A muddied reflection

I just want a phone that does what I want

I preface this by reminding you that I've been accused of being particular. I'm not sure I agree with that adjective, but I often sometimes know exactly what I want.

I've spent the last week working through my purchase of the Verizon iPhone. Seems easy, no? And, before I continue, I have to explain the title to this post before I hear from all of you. I know that I'm talking about various services, hardware, and software providers - not just a phone. But, isn't that the point? I'm a consumer. I want a "phone" that does what I want: manages my emails, text and picture messages, accesses my calendar, and thanks to verizon coverage...even can make a phone call. OK, smart phones are here so I want a few well integrated apps, too.

I'm also a Google fan, but for the reasons that seem right to me. They do things well. They integrate. They are innovative. I'm an Apple fan. I love their hardware. I'm typing this on the sexy, very user friendly 11" Macbook Air. I'm not a Verizon wireless fan. Their customer service sucked 8 years ago when I left them for T-mobile and I have a bit of an elephant memory. Plus, I'm no expert in wireless history and technology, but I dislike arbitrary uniqueness and don't know why the service isn't GSM like the rest of the world.

I thought I had the perfect plan figured out. My sister offered to allow me to join her V friends & family plan -- and that provided the added benefit of cutting almost $50 from my monthly phone bill, along with the potential to just give my phone/# to my niece once she's ready for a phone sometime in the future. This helps ease my irritation of provider contracts. Then, I would "port" my current phone # to Google Voice.

For those of you not familiar, GVoice is the outcome of Big Brother's purchase of Grand Central a few years ago. It enables you to customize voice mails per caller, emails voice mail transcriptions, and just manage your call life pretty efficiently. It evens handles text messages.

Seems perfect, right? Well, even with my fastidious research, I missed that GVoice currently doesn't handle MMS (picture) texts. And by handle, I mean not only is it not able to receive/send, it doesn't even tell the sender (my friends/contacts) that it doesn't -- they just enter some cybernetherworld. In my pursuit of perfection, this is a big deal for me. I don't want to bother people with having to remember to use "x" number for calling & regular texts and "y" number for MMS texts.

I'm not going to go into my issues with Apple and Google as competitors. That is for another day and getting more interesting by the week -- check out the recent Apple "in-app" subscription policies and Google's response that are potentially troubling to a consumer. The iPhone has weak (at best) Google services integration, but I want one. I can live with the native apps being suboptimal but the service still needs to be there.

So am I complaining about Google? About Apple? About Verizon? Yes. I want what I want.

Thinking for myself

Currently reading Dawkins's inspirational book "The God Delusion." Why is it inspirational? It's great to see in print a well-articulated argument/discussion that is based on reason and rational thought about such an emotionally charged topic. In fact, he asks the obvious question of why it's nearly a social stigma to voice a choice of atheism -- why isn't it ok to raise the opinion of disagreement with the thought of a supernatural, mystical being that is responsible for all things? The fact that there is no proof one way or the other does not preclude this particular discussion from the scientific review of "probability."

It's leading me to some personal version of passionate atheism. I have no desire to attack the belief of others, but it's certainly acceptable to question and speak freely.

Flying Spaghetti Monster, indeed.

The Greatest Story Ever Told

Lest it not be so obvious, the absolute bestest, most genius piece of thought ever put to word processing software is The Baroque Trilogy. Read it. It's nearing the cold winter months and almost time to break them out again for a nice refresher. You must read them. Stephenson is brilliant. While I grant you that there's no accountin' for tastes, if you don't like this, well...just read it.

I miss Eliza.

Fine. Or, maybe just finally

I've been considering a personal blog for some time, and what better way to test it out than with VOX? Seems like a good place to start and it saves me the stress of figuring out the just-so-perfect domain name. I'll give it a shot. Hope you like what I have to say, or at the very least find it semi-interesting. I always welcome comments and feedback...especially when they are gushing accolades.

Blink for self-awareness

A bit behind the times, so please forgive me, but I just finished "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell. Good stuff for the arsenal of self-awareness and recognition of the power of our unconscious. What I find most fascinating is the opportunity that it provides those seeking development of their personal leadership style. What better information can we receive than to know that we actually do make immediate judgments in most (all?) situations! Armed with that information...I'm clearly in a WMD mood...one can make a conscious decision on how he/she wants to show up, and adjust accordingly. Now, there may be some absolute, fantastical unconscious that is our current "true-self" -- as evidenced by the work demonstrated by John Gottman that is able to predict divorce with frightening accuracy -- but for the majority of business and personal situations, the awareness of the physical manifestation of our feelings can be used to enable our desired response.

I know, I know...isn't our natural response our true self? I don't think so. We've all been engrained with bias through our experiences and interactions and that betrays our conscious intent. I want to be a better person...that is, not discriminate on any level, judge people or their business intellect by their appearance, etc., etc., but I do it. Recognizing this natural condition, slowing down a bit, looking inward, we can then generate our TRUE self. Who we want to be.

I'm also glad that I'm over 6 feet tall.

I'm not making this up

If you aren't reading CPU (creating passionate users)...well...you should be.

I think I've commented on the power of iterating, yes? There is a growing wave of acceptance and recognition of the power of learn-as-you-go (said another way.) The growing manifesto of a Lean-Agile infrastructure.

Nobody said this would be easy

The development and spreading of the leadership virus sure isn't easy. Without a profound desire to learn, the benefits seem so obscure that I find that many people lack the commitment to pursue their own development. At the end of the day, this has the opposite effect that they originally intended. Forego individual development for the sake of immediate, quick hit wins of execution...the proverbial "stuff that's on my plate"...and in the end everyone suffers.

The enterprise loses the ability to achieve exponential velocity toward the long term success; consumers suffer as a result; and, the individual ultimately fades from their potential. No easy task to balance the pressures of the day-to-day, and even harder (potentially) to help people escape this vicious spiral. Can you incent a desire to learn and grow? Rare is the corporation that provides incentives on potential versus performance. Darn those pesky shareholders.

I love this

I'm not proud of my ability to find humor at the expense of others...well not real proud...but I do love what politicians bring to my life.

I blame someone else cause I'm an idiot...

Churn, baby, churn

Consider this quote from Guy Kawasaki's "Rules for Revolutionaries"...

"As a rule of thumb, revolutionaries should strive to make the optimal solution feasible -- as opposed to making the feasible solution optimal."

Get it out there. Iterate. Learn as you go. The common mistake to interpreting this basic concept is to think that it's ok to put crap out in your market. Whether your market happens to be a paying consumer base or an internal corporate associate group is irrelevant. This is the power of an Agile development lifecycle -- making possibilities real. Over 50% of software functionality is wasted! That being true, then move away from the natural calling for a perfect, turnkey solution. Defined well, perfection doesn't exist. Churn. Try. Learn & Burn. Whatever you want to call it, live the waffle mantra (just do it -- ok, a stretch on the obscure reference.)

The concept here is critical and I can't stress enough the application of this learning to things above and beyond software development. Consider your stereotypical "project management" approach to any initiative that you may take...gather all requirements; understand and document all that your customer wants; translate that into a perfect solution; start execution. Waste. It's an enabler to those that are uncomfortable with uncertainty and trust. Push thinking to the highest priority that is needed, build it, and reassess. You'll make that optimal solution feasible by making something happen. Don't wait. When it comes to value to market, remember what is true in the long run...

True Leadership...the Lean way

The foundation of true innovation and revolution in any larger corporation -- and probably smaller firms, for that matter, although there is a bit more flexibility in that envronment -- is a demonstration of Lean Principles by senior leaders. Leaders, not managers. In a culture of Lean principles, managers are not nearly as relevant as individuals that believe and demonstrate, day in and day out, that they are there to inspire answers by their teams, not provide solutions. Of course, "never" is in an ideal state that perhaps can't be achieved, yet a dictate or prescribed request on a team should be such the exception that everyone knows that something in the system is off and instigating the behavior.

Hard to do? You betcha. Next time you need something of your team/direct report/mentee, talk with them about the context of the need. What's driving the request? What are your expectations on the guardrails for coming up with a solution? That done, pay close attention to how you react to challenges or personal frustrations. Solutions or options not as deep or intuitive as you would like? Sit in on a working meeting and offer perspective, don't tell the team what you want done.

A lot of "managers" claim to want to provide inspirational leadership but lack the patience, dedication, or competencies to pull it off. Don't be one to talk about how important "people" are to you...live it every day in every opportunity. The people that you are trying to inspire will recognize it and be incredibly motivated.