100 Days

It's day 88. William has not missed an evening of practicing in 88 days. He decided he wanted to play for 100 days - if he doesn't break his streak, he will make complete day 100 on December 1. It takes a lot to get into the habit of doing something for 100 days - especially something that takes effort. 100 days, wow.

Why Companies Can't Innovate

Why nations fail : the origins of power, prosperity and poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson should be required reading for most corporate managers. I could see a sequel applying the same contingency theory of history to corporations - Why companies can't innovate.

Acemoglu and Robinson's book is very readable and makes a very strong case that countries are not poor because of location, resources, or cultural heritage, but rather are poor as a legacy of the political an economic institutions they inherited. If these institutions are designed to extract wealth to enrich a small group of people at the expense of the rest of society, the society will be extremely poor and there is a good probability it will remain poor or become poor without radical change. Societies with inclusive institutions that allow mobility and the rise of new interest groups will innovate and there is a good probability the society will experience sustained economic growth.

Companies have many of the same challenges to innovation - if a company's business model is designed to maximize profits in its existing businesses, there is going to be a lot of institutional resistance to any changes that might threaten those businesses. If a company's business model is designed to include the decisions of as many people as practical, I suspect it is much more likely to innovate and be able to react to a changing environment.

And of course, because the economy is an open system there is always a third option - buy your innovative competitor and make his innovation yours.

Why nations fail : the origins of power, prosperity and poverty

Improving Job Search Engines

Most job search engines use keyword searching. Because of this choice by job sites, search results are often meaningless. Usually this occurs because the search engine:

• Searches keywords in all parts of the job posting
• Uses unspecified boolean logic
• Offers filters that are not meaningful to the target users - job-seekers

Each of these could be easily remedied without making major changes to the sites or their search engines:

• There is no reason to not have an advanced search which allows the searcher to direct keywords to specific parts of a job posting - and no reason to not require job postings to have a well-defined structure. You should be able to specify search words for requirements, description, and job title.
• Allow users to specify phrase searching
• Clearly explain the default logic for multiple word searches - getting more results is less desirable than getting good results
• Allow users to specify the search logic in an advanced search - enough people understand set theory to use AND, OR, NOT; there are another large group that could correctly select the same logic when presented as "search for all of these terms", "search for any of these terms", "exclude results containing these terms".
• Add meaningful filters - date posted, closing date and location are meaningful. Industry is not. I would like to see the following: 
• If there is a place for job applicants to enter a security clearance - then include a filter in the search that allows users to exclude jobs that require security clearances above their level
• If there is a place for job applicants to enter skill tags - then include a filter in the search for skills that allows users to select jobs that match identified skills

Job sites could also ask employers to use standard job titles. It is not uncommon for a job seeker to need to search multiple job titles to find the right job function. An "analyst" or "researcher" may have the exact same job, but the titles are different. Variation in job titles becomes even more enigmatic when you consider most salary comparisons are based on job titles. It the job title doesn't match comparable jobs it is not clear what a fair market salary is. Or even if someone is qualified to fulfill the position.  And that can't be good for either the job seeker or the employer. 

Improving STEM Education

Both of the professional organizations I currently belong to - ACM and ASQ, are deeply concerned with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education - particularly how to include more women. Including more women in the education hopefully will also include more women and leaders in the professions and will help the professions become more flexible and innovative by widening the pool and variety of talents and experiences. Usually the proposed solution is to encourage more women by offering more female role models and removing barriers such as the stereo-types portrayed in the xkcd comic: How it Works.

I would like to suggest a complimentary strategy - make STEM careers more family friendly. Having parents in the home that value STEM could be one of the most effective ways to encourage more young people to pursue STEM education. Among my contemporaries that chose STEM education, the vast majority had at least one parent who already had an interest in these areas. Most had two. Richard Feyman pursued physics in part because his Father was willing to explain things. I have a niece pursuing paleontology because both her mother and father are interested in living things.

Here is my list of things that would make STEM careers more family friendly, and get individuals with STEM careers interacting with their children:

1. Allow flexible hours - stop concentrating on the amount of face time spent in the lab/office/server room and start worrying about the work being done. There are several studies that illustrate more hours at work don't equate to more productive hours at work.
2. Allow remote work when/where possible. With the available communications many jobs do not require someone to be present. You can teach from a home office; you can research from a home office; you can program from a home office. For many people just removing out the time to go to and from the office gives them hours with their family.
3. Respect family time. I had a fantasy for years about becoming my senior manager's boss. In my fantasy, I made him check in his laptop and cellphone when he scheduled vacation. He was notorious for keeping the stream of emails and phone calls up during his vacations as if he were in the office. I can't imagine he spent much time paying attention to his family. Just because someone can be connected 24/7 don't expect them to be. If they are needed for emergencies then schedule them to be on call. If not, then leave them alone.
4. Allow people to easily exit and reenter roles. One of the most frustrating things that parents face is the prospect that you need to fill a specific role now. There is a perception that we steadily climb hierarchies and the rise to the top of our professions is somehow a race. Someone who is perfectly capable of being the dean of a department at 45, may wish to delay that position until children have graduated, or may want to take a lesser position to allow a spouse to advance in a career. Should that individual be penalized because the timing wasn't right for a family's needs? Why can't we allow sabbaticals to raise children, or allow a spouse to work? How could we manage periods when individuals are in the "work" force? 

The Mormon Way

I just finished Jeff Benedict's The Mormon way of doing business. I picked the book up because of some reviews coming out because of the Romney Campaign. Based on the online reviews, the book incited two responses - this it the best book ever because it shows good Mormons succeeding by being good Mormons, or this book sucks because it isn't a business how to book.

The Mormon way is not a business book in the sense of how to do business. It is not a religious book in the sense of how to live successfully. It is an interesting piece of investigative journalism. The basic premise sounds like the plot of an epic novel: five relatively high-powered businessmen and their wives living parallel lives in the same congregation, the New Canaan Ward. They work in New York City and Boston, and travel the world. They lead their organizations through the attacks on the World Trade Center while keeping family first. The and their organizations persevere and thrive.

We have ten extremely driven competitive individuals who also had a no compromise attitude when it came toward family life and religious devotion. The no compromise attitude tended to moderate destructive business practices. The competitive drive can be a very ugly side to North American Mormon culture - I've lived in locations where Mormon church basketball had a reputation for being the roughest and meanest in town - too much trying to win, not enough trying to play well.

I really doubt The Mormon way is representative of how Mormons do business, or don't do business. I remember my mission president's wife sharing that her grandfather who was not Mormon, wouldn't do business with a Mormon who was not in good standing with the Church. He had been cheated too many times - he didn't feel they were trustworthy. In my professional life, I've encountered Mormons apparently in good standing, I would not do business with. I suspect there are people from other religious faiths may have a similar approach to balancing family and business.

The Mormon way offers no insight into small business owners. There are plenty of Mormon entrepreneurs, if only because more than half the population of Utah is Mormon. We have no idea how Mormons balance family life when working for themselves. We don't know if they share the same traits as the ten people in the book, or if they've found other solutions or made different choices.

The Mormon way is worth reading. It is a good piece of investigative reporting and it describes an interesting group of people brought together at a very interesting time.

The Mormon way of doing business : leadership and success through faith and family, Jeff Benedict, New York : Warner Business Books, 2007.

You are what you measure

Weight is a wonderfully loaded measure. It is very concrete - concrete generally weighs between 110 and 150 pounds per square foot.

Weight is something most people have direct experience with. We know from a very early age what heavy and light are. It is our window into gravity and mass, our connection to the earth, our reminder that we are earthbound even if we can temporarily leap into space.

Body weight is considered a proxy for health. In the west, we've come to associate it as a measure of health, but it is really only an indicator of health: weight doesn't tell you a lot of important things. For example, generally losing weight is considered a good thing, but that would ignore causes. Anorexia, amputation, and starvation could all be causes of weight loss. None of these are associated with good health.

Weight gain is associated with ill-health, but is considered an indicator of proper growth and care for small children. There are deep concerns when a small child isn't gaining enough weight. And concerned for future eating disorders if the child is gaining too much. Weight gain is expected for pregnant women, with an expectation that it would only be healthy to lose weight should the woman be severely obese and be closely monitored to ensure proper nutrition for the woman and the baby.

Ideal weight is generally given as a range and needs additional measurements like height and age. A healthy weight range for a 6 foot tall, 50 year old male, is different than the healthy weight range for a 4 ft 6 in tall eighty year old woman.

Weight might be viewed as a success measure for a change in diet or increased exercise, but generally the results will not be seen immediately, or may not be seen at all. For example rapid weight loss is often associated with dehydration, not health. And there are benefits to a good diet and adequate exercise that go beyond weight loss, like more energy, better mental health, and potentially longer life.

So before you get on that scale think about what you are measuring and why. Think about the context for the measurement. Think about what you are trying to accomplish. Think about what your long term goals are. And remember there is more to health than weight. And weight is just a number.

Taking Shortcuts

Shortcuts can cause a lot of problems. William and I had a small conflict. We disagreed on whether or not he should be able to use a shortcut for reading music.

His teacher and I are trying to teach William to read music. This is extremely hard because William has a great ear, if he hears something he can play it. So getting him to read music is a challenge - it's hard and he doesn't see a need for it yet. We've been trying a three pronged approach -

1. He has flash cards that have all the notes that can be played on a violin in first position. When we flip the cards he needs to recall two pieces of information - the name of the note and how to play it on the violin. 
2. He has been going through rhythm excesses calling out the rhythm of written notes. 
3. He has been playing easy fiddle pieces by reading the sheet music. The fiddle tunes are interesting and offer some variety to the classical pieces he is playing.

About two weeks ago, I noticed a problem with the latest fiddle piece William was working on - he was getting the notes right, but the rhythm was wrong. I pointed it out to him referring to the music, I thought he was reading. We counted the music. He kept making the same mistake. I diagnosed the problem as concentrating on getting the right note and ignoring the time value. It took a lesson to actually find out the problem - William was taking a short cut.

On the pages of the fiddle book we're using there is encoded in letters and number the finger an string that needs to be played for each note. Of course there is no rhythm encoded in the coding. William was using the encode letters and number as a short cut to play the right notes. I covered the letters and numbers. William couldn't play. He was frustrated and insisted reading the actual sheet music was too hard. I over reacted and started an unnecessary lecture. And we took some time away from each other to cool off.

Here is what I learned:

• Make sure you have the right diagnosis - counting the rhythm didn't solve the problem, because I had the wrong diagnosis - the problem was not that he was struggling with the notes on the staff line - he was ignoring them all together.
• Be careful with the shortcuts you offer - you may be undermining your long term goals.
• Make sure you communicate intermediate and long term goals - William was focused on the short term goal of playing a single piece of music. His teacher and I are focused on the intermediate goal of giving William the skills to learn music in three different ways - by having some teach it to him; by hearing it and working it out himself; and by reading sheet music. He could be successful with only one of the three, but we would really like him to be able to do all three. And my long term goal is for William to learn that hard things become easy with practice, and hard things are often worthwhile and enjoyable things.
• Remember your long term goals and don't over react. 
• Admit when you are wrong and make corrective adjustments