Lessons to help someone. Listen! Don't preach!

TED has a talk that will get you thinking.  Thinking about a different way to help people.  

Ernesto Sirolli got his start doing aid work in Africa in the 70's -- and quickly realised how ineffective it was.

Why you should listen to him:

Ernesto Sirolli is a noted authority in the field of sustainable economic development and is the Founder of the Sirolli Institute, an international non-profit organization that teaches community leaders how to establish and maintain Enterprise Facilitation projects in their community. The Institute is now training communities in the USA, Canada, Australia, England and Scotland.

Below is the talk and I'll pull some points from the transcript that will get you give some ideas.

The talk is from Ernesto's experience providing aid to Africa, and how the Western world makes mistakes.

We Western people are imperialist, colonialist missionaries, and there are only two ways we deal with people: We either patronize them, or we are paternalistic. The two words come from the Latin root "pater," which means "father." But they mean two different things.Paternalistic, I treat anybody from a different culture as if they were my children. "I love you so much." Patronizing, I treat everybody from another culture as if they were my servants. That's why the white people in Africa are called "bwana," boss.

I was given a slap in the face reading a book, "Small is Beautiful," written by Schumacher, who said, above all in economic development, if people do not wish to be helped, leave them alone. This should be the first principle of aid.

If you want to help someone.  A typical approach would be to match their need with your offering.  But, Ernesto's approach resonates with one I use.  Look for people's passion.

The most important thing is passion. You can give somebody an idea. If that person doesn't want to do it, what are you going to do? The passion that the person has for her own growth is the most important thing. The passion that that man has for his own personal growth is the most important thing. And then we help them to go and find the knowledge,because nobody in the world can succeed alone. The person with the idea may not have the knowledge, but the knowledge is available.

Why.  If you are trying to work on lead edge, innovative stuff.  You can't plan for an entrepreneurial event.

Peter Drucker says: "Planning is actually incompatible with an entrepreneurial society and economy." Planning is the kiss of death of entrepreneurship.

And, what does he do?  He helps entrepreneurs find the other parts to be successful - develop, market, and manage.

However, there is a secret to work with entrepreneurs. First, you have to offer them confidentiality. Otherwise they don't come and talk to you. Then you have to offer them absolute, dedicated, passionate service to them. And then you have to tell them the truth about entrepreneurship. The smallest company, the biggest company, has to be capable of doing three things beautifully: The product that you want to sell has to be fantastic, you have to have fantastic marketing, and you have to have tremendous financial management.Guess what? We have never met a single human being in the world who can make it, sell it and look after the money. It doesn't exist. This person has never been born. We've done the research, and we have looked at the 100 iconic companies of the world -- Carnegie, Westinghouse, Edison, Ford, all the new companies, Google, Yahoo. There's only one thing that all the successful companies in the world have in common, only one: None were started by one person.

Are you hiring the best or playmates?

After 26 years in big companies, I don't miss the process of interviewing for a new job.  One of the rules I tell people is they almost never tell you why you didn't get the job.  The bottom line is whether they liked you more than the rest of the candidates, not whether you are best for the job.  This advice can come off cynical.  But, guess what here is research that shows employers are more interested in hiring their playmates than the best.

Employers Often More Interested in Hiring Potential Playmates Than the Very Best
Candidates

WASHINGTON, DC, November 27, 2012 — Employers are often more focused on hiring someone they
would like to hang out with than they are on finding the person who can best do the job, suggests a study
in the December issue of the American Sociological Review.

“Of course, employers are looking for people who have the baseline of skills to effectively do the job,” said
study author Lauren A. Rivera, an assistant professor of management and organizations and sociology at
Northwestern University. “But, beyond that, employers really want people who they will bond with, who
they will feel good around, who will be their friend and maybe even their romantic partner. As a result,
employers don’t necessarily hire the most skilled candidates.”

Do you find yourself stuck in this rut?

Do you have a similar level of education? Did you go to a similar caliber school? Do you enjoy similar activities? 

Are you excited to talk to each other? Do you feel the spark? These types of things are salient at least to
the employers I’ve studied.”

If you find there is little diversity in an organization your chances are probably low to get a job or to hire someone who isn't like the rest.  Even though you may be open to the best, different candidate, your peers influence the hiring.

The study also found that the cultural similarities valued at elite professional service firms have important
socioeconomic dimensions. “Evaluators are predominately white, Ivy League-educated, upper-middle or
upper class men and women who tend to have more stereotypically masculine leisure pursuits and favor
extracurricular activities associated with people of their background,” Rivera said. “

Think about this as Data Center companies are not known for its diversity.  There are exceptions to this rule, and I try to spend more time with these companies as they have focused on hiring the best, and not their playmates.

Latest Data Center Executive to achieve VP status, Google's Joe Kava, VP

Something is going on with data center executives at Web2.0 companies.  They are being promoted to VPs.

The latest executive to achieve VP status is Google's Joe Kava.  Joe updated his LinkedIn status last week.

Joseph Kava

Data Center Operations Executive

San Francisco Bay Area 

Information Technology and Services

Current	Vice President - Data Centers at Google

When you look at the big data center operators, not the wholesale guys, but the companies who build and run their own data centers for Web2.0  - Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple, the data center team has a significant role in achieving business goals and the executives are critical team members of the company.  The cloud just doesn't magically scale contrary to media hype.  Building cost effective, agile, and high performing data centers is key to the success of a Web2.0 company.

We are still at the early stages of Cloud and Big Data where companies are embracing a Petabyte of data as a common occurrence.  The cost, performance, and availability of that petabyte of data is dependent on the data center infrastructure which is supported by people.

Hurricane Sandy reminded people how fragile the internet infrastructure can be.  Which is why Web2.0 companies embrace geo-redundancy. 

People will change the data center industry more than technology innovation.

I am looking forward to see Joe's presentation next week at 7x24 Exchange Phoenix.  Which reminds me, the folks at 7x24 need to update Joe's title to VP.

9:00 A.M.
Keynote:
Google Data Centers: A Behind the Scenes Look at Infrastructure and Innovations

Google's data center practice helped develop the company's competitive edge for online services and products. Now, nearly seven years after the first data center went into production, there is an ever increasing need to be creative in order to drive efficiency and minimize the impact on the planet. This presentation hopes to uncover some of Google's early day decisions, why they were made and how those decisions led to future innovation. Take a virtual tour with us of our facilities and join the discussion of what challenges we all face in the industry.

Joe Kava
Senior Director
Google Data Centers

A secret to enjoying life, live now like the ancients retired - friendships and reflection are priceless

While I was on 4 days of vacation I ran across a WSJ article that got me thinking.   The WSJ article was down this path.

The 'New' Old Age Is No Way to Live

The ancients had it right: Reflection and friendship are the bounties of old age

...

We are advised that an extended life span has given us an unprecedented opportunity. And if we surrender to old age, we are fools or, worse, cowards. Around me I see many of my contemporaries remaining in their prime-of-life vocations, often working harder than ever before, even if they have already achieved a great deal. Some are writing the novels stewing in their heads but never attempted, or enrolling in classes in conversational French, or taking up jogging, or even signing up for cosmetic surgery and youth-enhancing hormone treatments.

What happens when you don't consider this advice and you are focused on your accomplishments?  You treat your friends as tools in the games you play.

Epicurus also wrote: "Of all the things that wisdom provides to help one live one's entire life in happiness, the greatest by far is the possession of friendship." Even back in the Athens of the third century B.C., he could see how a professional life of any kind could corrupt genuine friendship. A life engaged in business inevitably leads to treating other people as means to an end, rather than as ends in themselves.

Do you live your life like this?

Tasso feels no need to manipulate, exploit or in any way maneuver his companions to do anything. No, Tasso simply wants his friends to be with him.

One of the things I enjoy about the data center industry is finding the people who think like the above where reflection and friendship are valuable.  Why?  Because, when you want to figure out some really tough things you need insight and friends who will tell you the truth.  

There are plenty of people who will tell you what you want to hear and lying is just part of playing the game.  

Are Spatial Skills one of the under valued skills of a data center engineer?

Designing a data center is a skill that you don't go to school for and learn from a book.  Book learning works for math, science, english and of course reading. So, what kind of skill is needed to design a data center.  One of the challenges is trade-off of getting things just right to reduce or eliminate the single point of failures.  Operations and maintenance costs are not hidden surprises.

Here is an article on Spatial Intelligence to get you thinking of whether spatial skills are a different skill set to look for in a data center engineer.

The last two paragraphs explain the value of engineers.

I think we often don’t realize that engineers have invented so many things that we take for granted in our everyday lives. Consider this. The device you are reading this article from right now was invented by engineers who utilized their phenomenal spatial talents. There are many kids today who are spatially talented who have the potential to create amazing things that can improve our lives and society.  We need to learn to value these beautiful minds.

We need to identify them.  We need to provide a tailored education for them.  And we need to place the tools in their hands so that they can help invent our future.

A specific example the author uses is how two of the brightest kids were not found by established testing standards.

Over 90 years ago, Lewis Terman attempted to identify the brightest kids in California. There were two young boys who took Terman’s test but who did not make the cutoff to be included in this study for geniuses. These boys were William Shockley and Luis Alvarez, who both went on to study physics, earn PhDs, and win the Nobel Prize. Why did they miss the cut? One explanation is that the Stanford-Binet, the test Terman used, simply did not include a spatial test.

Considering the current push for STEM education and our need for more STEM innovators, shouldn’t we be trying to find these talented minds who have a spatial rather than a verbal or mathematical bent?

Just because someone is good with words, numbers and going by the book doesn't make them the brightest.

But what about that kid who is a mechanical genius; who can take apart and put back together just about anything; who is like Robert Downey Jr.’s character in Iron Man, but who really has little interest in words or numbers? Is there a place for this talented kid in our school system? Do we value the talent of this individual as much as the talents of students who can write compelling essays, who can solve complex equations, and who can read great works of literature?

Robert Downey Jr. from Iron Man