Acting Director Gig Over Today

Whew... it's been a hell of a couple months. What did I learn from in the director role?

• having 200+ reports and being responsible for $100M+ in budget is hard. Fun, but hard.
• your peers and leaders expect you to have all the details for every project, issue, and person at hand at any moment. Keeping track of 136 in-flight projects in your head is tough.
• it's a hellava lotta fun helping build a quarter of a billion dollar IS budget for one of Canada's biggest companies.
• politics isn't everything, it's the only thing. Keep your head on a swivel at all times.
• protect your time like it's gold -- everybody wants a piece. Note to self: raise leaders that know how to manage their time.
• all-day meetings suck. Really, really suck. Note to self: when in the role permanently get rid of these.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Great book on how to create a high functioning, interactive, and engaged team. A must read.

Decoding reality

A difficult and ultimately unconvincing look at the notion that reality is ultimately defined by information.
The key points:
1. Quantum theory is defined by information.
2. Entropy (information) can start from nothing and can always be locally created even though the total entropy of a system is zero.
3. Time's arrow can be defined by entropy.
4. Information is created by the boundary between objects.
5. Hence the universe can be defined by information.

The missing chapter is, "so what?"

This isn't helped by the authors rambling first half of the book or the stilted obviously eastern European difficult narrative structure. Spelling an grammar mistakes are found throughout the work which is a distraction. Whole paragraphs needed to be re-read because they didn't make sense.

An interesting theory which may be true but a disappointing read.

New Puppy

We got a puppy last weekend. He's an 8 week old golden doodle -- a lab/poodle cross. He's an awesome little pup!

Rework

Absolutely brilliant book. It's a series of very small chapters, one to two pages framed by a simple sketch to introduce the idea.
Some examples:
Embrace constraints
Don't copy
Pick a fight
Illusions of agreement
ASAP is poison

Key ideas:
1. Plans are harmful. They're an illusion that you can predict the future. Respond better to reality.
2. Ignore the competition. You'll end up copying their ideas if you don't rather than developing your own.
3. You don't need to waste time in meetings or paperwork. 90% of this will go away on it's own.
4. Most business functions are excuses. Do it yourself.

Another Aikido Seminar Come and Gone

It's always weird going back to the old dojo for a seminar. Great to see Sensei and the guys but I always have the oddest feeling walking back through those doors.

I wish that things could have been different. And that we knew what we were getting into when we put the place together. So many people, so much time. I remember sanding the wood floor by hand twice by myself.

But after everything, everyone was still great to me which is more than I can expect. And Sensei was great even though his health was starting to degrade.

One sad part: a couple of the guys I've trained with for years have loved ones in Japan in the areas affected by the earthquake and had been having trouble getting in touch with them. Turns out everyone's OK but there were some scary moments.

Hitmen Game

We got to go to a fun Calgary Hitmen game last weekend, and the kids got to go down to the ice level after the game to meet one of the players, sit on zambonis, and touch the ice. Great fun!