While thinking about last year and how to improve I already started jotting down lists of points and drawing big mindmaps. A few sheets of paper later I already lost track of the whole picture and decided it was time to try a different approach this year. My over-analyzing brain wanted to set a path again where everything would be tracked, measured and controlled and somehow I already got tired only thinking about it.

That’s why I just take the word ‘Happy’ and concentrate on that. Is what I’m doing now making me happy or going to make me happy in the future? If yes, continue. If no, quit doing it. So lets see where this will bring me and family in 2011.

Happiness is a direction, not a place.  ~Sydney J. Harris

Click here to view the embedded video.

Yesterday I got a call from an IT company that was interested in hiring Mr X. First of they introduced themselves to me and if I was aware that I was written down as a reference for Mr X. Of course! If someone doesn’t ask me to be their reference beforehand and just writes my name down, I refuse to cooperate with the company calling. Around two years back this happened to me for the first time and I was caught off guard. Somehow the person who had written me down didn’t speak the human language, because during my time as his manager I had demoted him and given him several official warnings. And now he expected me to be his reference? At that point of time I told the HR lady that it wouldn’t probably be a good idea to ask me to be a reference for him. Which was of course the end for his job application at that company.

From now on, and I had one 4 weeks ago, if someone calls to ask questions about a person, for which I didn’t agree upfront to be a reference, I just say that I didn’t agree to be a reference for the person and I don’t have time at the moment. Three months ago I got a call from someone who was fired 6 months after I left that company as his manager. He asked me to be a reference and I had to decline. At least he had the courage to ask, but not the intelligence to know that my own name is also on the line if I give a reference and it turns out he sucks at what he’s going to do. So, no I could not give him a reference.

Back to Mr X from yesterday. So after the mandatory introduction they started asking questions. It went something like this

HR – I see he’s a hard worker who can get things done by himself?

Me – Yes, definitely a very hard worker indeed.

HR – So, he’s not a team player?

Me – No, I didn’t say that. He can work alone very well, but at the same time if you put him in a project group he will perform equally as well

HR – Okay, but what will be a better place for him? Individual work or team work?

… sigh …

HR – What points are improvement points for Mr X?

Me – Well, I think that Mr X is not yet senior enough to be talking directly with higher management, but what I’ve seen he’s one of those people who could become one of those guys that can.

HR – So, he has communication issues? Is he a tech person without communication skills?

… sigh …

HR – So, dear sir, would you give a positive reference about Mr X in the end to us?

Me – Yes, that’s why I’m talking to you know…

HR – So, when we hire him and it turns out to be a mistake…

Me – Then what?

HR – Well, let’s just say that it’s a small world…

Me – Is that a threat? Why are you stupid to think that I would put my name on the line for this guy if it was an asshole? Don’t you think my reputation would hurt enough if he didn’t deliver? He was one of the top people in my previous team and that’s the only reason why I’m giving this reference. Don’t think I do this for everybody! And instead of asking all these negative questions, it would be much better if you focused on the stuff that he did well and how you can get him even better in that department instead of only trying to fix his shortcomings and making a generalist out of him, which would be damn shame. Oh, I why is the future manager of him not calling? Is he not interested himself in what kind of meat he gets?

HR – Thank you sir, I think that’s all we need.

… sigh …

Once again, I was pretty pissed afterwards and asked myself why I would agree to these phone calls. To be honest, I get these kind of calls most of the time while giving a reference. The times that I remember I got the actual new manager on the line and asking about how to build on the guy from the positive side of things can be counted on just two fingers. Amazing!

Oh, and I just received a phone call from Mr X that he got the job! So, congrats to him. I guess I’m over my anger now… let the next phone call ring…

For people who don’t know what freediving is all about, it is sometimes hard to understand how amazing the performance in the video below is.

More about the competition here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

My girlfriends demo team, Zumba Chicka’s gave a nice demonstration about how fun Zumba can be as an aerobic fitness workout.

While Zumba is not a sport I practice, it is still fun to organize an event which has their own niche group of people who are interested in it. In the end it is more about the fun of putting something together and getting things done, then the niche itself.

And now back to work, because we have some more events coming up soon!

Lesson Learned in 2009:

Many people want to get to the top

It’s crowded at the top

BUT…

Everybody want to get to the top of the same mountain

So there is a lot of competition

There is a simple solution…

Find a new mountain!

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.

Anatole France

We are humans and not just cogs. Cogs don’t have emotion. When you give a cog the same input you always get the same output. Don’t expect the same to happen with humans as well. 1+1 is not always 2!

Humans have emotions, the need to have a passion for the things they do. The companies that grow and survive know this and embrace the fact that not everything can be planned and change is inevitable to survive. They know that the most valuable assets are their people that give the company a soul.

If we want to accomplish something big and we make the perfect plan it ‘could’ work. When we have a plan and the people involved have passion and believe that it’s going to work, you will succeed!

Probably the most important thing to do is to carefully plan the information injections so that you don’t OD in the first few weeks. One of the things I use is having a maximum of 3 interviews a day with at least 1 hour of rest in between to process what I’ve learned and heard.

A typical day at work would look something like this:

08:00-09:00 process news/email/other incoming information
09:00-11:00 create
11:00-12:00 interview 1
12:00-13:00 process
13:00-13:30 lunch
13:30-14:30 interview 2
14:30-15:30 process
15:30-16:30 interview 3
16:30-17:30 process

Now I know the team and some of the biggest priorities I will focus this week on the culture of the company. Culture is that thing that is hard to describe but what makes a company tick. Culture can make or break a company, so it’s good to focus on it separately.

I don’t expect to understand it completely after 3 weeks already, but to get a general idea what drives people, how people work with each other and the atmosphere that hangs around is very important to me.

It’s clear that if you want to improve something, you have to change stuff. If you want to change stuff, you run into emotions. Emotions bring people and if you understand people you can make change a much easier action then just doing it without adapting.

I’m very happy to announce my new company Dyrion. Dyrion specializes in cloud computing technologies and delivers business consultancy services with regards to business process optimization and cost savings. I’ve worked pretty hard in the last few weeks to get it to launch on time, so I’m very happy to see it finally being public now.

At the moment all the content on the website is in Dutch, but as I already got two of my old foreign relations interested in my work, I’ll probably make  an English version some time later.

So what’s next? Only 35 days to go until my deadline that I’ve set myself when I was 21 or something like that. Got some more exciting stuff lined up, but now it’s time to open up the champagne!

For some people it seems the most important thing to have as many friends as possible on these social websites. Thus showing everybody else that they are very much liked by people and also confirming this to themselves. It really seems like an ego booster to many people to have many friends.

 I don’t really care about this kind of behavior and I’m probably as much guilty to this trend as well. The thing is that I see a very big difference in the number of people that are social on the web and social in real life. Online everybody seems to be socially available and ready to say what needs to be said. But in real life…

Real life is so much different. For the last week I did an experiment where I would look everybody in the eyes when I walked by and if they gave me as little as a glimpse I would say ‘hi!’ and smile. A very simple gesture of social decency. I counted and kept track:

• I looked 76 people in the eye, smiled and said hi
• 17 people looked away immediately when they noticed I contacted them
• 38 people looked at me and just nodded and sometime mumbled something.
• Only 21 people really looked, noticed me and said hi

Just to take a way some critics: I wish to believe that I’m not a scary person and that I look very ‘open’ to start a conversation with. I also believe I don’t possess such ugly physical characteristics that people can’t bare to look at me.

All in all I was really amazed at the small number of people who are social enough to at least say hi back. I wonder if some of the people who looked away from me are the same people who have hundreds of online friends.

What is your experience?