I wanted to capture this series of articles by Don Sull of the Financial Times. I can’t share via Twitter from the office so I am opting to compile here.
The series looks at The First Jesuits by John W. O’Malley. Sull and O’Malley hold up the Jesuits as a group that practices strategic agility.
Sull says:
The Jesuits grew in size and influence by identifying and seizing opportunities to fulfill their mission of saving souls.
Sull focuses on HR practices. Readers will know I tend to break out in hives when discussing anything HR. But I admire the Jesuits. I am a product of a Catholic school education and have been influenced by the Jesuits. One of my all-time favorite professors in college was a former Jesuit.
Sull’s second post on this subject: Agility through people: Five lessons…speaks to Jesuit hiring practices that ultimately lead them to success outcomes.
For a good definition of operational agility - take a look at Sull’s post on Toyota. Sull says:
Operational agility is a company’s capacity, within a focused business model, to consistently identify and exploit opportunities to create economic value, and do so more quickly than rivals.
I just added Sull to my RSS feed. He’s my kind of guy.
Chad Henderson gave a talk at IgniteOKC. BoingBoing picked it up and I thought it was worth linking to - you see - I played Dungeons and Dragons and am currently biding my time until I can introduce RPGs to my daughter. (Shhh…don’t tell my wife.)
I just signed an offer letter for a small company looking to do big things here in Rochester. (In fact it is about 3 minutes from my house! Bye Bye Jefferson Road!) I had been out of work for a little over one year. That is a long time.
I had/have some immediate thoughts on what I/my family did to survive this past year. Yes…survive. I am deliberately using that word.
Get your finances under control. In a hurry. We went to Defcon 1 on day 2 of my unemployment. What does D1 look like? It looks like cutting all non-essential spending. Satellite bill cut down dramatically. (Come on…you need SOME tv.) Meal planning started. No dinners out. This let us keep Family Friday Pizza Night.
Don’t let it affect your kids. Our goal was to not disrupt our daughter’s life. We had to cut violin lessons. (I think she was happy about this actually). But I went the extra mile in ensuring she was living a balanced life.
Exercise. Every day. We joined the local YMCA and practically LIVED there. This was $90 a month WELL spent. Especially in the summer. We ROCKED that place. And continue to do so. We extracted more ROI out of that $90 than anyone.
Work your network. I say this with the assumption that you already have a network built. If you didn’t have a network in place - an ACTIVE network by the end of 2008 - you are beyond screwed. I was volunteering at a place in the Summer. It didn’t work out. I got a new job earlier this week. BOTH came through my EXISTING network. I battle with the networking gurus all the time on constantly expanding your network. I like to grow organically and farm, farm, farm my relationships.
Have an internet presence. This helps with number 4 but it also helps you CLOSE the deal. I could SEE the hits on my Linkedin page. I could see the traffic on this site jump after I talked to people. I can’t tell you the number of times people have referenced my site, my linkedin, or my twitter (which I don’t use all that much) during conversations. It works.
Volunteer - work with kids. It will humble you. I worked a lot with my daughter’s second grade class. I worked with a non-profit that worked with kids teaching them entrepreneurial skills. I coached a group of 8 and 9 year olds in a flag football league. It gives you perspective. It will keep your head on straight.
Open yourself up. Possibly the hardest part. Under stress, I tend to hunker down and get inside myself. Fight that urge. Let people love you. Let people help you. And most importantly ASK for their help. So easy yet near impossible. Trust me. I know.
Learn. Every day. I had a teacher in highschool. Freshman year. All boys school. Priest. Taught Latin. (Now you have some insight about me. Only man I have ever really feared. But he said something profound. He told us to make sure we read something every day. Even if it is the comics. When you read - you learn. I made sure I was using my gray matter. I took on projects that FORCED me to learn.
Stay positive. As the great prophet Bob Marley used to say - “Everythings gonna be all right.” You have to keep a positive mental attitude. Even when you are bruised and battered. You HAVE to get up. You have to put your helmet on. And you have to go attack that rock and keep pushing it up the hill. Because ONE DAY it will not roll back down on top of you.
I hope this helps someone. If you are in this place - talk to me. I get it. I can help. Give me some love on this post - add your own tips - crab at me about how wrong I am.
Last night I gave an updated version of my “Managing Your Online Identity: Using Social Media in Your Job Search” presentation to Hannah Morgan’s Career Club in Canandaigua, NY. It is really aimed at anyone who needs to manage their career not just job seekers.
The latest issue of Strategy + Business has a great article on Special Operations forces: “What’s So Special About Special Ops?”. Readers of this blog will know that I am a total Special Ops fanboy. I have been since playing with my first GI Joe in the 70’s.
The article focuses on the training required to produce an “operator”. All in, it will take a minimum of 2-3 years to produce an operator. 2-3 years!
There are 5 aspects of spec ops training:
Winnowing - The author makes a great point that points out a glaring problem with corporate training. If a SEAL rings the bell during the Hell Week he is sent back to a new conventional unit. He is a superstar for trying to be a SEAL in the first place. The author states:
In corporations, there is often no “Plan B” when someone drops out of a program or fails to make a promotion, and a disappointment or setback may very well mean the employee leaves the company altogether.
Deliberate Practice - “research supports the notion that intensive, deliberate practice — not innate talent — is the secret of exceptional performance.”
Realism - not computer based training. But real, in the field, hands on, fake blood squirting training.
Constant Feedback - something else I like - all training is delivered by operators. Not trainers. And I LOVE a good After Action Review. What did we do well. What do we need to improve. And - stack rankings. Feedback is constant. Not once a year or once every six months when you sit down with your supervisor.
Physical and Mental Stress - HR won’t let me do this. Instead they will make you sit in a training room/conference room for days on end until you can’t feel your legs any more.
When operators get to their teams, each is considered a deep generalist who also has a couple of specialties. It is their job to share their knowledge in on-going trainings with their teammates. Oh my god, I love this.
I received an AWESOME email the other day from a senior level IT/Telecom consultant with a combined 30 years staffing experience in the Contingency, Retained and Consulting space local to Rochester, NY. I’ve known this consultant for a number of years - he’s asked to remain anonymous and I respect that.
He sent a year end update out - full of horrible news. But it is news that we all know yet we still live in denial of it. Pasting the note below:
While 2007, and the first part of 2008 were very good years, the second half of 2008 and 2009 have been very poor. I have seen a slight increase in activity however in November which should carry through the end of the year. Based on that, I do not expect the technology space to improve in the near future. Hopefully we will start strong in the new year but My best guess is second half of 2010. That not withstanding, there are a couple of observations I would like to share with you:
First, companies are doing a good amount of “window shopping.” By that I mean positions listed on their web sites are not actual openings but anticipated needs that they are projecting for and are doing nothing more than accumulating resumes.
Second, when we are contacted by a client and take a job order many companies are specifically instructing us to present candidates we have identified through means other than job boards because they can search them themselves.
Third, for the requirements we are seeing, the technical level of expertise is such that we have had little or no success with job boards. In fact, it is fair for me to say I have used them very little or not at all.
Fourth, opportunities fitting a specific skill set could be anywhere and limiting your geographic options will only make your search that much more difficult.
This might just be the best email I’ve ever received. Again, I don’t think I’ve gone completely insane…yet. This person is HONEST. But he provides some HOPE. But he also provides some very specific action items.
1. Use the crap out of Linkedin. (I didn’t paste that part.) People are looking at you. Have a presence on the Internets!
2. Job boards are where the herd is - you have to use them but they should be a very MINOR part of your search process.
3. Be ready to move. Especially those of us in Rochester and cities that are out-right failing. Moving SUCKS. It is very highly ranked on most traumatic things you can do. I’ve moved a lot in my lifetime. It is not fun at all.
4. If you don’t have a plan to survive the next 6 months to a year - you need to get one and get one in a hurry. How are you and your family going to survive?
For me, the scary part is having to survive another year of unemployment. I know I can do it. But I don’t WANT to. I need to be working. Doing SOMETHING. I am doing a decent job of filling my days with meaningful stuff - but I need to get in the game and mix it up!
Read an interesting blurb in Business Week - no link because I can’t find one. Whatever BW. The article is: Are Your Employees Just Biding Their Time?
The first point is that people aren’t quitting their jobs. So that’s good - we haven’t completely lost our minds. People see 17+% total unemployment and think to themselves [...]
I’m trying to re-engage. I am. I swear.
Back in August, Tom Peters published his Recession46 - strategies for getting through.
I just went back to them. I like them all. I am thinking about reading these every morning. As a prayer. A mantra.
Some that I particularly like:
” You buck yourself up with the thought that ‘this [...]
Here’s a link to a WSJ article that goes behind the numbers.
In a word - we are $#%^&$.
Question for you: if you are unemployed, what does this news do to you? What is your reaction?
If you are working, same question…what is your reaction?
As for me…I feel like I have known this all along. I think [...]
Or at least one of them.
WSJ had an article awhile back: When Returning to Work is Harder Than It Seems. This is a solid read for those of us that have been out of work for a long time. The article quotes that the average layoff time is around 6.5 months.
I completely identify with this [...]
