My RAGE Model for Personal Development Planning

Over the last few months, I've been working on a concept I've come to coin as the "R.A.G.E model", which stands for:

• R Reality
• A Aspirations
• G Goals
• E Expectations

I am using this model to map out a plan for my own self, as part of my own personal planning. I am sharing this experience because it maybe useful to others, since the topic of finding a work-life-balance affects us all. The years come-and-go so fast, that we're so busy being busy, just living, surviving, making ends meet, meeting your current commitments, heads-down in work, rush-rush-rush, that we really don't take the time out, to pause, reflect, look deeply within ourselves, to map out what really makes us, us!! There's a lot of material on this subject of work-life balance, and stress - I opted for finding my own path, which I'd like to share...

I came across the concept of defining Aspirations vs Expectations vs Reality from another coach, colleague and friend. I mulled over it for a while, and then later coined up RAGE, to go further than just highlighting Aspirations vs Expectations vs Reality, but also include Goals to help make sense of the Aspirations & Expectations, keeping it real.

In this post I share an exercise of how I was able to identify the different streams of my life, prioritise them using rough quantitative formulae borrowed from agile product management like weightings to balance priorities, culminating in a future plan for tracking my goals going forward. This exercise required a lot of self-reflection, introspection, deep searching...it's about making sense of all the noise, including understanding my circles of control / influence, being self-critical and at sometimes a little harsh (with priorities) on myself, example: Is being a husband more or less important than being a Father, Is being an Individual (self) more important than being a Sibling?? and so on.

The end result is a tangible personal plan that I can use to track my progress from 2016 onwards. It is far from complete though, the next phase is actually implementing my plan, and monitoring my progress throughout the year. I intend doing so using a personal-kanban-style Trello board, culminating in time-tracking to measure the distribution of my time across my different personas (topic for another post).

I believe this tool is useful to both life and work. At the end of the post I share some of my ideas where I think this tool can add value to different work/life scenarios.

Please have a read, let me know what you think!! And if you're interested in a template to get you going, let me know.

How does RAGE work?

It's about understanding your situational context - YOU as a person, currently, are being pulled in many directions, how do you juggle all the things interesting to you as a person, plus give enough time to your work, family, friends, etc. What is this thing called "work-life balance"?? How do you know if you allocating enough time to the things that are important?? What if you're wasting (or spending too much time) on something that is essentially of little value or consequence to you?? What matters most to you as an individual?? 

Often this comes down slicing your life into two major categories: (a) Personal & (b)Professional. For each category, there could be further sub-categories, or topics. I call these Personas, and for each persona, I define Top-Level Subject as a sub-category.

In my case, my current reality, consists of 22 high level personas split between my personal life, and my professional life. I am being sliced in 22 different ways, only in 2016, and I've not included any higher level aspirations, like big dreams like travelling the world, owning a porsche, meet Bill Gates, get invited to the World Economic Forum, work in Silicon Valley or Run a StartUp in New York City :-)

I will explain the personas breakdown in the next section. This section talks about what RAGE actually is. It essentially means, take a particular situation or topic from your persona, and analyse the following areas:

• Reality - What is the current status of the situation? What is currently preventing you from reaching the aspiration / goal / expectation?
• Aspiration - What is your ultimate wish to accomplish? How does it look like? What does it mean to you and why?
• Goals - How / What would you need to do to get to the Aspiration? How would you break it down? What milestones do you set yourself that will eventually reach your aspiration? Techniques like using specific measurable goals, something with a tangible outcome helps here, or it can be a story - the future vision.
• Expectations - Based on the goals you've set, what expectations do you have (can it be quantified like a level of confidence, or percentage completion by a certain date, etc). Is the expectation too high?

In addition to the RAGE criteria, an Action Plan for each topic helps in cementing a plan that you can use to track progress against meeting your goals. It is also useful to keep track of how your expectations will change over time, taking snapshots of progress and re-evaluating yourself through your own personal retrospectives.

Personas & User Stories

Personas are about describing how you split yourself up - i.e. we as people have many stripes: 

You as a .... Individual Self, Husband, Father, Brother, Friend, Colleague, Teacher, Business Owner, Family-Man, Son, Daughter, Grandfather, Uncle, Social Worker, Community Member, etc, etc.  

So we have many commitments, relationships with people and business entities (including rights to meet), that demand our time, energy and focus - how do we organise ourselves so that we focus on the things most important and useful to us? How much investment should we put into relationships over self-joys? What is each Persona really about? What does it mean to be a Father, an Employee or a Friend?

Before I delved into my RAGE criteria, I had to understand myself: Who am I? What makes me Me? How do I slice myself currently?? And for each persona, what am I really trying to achieve as an Aspiration for that Persona??

I'm going to be brave and share my own persona list with you. Who knows, there might be something common in your own life, and you might share similar persona aspirations as I :-) ?? This is just capturing my current reality, and not looking into the future with dreamy eyes of who I could become (that ship has sailed long ago or has it?).

The table below shows the Personas for me, read as "Me as a..." split between my Persona & Professional Life, for each Top Level Subject area. For each topic, I borrowed a page from Agile user stories, taking the form of [As a....] [I would like to...] [so that ....] [...get something of value]

My Personas

Type	Area  (Me as a…)	Top Level Subject
Personal	Brother	Being a Brother As a brother to four siblings, I need to grow our relationships & support structures (including continued financial support), so that our family unit appears strong and united, always.
Personal	Colleague	Work Social As a colleague in a work environment, I must nurture and grow authentic & sincere relations (not shallow, superficial hello, how you - but genuine relations), so that I am recognised as someone who values people and interactions, working together on projects, and when not working on the same team, I am a friend that offers a listening ear, advisor & mentor to colleagues as needed. Social interactions & sincere relationships in the workplace matter a big deal.
Personal	Community Member	Community Forum As a member of the community forum, I must spare my time, resources and energy in committing to the good causes, so that ultimately we have a peaceful and safe neighbourhood for our families.
Personal	Family-Man	Home Affairs As a family, living in any country, I need to sort out all Home Office requirements, so that we may live free in the country of our choosing.
Personal	Family-Man	Family Time As a father and head of the family, I would like to invest my time, energy, love and passion into my family (wife, kids) so that we can nurture relationships, grow together and create a strong family unit, paving the way for a healthy, stress-free life going forward.
Personal	Family-Man	Lifestyle Choice As a person living on this earth on borrowed time, I would like to make lifestyle choices, so that my family can live in the best situation & circumstances possible, that promote a safe, meaningful and promising future, where life is beautiful on all fronts.As a family, we would like to evaluate our lifestyle choices, our preferences and situational circumstances, and make changes (if required) to help us attain our ultimate lifestyle that satisfies our happiness criteria.
Personal	Father	Fatherhood As a father, I must spend time with each child, building up a unique, loving and caring relationship, so that my children have good memories to take with them, such that they become successful (happy, content, confident, mentally, physical & emotionally strong) human beings.
Personal	Friend	Social Network - Being a Friend As a friend, I need to maintain, nurture and grow authentic and sincere social connections, so that people see me as a trusted person they can turn to, so that I have a support structure in place for me & my family (and of course reciprocate to my friends).
Personal	Home Owner	Home Improvements As a home owner, I need to continuously maintain the state-of-repair, redecorate & keep the property up-to-date, so that we not only enjoy the living space, but also be ready to sell (and make a profit), if and when we decide to leave.
Personal	Husband	Marital Relations As a husband, I need to fulfil the rights of my wife, taking the relationship to new levels so that my marriage is successful, rock-solid, and future-lasting.
Personal	Individual	Health & Fitness As a person I would like to reach levels of fitness & good living, so that I may lead a healthy & enjoyable life, with minimal medical issues
Personal	Individual	Hobbies As an individual with interests outside of work / family, I would like to pursue my hobbies (Cycling, Writing, Art, Inventing) so that I have an outlet for my creative interests, and that I get joy out of doing so.
Personal	Investor	Wealth & Finances As a person I would like to reach financial independence (by pursuing multiple investment streams) before retirement age, so that I don't stress when I'm retired (or in death) so that my family are taken care off financially. Must be within the realms of halal investments tracking as close as possible to Shariah.
Personal	Individual	Giving Charity & Helping Needy As a person with extra means, I would like to help more in Charity (Sadaqah, Compulsory Zakaat, Lillah) so that I fulfil the rights of others (within my family, friends, workers, community, local and world), and in keeping with the guidelines of Islam
Personal	Individual	Motor Vehicle As an individual with specific requirements for transport, I would like to invest in a new car soon, so that it is more reliable than my current one, and satisfies all present as well future usage needs (4x4 off-road, bikes, family-adventures, etc.)
Personal	Muslim	Spirituality As a Muslim / human being, I want to reach a level of spirituality that allows me to be content and at peace with the world, so that I may live life, according to the way of life of Islam, as a Muslim, and a Sufi, tolerating & living in peace with all beings (not matter what belief system others may so choose). I would like to elevate my spirituality so that I am at peace with myself, others around me, the world - so that I don't go chasing illusions, accepting the reality of the fragility of life (there is more to life than career, business, etc.)
Personal	Son	Being a Child As a son, I must cherish the remaining years with my mom, spoiling her, comforting her, taking care of all her needs, so that I fulfil the rights of my mother, set an example of caring so that my kids can learn from, and to show my appreciation to mom for her love, patience and support all these years. To maintain the Islamic & Indian traditions of taking care of ones parents.
Personal	Son/Bro-in-Law	Being a Son/Bro-in-Law As a son-in-law and a bro-in-law, I must grow these relationships stronger, so that family are content with our life situation, and so that there is harmony overall. To being someone they can trust, count-on, and rely in times of need & support.
Personal	Uncle	Being an Uncle As an uncle to 12+ nephews and nieces, I must be a good role model, offering advice, help, financial aid, coaching and mentoring so that these kids have a decent chance of succeeding in life.
Professional	Blogger / Writer	Blogging & Writing Papers As blogger, I need to take my writing to the next level, so that I gain personal satisfaction out of it, of not being afraid to create my own art, especially when "it just might not work".
Professional	Business Owner	Consulting Business As the owner of AS3, I need to establish the brand, grow a client-base, and run this company as a real-one, so that I get valuable life/work experience from this venture.
Professional	Consultant	Consulting - Client to MCA As a consultant to MCA I must consistently deliver value, exceed client's expectations, so that my engagements are maintained, reputation remains in-tact, and overall ensure my client is happy with my performance, such that there is a pipeline of work always available.
Professional	Consultant	Client Engagement Options As a consultant, I need to diversify my clients engagements, so that I can manage risk and survive, as well as broaden my network within South Africa or overseas.
Professional	Consultant	Service Provider Partners As a consultant, I would like to take my relationships with other SPs to the next level, exploring opportunities for partnerships, joint ventures, etc. so that I improve my chances of success.
Professional	Consultant	Knowledge Base As a consultant, I need to keep abreast and up-to-date, with topics I specialise in, so that I gain the knowledge & ability to apply new tools & techniques to improve the outcomes of my engagements, and so that I personally grow my toolbox as a professional.
Professional	Job Hunter	Employment at Specific Company of Interest As a job hunter, I must find a role & company that I like, value and will enhance my career experience, so that I climb up the ladder on my professional journey onwards & upwards - ultimately to fulfil my ultimate career aspiration (awesome company, awesome brilliant minds).
Professional	Potential Innovator / Entrepreneur	Product Development StartUp As an aspiring entrepreneur, I must push forward on my ideas, take chances & risks on a startup, so that I can ultimately say I've tried this (possibly failed) and learnt a lot in the process.
Professional	Potential [Company] Employee	Permanent Employment, exit Consulting As a potential Employee, I would like to attain a senior management position in an area I can add value, so that I build my career & increase my network profile (in line with my aspiration of finding awesomeness).
Professional	Programmer	Programming - Software Development As someone who used to enjoy coding (and was quite good at it), I need to keep my technical skills fresh, so that a) I don't become a dinosaur and b) to enjoy the feeling of creativity again, c) so I maintain my closeness to technology streams.
Professional	Software Professional	Seeking out People for Learning & Growth As a software professional, I would like to learn & grow, seek out individuals, companies and interactions, to reach heights of excellence, so that I can not only enjoy the profession, but take me to new opportunities & experiences. I want to surround myself with people that motivate me, journey together to grow to the next level.

Phew! So that's over 20+ ways I must split my time up... Now for the next part, surely not all personas hold the same level of importance in relationship to another? There must be some way I can make sense of all of this by prioritizing the personas I'm most interested in...

Interestingly enough, my brother recently called me to help with the local school's governing body, they could do with my help. I said unfortunately, this topic doesn't occur on my focus areas for this year, I am filled up with other commitments, and may possibly consider that request for next year (i.e. Me as an active member of a school governing body). Now what is more interesting though, is I could add an activity under my Persona / Brother subject, and be able to support my brother indirectly helping in improving & strengthening our relationship, thus taking me closer to reaching my aspiration of increasing family bonds with my siblings!

So it certainly helps to have laid out your personal map...

How I ranked my Personas ...

At first I wrote down all by RAGE criteria for each Persona/Subject, and then prioritized my list based on the importance of the Aspiration alone. Then after much thought, I decided to get more closer to something I can actually implement, I need to treat personas differently. I had to come up with some way of weighting & ranking one persona against another. In doing so, I could then arrange my plan according to rank & importance of the persona itself.

So with this in mind, I created at 22x22 matrix of all the unique Persona / Subject Pairs, and went across from left-to-right, passing a value judgement when comparing one persona against another. For example, starting with Personal-Individual, going across and compare: Is being an Individual more important that being a Husband? and so on...

If a persona was more important in relation to another persona, it would get a value of 1, otherwise it would get a value of 0. I built in intelligence to track that if a value was 1, then the opposite relational-comparison, down the matrix, should return a value of 0.

I chose, for the first iteration to go the mutually-exclusive route - to keep things simple, and make the numbers balance. Of course, I could have went there OR route, meaning "If a persona is the same OR equal in importance" - this actually does make sense in reality, but I chose to park that formula because I'd just spend a good couple hours implementing the mutually exclusive rule, and I just didn't feel like reworking the formula again.

Anyway, the mutually-exclusive rule is useful because it drives home the point of distinguishing one persona against another, in true black-and-white, no grey in between. I either make a call or not - a simple forcing function that allows me to drive my behaviour changes going forward.

So this is how my relational matrix ended up:

Ranking Personas

Having entered the 1s & 0s, I then summed each row, and came up with a total. Then used a heatmap to identify the personas by rank (the higher the ranking, the darker the colour to red, the more important the persona).

Interestingly enough, the Persona that came out on top is my spirituality, followed closely by me being a Husband!! Prior to the exercise, I had prioritized my spirituality as something in the background, so this exercise brought to surface how important this topic is, since Islam is a way-of-life, and after much thinking and relational comparison, it appears on the top of the list (bringing to surface that my spiritual dimension is very important, which I've been neglecting for some time now).

I as a Husband on the other hand, did have prominence before the matrix, however, I would not really have put it as number one, because I was thinking more about my personal individual aspirations in terms of career & business, ahead of the family stuff (often taking family relations for granted and not investing adequate time and energy in those relationships to elevate them to the next level)!!

So this exercise has certainly given me something to think about! If only there was more than 24 hours in day ;-)

Difficulty Levels of Aspirations

In addition to getting a view on my relational-personas ranking, I wanted a way of ranking aspirations by importance. So I chose five levels of aspirations, and assigned a weighting (for points-scoring) to each one:

Level of Aspiration	Aspiration Weighting
1 No Brainer - Absolutely Doable	100
2 Within the realms of Doable	80
3 Doable but with some Effort	60
4 Difficult but not Impossible	40
5 A Nice Dream - Stretch BHAG?	10

Like my formula in the ranking matrix, when I ran these numbers in the overall ranking plan, I got to thinking maybe I should reverse the weighting. If I really wanted to make some hard changes, I should instead focus on the most difficult things, and aspirations that fall within the realm of doable should be ranked low, since I have a level of confidence in achieving the aspiration.  This really is a matter of choice, some people prefer to focus on "low hanging fruit" since it is really motivating to knock-things off your TODO list building up momentum and confidence to tackle the harder, more challenging stuff...There is the risk of choosing the difficult aspirations that one gets bogged down and demotivated, leaving little time or lost time on the more doable aspirations...

Aspirational Importance or Happiness Index

In addition to having a view of the relative difficulty of achieving the Aspirations / Goals, I added another filter for defining the importance of the aspirations. Again, not all aspirations are equal, some are more important than others, so it made sense to rank the importance of aspirations, giving each one an arbitrary weighting:

Importance Levels	Importance Weighting
1 Not at all Important	10
2 Slightly Important	20
3 Moderately Important	30
4 Very Important	40
5 Extremely Important	50

I was in two minds about adding another criteria for a Happiness Index - the idea was to quantify the level of happiness. Trying to answer the question, In reaching my goals & aspirations for a given persona / subject pair, what will be the resulting happiness index, i.e. how happy would it make me as a result??

Measuring happiness index has become somewhat of a fascination of mine, which I'm still experimenting with. I had this idea about Personametry (how nice if there was a device that could that?) so I am still trying to define my happiness matrix. For starters, I have been tracking two topics using a Trello board: One board for tracking my Happiness at Work and another board for tracking my Mood/Happiness at Home. The jury is still out on this...

So I decided that Level of Importance implies a level of resulting happiness. If I set something as Extremely Important, it implies a similar, if not equal, level of happiness. Hence I don't need another number.

Ranking Formula

Using the above quantitative techniques, it becomes possible to rank and sort the RAGE list by order of priority, using a simple points scoring system:

Persona Ranking x Importance Level (Happiness Index) x Aspirational Type

This is similar to user story sizing in Agile/Scrum - the higher the points, the higher the ranking / importance, and therefore should get your focus & attention.

Bringing it all together - the Personal Plan

I am using Excel to manage my RAGE list. With the Personas & Top-Level Subjects identified, for each subject, write down the Aspiration (e.g. I would like to complete a road race this year). Having identified the Aspiration, now work towards breaking down the Aspiration into one or more Goals (e.g. To enter 5 seed races by June, To ride 50km every weekend). Once the goals are identified, think about the Expectations - how confident am I, what's the probability of achieving this goal?  And as a final step, turn some of those goals into concrete actions.

Below is a snippet of my own plan - it has been ranked by highest story points, and I've also indicated the probability of delivery (in terms of my expectations of realising the goal / aspiration). This is just a first pass based on the simple, doable aspirations (I am actually going to change it to focus on the BHAGs Big Hairy Ass Goals)...

Snapshot of my RAGE Plan

Visualising the Persona Map

Whilst I've created a way to numerically rank and prioritize each specific Persona/Subject pair, and I can now focus on say, the top ten aspirations / goals, a table with numbers (as above), might appear to be a little misleading. I wanted a way of seeing the spread, and weighting of the rolled up Personas, one level up - this view is created from totalling up the points ranking (planning priority), giving a cumulative total for the main Persona/Subject pairs - basically a single view of how my life may end up being spliced:

How I'm being sliced up - TreeMap

Next Steps (Post initial sense-making)

Now that I've mapped out my life's demands for 2016, and have a reasonable idea of what my commitments and focus areas are, in relation to both life-and-work, I can now start planning to deliver on these goals. Using Excel is cumbersome, so I'm going to look at using Trello or Smartsheet to track and measure progress...I am also going to look at creating a schedule or a reminder system to help me monitor and track my progress to reaching my goals and ultimately my aspirations...it's a start!! I've also set up a personal Kanban Trello board to track any new topics for aspirations...I am also thinking of using HarvestApp timekeeping to start measuring amount of time I spend in each Persona/Subject pair.

I have shared my map with my wife - it's important to include the people in your life, their input is valuable as it provides different perspectives. It is also useful because this sharing opens you up to others, and makes them appreciate the challenges you're facing along the many facets of your life...

Of course this list can't be static, it needs constant grooming, refining and simplifying. I am currently grooming my list, rolling up similar personas, since the level of detail of the first draft is a bit too granular. Constant feedback, and updates from further introspections will happen, as well as, new ideas for aspirations must be tracked as well (you guessed it, I have another Trello board to track my new aspirations ;-)

Other Areas of Use

Apart from using this technique / tool for your personalised inventory checking, I believe this exercise will benefit others in areas such as:

• As a student out of high school, settling on your future life choices can be daunting. So many choices, so many people with advice. You can use this tool to make sense of your options, and prioritize accordingly.
• As a student just graduating from college, you too have to make choices around your next career aspiration. How do you choose the company that best meets your aspirations? What factors play a role in prioritizing? Use this tool to help you decide.
• As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you're faced with many ideas and options to take your business to the next level, so how do you make sense of the next area to focus, which direction is going to add the most value??
• As a person with ideas, or managing your product roadmap, how is one idea or feature more important than the other? In the same way as I've used personas, you can use the same deep thinking questions to help you sift through competing ideas - and prioritize by rank and value.
• As a line manager, you have to manage people, set their goals and objectives. Wouldn't you like to use a more meaningful approach to setting objectives and expectations?? Using this technique will not only bring clarity to your team, but is bound to improve the relationships going forward (your team will look forward to defining meaningful objectives instead of seeing the appraisal process as a pain).
• As a worker, you have many responsibilities, projects and tasks to take care of - how do you prioritize your work, time management and also do stuff that not only ticks the done boxes for tasks, but also help you grow in the company as well??
• As a parent, how do you manage all the ideas, aspirations and goals you're setting for your children? Are you doing too much? Are you focusing on the right areas?? 
• As a project office, how do you prioritize and manage the tens of projects under your portfolio? How do you value one project over another? 

That's a few areas just top-of-mind, I'm sure there's more...

Feedback / Coaching

If you found this topic interested, please share your comments on this blog.

If you're interested in learning more, or would like a template of the tool to use in your own life mapping and planning, let me know. I am glad to help out, to the point of running a coaching session taking you through this journey!!!

The Amazon Way

I recently completed The Amazon Way by John Rossman, a book that extols the 14 leadership principles that drives Amazon as a company, as well as each and every employee lives and breathes each principle daily. In this book, John uses real life experiences and stories from his Amazon days, I always appreciate such war stories with concrete examples linking back to real-world experience.

These principles resonated a lot with me (I could identify and think of personal experiences/tendencies relating to all fourteen, I wouldn't have minded working in Amazon!), and so I decided to write each principle down so that I can remember them better, even though these principles exist as part of the Amazon Careers site here.

I find writing things down helps me remember things better than reading does, here's the 14 Leadership principles:

1. Obsess Over the Customer

Leaders at Amazon start with the customer and work backwards, seeking continually to earn and keep the customer's trust. Although leaders pay attention to their competitors, they obsess over their customers.

2. Take Ownership of Results

Leaders at Amazon are owners. They think long term, and they don't sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They never sat, "That's not my job." They act on behalf of the entire company, not just their own team.

3. Invent and Simplify

Leaders at Amazon expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify the processes they touch. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by "not invented here" thinking. And they ate willing to innovate fearlessly despite the fact that they may be misunderstood for a long time.

4. Leaders are Right - A lot

Leaders at Amazon are right -- not always, but a lot.  They have strong business judgement, and they spread that strong judgement to others through the utter clarity with which they define their goals and the metrics they use to measure success.

5. Hire and Develop the Best

Leaders at  Amazon raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion.  They recognise exceptional talent, and willingly move them throughout the organisation.  Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others.

6. Insist on the Highest Standards

Leaders at Amazon set high standards -- standards that many people consider unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and driving their teams to deliver an ever-increasing level of quality. Leaders also ensure that the few defects that elude the quality process do no get sent down the line, and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed.

7. Think Big

Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders at Amazon create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for big new ways to serve customers.

8. Have a Bias for Action

Leaders at Amazon value calculated risk taking.  Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study.  So when you are in doubt, try something -- and take advantage of the opportunities that being the first in the field can offer.

9. Practice Frugality

A leader at Amazon tries not to spend money on things that don't matter to customers.  Frugality breeds resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention.  No extra points are awarded for headcount or budget size.

10. Be Vocally Self-Critical

Leaders at Amazon do not consider themselves, or their teams, above criticism.  They benchmark themselves against the best, and they are proactive about revealing problems or mistakes, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing.

11. Earn the Trust of Others

Leaders at Amazon are sincerely open-minded, genuinely listen, and examine their own strongest convictions with humility.  Their openness enables them to trust those around them -- and to earn the trust of others in return.

12. Dive Deep

Leaders at Amazon operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, and audit them frequently.  No task is beneath them, because they know that only a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of a process can really uncover opportunities and solve problems before they become insurmountable.

13. Have a Backbone -- Disagree and Commit

Leaders at Amazon have conviction.  They are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting; they do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion.  But once a decision is made, they commit to it wholeheartedly.

14. Deliver Results

Leaders at Amazon focus on the key outputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion.  Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.

What's your thinking style?

Pic Source: Daily Telegraph

I came across this exercise recently from one of my holiday reading, Socrates' Way by Ronald Gross, that I thought it useful to share with others.  

I have always had a personal bias to IQ testing, especially the ones when applying for a job, HR puts you through a battery of tests, aimed at gauging one's IQ / Intelligence. Google & Microsoft too, up until a few years back, used brainteasers & other puzzles to sift out candidates at interview stages... 

So I've always had a natural aversion and impatience to these tests because I didn't feel comfortable with one number to be associated as a measure of me, my whole self...and thus resisted & challenged the point of such tests for the workplace...

The IQ test was supposed to measure your capacity to think and learn and therefore predict your success in school (and the workplace). However, contemporary psychologists have debunked this whole idea of a single capacity called intelligence. You have no one but at least seven intelligences, according to Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner:

• Linguistic intelligence
• Logical-mathematical intelligence
• Spatial intelligence
• Musical intelligence
• Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence
• Intrapersonal intelligence (knowing yourself)
• Interpersonal intelligence (knowing other people)

Simple Exercise to pinpoint some of your Strengths

Circle/Note the numbers of these descriptions that you fell apply to you:

1. You easily remember nice turns of phrase or memorable quotes and use them deftly in conversation.
2. You sense quickly when someone you are with is troubled about something.
3. You are fascinated by scientific and philosophical questions like "When did time begin?"
4. You can find your way around a new area or neighbourhood very quickly.
5. You are regarded as quite graceful and rarely feel awkward in your movements when learning a new sport or dance.
6. You can sing on key.
7. You regularly read the science pages of your newspaper and look at magazines on science and technology.
8. You note other people's errors in using words or grammar, even if you don't correct them.
9. You often can figure out how something works or how to fix something that's broken without asking for help.
10. You can readily imagine how other people play the roles they do in their work or families and imaginatively see yourself in their roles.
11. You can remember in detail the layout and landmarks of places you've visited on vacations.
12. You enjoy music and have favourite performers.
13. You like to draw.
14. You dance well.
15. You organise things in your kitchen, bathroom, and at your desk according to categories and in patterns.
16. You feel confident in interpreting what other people do in terms of what they are feeling.
17. You like to tell stories and are considered a good storyteller.
18. You sometimes enjoy different sounds in your environment.
19. When you meet new people, you often make connections.
20. You feel you have a keen sense of what you can and can't do.

If all three descriptions of these trios apply to you, you probably are strong in that intelligence, even if you haven't cultivated it:

• 1, 8, 17: linguistic intelligence
• 6, 12, 18: musical intelligence
• 3, 7, 15: logical-mathematical intelligence
• 4, 11, 13: spatial intelligence
• 5, 9, 14: bodily-kinesthetic intelligence
• 10, 16, 20: intrapersonal intelligence (knowing yourself)
• 2, 10, 19:  interpersonal intelligence (knowing others)

When I did the exercise, I'd circled: 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20.

Bringing it to the workplace

I have come across the Socratic Method which was used by Eli Goldratt in his Theory of Constraints books (I've got one last book of his to read), and hence started to study the method in more detail, to learn and adapt my own way of thinking, apply the methods to my work and life situations, and use it as tool in my day-to-day consulting engagements and coaching sessions. The agile coaching community also refer deeply to the Socratic Method of asking questions, not providing solutions - and it all starts with knowing one's self. If you know yourself, then you'll be aware of your own strengths & weaknesses, as well as being able to at least relate to others.

In the workplace, we often work with teams - and in the agile methods - we aspire to work in self organising, cross-functional teams. As a leader (Scrum Master, Manager, etc.) it is essential to know the dynamics of the team, right down to individual character strengths and motivational values...why not try this exercise with your whole team?? It's bound to shed new light on things?

Review: Agile! The Good, the Hype and the Ugly

In October, I spent some time in the company of Bertrand Meyer, author of "Agile!: The Good, the Hype and the Ugly". This book was written to be an independent, impartial and objective study of the various agile methods (scrum, xp, lean, crystal) viewed against the knowledge-base of software engineering methods and principles. The author, being no stranger to software engineering, is well-known in the computer world, across both academia and industry. He took it upon himself to do the research, investigate the agile landscape breadth-and-depth, probing assertions, practices, principles and values using a scientific (and empirical) approach with searching questions, thus providing an overall assessment. This wasn't purely an academic exercise, Meyer walked the path of agile himself, is even a certified as a Scrum Master, his team are using selected methods of agile in their own product development, so it's not like Meyer is throwing the baby out with the bath water! On the contrary, Meyer tries to remain objective, unbiased and fair in his reporting and analysis.

This book may just as well be the first book to read if you're a software manager, entering the agile-space, who's potentially feeling uncomfortable with perhaps some misplaced(?) "baggage" of software engineering, old-school-style projects, as touted by some agilists. Meyer has done almost all the background work for you, covering and assessing the popular agile methods in play today.

I was quite intrigued by the book's title, who wouldn't be!!?? You must admit it is quite EDGY, axe-to-grind, in-your-face-daring-the-agile-pundits - agilistas. I just HAD to get my hands on a copy, I actually waited a long time to buy this book (due to the bad Rand/Dollar exchange rate). I have voraciously read most of the popular books on agile (Schwaber, Cohn, Poppendieck, Rubin, Appelo, Pichler, Derby et. al, you name it), that extol this new thing "agile", often claiming a silent revolution is coming to overtake the industry, that "Software Engineering" should belong to the annals of history, and instead welcome "Software Craftsmanship" as in.  And when I read these signature-series books, I do get caught up in the rush-of-it-all, excited, converted and have actually been a promoter for #agile for ten+ years...I was caught hook, line and sinker!

Then when I came across "Agile! The Good, the Hype and the Ugly" written by a person very well respected in the industry, I had to ask myself, if I may have actually fallen for some hype, maybe I didn't ask probing questions, without having empirical data to substantiate claims. I wanted to find out if I was potentially backing the wrong horse, wanted to check some of my own values, personal-biases or not, of software engineering experiences held weight or not, but most important, the title being so catchy, I was rather curious to find out what the "Hype & Ugly" bits of agile this book claimed were...

Since my background in software is in embedded systems (Set-Top-Box systems) and highly-available-systems (Real-Time-Streaming/Encryption-Services) I grew up with the scientific engineering mindset (BSc. Electronics Engineering & Masters Computer Science), so I often found myself being selective with vanilla Scrum and had in the past, cautioned people against following a particular agile method with extreme dogma, i.e. I maintained a certain amount of discipline and structure was always needed. This is primarily because of the particular domain-experience I was coming from, which wasn't high-level application non-critical development (Mobile apps, WebApps, Websites), or application development that relied on a stable SDK/engines (i.e. the expectation of a stable operating system, database, etc upon which to build applications on top of).

This book, in my view, should be essential reading for any software manager, looking to understand agile methods before diving head-first into a vanilla, textbook-implementations.

For people convinced about agile to-the-letter, this book will be a little edgy for you - one needs a cool head, and openness to accept some of the challenges that Meyer puts forward, especially when it comes to backing up assertions of values/practices/principles or citations of productivity-gains, without sound scientific and empirical data to back up those claims.  Meyer highlights such challenges from some of the books that I myself have held in high esteem for many years, so take it on the chin...

Meyer's style of writing is somewhat academic, factual, but also practical with some nerdy-humour thrown in-between. Meyer has written with sincerity, remained as open-and-unbiased-as-humanly-possible, and made a conscious effort not to promote his own personal projects, products and frameworks. Meyer cuts to the core of uncomfortable-but-some-relevant truths, especially challenging assertions and statements that lack scientific validation, or backed up by empirical studies. He writes with a depth of experience and passion for practical software methods that it forces you to think hard about the course you're on, the things you just accepted and may have taken for granted (e.g. forgoing necessary engineering practices such as a little bit of design up-front to support changing requirements).

You have to be patient with Meyer as he unpacks in some surgical, analytical detail the various topics, in fact, the selling point of the book's title, is actually left right till the last chapter, so you have to read from start-to-finish, because the essence of the Hype, Ugly, Good & Brilliant is saved for the end (building upon his arguments and case-points from the earlier chapters).

I was taken on a roller coaster ride, experiencing moments of pure resonance thinking I am on the same wavelength as this guy riding high, in-phase. Yet also, there were instances when I felt a little edgy, somewhat uncomfortable, noticeably shifting my position as I lay in bed reading at night. Stopping, putting the book aside, to sleep over it. [I am two+ years into consulting as a Systems & Software Engineering Management consultant, doing the odd agile coaching gig here and there, advising on agile systems processes - and here is Meyer taking issue with consultants!]

In keeping with my deep-review style for special books - topics struck certain nerves, either resonating (fully in agreement with Meyer) or feeling of discomfort (not sure, not convinced), so I graphed the below curve, which is how I resonated with Meyer's assertions in the last chapter, specifically the edgy bits: Meyer's UGLY & HYPED assertions:

The blue area shows the feel-good, things that resonated with me, the extent of which I agreed and was comfortable with the ideas. The amber spots show the areas that made me feel uncomfortable, my level of discomfort, that either I'm not convinced, or have some personal biases that's potentially blinding me from seeing the points. On the whole though, resonance wins over discomfort.

[Aside: Here is Meyer's blog post introducing why he wrote this book, you'll find detail about the book's table of contents too]

Here's the detail of these comments, for each topic - In what follows, read as:
Title, Level of Resonance, Level of Discomfort, Comments

The Bad and the Ugly parts of Agile

Management Coaching: Group Strategies & Objectives

This post is about my recent experience on coaching a team of mid-level engineering managers, responsible for functional areas of quality engineering / assurance (software testing, automation tools, user acceptance testing & field trials, quality assurance process). The engagement lasted just over two months. I was called in to mentor, guide and coach a group of four managers, working with them to create their group strategies such that they aligned with the overall company goals, divisional objectives, ultimately working through each line manager and team member. The result was an aligned strategy for each group, measurable and specific, simple and uncomplicated, that each manager could prove traceability back to overall divisional objectives and company goals.

This particular group of managers had just been through a big divisional restructure, fairly new in the management position, working with new people, new reporting managers as well. The team sizes these managers were responsible for ranged from 20-to-80 people. The challenge was not only in setting up the technical strategy, but also figuring out how to effectively manage the people challenges. My clients (General Manager GM & Head of Department HOD) were keen on getting the strategies drafted so they could carry through with the rest of the implementation planning, motivate for future budgets, as well as feedback to the business on the overall progress (and success thereof) of the recent restructure.

So the engagement was kept brief, short and somewhat fast-paced. We didn't have the luxury of time to spend days experimenting with tools & techniques. At first I was quite interested in adopting the Business Model Canvas as the template for each group manager. I didn't have much experience with using the canvas specifically for department strategies, but was keen to try it out. Whilst I've read the book and experimented with some models in my head, I was sure I could adapt the canvas for business strategies. But time was limiting, I did not want to confuse people, and after bouncing the idea with some peers, I figured this was going to be too much trouble, would need a lot of training and facilitation, mindsets would change as well -- something I didn't have time for. 

Note to self: Still pursue the business model canvas as a template for management strategies!

I also considered maybe taking Google's Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) process and applying similar principles. Again, I decided rather not, because I didn't want to come across as shoving down some other company's ideology onto this new team. OKRs would require a few roadshows and experiments to get right, and time wasn't on my side.

So I decided to use KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid - common-sense approach. Also remembering Chip n Dan Heaths SUCCESs criteria from their work on Made to Stick - Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Story, and of course throw in the classic management technique of SMART - Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time-Bound -- we would be on our way to having a tangible strategy that management would approve.

With roughly just over 100 hours committed for this engagement, spread over a period of two months, the approach I took was the following:

1. Get agreement that when it comes to management strategy, it's all about being aligned to business goals. So my aim was to provide traceability top-down-up from Company Goals <<<>>> Business Unit Objectives <<<>>> Divisional Objectives <<<>>> Department Objectives <<<>>> Group Objectives <<<>>> Individual Objectives. 
   
2. Agree that any activity that does not have a direct link back to a goal, is considered waste and should be canned. 
3. Seek out senior management's expectations - what were they after really, via simple survey feedback mechanism.
4. Get the line managers to start thinking strategically by asking some thought-provoking questions - another survey.
5. Meet with each manager one-on-one. Walk through survey results, compare manager's results with senior managers. Talk about alignment issues. Touch on topics for further thinking.
6. Teach the concepts around measurement, visualisation, story-telling, envisioning the future, taking ownership, how to deal with bottlenecks, and HR/people challenges.
7. For each manager, iterate a few rounds of draft strategies
8. Get all managers to review jointly in a room, feedback and alignment from colleagues important.
9. Present and walk through strategies with senior management - get approval on priorities and overall acceptance.
10. Close the engagement & get feedback

Coaching Feedback

Both GM & HOD shared positive feedback - they were impressed by the level of detail, analysis & thought that their new managers applied.  The GM's asked me to extend my coaching to the rest of his groups on this journey, the next one he has in mind is his Project Management Office :-)

Here's some feedback directly from the manager's I coached:

Muhammad was really helpful and a pleasure to work with. His insight and knowledge was amazing.  Also, being on a Programme level gives him visibility from above end to end which mean that he can relate back the experiences and pain points of the different business units etc. What was great, was that he had the ability to ask all the right questions and in a simple form. The way in which he articulates the stuff that we are all thinking about but have no idea how to put together and say it or put it into simple words just leaves me in awe. I looked forward to every one my sessions with him. Without his input and guidance, I now feel, that my department's strategy would have been quite off the mark of where it actually should of and needed to be.

Muhammad's ability to convey his ideas and visualize something that's on his mind always amazes me. The coaching sessions were hugely beneficial and helped me think out the box. He has great insight and I believe a few sessions with him will greatly benefit your career. 

I have enjoyed working with Muhammad because he knows how to get the best out of you, he ask questions, he challenges your way of thinking, he makes you believe in yourself, above everything else, he knows what he's doing and he's definitely a complete Coach. 

Template for Strategies

Each manager crafted their strategy around the following:

1. Who are we and what do we stand for? Your one-line mantra.
2. What is the goal of [YOUR DEPARTMENT] & hence impact on [YOUR GROUP]'s goals?
3. Envisioning the future - i.e. Tell a story of the end-result "Imagine if..."
4. Table that shows your Aspirations, Expectations & Reality 
5. Targets to achieve: Short Term (Dec '15), Medium Term (Mar '16), Long term (Mid-16)
6. For each target, top 3 measurements - i.e. How are you going to measure progress?
7. Summarise your main obstacles and challenges (where senior management could assist).

On Initiative

Initiative is doing the Right Thing without being told

Here's another one of Hubbard's short essay that struck a chord with me, on Initiative:

The world bestows its big prizes, both in money and honors, for but one thing. And that is Initiative.

What is Initiative? 

I'll tell you: It is doing the right thing without being told. But next to doing the right thing without being told is to do it when you are told once. That is to say, carry the Message to Garcia! 

There are those who never do a thing until they are told twice: such get no honors and small pay. Next, there are those who do the right thing only when necessity kicks them from behind, and these get indifference instead of honors, and a pittance for pay. This kind spends most of its time polishing a bench with a hard-luck story. Then, still lower down in the scale than this, we find the fellow who will not do the right thing even when some one goes along to show him how, and stays to see that he does it; he is always out of a job, and receives the contempt he deserves, unless he has a rich Pa, in which case Destiny awaits near by with a stuff club.

To which class do you belong?

Wow, how's that for telling it like it is?? Keep in mind Hubbard's time was at a great stage of industrialisation (and capitalism) - still, take a look at your workplace, your organisation or project team that you're in, and look around - can you spot people that falls into the rough categories that Hubbard proposes?

Of course, times have changed - and in the workplace, we have to be supportive and nurturing, we have to coach, mentor and lead people, if initiative is not present, then we lead by example, inspire and instill confidence, sometimes acting as a protective shepherd would to his flock. Still, this is no easy task, it takes special patience and a level of integrity & leadership to grow people, transforming them from being reactive or bystanders to taking charge, not being afraid of stepping forward to take the initiative.

This is an example of where Leadership defers from Management. One could argue that Hubbard was a classic, no-nonsense manager, who was quite frank, and direct about his expectations. If you can't deliver the message to Garcia, then there's probably no place for you on his team.

Personally, I find myself caught in between these two styles of "Leadership Management". Depending on the engagement, projects that I work on with really hard delivery deadlines and sometimes unreasonable sense of urgency, one wishes to have more people with Initiative as Hubbard expects. And there are some gigs where it's okay to lead and allow the team to develop along the way.

My natural tendency is to take initiative, as they say "Better to do a thing and ask forgiveness later" - but it doesn't always work out like that. Recently I got my knuckles rapped because I took initiative, acting on cue assuming my client expected me to take his suggestion & run with it...only to be told later that actually, I had to place in executing that activity...So lesson learnt, depending on the stakeholder, in this particular context, the unwritten rule is wait until you're told twice (just in case)...

On the projects I run though, I value people taking initiative, letting me know their intent, and even if they didn't give me the heads up, I look forward to being pleasantly surprised by the team's / person's commitment to solving the problem without being told to do so...

A Message to Garcia

I recently came across some powerful essays from a writer, Elbert Hubbard from the later 1800s (19th Century), who became known as one of the most interesting business thinkers of his time. One particular essay struck a chord to many business owners at the time, titled A Message to Garcia, which I'd like to share with you in this post.

What is amazing is that this essay was written in 1899, over a hundred years ago, and yet I feel it still so powerful and relevant today. This essay is easy to read, although somewhat in old-school English, yet the points are crystal clear, solid and sound.

It surely resonates with me, both in my personal and professional life experiences...Work-wise, the tenets contained in A Message to Garcia are very relevant to project management and delivery, as well as the subject of mature, self-organising agile software development teams. As I spend most of my time wearing the hat of a program delivery manager, which supposed to be relatively abstracted away from details and hand-holding, micro-managing, I look to having at least one person of type Rowan that I can count on to get the message delivered....or ideally, at least one Rowan in every team or work-stream on the program...In a lean/agile software team, it would be great to have the entire team made up of Rowans (7-9 person team)... It's about the essence that counts!

Before I give more away, here's the essay, written 19th Century, still going strong in 21st Century...

In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion. When war broke out between Spain and the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain vastness of Cuba - no one knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly.

What to do!

Some one said to the President, “There’s a fellow by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if anybody can.”

Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How “the fellow by the name of Rowan” took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.

The point I wish to make is this: 

McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, “Where is he at?” By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing- “Carry a message to Garcia!”

General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias.

No man, who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man- the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it. Slip-shod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, and half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, and sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant. You, reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your office- six clerks are within call.

Summon any one and make this request: “Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio”.

Will the clerk quietly say, “Yes, sir,” and go do the task?

On your life, he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions:

Who was he?

Which encyclopedia?

Where is the encyclopedia?

Was I hired for that?

Don’t you mean Bismarck?

What’s the matter with Charlie doing it?

Is he dead?

Is there any hurry?

Shan’t I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself?

What do you want to know for?

And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find Garcia- and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average, I will not.

Now if you are wise you will not bother to explain to your “assistant” that Correggio is indexed under the C’s, not in the K’s, but you will smile sweetly and say, “Never mind,” and go look it up yourself.

And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift, are the things that put pure Socialism so far into the future. If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all? A first-mate with knotted club seems necessary; and the dread of getting “the bounce” Saturday night, holds many a worker to his place.

Advertise for a stenographer, and nine out of ten who apply, can neither spell nor punctuate- and do not think it necessary to.

Can such a one write a letter to Garcia?

“You see that bookkeeper,” said the foreman to me in a large factory.

“Yes, what about him?”

“Well he’s a fine accountant, but if I’d send him up town on an errand, he might accomplish the errand all right, and on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street, would forget what he had been sent for.”

Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia?

We have recently been hearing much maudlin sympathy expressed for the “downtrodden denizen of the sweat-shop” and the “homeless wanderer searching for honest employment,” and with it all often go many hard words for the men in power.

Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne’er-do-wells to do intelligent work; and his long patient striving with “help” that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned. In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process going on. The employer is constantly sending away “help” that have shown their incapacity to further the interests of the business, and others are being taken on. No matter how good times are, this sorting continues, only if times are hard and work is scarce, the sorting is done finer- but out and forever out, the incompetent and unworthy go.

It is the survival of the fittest. Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best- those who can carry a message to Garcia.

I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to any one else, because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppressing, or intending to oppress him. He cannot give orders; and he will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be, “Take it yourself.”

Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his threadbare coat. No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular fire-brand of discontent. He is impervious to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled No. 9 boot.

Of course I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple; but in our pitying, let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise, whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line dowdy indifference, slip-shod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude, which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry and homeless.

Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds- the man who, against great odds has directed the efforts of others, and having succeeded, finds there’s nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes.

I have carried a dinner pail and worked for day’s wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides. There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; and all employers are not rapacious and high-handed, any more than all poor men are virtuous.

My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the “boss” is away, as well as when he is at home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly take the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets “laid off,” nor has to go on a strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks shall be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town and village- in every office, shop, store and factory.

The world cries out for such: he is needed, and needed badly - the man who can carry A MESSAGE TO GARCIA.

-Elbert Hubbard, 1899