Under Pressure!

Since I did not write yesterday, and I know I promised myself that I will write every day, I find myself under pressure at the moment.

Short story I need to share:  We have this amazing dude working in our building maintenance team.  Vusi.  During our building renovation exercises he is responsible for laying electricity underneath the desks.  The IT dudes then plug and lay electricity cords for computers and monitors prior to the move so that on the day of the move thing just go a little bit quicker.

During our first move Vusi struggled to find the time to lay his cables.  It was getting closer and closer to D-day and we nagged Vusi more and more to get his cables in so we could lay ours.  At one stage, during one of these nagging sessions, Vusi just smiled and said: “Eish, I’m under pressure”.  From then on Vusi was known as Mr Under Pressure.  Does not matter what we have to do, Mr Under Pressure is our man, always smiling, always helping out, always under pressure!

Thank you, Mr Under Pressure!

Enough writing for today, no more being under pressure!

Greetings,

Besembek

Kill the Boardrooms!

They say networking is good for you.  I guess it must be else there would not be a Chamber of Commerce in every town.  That is where a non-profit promotes profit, in a friendly environment.  (That is so funny – sounds like a slogan for a political party!).  I have never been to one of those meetings but it must be heavy stuff because those meetings are attended by editors and journalist of newspapers.  I always thought it was for old people having snacks, drinking wine, and having an excuse not to go home early.  All wrong, I was.  I guess.  Maybe the editors and journalist are also trying to find an excuse not go home early (I think they are part of the conspiracy).

Many years ago, in the chambers and dungeons of Anglo American and De Beers, I found that the most productive meetings I ever attended were not the ones in the board rooms, but the ones where we were chatting away in the kitchen in front of the coffee dispensing units.  Ideas were created, problems solved, and then the solutions were implemented.  All without the need of a boardroom (I have horrific memories of those boardrooms, anyway).  If it was not in the kitchen, it was in someone’s office, after a stroll from the kitchen.

Unfortunately the kitchens where I work now are too small for meetings and too busy with all the coffeeholics frequenting the always occupied space.  Offices are for the privileged few.  Open plan areas are the most counterproductive office system ever if you ask me.  Boardrooms have to be booked.  So, a colleague (from another branch) and I had our very productive “meeting” in the corridor yesterday.  That was the best place we could find for privacy – or at least as much as we needed.  We were frequently interrupted by sarcastic people making comments about how long we’ve been there (I wonder why they were walking up and down the corridor, don’t they have real work to do?), and the plenty ladies we politely opened the close-by door for.  The nice thing is that I learned about some critical IT networking (that stuff that makes your google work) in that time from him, more than I ever learned in any formal meeting.  No need for a boardroom or formal meeting.

I have a funny feeling (I always have funny feelings when I’m right!) that networking via social media may lessen the impact of traditional forms of networking but I doubt it will ever replace face-to-face interacting, or even be as strong as face-to-face interacting.  However, I know of one dude who really uses social media to his benefit.  Sir Richard Branson.  What I find very interesting is how he appears in almost every photo or FB entry.  In almost every FB photo or entry, or reference in an article, will you find him interacting with his staff.  He even writes articles about the staff taking care of his pets at home.  This is business networking and management like I have never seen.  That is his style of management.  On the floor, in the trenches.

Unknowingly, I actually have been practicing that style of management for a while.  About two years ago one of my customers mentioned that I was frequently “wandering about”.  Now I must make it clear that wandering does not take place when there is lots of work to do, but sometimes you will actually see my walking around, chatting to my customers, learn about their problems, and then we try to fix the broken stuff we did not know about before, collecting a magazine here & showing it off there.  OK, I’m only kidding about the latter– that has nothing to do with any management!  I learned that there actually is a name for this style of networking.  It is called Management By Wandering About (MBWA).  You can learn more about MBWA at http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_72.htm and http://www.economist.com/node/12075015.

Now, besides the professional networking in the Chamber of Commerce meetings, the formal networking in the boardrooms, the informal networking by wandering about and the meetings in corridors, the IT networking used to make your google appear different every day, there also is another very important type of networking.

It is called the non-existent network.  You end up with this type of networking when you do not plug your network cable into your laptop and then scramble down to the IT office in a panic, and very cross, because all you see are red crosses.  Like yesterday.

Oops, just remembered I promised not to tell.  Please skip the previous paragraph.

Greetings,

Besembek

Bad Habits!

OK, I did not get to write yesterday.  On this blog it is.  I did reply to an e-mail or two at work.  I even got as far as creating a new mail.  If I write an e-mail, does that still count towards my commitment to write every day?  It is not so easy to break bad habits.  Even easier to form bad habits!

Not much to write about today.  Still trying to get over the shock of the aggressiveness “our” people can reveal when they hear stories about other people.  Skop, skiet en donder seems to be their first and only solution to fix problems, not their very last, like it should be.  Had a hectic Sunday!

Few things need to get done at home - too many to mention.  Just wish I had more hours in a day.  One of the things I need to do is look at one of my hobbies again, building plastic model kits.  Really would like to get good in that area.  My attempts so far have been looking very amateurish!  I think they look pretty good, at least some of them, or parts of them, but when I see photos of the work of others on the Internet I turn green.

I love aircraft, especially those from WWII.  The guys were very creative and they tried to fly all kinds of stuff.  One of the German aircraft I find most fascinating is the Horton Ho 229.  Only three of these aeroplanes were build, with the first flight on 1 March 1944, almost 70 years ago.  I bought one of these models about three years ago but simply haven’t had the courage to start work on it yet.  The scary part is that it is almost two years since the last time I touched a model, really have to make plan!  I only paint with brush, no air-brush, and I have to refine some painting techniques first before I do this one.  In fact, a lot of German military aircraft have this unique spray-painted look to their camouflage schemes, something that is basically impossible to simulate when painting with a normal brush.  I already tried a few things and got close to it using cotton wool!  But I will get it right, I have a plan!  I saw the other day that Humbrol sells spray paint.  It could do the job if I use lots of clay or putty while doing the spraying.  Will let you know once I tried it.

You can see more about the Horton Ho over here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horten_Ho_229 and here https://www.google.co.za/search?q=horten+ho+229&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=su4LU6uaGrHT7AbkmIDoCg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=605.

I guess the only way to break these bad habits of not writing and not building is to just write and just build.  Just do it!

OK, it is raining, and not sure how wet I will be by the time I get to work today.  Have to get ready to go.

Greetings,

Besembek

Because of you!

Stiaan is home for the weekend.

But this is not about Stiaan.  Just is just a short discussion about me being a charity nutcase.  And I guess Stiaan has all to do with it.

I don’t actually remember supporting any charities before Stiaan came along.  The only exception would be buying entries into the St John’s Ambulance competitions where one could win a car.  I always wanted to win a car.

And then came Stiaan.  And things changed.  And I started looking differently at charities.  Stiaan now lives in a home for disabled, an institution needing millions of rands every year in charity donations.

Since Stiaan came along our family supported all kinds of charities in different forms.  We have done the walks, got the T-shirts.  All for various causes.  Diabetes, breast cancer, save this monkey, save that bird.  Name it.  We’ve been running collection efforts like businesses, not always very successful but we always gave it our best shot.  We still do.  Only difference is that we now concentrate our efforts on the home where Stiaan lives.  There is only so much money that can go around, and we need to prioritise.  Casa Caritas is the place where Stiaan will live until the end of his life and that is why Casa Caritas is so important to us.  That institution needs to survive so our kid can survive when we are no longer there to take care of him.

Now, in the case of Casa Caritas you may ask:  Why do they need charity if the parents pay fees every month?  Yes, the parents pay every month.  Our bill for Stiaan easily runs over R5000.00 a month.  For some people this amount is pocket change, for others it is a LOT!  Then there are the “weggooi-kindertjies” as Irma refer to, the ones she every year at the Christmas party volunteer to buy a Christmas gift for if someone else haven’t done so already, the ones where the parents simply dropped them at Casa caritas and never came back.  Some of these kids were lucky and were “adopted” by biker-clubs and some of their needs attended to by these people with hearts of gold.  Yes, the same bikers whom are shouted at and screamed at all the time by some cagers, the same bikers whom so regularly stop at Casa Caritas to drop their donations, the same bikers whom are so easily treated as the scum of society.  But let’s leave the bikers for now.  Discussion for another day.  The point is, the parents can’t afford to pay for everything.

I once read a book written by a young lady whom mobilized millions of kids (and adults) with her charity efforts, and collected millions of dollars.  She still does.  In the book she makes it clear: You give, you get.  But very few people will be happy with just a “Thank you”. They want more in return for their donation.

All good and well.  Many charities can get beneficiaries to make some craft work as a gift, or sing a song to the donors, or even host a complete craft exhibition or concert, but how do you get 50 severely disabled persons, of whom most are on nappies or can’t feed or dress themselves, and I actually ran out of word here because I honestly can’t describe these kids.  Better you go out there and see for yourselves.  How do you get these 50 severely disabled persons to say “thank you”?

Easy.  Besides the "Thank you”, you also give a "Because of you" to the donor!

• Because of you, I have a home to live in.
• Because of you, I have somebody on hand 24 hours a day to change my nappy.
• Because of you, we can employ qualified staff at a ratio of one staff member per resident, so we can have the best care ever.
• Because of you, we can afford to employ managers, administrators and supports staff whom devote their time to us.
• Because of you, we have people sitting in on management meetings, looking at our budgets and doing their best to make everything work.
• Because of you, we have several donors, like you, with no ties to Casa Caritas, who will go out of their way to help use survive.
• Because of you, we have enough money to pay our enormous water and electricity bill every month.
• Because of you, we have at least three meals every day, and some snacks in between!
• Because of you, I had a warm bath this morning.
• Because of you, I slept in a warm bed last night.
• Because of you, we have a generator for those days when the municipal electricity is down.
• Because of you, our clothes get washed every day, and fixed if needed.
• Because of you, we have alarm systems and security gates to keep us safe when we sleep.
• Because of you, we have working television sets to keep our little minds entertained.
• Because of you, we have a vehicle so we can be taken to a doctor should we become seriously ill.
• Because of you, …

Because of you, Stiaan, I learned to give.  I also learned that the more you give, the more you get.  I also learned that you don’t necessarily get back in the same quantities than what you gave, you always get back more.  I also learned that you don’t always get back when you give, you sometimes have to wait for the return favour.  Thank you, Stiaan, for giving so much…

Greetings,

Besembek