Talking with toes~

Greetings all!

 

Have just returned from a trip to Toronto for the 7.0 development kick-off and to hold some face-to-face product management meetings.  It was GREAT seeing people and being able to start putting faces with some of the voices and names I've been working with for the past several months!

 

Had a very interesting trip to Toronto last Monday.  It started at 9:30 at the end of a very long and slow moving United/Air Canada ticket counter line.  I finally arrived at the head of the line at 12:15pm for my 11am departure - good thing my flight was delayed due to weather in Chicago (of course, I wasn't stopping in Chicago, but apparently the world comes to a screeching halt when Chicago is backed up)!  The new departure was scheduled for 1:10pm so there was plenty of time...and then some.  We finally took off just before 2pm.  Arrived in Toronto at 4:30pm ET.  Headed for customs and the guy at the desk took my passport, swiped it and glared at me.  Asked me what I was doing in Canada and I calmly answered, using the "proper" phrase "after sales support" which I had been coached on by my boss and the company CEO.  I was immediately sent to the "little room", aka Immigration.  Stood in another line for about 50 minutes and went up to yet another counter with an even more unpleasant border patrol agent.  I proceeded to spend the next 40 minutes being brow-beat and made to feel like I was about to be strip searched (too bad the guy wasn't good looking - that could have been the highlight of my day!).  Seems there's another US person with my exact name and birth date just two digits different than mine.  Took him awhile to figure out I had never been denied entry to Canada before and that I wasn't the 'other' person with my same name.  Come to find out - my evil twin is not allowed to enter Canada.  After we cleared up WHO I was...next came WHY I was there.  IMHO, each member of the Canadian Border Patrol has made it their personal mission to protect the citizens of Canada from every non-Canadian person attempting to conduct business meetings in Canada!  The "after sales support" is supposed to protect all of us US-based employees in my company from these aggressive inquisitions but in my case it just seemed to make matters worse.  I brought out the NAFTA letter my CEO wrote on my behalf explaining why I was entering Canada, but the agent decided that since Mark knew enough to quote chapter and verse - he should also know that I needed to be hand-carrying copies of the customer contracts...I had no contracts because I wasn't visiting a client - I was visiting headquarters.  I was "this close" to not getting into the country!  I was also "this close" to getting Mark on the phone but my cell phone wasn't getting a signal in the Immigration area and the agent wasn't about to hand me a phone!  Eventually I was permitted to enter, but just barely...and with the warning that the "next time", I best be carrying those contracts AND...was told I'd likely get to visit Immigration every time I try to enter Canada from now until forever!!  Oh Joy!  (thanks evil twin!)

 

Finally got to the hotel about 8pm...was supposed to have had dinner with my boss at 6 so called her just as soon as I got to my room.  She said "what happened to you? Are you ok?"  Briefly told her what had happened and agreed to meet downstairs for a bite to eat and a chance to sit down with her and spend some time getting to know each other...A much better end to a rather challenging beginning I must say!

 

Meetings were good - accomplished lots and made some good contacts.  Even made some brownie points with the CEO on the first morning...which was good since I managed to smear his navy suit coat with makeup when he greeted both Jill and me with a hug upon arrival...good start kid! (maybe you heard my inner groan from where you were Tuesday morning about 7:30 Mpls time???) 

 

Unbelieveably I got the third degree again on my exit from Canada..."why were you in Canada"!!!  All I could think of was "here we go again"!  Eventually I was allowed to pass and get to my plane...flight was uneventful (always a good thing), but sat on the MSP tarmac for the better part of an hour because (are you ready for it?), weather in Chicago was preventing a plane from departing the MSP gate so we had nowhere to disembark!  I must say - it IS good to be home!!! 

 

There's talk of an All Staff meeting back in Toronto in December or January.  I figure I best report to the airport by Sept. 15th so I'll make it to the Toronto office in time!

 

It's been a very long time since I've added to my blog but there's good reason to begin anew...I've just made a leap in faith and have quit my job at the hospital to join a software development company! 

 

For the past several years I've been working with an incredible team of people to install their software at my hospital and I saw early on their dedication, commitment and integrity.  I kept hearing "it's a good gig" and could see for myself they were right.  After much sole searching and tons of support and encouragement from those people and my close friends and family, I've followed my heart and head and will begin a new chapter in my life this coming June.

 

I finish up this chapter on May 11th and will have about three weeks to transition to a new way of living.  I'll now have a 40 second commute each morning - through the bathroom, down the stairs, past the coffee pot, then back up to the computer room.  Gone are the days of 40 hour work weeks - it's likely to be much more than that - epecially during crunch times - but these people know about flexibility.  They also know about and believe in being a family friendly place to work - if there's something important you need to take care of then by all means, you NEED to take care of it!  I've spoken with every single executive of the company, met all but one of them...I'm truly impressed by each of them and can hardly wait to being my new journey!!!

As the title suggests, my project is nearing a significant milestone. Just five days (but who’s counting!) before we begin train-the-trainer sessions with Mr. Bill.  That means during the next five days we have to figure out how to get the last of the gotta-do’s done, and then actually get ‘em done.  The good news is according to Mr. Bill – my team and I are in pretty good shape.  Honestly I’m so totally relieved to hear that!

I do know my team has really turned things around.  What they say about team dynamics – how every team has to go through the phases of development (forming, storming, norming, performing) is spot on.  We could have been poster children for a case study on project management and team dynamics.  It was very painful at first – the storming phase left several of my team members frustrated and angry.  It was all I could do to moderate the clashes and keep people from saying things they’d regret (me too!)  Over time each of these fabulous women pulled it together to normalize the group dynamic and today they are top performers.  I couldn’t be more proud of all they’ve managed to accomplish in a relatively short period of time.  Mr. Bill agrees with my assessment and tells me my team has done a terrific job of cranking through the work.

I’ve got a running to-do list on my whiteboard in my cube.  Seems like I’m moving in the wrong direction – for each item I scratch off the list, I’m adding two more.  At some point the additions will be lower priority items or “picky” things.  For now I’m going to place my trust in Mr. Bill and believe him when he tells me “Don’t worry about all the little things that are still outstanding.  EVERYTHING doesn’t have to be done and perfect for you to Go Live. ...The bottom line is that the tables that you need to have in order before Go Live are either ready or will be after our reviews this past week.”

I did take everyone’s advice this past weekend and addressed a serious sleep-deprivation problem.  After a mini-melt down on Friday I knew it was time.  Spent the majority of the weekend in bed sleeping.  Figured if I couldn’t fall asleep in five minutes I was caught up. That still hasn’t happened but I’m sure 18+ hours of sleep both Saturday and Sunday helped tremendously.  Hopefully I’ll be able to hit it fresh and refreshed – things won’t look so horrible – and solutions will come that much easier.  Towards the end of last week I felt like I was excelling in “stupid”.

Now if I could only lose the guilt about taking time for me tomorrow while I wait for my car to get fixed!!!