Work(s) in Progress

Victim Impact Statement

The wheels of justice keep turning. I continue to be surprised by this experience. My purse was stolen on February 4 from my office. Within a week, I knew the alleged thief's name. From conversations with my police detective, I knew that even though they knew the person's name, who he called, what he took, what he looked like on video, that it was really up to the Denver District Attorney's office to determine whether to go forward.

I had and continue to have mixed feelings about this experience. The total dollar value of what was taken was under $700 now that I've replaced just about everything. How much tax-payer money has been spent looking into this already? Given that this crime is a misdemeanor what is the punishment? A slap on the wrist? A note in a file? On the other hand, people who commit these acts need some incentive to act within accordance with societal rules otherwise why not just keep stealing. So, of course I'd like this guy to pay. But how? At what cost to us as a society? What is the price to us of not tracking him down?

I sent an email to my detective last week to learn whether there was anything happening, or anything I needed to do. Imagine my surprise when he left me a voicemail that a warrant had been issued for the person's arrest.  That the crime against me had been added to a list of similar crimes allegedly committed by this person.

Yesterday I received a letter from the Denver District Attorney's Office requesting a Victim Impact Statement. It seems unlikely but I may get restitution from this. Fascinating.

Notes from the back of the classroom

One of the best perks of my job is the ability to sit in on a variety of classes, especially when guest lecturers or students present. As a student I was one of those people who was always early and always in the front row. Now, I generally sneak in and grab a seat in the back just as class is starting. My office is conveniently located about 20 feet from the classroom. Sitting the back helps me to remember that I am a guest and not a participant.

Last week, David Laube, who serves on the advisory board for the Business School and who literally wrote the Text Book for one of my classes (IT Management), gave a lecture in our Business Plans and Seed Financing course. This was one of the few classes I did not take as a student, so it was fun to sit in. Dave spoke on two major topics with the first leading into the second.

Apparently there are four key attributes that are desirable to companies recruiting business school graduates. None of these were surprising but the rank order was somewhat remarkable.

1. Communication and Interpersonal Skills
2. Ability to work well within a Team
3. Personal Ethics and Integrity
4. Analytical and Problem Solving Skills (note: while these may be critical, they are also considered implicit)

The real key here is that communication and presentation skills can make or break your career. Dave told several stories of colleagues whose careers plateaued or crashed and burned due to their inadequate presentation and communication skills. Don't let this be you.

While I'm not going to reiterate his specific presentation advice here (come take his class!), I will share a model he uses to think about communication and presentation. He shared a theory on social styles that I had not seen before. It's similar to Myers Briggs and Insights, both of which I've written about before. Apparently all of us develop a preferred style in adolescence. This is innate and cannot be changed. These four types (Analytical, Driver, Amiable, and Expressive) are equally prevalent in the population, with about 25% of us in each quadrant. If you're interested, Dave is a Driver. He leads, and when frustrated becomes autocratic. Most of the scientists I've interacted with are analytical, with a tendency to avoid interaction if pressured.

Interestingly, none of these social styles are correlated to business success.

The important skill is one's ability to be versatile and utilize other styles when needed. If your boss is a Driver, you must start with the summary; get to the point first. Let her ask for facts and data if she wants it. Most importantly, let that person lead your presentation. If your boss is an analytic, you must have FACTS and DATA to back up your presentation.  The ability to be versatile and adapt your style depending on your audience is strongly correlated with career success.

Final bit of advice from Dave, tailor your presentation to the most important person in the room. You might need to do your homework to learn his or her preferred communication style but your success will be worth the effort.

Evernote

I have been searching for a software product to help me better organize all of my ongoing projects and voluminous notes. I have 4 or 5 meetings per day where I end up with 2 or 3 pages of notes from each meeting. Each meeting generates 3 or 4 new contacts, and several tasks that need doing. The stack of paper in my briefcase grows each day. I'm literally drowning in scraps of paper where I often forget to note the person's (or meeting's) name and date.

I've been looking for something that would be a work solution (i.e. secure) with many of the features I love about blogs with ways to tag the various notes together into some organized fashion. I've been browsing CNET downloads  looking for something I could use at both home and work (that easily synchronized) that had a journal function with perhaps some features of mind mapping to tie the various projects together.

This morning I was accepted into the Evernote Beta. I had installed their basic desktop freeware version (Evernote 2.2) a few days ago and thought it would do, at least on one computer, everything I needed. Beta is better. I can work with it from a web browser much like blogging. It will synchronize to the desktop version. It's password protected both on the desktop and on the web. It can hold images, text, hand written notes, and web clips (using their snappy integrated clipper). I even have a proprietary email address so I can email content into a "note" anytime, anywhere. I don't have an iPhone but this beta-version also allows real time access to all of your notes from the appropriate portable device. I'm sure that I don't yet know half of what it can do but I'm delighted. I suspect I will fall in love with it. I just hope that whatever user fee they ultimately set is something I can afford.

Innovate or Die

This morning, I attended a breakfast seminar on Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs) hosted by the Colorado Bioscience Association. This is an area of the bioscience industry about which I knew very little, filled with cryptic acronyms like API, GLP, and cGMP.  Sadly, no one defined the terms before the presentation but I was able to get a sponsor to translate afterwards (these vary somewhat but Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient, Good Laboratory Practice, current Good Manufacturing Practice). Note to experts in any field: Please define your terms.

One terrific question was posed to the panel of experts, all representatives of local companies. How do you, or can you, compete with overseas lower cost companies? Best answer "Innovate or Die." Surprisingly this came from the largest CMO in the group - Roche.

Forty

For months I have been dreading that shift from 39 to 40 which occurred yesterday. I'm not sure why this birthday worried me but it did. I woke up yesterday and did not feel any different. Of course my brother wrote to tell my I was "half way done." I suspect this was the reason I was dreading. Is my life truly half over? Many of the women in my family live to their late 80's or early 90's but not always in great health.

Yesterday was great in an honoring Bacchus kind of way. I was wined and dined for both lunch and dinner. For lunch I met up with three magnificent women I used to work with.  We ate at the Washington Park Grille. I always get one of their ahi tuna dishes, in this case the wasabi green pea crusted ahi tuna. It was terrific. For dinner it was O's Steak and Seafood at the Westin with my husband and his brother who is in town this weekend. I love O's. We go for almost all birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and essentially anything important. The food is outstanding with a beautiful presentation of the meal. When they bring the plates out, you often just want to admire it for a minute before eating.

As a present to myself, I finally, at long last, joined a gym. Or perhaps I should say, I joined a posh athletic facility. Every day, I walked past the building for the Colorado Athletic Club between my parking lot and work. Yes, I have a well stocked home gym, but with my long days (often 8AM to 10PM at the office), I have not been using it. However, I generally have an hour or two in my day that could be used to work out. I really needed to make it easier to find a way. This place is incredible. Yes there are 3 floors of athletic equipment and workout rooms, but it was the women's locker room that had me signing within minutes. Every beauty product imaginable is provided. There is a sauna, steam room & jacuzzi tub. Heck there is even a tanning bed and massage area if you really want to live it up. The women of all shapes and sizes walk about comfortable in their own nakedness. Apparently the place is packed in the early mornings (before 8AM) and during lunch. I have not been there during those times and feel like I have this magnificent place almost exclusively to myself. As part of being a new member, you get two free sessions with personal trainer. I have not scheduled my appointments yet, but they've been leaving me voice and email messages. Happy Birthday to me.

I've been doing most of my writing about my new job over on our alumni association website. Reaching out to alumni has been fun. I emailed all of the people in our database last week. About 600 emails bounced back but I ideally 1100 or so are still active addresses. I've already heard from more than 60 alumni and have meetings planned with some of them.

And finally, I found this fun test over on Kyra's Art Blog (need Java to see it). I am Handy Smurf.

You can take the test here.