Don't like the weather - wait a minute

As I sit here on a Sunday morning, looking out Channel 1, it is fogged in. I can barely see the road and when I first saw it, I thought it was a blizzard. It should be a blizzard at this time of year but in keeping with this strange weather year, it is fog.

Yesterday, Murg and I walked out on the causeway which is an old train bed that used to connect South Hero to Colchester. There is a small "cut" in the causeway for the boats to get out of the Colchester bay/harbor. As we looked east to Mount Mansfield, they were enclosed in a cloud of either rain or snow. As we looked west to White Face, it was also enclosed in either. Looking south, we saw Burlington in a dark cloud, but further south it was sunny. This 360 degree panorama is wonderful. We also knew that at any time, the weather could change, and we could get wet.

When we got back to Coniston for 3.5 minutes we had a snow squall. I really thought at that point that we would get more precipitation, but that was it.

There is an expression "If you don't like the weather in Vermont, wait a minute." This was totally applicable yesterday.

As an aside, a truck drove over the ice while we were talking from the Colchester side to South Hero and an ice fisherman with 4 dogs was fishing out on the ice. He did not drive his truck out but only because 200 feet away there is open water, or maybe because his license plate was NH and he does not know that it is still safe to drive on the ice, apparently. The sign of spring in Vermont is when the first truck falls through the ice. This year spring will come sooner than most, given how little ice there is.

Just wondering - did Outlook change the way we work and think?

As I set here on the plane, I can see the person across the aisle and he has his outlook calendar open. It looks pretty much the same as mine, full. Is he sitting there as I have been sitting here, wondering where I might have a free 5 minutes tomorrow? Is he contemplating how to solve for the double bookings?

That picture of an Outlook calendar is how many over 50% of working folk, organize their day and go through their day. I don't even need to see his details to understand what his days look like.

A senior executive at that great company I work for, keeps 30% of his calendar free. I think this is a wonderful effort, because he is then available when people need to drop in. I don't think many of us do that.

So, I wonder if we should stop relying on Outlook to drive our days? I wonder if we have gone overboard with calendaring and on the hour meetings? Microsoft has an incredible influence on how we work. I am not sure this is a good thing. I'm just saying.

Obligatory Flying Blog Post

I am currently on WIFI on a Virgin America from BOS to SFO. When I got to the airport this morning, and glanced up at the screen, our flight was delayed. OH NO! was my first thought. I approached the desk and asked what was going on? The agent said "The incoming flight is 40 minutes late, and we will turn the plane around ASAP." AND THEY DID. I facebooked that even though it was delayed I trusted the agent, because Virgin America has earned my trust with their honesty.

I did experience some difficulty getting into Gogoinflight, but once in, I am able to be "at work" for the entire flight. Oh yes, I can check personal email and facebook as well.

The agents are friendly and honest and funny and helpful. I am just not sure why I would fly another airline it I did not have to.

When I arrived this morning I had tons of time, so I put on my sneakers and walked all around Terminals A, B and C, and when I say all around, I mean all around. It was great to get my exercing done before getting on the flight.Jet Blue and Air Tran have lots of flights leaving from C on Monday morning. School vacation week for NH and lots of people escaping to Florida and the Caribbean. US Airways was quiet as was Continental. American and United were busy.

So once again, as I support a group for Intuit that is located in LA for a few months, it is a good thing that VA (Virgin America) flies to LA. I am going to rack up some frequent flyer points on this airline, happily.

Nordic Skating - who knew I could fly across the ice

Yesterday at Coniston we went to North Hero to repeat our 2 mile trek out to Knight Island. Last year there were a few inches on snow on the ice, so we walked out. We also had Qammi with us and she thought we were crazy to be out on the ice. In fact she did not want to leave Knight Island to come back to the shore, since she could not see the shore from the island.

Yesterday was an entirely different experience. There is almost no snow at all, and Hero's Welcome which is a country store in North Hero rents nordic skates. Google them to see what they are like. For me, after I got up my courage, it was like flying across the ice. The movement is very similar to cross country skiing and you have poles for balance. Even with the poles I managed to fall twice, but that did not matter. You can get gliding pretty fast on these nordic skates.

The ice was beautiful and for the most part smooth. The sun came from behind the clouds, and away we went. G and J and the Svenson Jas family. Some of our party had regular skates on, but Murg and I rented these skates. Regular skates are not as good on parts of the ice. The nordic skates are much better when there are bumps on the ice or paths where snow mobiles, or trucks (yes trucks) have gone across the ice.

Looking down at the ice was a bit eerie. You could see at least 8-10 inches in most places so it felt pretty safe. What was disconcerting were the cracks and settling of ice that you could hear. This sounds like gun shots in the distance, but we realized it was ice melting and settling and cracks occurring in the ice. The Svenson Jas family who were with us, had a crack form in a few directions, right in front of them.

Once or twice, I got going pretty fast and wished that I were a bit more adventurous. That being said, I did feel like I was flying over the ice, and I think these will be a purchase for next winter or maybe later this winter if the ice holds out.

10 miles south of where we were, in Burlington in the open part of Lake Champlain there is no ice on the lake, but in Colchester Bay, and in the bay in front of North Hero, the ice is thick and safe and very exciting.

Who knew I could fly across the ice?

Leadership on Recruiting instead of a rant

Today, on the way home, I had two blogs in my head. One was a rant about bad customer service, which happened to me on the way home, TWICE. The second one was on leadership and recruiting. The bad customer service I can do on Facebook, so this is the one we ended up with today.

You all know I work at a great company, and we have been recruiting quite a few people this fiscal year. We have made some really great hires, and we have not settled until we found the right person. Just this week we are making 4 offers, after a lot of hard work from the hiring managers and our recruiters.

In an all hands meeting our VP talked about five things that he looks for in candidates. They are:

1) Have Passion
2) Proven evidence of greatness
3) Trajectory
4) Energy amplifier
5) Record of results

He interviews everyone that we hire and occasionally we put someone in front of him who he does not agree with in one of these five areas.

We have a methodology called behavioral interviewing to assess the competencies and technical part of the job. These five characteristics are different than the competencies.

Yesterday in the All Hands someone said "What about smart?" "I thought about putting Smart on the list but I don't know how to interview for that. I know how to interview for NOT SMART." We recently walked through some recently interviewed candidates and their resumes, during an extended leadership meeting. We combed through them to see if we could reveal evidence of these five characteristics. We could guess from the resume about most of them, and then during the interview validate our guesses.

These are simple characteristics but difficult to find all of them in candidates. Recruiting in a mixture of art and science and takes lots of practice.

Know any good people looking for jobs? Do they have these 5 traits/characteristics and are they looking for a great company to work for? Quality Engineer or Architect, or customer support? Send them our way: INTUIT

OMG - Give it a Rest you Prius driving taxi driver

OK, on my way back from the airport just now, not exactly on top of my game, I was in the wrong lane on 93 North, so I tried to edge into traffic. I DID NOT cut anyone off, just turned on my signal (a new behavior for some drivers in Boston), and pulled into the right most lane. A Prius driving taxi driver honked at me. I came to a dead stop and let him go ahead of me. The blue air in my car after that was pretty incredible. I won't mention all of the explicates, but I must admit some of them were pretty clever. "So you will get where you are going 2 nano seconds faster than me, happy now?" "Use your horn again, that person just cut you off." "How about a little courtesy, and do you even know what that is?" "You are ONE car ahead of me, how does that feel, more like a Stud?" "I made a dangerous assumption that Prius driver's are more courteous than the average bear." "Is your passenger from California and do they have any idea why you just honked at me?"

What I realized is that after that experience, if I had let myself, I would have tried to cut some people off. I would have driven more aggressively. I honestly think that we all drive aggressively for self preservation and for competition.

This all comes after a week in California where the following happened to me, I was in the right lane at a light and 1/2 a block later my lane was blocked by cones and flashing lights. When the light turned green, the person in the left lane waved me on and DID NOT MOVE until I pulled away from the light and got into that lane. This would never happen in Boston. I did get honked at once in California but I truely deserved that one.

Welcome me back to the Masshole drivers of Boston!

Have I told you Lately that I Love my Job

This week, I had the opportunity to head out to Mountain View, CA for the second time in three weeks. This is the Intuit Epicenter so when I get out there, it is usually a really great experience. Tuesday we had a wonderful Extended Staff offsite. The last few days, I spent some time with the group that I support and with my HR colleagues.

At this time of year, all managers receive their Annual Employee Survey scores. I thought last week "This is one of my favorite days of the year at Intuit." Managers take these reports so seriously. They were pouring over the results and trying to figure out how to attack the opportunity areas. I am sure there are not too many companies where MOST managers are so serious about the results. The first year I worked here, we actually moved a manager to an individual contributor role, because the scores for that gorpu were so low. We don't tolerate "not great" managers.

I also participated in a couple of brainstorming conversations with colleagues which got my juice going. We are trying to demystify Talent Planning, trying to make it something that we actually do, and measure our results. Our question is "Why don't we do Talent Planning?". I think we are getting to the bottom of this answer.

So as I fly back to Waltham, not feeling exactly up to par (that is NOT going to be a blog topic or a Facebook entry, I will spare you those details), I reflect on the great company I work for and the current great boss I have. I am grateful for both of those, and I am grateful that just over 3 years ago, I started working for a Great Place to Work.

Flying Routines

I am such a creature of habit but not really. When I fly I get to the airport early, find my food, get my latte from Peets or Starbucks in that order and sit down to people watch or blog ; )

Today I arrived early and checked out the pre-security food options and decided to go through security. The friendly TSA agent said you are pretty early and there is no food on the other side. Flying Virgin America today to use their WIFI and at Logan they have their own TSA all to themselves. Why? With no food post-security. Everybody at work loves flying them so I am giving it a shot.

Ok I did not go through to just sit at a gate and not have enough people to watch. I asked some other Friendly TSA agents where to get food. They pointed to Legal's. Or I could go through the Big security and there is a (direct quote) plethora of shops. So I did, got my latte, walked to terminal C got my burrito and am sitting in a wooden rocking chair waiting for my plane named Gogo Dancer to leave for SFO.

I love not being rushed, love my special treat latte, love getting my meal for the next 7 hours and not depending on their choices and I love to people watch.

So habits and routines and shifting of both. That is what today is about.


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