Work(s) in Progress

Transparency

How much is too much?

I came of age reading Robert Heinlein. This fostered in me an innate understanding of and respect for those people who choose to live off the grid, on cash, and resist a microchipped, google earth mapped, future where personal privacy is not possible. This lifestyle choice is rapidly vanishing. 

In general, especially as we become more tolerant of the differences in each other, I'm OK with the loss of privacy and the growing transparency with which we must all live. Indeed, I've chosen to blog, and participate in facebook, twitter, linked-in, flickr, plaxo, etc. There is a lot of me on the internet by choice. 

And yet, with all of these public access points, I have been largely able to control what information is displayed and how much to share with whom. 

Because of my recent change in employment status, I have been applying for interesting work from Seattle to Geneva. I realized recently that the employer for one of the jobs I applied for posts almost all proceedings online, in virtually real time, including my recent job application (as well as those of the 4 other candidates they might move forward with). No subscription or password needed (for the ultra curious, my job application is tucked in this 226 page PDF board meeting packet). And I find this to be unsettling. On the one hand, I now have the names, contact information, job histories, cover letters, salary histories and resumes of my competition. But so do they. Unlike me, most of the other candidates appear to currently be in stable positions. Did their employers know they are looking? Oops. I guess they do now! 

Is privacy just dead and I should stop looking for it? Should I just rejoice that I made a decision to embrace the technological changes that meant most of us would be living more public and transparent existences? When should a potential employer advertise the candidates and their credentials to their stakeholders? For this specific job, there are 5 candidates remaining (pick me!). Is that too soon? How many is the right number? Should the information ever go public before a person is finally hired?

I had a job interview today locally (3rd interview for the position, today with the president and CEO of the company). And I felt compelled to share that while I was very interested in this local opportunity, I was also looking at other options since at least one other potential opportunity is now part of the vast google record. 

I don't know where the line is anymore. I remember loving the concept of complete and total honesty in all things when James Halperin's book The Truth Machine came out in 1996. I have a signed first edition but you can download a free copy from that link. But now I wonder, where is the line? Can there be too much transparency?

Short Takes

I think twitter and text messaging are training me to think and communicate in short bursts of thought.

I recently heard a DC journalist say that if you couldn't capture the audience with your story or message in 25 words they would just tune out. I'm not sure what that says about our nation's ability to maintain a meaningful dialog on complex topics.

I'm looking forward to Clay Lowe's book - A thousand bullets gone astray when I can get it in the USA.

I'm wondering when we begin to associate connotations with the images with see. My life was fairly uncensored as a child. And while I now view many images or situations as having a moral (good/bad) connotation, I know that early on that all images were neutral in my brain. Sunny day = Pithed Frog = Crucified Man = Sleeping Puppies. I don't know whether this is because I saw A Clockwork Orange when I was six or whether I was just a late bloomer in terms of developing empathy.

I was supposed to attend the annual GCEC (global consortium of entrepreneurship centers) meeting at Rice. The meeting program looked amazing. I had everything lined up. I'd even pre-printed my boarding pass for my flight. And then I drove myself to the Emergency Room at 2:30AM when I got slammed by the flu. Since I had an annual flu shot, it was perhaps H1N1. My local ER was no longer testing as the test results had no bearing on treatment - (just not cost effective). I'm not sure how this impacts the H1N1 maps you can find online. In my case 4 days of fever, mostly GI symptoms, 2 bags of IV saline and various medications. During the worst of it, I think I slept 36 hours during a 48 hour period. Not fun.

Today is the one year anniversary of the judge signing my divorce decree. It is also the one year anniversary of getting my tubes tied. Two major life changes in one day. No regrets.

Next week, I'm having Lasik  done. My heart is racing just thinking about it. It took me years to even work up the courage to switch from glasses to contact lenses. I did my evaluation visit yesterday (at Spivack) to see if I was a good candidate. Aside from dry eyes (it is Colorado), everything looks good. They have patient "counselors" who help with scheduling, financing and also hand-holding as I heard the doctor tell my counselor in a hushed voice "she is very frightened" as in "hold her hand but close the deal." There are two doctors at this office who do the Lasik surgeries. One is substantially cheaper. I understand wanting generic or discount on prescription drugs or routine doctor visits but on EYE SURGERY?! Give me the rockstar please.

I went to Get Motivated! again this year as I did in 2006. Unlike 2006, I did not attend the entire event. My assistant and I heard Robert Schuller, Laura Bush, Colin Powell (why I bought tickets), Phil Town (I love Rule #1), and Tamara Lowe (one of the founders of Get Motivated). While I remembered that the 2006 event had a "God Bless America" theme and "seemed to use some cult-like techniques to capture the audience" I did not remember all of the "take Jesus as your savior" rhetoric that occurred this year and caused me to leave.

Tamara Lowe has now written a book, Get Motivated!: Overcome Any Obstacle, Achieve Any Goal, and Accelerate Your Success with Motivational DNA, the focus of which she presented. It seemed like a useful tool for determining how to best motivate yourself and others. However, her presentation then veered into the surreal starting with a religious rap. To best share the experience, I will quote a review from Amazon.com " I was then teletransported to another dimension and I'm suddenly at a Christian Convention. A big old Jesus-fest. To the point that she asks us (if we want to to be anything in this world and not go to hell thereafter) to each silently affirm that we each need Jesus in our hearts and need to reconnect with our love for Him. Huh? I check my ticket and it is still proclaiming to be a business seminar. I look at my employee, who is Jewish, and she is staring painstakingly at the floor. I mouth, "I'm SO Sorry" and she gives me an uncomfortable nod. It made me pretty angry that at a business seminar with nationally acclaimed speakers, she would be so presumptive as to assume that the 10,000 people in the room not only agree with her beliefs, but cares what she thinks on the topic. It was a total insult to the professionals who follow other faiths or belief systems and mind their own business about it. No wonder half the world thinks we're arrogant and disrespectful of their religious beliefs." Yeah. What S/he said.

In spite of this, Laura Bush was charming, someone with whom you'd want to have tea or a glass of wine; Colin Powell was as inspiring as I'd remembered; and, I will most likely buy Phil Town's new book which is coming out in March 2010: Payback Time: Eight Steps to Outsmarting the System That Failed You and Getting Your Investments Back on Track.

I'm finally planning my trip to Hawaii. Smiling just thinking about it.

 

Traveling Companion Needed

I went to the movie Yes Man at Christmas with friends. I do not normally go to movies of this kind, but I enjoyed it and think of it still. I find myself saying "yes" more often to things I intended to do eventually. I'm just doing them sooner. It's all part of my quest for Bliss and my realization that there is only now.

My friend Martha is always the executive director of some health related non-profit. This year it's Dani's Foundation which focuses on Ewing's Sarcoma.

Dani's Foundation recently held a fund raising dinner (video here) with several hundred silent auction items. I started the bidding on four items and 'won' two of them, both on my "to do eventually" list: 1 week at a bed and breakfast in Hawaiiand 3 nights in Napa Valley at the Meritage Resort- complete with airfare, limo tour, and wine train tour.  Side note: it's really a sign of our economy when the opening bid on items such as these are the winners.While there are some blackout dates, I essentially have until March 2010 to go on these journeys. People ask me when I'm going. I am not yet sure. I need to line up a traveling companion. While I can easily chill in Hawaii by myself for a week, I definitely want a wine loving traveling companion for Napa Valley. Let me know if you are interested...

For my birthday I finally got the Kindle 2. I'm currently reading Outlierson it, another book by Malcolm Gladwell. Like one of his prior books, Blink, I am utterly enjoying this book. I cannot overstate how much I am enjoying my Kindle: it's smaller than a trade paperback and with its Leather Cover is much, much sexier.

I did not achieve the 6-pack abs I wanted for my birthday. I have been working out regularly - 5 or 6 times a week. However, for every 350 calories I've been burning off per workout, I've probably been eating an extra 600 or so. So, yes, I'm stronger and faster but also heavier. Oops. For the most part, my clothes are still fitting but I'm up a few pounds that need to be shed to see the muscle underneath. I currently belong to two athletic clubs. I really need to decide which one to stick with going forward.

While I have not been writing much on-line (my offline writing is going strong), this has been an amazingly good month. My friend who had the stroke last fall, is now almost fully recovered and back at work.  To quote a physician friend of mine "Cathy I don't believe in miracles, but A's recovery is a true miracle." Indeed. I went to her welcome back party earlier this month. I've never seen so many delighted people at a work event such as this.

Work has been insanely busy, but in a great way. We opened our annual business plan competition to the entire state of Colorado, not just our University family. So far, we're getting terrific interest from the community. We've been filming our orientation sessions (feel free to watch the first one). If you are a local reader and know someone who is starting a company, please have him or her contact me. Executive summaries are due April 16th so it's not too late to participate. We award more than $100,000 in cash and in-kind awards to the winners. The CEO of one of our incubator companies has been working with me on my presentation skills. He used to do corporate training for public speaking among other things. Since I open each session, I will soon have ample video footage for him to review and critique. This is not exactly fun, but will eventually make me better.

The face is like the penis

Do I have your attention? I know that phrase caught mine today when I read it. I almost spit coffee; and laughed for about 10 minutes.

A friend of mine loaned me Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. I read it in one sitting. I was utterly mesmerized. I plan to read it again, pausing to digest the more important and insightful passages. I need to add it to my library. The only real question is whether to get the printed book or finally invest in the new and improved Kindle 2: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation) and get the electronic version of the book. The future is certain; a loaned copy is not enough.

“The face is like the penis!” (page 210 of the hard cover). In context, and this is very important, I used to feel badly that I did not have a poker face. Now I see this is good, for me and those around me: “Whenever we experience a basic emotion, that emotion is automatically expressed by the muscles of the face. That response may linger on the face for just a fraction of second or be detectable only if electric sensors are attached to the face. But it’s always there. Silvan Tomkins once began a lecture by bellowing, “The face is like the penis!” What he meant was the face has, to a large extent, a mind of its own. …. our involuntary expressive system is in many ways even more important: it is the way we have been equipped by evolution to signal our authentic feelings.” Since being authentic and real is important to me, I really cannot be dismayed anymore that all that feel is written on my face at all times.

My friend had shared a gem from this book with me a few months back. Relationship failure can almost entirely be predicted by evidence of contempt. It may be the single most important sign that a marriage (or any relationship really) is in trouble (or doomed). I’ve pondered this for months and cannot find a single exception in my past. Indeed, looking back, I remember a conversation I had at age 13 or 14 with a friend about love where I wondered whether it could exist for me without respect (the antithesis of contempt). It’s amazing how you can lose these simple insights over time. The four horsemen of relationship doom are: contempt, defensiveness, stonewalling and criticism. I personally have to add disgust, which was listed as an elevated form of contempt. If you’ve hit disgust, really, it’s done. C’est fini. Cut your losses.

There is an entire chapter in Blink dedicated to information overload. The scientist in me cringes at this but more data is not always good or helpful; it can confound your analysis and ruin your interpretations. Actually this is not so surprising to me. I was building my scientific career as all of the –omics became household names: genomics, proteomics, pharmacogenomics, metabolomics, etc. All of us wanted to identify biomarkers for a disease or specific therapeutic group. But more data was not always better, indeed it was almost impossible to analyze in a timely or statistically meaningful fashion. Therefore, I loved the passage in Blink on updating the Cook County ER to effectively triage for myocardial infarction using only a handful of symptoms. More information is not always more helpful. As scientists we call this confounding data, and it can truly muck things up.

Enough writing about Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. I'm going to go read it again. It's that good.

Short Notes

I love reading other people's blogs. I had a few things catch my attention this weekend.

(1) Scott Adams has an interesting post on practice that ended with this sentence. "It makes me wonder if the passion part of our brains will ever be manipulated by drugs so that passionless people get just enough OCD to obsessively practice something until they get good at it."

(2) Kyra has a wonderful post (rant) on health and fitness (and the obesity epidemic in the USA) on a budget which reminded me of Maggie's posts on frugal dieting and fitness. Truly, I can (and often do) spend more on meal than Maggie would spend on a week of healthy eating.

(3) Clay Lowe was interviewed and included in that interview was an amazing poem. I'm going to grab a snippet.

Her dreams have all gone to bed by Clay Lowe

The wind whispers between
raindrops of yesterday’s past
the memory of her last kiss
fades to black

She can see her happiness
stagger out the front door
into the arms of another
perfumed night

Her broken dreams have
all gone to bed haunted by
ghosts of lines left unsaid

...

go read the rest. And be sure to check out Clay's blog. I can't wait for his book to be published in March. I don't even normally like poetry but Clay's poems tend to resonate with me.

(4) I follow Ben Casnocha on Twitter and read his blog regularly. This tweet resonated with me today: "We unconsciously dislike / repel people in whom we see parts of ourselves that we cannot or do not want to accept. (DFW)"

I see this everyday and could not agree more. 

Alpha Men

A few weeks ago I read several books by women who have developed techniques to effectively work with dominant men.

When I got those books, Amazon recommended that I also consider getting What Men Don't Tell Women About Business: Opening up the Heavily Guarded Alpha Male Playbook by Christopher Flett. I finally read it this evening.

Have any men read this? Is it accurate? Do you really feel this way? Oh wait, I've just lost all of my credibility by asking. Darn.

I found this book to be simultaneously both incredibly illuminating and highly disturbing. On the one hand, the author states multiple times that (alpha) women are the perfect people to become the leaders of today's companies. And yet, within his framework, these same women will always be subordinate to not only the alpha males but also the beta males in the group.

In spite of my discomfort with some of the theories and recommendations put forth in this book, it is written in such a way as to be actionable. Further, it gives very specific examples of behaviors that undermine one's power or will cause one to be "deep sixed." What does it mean to Deep Six someone? "The is the process we use to sabotage your credibility and your career. It comes from underwater (you rarely see it coming), and it has a devastating effect on your position in business."

I need to reread this book, and take notes, as there seem to be two major themes. The easy to swallow theme deals with productivity, professionalism and providing superior value - core ideas in any business book. The other theme seems largely built around loyalty, trust, keeping secrets, and not damaging the surprisingly fragile egos of the alpha males. It seems like the primary cause of getting yourself deep sixed is apparently a careless word that cracks the foundation of the fragile male ego. And woe to the woman who inadvertently provokes the wimpy beta male. Let the games begin, only the woman must wage her war ever so cleverly. Actually perhaps she should just start looking for a job out of state. It seems men can dish out and take criticism from each other, but a women who offers up constructive feedback to a man even when asked, even to a subordinate, risks provoking war and paying the price for damaging the male ego.

Fascinating.  I always thought alpha men were hardier creatures than this.

Career Mapping

These days, I frequently meet people with very interesting job titles, most recently a "Chief People Connector" for an executive recruiting firm. I think she may also have been the founder and CEO but she did not use those titles. Even when I meet people with more traditional titles, I often have no idea what their job entails or what skills and credentials were required to get there. I may have found a place to find the answers.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a book each year called the "Occupational Outlook Handbook." How did I not know about this resource until this week? It's freely available on-line and searchable. I looked up my old career running a biomedical researchlab and the content and career path were incredibly accurate. Importantly, it describes how one spends their day and what credentials, training, and skills are needed to succeed at the job. Fun.

Be Extraordinary

I love my job. Tomorrow I get to meet Gregg Vanourek, one of the authors of Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives. I'm hoping that Gregg will be able to inspire our students in the Fall. What is Life Entrepreneurship? It is creating a life of significance through opportunity recognition, innovation and action. Leading an entrepreneurial life can change your experience from ordinary to extraordinary.

In this same theme, there is Chris Guillebeau's blog on the Art of Non-Conformity. I recently stumbled across his manifesto, A Brief Guide to World Domination - How to Live a Remarkable Life in a Conventional World (pdf). This brief (29 page) article starts with the premise that "You don't have to live your life the way other people expect you to." That's the core. If you don't have time for the full 29 pages, you can start with his post on The Decision to be Remarkable.

That's it really. Want to change the world? Just decide, then act. Everything else follows.

S&M in the office

One of my favorite things about Amazon is that books are recommended based on your browsing history or prior purchases. I read a lot of business books - generally themed toward entrepreneurship & innovation or management. Recently I've been reading more books targeted to women in management positions in male dominated organizations. And speaking of books, I really want a Kindle.

The two I've read most recently The Corporate Dominatrix: Six Roles to Play to Get your Way at Work and Seducing the Boys Club: Uncensored Tactices from a Woman at the Top have both had an S & M Theme.

Now granted, in Seducing the Boys Club, the S & M is defined as "Seduce and Manipulate" and is an autobiographical history of one woman's rise to the top of her company. This book is entertaining and filled with advice and suggestions. Some of it the advice is so over the top I found myself laughing, often. Here's an example:

"One of the great tools, or weapons, we have as women is flirting, and men always respond well to positive attention. If you know you are going to a contentious meeting with a man, you can defuse his anger before he even opens his mouth. Unless he is morbidly obese, there is no man on earth who won't puff up at this sentence:

"Wow, you look great. Been working out?"

Or if you "accidentally" touch a man's arm while you are talking about something serious, you can interrupt yourself with a quick show of admiration:

"Wow, your arm is like steel. Been working out?"

I know, I know, it's obvious and underhanded, but is always works."

Um, you've got to be kidding me.

My favorite parts of this book are where the author shares her missteps - what the situation was and how she handled it badly. Almost always, she will share how she turned it around - a process that might have taken weeks, months or years. These are truly illuminating case studies, almost all written in the humorous tone above.

The corporate dominatrix is written in a more traditional way, and is built around the more common definition of S & M. The goal is to not become either sadistic or masochistic but to use the lessons of S&M to become an effective corporate dominatrix.

What are the characteristics of a Corporate Dominatrix you might ask?

• Has clear boundaries; does not allow others to restrict or violate boundaries
• Conveys thoughts and opinions directly & clearly
• Expresses gratitude and appreciation graciously
• Uses direct eye contact, sturdy posture, assured gestures.

Who doesn't want to be her!

The author defines six common fantasy archetypes to discuss when each management style (and what type of power to use) would be most appropriate so that one can become a "Corporate Dominatrix".

These are:

• The Goddess - personal power
• The Queen - positional power
• The Governess - expert power
• The Amazon - coercive power
• The Nurse - healing power
• The Schoolgirl - borrowed power (referent power)

This framework is interesting and useful. Most of us have a preferred archetype or three with which we are most comfortable with the others underdeveloped. I definitely have a few I need to work on. I called a mentor a few weeks ago for advice. I was getting ready for a meeting and knew my inner Amazon was ready to do battle but I also knew she was absolutely NOT the archetype who was needed for the meeting. I had not yet read this book, but I can now see that my mentor was trying to persuade my inner Amazon to become a Queen for the meeting. Interesting.

A Girl Day

I cannot remember the last day I have taken completely off. I worked through December 31 at my old job before starting the dream job on January 1. I still spend my weekends (at least one day per week) being a scientist closing out and transferring my research project to my new co-investigator. This generally leaves one weekend day for errands and anything not work related (grocery, laundry, sleep, dinner with my husband - yes I know it's sad to see him in the errand column).

Today was mine.

I started my day at the Body & Sole Day Spa. It does not look like much from the outside in its suburban strip mall location but it's terrific inside. A bit of muzak & water sounds with soothing scents of the products they use. I went in to get my face microdermed. This may sound odd but it's kind of like grinding and vacuuming your skin at the same time. I like it but your mileage my vary. It makes my skin feel really soft so I do it every few months. They always try to sell you a facial to add onto it but there is actually one built into the procedure. Today my aesthetician was Elizabeth. She was great - really warm hands, not a chatterer, very good facial massage.

I came home and did a Turbulence Training workout - Intermediate A if you are interested. I've been following the program sporadically for the last few weeks - I'm down about 5 pounds (with about 10 to go) and will do a formal fitness update soon. I need to get ready for the Pink DumbBells Cruise in August.

I fit in some grocery shopping and laundry today so did not take the day completely off, but I did go buy some pretty unmentionables and also got a pedicure. There is a place near my house staffed by 15 - 20 mostly Vietnamese immigrants. They have rows upon rows of vibrating chairs in front of whirlpool foot baths. Their sanitation procedures comfort me. It's not the respite of the Body & Sole Day Spa but for $20 it's a great way to keep my feet pretty on a regular basis.

It was beautiful here today - breezy with cloudless blue skies. I spent the rest of the afternoon with a glass of wine outside laughing through Lean Mean Thirteen. I grew up in New Jersey so find these books especially humourous.