As much as I love the social tools that have been built over the last few years they do not replace the need to actually do in person networking.  I have found that some of my friends over the last 9 months have had to look for jobs.  Many of these people I never thought would be in that position, but it turns out they were.

When I first talk to someone that is looking for a job there are few bits of advice I ask them to do before I can do much to help them.

First I ask them to fill out two profiles online.  Linked.com and VisualCV.com.  I bet you are wondering why I do that.  The reason is that both of these profiles help promote yourself and helps you network.  Make sure you let people know what the links to these profiles are in your resume, they aren’t going to find them on their own!  Also pick profile names that are easy to remember like your name.

Social Networking not a replacement for In Person Networking : Brendon Schwartz Collaborating on SharePoint

Excerpt:

Heuristics have many practical applications,
and one of my favorite areas of application is personal productivity.  Productivity
heuristics are behavioral rules (some general, some situation-specific) that can
help us get things done more efficiently.  Here are some of my favorites:

1. Nuke it!  The most efficient way to get through a task is to
   delete it.  If it doesn’t need to be done, get it off your to do list.

2. Daily goals.  Without a clear focus, it’s too easy to succumb
   to distractions.  Set targets for each day in advance.  Decide what you’ll
   do; then do it.

3. Worst first.  To defeat procrastination learn to tackle your
   most unpleasant task first thing in the morning instead of delaying it until later
   in the day.  This small victory will set the tone for a very productive day.

4. Peak times.  Identify your peak cycles of productivity, and
   schedule your most important tasks for those times.  Work on minor tasks during
   your non-peak times.

5. No-comm zones.  Allocate uninterruptible blocks of time for
   solo work where you must concentrate.  Schedule light, interruptible tasks
   for your open-comm periods and more challenging projects for your no-comm periods.

Moving
up the Wisdom Hierarchy

Note that this list mainly applies to middle managers. So before you sit down with
one of your employees and make one of these statements, think about how it will be
taken.

Excerpt

Boyd was interested not just in any dogfight, but specifically in dogfights between
MiG-15s and F-86s. As an ex-pilot and accomplished aircraft designer, Boyd knew both
planes very well. He knew that the MiG-15 was a better aircraft than the F-86. The
MiG-15 could climb faster than the F-86; the MiG-15 could turn faster than the F-86;
and the MiG-15 had better distance visibility.

There was just one problem with all of this. Even though the MiG-15 was considered
a superior aircraft by Boyd and most other aircraft designers, the F-86 was preferred
by pilots. The reason it was preferred was simple: in one-on-one dogfights with MiG-15s,
the F-86 won nine times out of ten.

This problem fascinated Boyd. Why would an inferior aircraft consistently win
over a superior aircraft?

In order to solve this anomaly, Boyd needed to understand how pilots actually
operate in dogfights. Boyd had an advantage here. He was not only a pilot, but one
of the best dogfighters in history. He therefore had some first-hand knowledge of
the subject.

Let’s consider a pilot involved in a dogfight. We’ll call him Pete. Boyd proposed
that Pete’s dogfight consists of four distinct stages. In the first stage, Pete observes
the state of the world around him, including the enemy plane. In the second stage,
Pete orients himself with respect to that state. In the third stage, Pete plans on
an appropriate action. In the fourth stage, Pete acts.

So Pete first observes, then orients, then plans, and then acts. Boyd called this
sequence OOPA (observe, orient, plan, act).

(Actually, readers familiar with Boyd’s work may recognize that Boyd called his
loop OODA, for observe, orient, deploy, act. However, I have change the deploy to
plan for two reasons. First, technology readers will be confused by the acronym for
object-oriented design and analysis, also OODA. Second, as I have read Boyd’s works,
I have concluded that “plan,” as used in the IT context, is closer to Boyd’s original
meaning than is “deploy”.)

But, and here is a critical fact, Pete doesn’t just do this once. He does this
over and over again. In fact, Pete is constantly looping through this sequence of
OOPA. And, of course, so is his opponent. So who will win? Pete? Or the anti-Pete?
If Pete is flying the F-86, we know he will probably win. But why?

It would seem that the anti-Pete flying the MiG-15 would be better at OOPA-ing
than Pete. Since anti-Pete can see further, he should be able to observe better. Since
he can turn and climb faster, he should be able to react faster. Yet the anti-Pete
loses and Pete wins.

Boyd decided that the primary determinant to winning dogfights was not observing,
orienting, planning, or acting better. The primary determinant to winning dogfights
was observing, orienting, planning, and acting faster. In other words, how quickly
one could iterate. Speed of iteration, Boyd suggested, beats quality of iteration.

The next question Boyd asked is this: Why would the F-86 iterate faster? The reason,
he concluded, was something that nobody had thought was particularly important. It
was the fact that the F-86 had a hydraulic flight stick whereas the MiG-15 had a manual
flight stick.

Without hydraulics, it took slightly more physical energy to move the MiG-15 flight
stick than it did the F-86 flight stick. Even though the MiG-15 would turn faster
(or climb higher) once the stick was moved, the amount of energy it took to move the
stick was slightly greater for the MiG-15 pilot.

With each iteration, the MiG-15 pilot grew a little more fatigued than the F-86
pilot. And as he got more fatigued, it took just a bit little longer to complete his
OOPA loop. The MiG-15 pilot didn’t lose because he got outfought. He lost because
he got out-OOPAed.

I’ll state Boyd’s discovery as Boyd’s Law of Iteration:

In analyzing complexity, fast iteration almost always produces better results
than in-depth analysis.

A
Better Path to Enterprise Architecture

An article by Sally McGhee, author of Take Back Your Life!

Do you have an effective way to process and organize your e-mail so that you can
get to an empty Inbox on a routine basis? If you have lots of e-mail in your Inbox—we
know people with as many as 7,000 messages—you might want to rethink your processing
methods. Really, it is possible to empty your Inbox. The key is to evaluate how you
are processing and organizing your e-mail and make some changes.

4
Ways to Take Control of Your E-mail Inbox.

People Capability Maturity Model
The People Capability Maturity Model (People CMM) is a framework that helps organizations
successfully address their critical people issues. Based on the best current practices
in fields such as human resources, knowledge management, and organizational development,
the People CMM guides organizations in improving their processes for managing and
developing their workforces. The People CMM helps organizations characterize the maturity
of their workforce practices, establish a program of continuous workforce development,
set priorities for improvement actions, integrate workforce development with process
improvement, and establish a culture of excellence. Since its release in 1995, thousands
of copies of the People CMM have been distributed, and it is used worldwide by organizations,
small and large.

 

>

Link to the spec: People
Capability Maturity Model – Version 2>.

The
People Capability Maturity Model on Amazon.com

]]> http://www.whitworth.org/2006/03/14/people-capability-maturity-model/feed/ 0 http://www.whitworth.org/2006/03/14/hr-myths-from-david-anderson/ http://www.whitworth.org/2006/03/14/hr-myths-from-david-anderson/#comments Tue, 14 Mar 2006 21:21:20 +0000 admin http://www.whitworth.org/Blog/PermaLink,guid,dd587d9e-cae0-4777-b72f-51351e331a1c.aspx David Anderson describes
3 HR Myths related to technical staff and pay scales.

HR Myths #1 – Merit Based Pay

“Merit Based Pay” or “We don’t care about productivity look at our cost control” is
the first in a series of blog entries which seek to blast away the human resources
myths which exist in the software industry.

HR
Myths #1 – Merit Based Pay.

HR Myth #2 – “Divide and Conquer” or “You Get What You Negotiate”. Many HR managers
see it as their job to squeeze new hires on their pay and package. They see this as
reducing costs and directly helping the bottom line of business. In some cases, they
are incentivized to get good deals from new hires. This can be counter-productive.
Once again, it is a cost accounting driven focus on cost.

HR
Myths #2 – Divide and Conquer.

HR
Myths #3 – Performance Buckets

Around this time of year, staff are being paid annual bonuses and receiving merit
increases in basic pay. These will have been based on the results of a performance
review which took place in the first quarter. The performance of the individual will
have been assessed against some goals and a rating – usually on a scale of 1 through
5 – will have been allocated. For many managers this process is one of the hardest
things they will ever do. Why? Quite simply, the rules in most big companies are not
aligned with the best interests of the employees, the customers or the stock holders.

HR
Myths #3 – Performance Buckets.

 

]]> http://www.whitworth.org/2006/03/14/hr-myths-from-david-anderson/feed/ 0 http://www.whitworth.org/2006/02/28/how-to-install-citrix-metaframe-presentation-server-methodology-in-a-box/ http://www.whitworth.org/2006/02/28/how-to-install-citrix-metaframe-presentation-server-methodology-in-a-box/#comments Tue, 28 Feb 2006 20:50:47 +0000 admin http://www.whitworth.org/Blog/PermaLink,guid,4f6279cf-7a1f-4d04-af95-50eee01a1aea.aspx

Excerpt from www.dabcc.com/miab

Welcome to Methodology in a Box (MIAB) – The Ultimate Citrix Install Guide. MIAB
is an award winning project oriented deployment Citrix book designed to educate you
on how to install Citrix and Microsoft Terminal Services solutions. MIAB is basically
a step-by-step Citrix deployment methodology / install guide!

The following is just a bit of what you will learn from a Methodology in a Box document.
How to install Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server through a Project Methodology

How to design a Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server environment

Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server Tuning Tips

How to configure SQL server and create the IMA data store

How to install Terminal Services and configure Windows 2000 and/or Windows Server
2003

How to install Citrix MetaFrame Access Suite Licensing

How to install and configure Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server

How to install and customize Citrix Web Interface

How to install Citrix Secure Gateway

How to configure Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server

Plus, much, more

Methodology in a Box is broken down in to five chapters; analysis, design, implementation,
readiness and rollout. I wrote this guide to act as a starting point to teach basic
project management and to help the technicians and engineers who are tasked to install
Citrix MetaFrame. I’m very happy to say that over the years it has become much than
that.

I have also written this document in the same framework that your project plan will
use and throughout this document I have presented real world examples from my personal
experiences. To accomplish this, I have created a fictitious consulting firm (D&D
Consulting) and a customer called DABCC, Inc. to add a sense of realism to the example
project. I have also documented systematic instructions on almost everything needed
for a successful Citrix deployment. My intentions are to make MIAB the base blueprint
for a successful deployment.
I’m also very happy to be announcing the upcoming release of Methodology in a Box
4.0 for Citrix Presentation Server 4.0. This new web MIAB web site is just a start
to what will become the NEW Methodology in a Box Service, but I will explain more
about that in the weeks to come. In the mean time, take a peek at the different MIAB
versions pages available today and you will not only find the project downloads but
you will also find a new HTML version of MIAB that is fully index for your ease of
use. Please have a play and let me know what you think.

Thanks and enjoy!
Douglas A. Brown

President and Chief Technology Officer

Microsoft MVP, Windows Server

DABCC, Inc.
dbrown@dabcc.com

http://www.dabcc.com

>

How to
Install Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server – Methodology in a Box>.

I began my blog as a way to keep up with web pages I wanted to go back and visit someday,
and I still run across a lot of pages I want to blog about. But
the Zempt This plugin was buggy so I never installed it on my new computer. But
I now have a huge backlog both at work and at home of Internet Explorer favorites
that need to be stored in my blog, so I spent the morning looking for software that
would give me back the functionality I need.

I have installed Blogjet on my computer,
which adds an icon to the toolbar in Internet Explorer, and it seems to work great.
I had to pay to register it, but I don’t mind that if it keeps me from having to write
something myself, and I didn’t see any good options that were free.