Think Kit: Getting Lost

I miss getting lost. It used to be one of my favorite things to do. Now it seems almost impossible. One of my favorite memories from college was when a friend led me around blindfolded until they found an obscure corner of Bloomington, unmasked me and I was suddenly lost in a town I thought I knew like the back of my hand. 

When I was 16 I went overseas to stay in England for the summer. The second day I was there I went out to explore London. This was my first time abroad. I wandered until I was lost. I then realized I didn't have the address, a map, or phone number of the family I was staying with. Jet-lagged I walked around London for hours, amazed at the picturesque world I'd stumbled into before finally finding my way back home. The next day I wrote a letter to my family describing the experience. My Dad still references that letter regularly as a highlight from my teenage years.

Getting lost can be terrifying but most great experiences have some element of terror in their undercurrent. Maybe some day I will take my kids and drop them in the middle of a foreign city and see how they do. I'm glad my parents did. We all need to get lost once in a while.

part of SmallBox's Think Kit

Roads vs Rails

I am no fan of the current educational system. Knowledge is valued over creativity. When these kids get out of college and enter the work force their employers are then tasked with rewiring them to be problem solvers and risk takers.

Kids are conditioned to running on rails- "take these classes, do well, get a degree and a job awaits". Increasingly that model is breaking down. As Daniel Pink noted in "A Whole New Mind" computers and cheap labor are shifting value from knowledge to creativity. The educational system doesn't seem to get it. Their tests mostly measure knowledge- a commodity at this point. To some degree this is understandable since creativity is hard to measure. 

So these kids leave school and suddenly find themselves driving on roads- "where do I go!?". I often see this with interns and recent grads. They are very risk averse, they want to know what they need to do to succeed. They still want to know- what will be on the test? The problem is that there is no book and no test. Every day they have to figure it out. 

It's difficult to transition from professors to bosses. Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that there are many similarities between the two. They both provide leadership, support and, to some degree, friendship. But being a student is very different from being an employee. An effective employee has to be proactive, owning their role in the company. Kids coming out of college are, on the whole, not ready for this. When they look at their bosses they still see professors. 

I think every student should be involved with running a business before they leave college. Regardless of their intended vocation this is an invaluable experience. Some colleges (Purdue for instance) are working aggressively towards offering more students the opportunity to try their hand at business. This experience will begin to shift students off the rails and on to the roads while still giving them the needed safety net. 

Our competitive advantage, as a country, has been our creativity. We are a nation of problem solvers. If we have any hopes of staying on top we need to encourage creativity. We need to remember that one great idea is worth countless hours of work and gigs of memory. 

Finding Talent

Last night's Verge event at the Kessler/Fall Creek mansion (you know the one with Dolphin statues) was epic. Both Mayor Ballard and Melina Kennedy (Dem candidate) were in attendance, 200+ of Indy's best nerds mingled, local SaaS companies demonstrated their wares, Scotty's food and Upland beer was plentiful. A good time was had by all and host Chad Folkening, master domainer,  made us all feel at home in his insanely large estate. 

But what stuck with me the most was something that David Becker said about finding talent during his short but powerful speech. David is a local serial entrepreneur who has had great success across multiple ventures. He told a short story about how he spotted a hostess at a local restaurant that had great people skills. He offered her a job and she rose through his ranks to become a VP. The noisy Verge crowd was surprisingly quiet- it hit home.

David's point is to spot these rough talents and place an early bet. Sure, they might not know much about your industry but knowledge can be gained, talent is something you either have or don't have. If you can develop this person into a valuable resource then the benefits are mutual and the loyalty is deep.

I've seen this in my life as well. Many of the people I have hired came from unusual sources- I met Karl Hofstetter at one of my garage sales when he was still in high school, I met Dan Fahrner when he was playing drums in a band, I met our incredibly bright high school intern John Fernkas through my hair dresser. I have also been on the other side of this- getting hired by Dan Ripley in 1998 based on nothing more than his gut feeling that I had some talent. Within 3 years we were business partners in Indiana's first online auction house, Antique Helper.

In my experience I think you will have more success finding quality talent in your daily interactions than in a stack of resumes. Thank you David for the confirmation and reminder. Talent is all around us, we just need to look for it.

Reconsidering Mayor Ballard

I find myself in an awkward situation. I have been an early Melina Kennedy supporter. I co-sponsored a fundraising event for her at iMOCA a few months back. I think she would be an excellent mayor of Indianapolis. I love her passion for the arts and small businesses. I still plan on voting for her. But lately I have been reconsidering our current mayor. 

Like many Indy residents I was shocked when Greg Ballard beat out Bart Peterson in 2007. He won mostly on the hot topic of property taxes. The voters were all riled up over that for about 2 weeks and misdirected their anger towards Peterson. I think most observers would agree that it was a perfect storm that no-one saw coming. Ballard became the accidental mayor. 

When it comes to national politics I tend to vote Democratic. The current national Republican party scares the shit out of me. The Tea Party has pushed them into a ideological corner where the earth isn't warming, "intellectuals" are mocked, all regulations are worthless and government of any shape or form is intrinsically evil. It's a party that would throw Reagan out on his ass if he walked through the door today. Governing is about compromise and that's a language the Tea, er, I mean, Republican Party doesn't speak. 

But Indiana Republicans are cut from a different cloth. Sure they skew right on social stuff but can often find middle ground. They get that government isn't intrinsically evil- it's a mix of good and bad just like us- maybe because we are government! 

In the 2008 election I was a strong supporter of Obama and Mitch Daniels. I had yard signs for both in my yard which amused, and confused, my new neighbors. "What's up with those youngsters?" I remain a fan of both politicians and was very disappointed to see Daniels not pursue the presidency. I don't think he would have won but I do think he would have elevated the conversation. 

When Ballard took over as Mayor I feared for the worst. He was a complete unknown with almost no experience governing. But he has been surprisingly competent. The police debacle could have been handled better and I'm sure his detractors can put together a long list but (as David Hoppe noted in this week's Nuvo) he has kept the ship running, and running pretty well, during some stormy weather. 

Greg Ballard is a shy, introverted guy. He is not a politician by nature. He is straight forward, speaks his mind and focuses more on action than talking points. It's an approach that resonates with me and others. Could he do better on communicating vision? Sure, but actions speak louder than words.

Ballard has done a great job of building a forward looking team that cares about Indianapolis. I have worked closely with Deputy Mayor Michael Huber on several ideas/ventures. I am consistently impressed by Huber. He is a hard worker with great instincts who knows how to connect the right people to get things done. He also has great taste in music which doesn't hurt.

Melina Kennedy is an excellent politician. She remembers names, makes eye contact, using talking points and has a great vision for this city. But she needs to step up her game to win this one. Ballard is figuring out this Mayor thing and only looks stronger as we head into the last lap.

So I have a hard choice to make but it feels good to know that either way the election goes, Indianapolis wins. 

Overcorrecting

About 2 years ago we took on a project that changed our business. We should not have taken on this highly custom project- we were out of our depth, it was poorly scoped and we didn't have the budget or timeline to do it right.  The client had been patient, understanding and even accommodating on additional funds. This wasn't a case of a client from hell. It was us over-promising and under-delivering. It was a mistake on every level. It was also entirely my mistake. I screwed up big time. 

After burning about 1000 hours and pushing one of our senior team members to brink of sanity we decided we had to walk away from the project even though it was near the finish line. We just couldn't meet the client's expectations. It was devastating emotionally and financially. We had never before, or after, been unable to complete a project. So we did all we could to hand the project off smoothly to the next team.

As I walked away in shock from the wreckage I swore "no more custom work for clients!"

What followed was 6 months of saying no to custom web application work. We refocused the company towards web marketing services and focusing on improvements to our CMS. We were so stunned by our first real failure as a company we didn't know what else to do. 

During this time we ignored the fact that we are really good at executing the right custom web projects. We've been doing these since we started the company. With this one glaring failure blinding me I ignored all our successes and heavily overcorrected. 

Looking back at the experience it was probably the best thing that has happened to me professionally. I learned a lot about managing expectations, laying the right foundation for success, creating a client experience and leading the team. I'm not the same person that took on that project. We aren't the same company. It changed everything.

As we have started taking on custom web projects the past year I've seen the team regain confidence and do great work. I've also seen how this learning experience has been institutionalized across the company. I wish we could have learned it in a less painful way for the client and ourselves- especially the client- but the lesson has been learned and the overcorrection has been corrected.