Time to Cowboy up
Well, I have a new job, or maybe just new responsibilities. I’m managing the University Service Center or help desk or however you want to think of it. It’s about reinventing whatever it was and making it work; by my lights that means making something new. It’s not first time I’ve been in this situation, but this one feels a little different maybe because what I have in mind is just a tad bit different than what I expect the folks that hired me have in mind. Still, I figure if I do it right they’ll be happy enough, and probably won’t even notice that it wasn’t what they imagined.
At any rate, LA is going to take a little different track for a bit. Blogging for me is always a little like thinking out loud, but with an audience; talking to yourself and not knowing who’s listening. Right at the moment though, I’m going to be expecting my new staff to be paying attention. This isn’t purely an ego trip, it’s partly a way of getting them used to a new technology format, and letting them a little bit inside my head. And yes, for those of you on staff, there will be tests (though not for a week or two) and I will expect that you keep up on a fairly regular basis. For those who haven’t been following along, let’s start with a little history and context: I like to say that everything I know about labor relations and management, I learned working with horses and mule’s. To be fair though, I also picked up a few tricks working as a field construction Boilermaker in Coalstrip Montana. That’s where I figured out that life was a good deal more serious than I had normally paid attention to, and a bit more complicated, because building a coal-fired generating plant in the middle of Paradise made you kind of wonder what you were up to and why. Here’s my old friend Wally McRae with kind of a reminder:
If you’re on staff, you’re probably wondering what this has to do with where we’re headed. Don’t worry, be happy, all will be revealed, but the revelation is going to take a little work on your part. Next post will introduce OODA loops and The Theory of Constraints; saddle up and stay tuned.
