HL Arledge

Hands-on Workshop at Decade User Training Conference

The Decade Software Training Conference 2009 will be one for the record books.

In addition to providing training based on a user-prioritized list, we'll host a hands-on lab throughout the conference—no appointment necessary. If you have questions or just want to test a part of EnvisionConnect you've never used before, this open lab is the place for you. What's more, if you have questions the lab team can't answer, you're not likely to hear, "We'll get back to you on that." or "Can you call tech support after the conference?" Instead, a Conference Concierge will be on call to track down whomever on our staff has the answers you need.

There will also be sneak peeks at the future of EnvisionConnect and the Environmental Health industry from a technology perspective. We'll be presenting awards for best user-authored reports, page layouts, and SQL scripts, and we'll be introducing you to our online and interactive support tools. Our goal in the year ahead is to ensure that you never have to ask why and if you ask how, you'll get answers ASAP.

Want to know more? Join us at the Decade Software 2009 Training Conference, October 19th and 20th.

Collaborate, support teamwork, or go home!

In an interview this week with John Chambers, CEO of CISCO, they asked him what has changed in business in the last few years. His answer was dead on…

“Big time, the importance of collaboration. Big time, people who have teamwork skills, and their use of technology.

Today’s world requires a different leadership style — more collaboration and teamwork, including using Web 2.0 technologies. If you had told me I’d be video blogging and blogging, I would have said, no way. And yet our 20-somethings in the company really pushed me to use that more.

If they’re not collaborative, if they aren’t naturally inclined toward collaboration and teamwork, if they are uncomfortable with using technology to make that happen both within our company and in their own life, they’re probably not going to fit in here.”

That is exactly how I feel about my team.

Bing! – And thanks for saying so.

Just back from vacation, I decided to try Bing!, the new search engine everyone’s been raving about. And like everyone who tests a new search engine, I entered my own name. Doing so, I discovered a PDF from the Center for Aggression Management entitled, Addressing the Loss of Teamwork: Identifying, Measuring and Minimizing Trust-Destructive Behaviors.

The following is a quote from that essay…

“HL Arledge, a leadership expert defines leadership with four “Ts”: trust, truth, team and transparency. He says Trust is a cornerstone to leadership, the development of loyalty and teamwork.”

Real Nice.

BTW, I also found my name on a page entitled “Words about the Dalai-Lama”, but that’s a different story.

Now, that’s a real team!

Friday night, Joey, one of the leaders on my team got married.

Mike, another on our team played guitar, and Dave, a friend of ours, conducted the ceremony. My wife, Janna, said it was a beautiful reception, but men only attend such events for the reception—so I’ll skip ahead.

Mike, Janna, and I sat at a table with folks from Joey’s father-in-law’s old neighborhood. They still keep in touch, meeting annually for a combination golf tournament and old neighborhood reunion.

We were the only ones at the table not from the old neighborhood. We didn’t mean to crash their party, but all of the other seats were taken. More people had shown than had originally RSVPed.

“Who are you?” One of them asked.

“I work with Joey.” I replied.

“What does HL stand for?”

“Hard Luck.”

“Really? That should be my name.”

And this conversation repeated every time another from the old neighborhood joined us. However, over the music, one of the wives missed my introduction, and asked Mike, “Who is he?”

“He’s mine and Joey’s manager.” Mike said.

Her husband heard and said—loud enough for the whole table to hear, “Hey! HL is Joey’s boss. He said he just worked with the guy.”

And someone else said, “Now, that’s a real team.”

Indeed, it is.

Building a better Vulcan

Outside of the office, I love nostalgia, but inside, I am the first to promote change. Keep the things that work. Build on those things, and throw out the bad.

However, when Paramount Pictures took this approach with Star Trek, I was afraid of the change. I did not trust that JJ Abrams would be able to handle the job.

This was because I was not Paramount’s Product Owner, and their team did not ask me for buy-in, when they gathered requirements to fix something that I didn’t think was broken.

I was wrong. The movie was great, and I learned a lesson I have been preaching to others for years…

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

–Mr. Spock, Wrath of Khan”

This became clear today, as I was reading new words of wisdom this week from Joel “on software” Spolsky…

It’s really not Swine Flu

Folks, I’ve been out a few days with the flu.

I suppose it was one of the regular flu’s and not the super-came-out-of-the-blue-hard-to-treat flu’s, as I am back at the office today. I feel a little stuffed up, and my limbs still ache, but otherwise I’m back to normal.

Believe me, you don’t want to hear descriptions of my symptoms when I was not “back to normal”.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to point out something you may not have realized. This so-called “Swine Flu” is really not the traditional Swine Flu we’ve had for hundreds of years.

This thing is a morphing of one of the traditional Swine Flu strains, a strain of one of the common strains of human flu, and the ever-popular newsmaker, bird flu.

If I were a conspiracy theorist—which of course I am not—I’d think someone was cooking this stuff up in a lab somewhere.

Is your software safe from covert secret agents?

I mentioned the other day how Microsoft was working with the CIA to monitor US computer networks.

Apparently, this Big Brother partnership was just in time. The major news networks and publications reported yesterday that some countries are using computers to steal your electricity.

Didn’t we read this in a George Orwell book, or see it in some Tom Cruise movie?

Bill Gates joins the CIA

Do you remember back in ‘98 when the United States Department of Justice filed the antitrust case against Microsoft? The media speculated that the software monopoly would be broken-up like Ma Bell was in the ‘70s, but in the end, Microsoft got off with a slap on the wrist—and everyone wondered why.

Perhaps, an article in the New York Times last week can offer some clues…

“The electronic spy game has had some real-world impact, they said. For example, they said, after an e-mail invitation was sent by the Dalai Lama’s office to a foreign diplomat, the Chinese government made a call to the diplomat discouraging a visit. And a woman working for a group making Internet contacts between Tibetan exiles and Chinese citizens was stopped by Chinese intelligence officers on her way back to Tibet, shown transcripts of her online conversations and warned to stop her political activities.”

The article went on to quote intelligence analysts who said that many governments and some business organizations use sophisticated computer programs to covertly gather information. This group of 103 countries, they said, includes China, Russia and the United States of America.

The antitrust suit was settled in 2001, shortly after the attacks of 911, when much of our government’s errors were blamed on the Department of Justice’s “antiquated computer systems”.

Happy Teams will weather the crisis storms

Alex Kjerulf calls himself a CHO—Chief Happiness Officer, and he is one of my favorite bloggers.

He has a new book in the works that explores the economic crisis and it’s effect on happy teams.

The book has three central claims:

1: Most of what companies traditionally do in a crisis doesn’t work.
The way many organizations typically handle crises is by cutting back on all expenses and doing mass layoffs. While this can be necessary, studies actually show companies who choose this approach recover more slowly.

2: It is possible to be happy at work even in a workplace in trouble.
Of course it’s easier to be happy when everything is going swimmingly, but people can still be happy at work in a crisis. It takes determination and focus, but it can be done. Surprisingly, a crisis can make people happy at work, provided that it becomes a reason for people to focus and pull together—rather than an excuse to give up.

3: Happy workplaces get out of a crisis faster.
Especially in a crisis, an organization needs to get the best out of its people—and when we’re happy at work we are more motivated, creative and productive.

I can’t wait until the book comes out. I predict it will be a worthy read.

It’s not really Friday, is it?

This has been a busy week, but its the start of one of our best sprints ever.

We are overhauling sections of our flagship software that will knock our users’ socks off, and my team is focused tighter than they have been in a long while.

In the meantime, teams from various departments are working more closely to increase transparency and provide customers with solutions faster.

—and we’re growing! We added two team members in the last 30 days, and we are still interviewing.

More and more potential customers are getting excited about EnvisionConnect, and our newly established Customer Communications Task Force is getting off to a great start.

Great week, but I’m exhausted from all of the excitement, and I’m still happy to see Friday.

[For you youngsters out there, the photo is Sergeant Joe Friday.]