduction to the relationship between indigenous and other Australians and it has been observed many times since. In my experience, indigenous Australians are ignored and the results of this can be seen in a number of ways, including the surprise you see on their faces if you walk past and say “hello” or smile as you pass them.

A few weeks ago, while I was having lunch, there were comments among the women with whom I was sitting comparing Aborigines to primates and I was absolutely shocked. If this is the sort of response in “professional” environments, what can we expect otherwise? It breaks my heart to even begin to imagine the treatment of these beautiful people in their own land.

Last night, an aboriginal man was sitting across the street from my house and crying. My wife asked if he was alright and then came into the house to see if I could talk to him. When I got outside, he was gone. One can only begin to imagine the pain that these people have had to endure at the hands of generations of invaders who often don’t consider them human. When whites arrived in Australia, they thought that they could take the land and they used a ridiculous legal fiction to support this desire to take what they wanted – the doctrine of Terra nullius. Under this doctrine of “land belonging to no one”, the Aborigines were “no one”. In my experience, many Aborigines are still treated like “no one”, or like children who need to be guided by paternal interventionist laws.

Perhaps a bit of empathy and respect are needed!

Mahara

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I came across Mahara e-Portfolio software, found at http://mahara.org/, shortly after it was released about five years ago. At the time, the software seemed to have some potential for online learning, but it wasn’t yet suited to the needs of my students. In the last years, however, the software has come along considerably and my teaching focus has turned towards the trend of competency-based training. Both of these trends have made Mahara a possible choice for my online teaching endeavours. I have installed this open source software on one of my servers and have trialled it for some student projects. Mahara also apparently fully integrates with my Learning Management System (LMS) of choice, Moodle (http://moodle.org), so it looks like I will be developing some student and client projects in this software.

If you are in competency-based training and you want server-based open source software where students can upload, discuss and have their work accessed online, then you must check out Mahara open source e-portfolio software for yourself.

Online Survey Software (Open Source)

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Are you looking for software to offer online surveys? Look no further than LimeSurvey, found at:

http://www.limesurvey.org/

I trialled this software years ago, when it was still “PHPSurveyor” and it has come a long way in the last five plus years.

I installed the software on my server and began creating surveys in minutes. By midnight of the same day, I had seventeen surveys live and ready for completion by stakeholders.

I love open source and when it is server-based, even better. I would recommend giving LimeSurvey a try!

Rollo May Quote – Those Seeking Therapy

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“Other readers may be raising another question: ‘It may be true that people who come for psychological help feel empty and hollow, but aren’t these neurotic problems, and not necessarily true for the majority of people?’ To be sure, we would answer, the persons who get to the consulting rooms of psychotherapists and psychoanalysts are not a cross-section of the population. By and large they are the ones for whom the conventional pretenses and defenses of the society no longer work. Very often they are the more sensitive and gifted members of society; they need to get help, broadly speaking, because they are less successful at rationalizing than the ‘well-adjusted’ citizen who is able for the time being to cover up his underlying conflicts. * * * Thus a relatively small number of people – those who come for psychotherapeutic help in the process of their struggle for inner integration – provide a very revealing and significant barometer of the conflicts and tensions under the psychological surface of the society.” (Rollo May in Man’s Search for Himself)

Christchurch Earthquake Volunteer Counselling Services

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[Note to readers: I received the following message from my contact form and have, with Kirsten's permission, posted it below. If you are in Christchurch and have been affected by the earthquake(s), feel free to contact Kirsten.]

Hi

I live in South Taranaki and am trying to find a coordinated effort in providing counselling services to Christchurch people that I can join.

I work for an NGO here I’m hoping will release me for a couple of week long stints over the next few weeks.

I know Christchurch well having lived there in the past. I am prepared to camp out if necessary.

I have at least 20 years experience as a counsellor/psychologist/psychotherapist and am a registered psychologist working as an alcohol and drug counsellor currently.

I would like to help out in a coordinated network in any way that I can.

My phone number here in the meantime for any night phone work is 06 273 8822. I am also available to see any people relocating into this area in the meantime.

My heart goes out to you all…

thank you so much for your initiative.

Kirsten

Envision Psychotherapy as a Spiritual Path – Thomas Bien

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“I want to suggest, to all of my colleagues in the art of deep listening, that in order to withstand the difficulties of our work and the ups and downs of its valuation in the marketplace, we require a powerful inoculation. And in my experience, the best inoculation is the capacity to envision our work as that of a healer, as part of a long and honorable lineage – to view it as a path of service, a calling as well as a business – and to sincerely offer up this work to the good of all beings.” Mindful Therapy (Bien 2006:5)