Recently posted by Jenn Steele

Sustainability is an oft-heard buzzword these days. Seems like I'm constantly hearing about businesses caring about or striving towards sustainability.

I find it ironic, however, that amidst all of the sustainability chatter, humans in business seem to be working less and less at sustainable levels. What do I mean by that? Well, think about it.

• We have a 24/7 society and the technology that enables people to never leave their virtual offices.
• American workers are working more and more hours as companies "do more with less [people]".
• There is a basic expectation that one will be able to work constantly and still completely fill every need of friends/family.
• Unhealthy fast food and the habit of skipping lunch (and/or dinner) or eating at one's desk is encouraged by many work environments.

I could go on, but you get the picture. The basic expectation of the business world is that any knowledge worker will work beyond her base of 40 hours/week, be available at all hours of the day or night, and almost never make a mistake.

What are we, robots?

I run a technology department, and any time someone complains about a tool (e.g., Microsoft Word) not being able to do the impossible (e.g., act like a database), I have to laugh. I mean, it's simply not designed that way. Well, think about it: how are humans designed?

We burn a basic number of calories, need a basic balance of nutrients and hydration, and need a basic amount of sleep. Our brains have concentration limitations, and our emotions are wired to need variety and prefer happiness. If we skip or short the basics, the brain's limitations become more restrictive, and the emotions go a but haywire.

There is a perception that human sustainability is too expensive, that we're needed to be "on" at all times for the good of our company or family. This is completely false. Why? Well, I call it "working stupid".  If I'm not giving my body and mind its basic needs, it will take me much longer to do any given task, and I'm much more likely to make a mistake and have to re-do the task later.

So I encourage you to think about it: how do you make yourself more sustainable? Your staff? The humans in your company?

I've been employed in technology since 1999, and I've been using it heavily since I got my Commodore 64 in 4th grade (did I just prove that I'm ancient?  Oh well...).  I am now irrefutably convinced of one thing:

There are Technology Ghosts.

I have very clear anecdotal evidence for this conclusion:

• While doing a routine time synchronization, my domain controller decided that it was exactly 7 months in the future.  This did very bad things to the whole system.  No errors were recorded, and the target sync server is fine.
• While doing a hot swap of a battery, all power ceased to the primary servers.  Note that the same hot swap had been performed with no problems merely twenty minutes before.
• For no known reason, the entire company's computer systems slow down between 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM every business day.  We can see the slowdown occur, but the reason behind the slowdown remains unknown, as everything looks clean.

Perhaps you don't understand much of the terminology above, but that's okay.  I have other examples, but believe me when I say that these are quite odd things to have happen all at one computer site.

I wonder if there's a reason for the Technology Ghosts.  Was a server brutally slain in the data center 20 years ago?  Are the computers still bitter about the switch from WordPerfect to Word? Maybe the computers don't like that there are windows that open and occasionally leak in their room?

Whatever the reason, anyone know a good Technology Exorcist?

While I originally posted this here, I loved it so much that I wanted to re-post so more folks than the three people who read my blog back then could see it:

One of the funny things about geeks is that they can be rather un-trusting people. Perhaps they don't trust those who are not geeks themselves. Perhaps they've been lied to many times in the past. Perhaps they think stupidity = dishonesty. Perhaps they've actually worked in the business world.

Well, that last one is my cynicism coming through. But seriously, how many times are geeks lied to during the day?

Geek: Did you make sure your computer is plugged in?

User: Yes! Of course! Do you think I'm an idiot?

Geek goes to desk; computer not plugged in.

Personally, I've always valued my own honesty. For example, one conversation from early in my career:

User: Jenn, it was amazing how fast you got the network back up!

Jenn: Thank you; but it might have been better had I not crashed it in the first place.

This honesty often surprised my bosses, co-workers, and staff. If I had information that I could not share with my staff for business/HR/other dumb reasons, I'd say, "Well, I do know something, but I've been asked not to tell you. I know it's annoying, but please trust me that I'll tell you as soon as I can."

I encouraged this honesty in my staff. Yes, we might have been better able to get users to do what we asked them to do if we made the consequences sound more dire, but that wouldn't be honest, so I wouldn't allow it. Unless it was funny. I mean, if we could tell them they'd be eaten by wolves if they didn't reboot, I would have sanctioned it. Because hyperbole is a literary tool, and they would obviously recognize it as a joke. Also? I can't figure out where to get hungry wolves in Boston.

The results of my honesty surprised me. Anyone who ever worked for me trusted me, even if I had to terminate their employment. One person to whom I had to do this said (when I assured him it wasn't personal), "Jenn, I absolutely trust you when you say that." It was mind-blowing to me at the time. After all, honesty is just part of who I am.

As a result of my experience, I have to say that one very good way to be a leader (of geeks)? Be trustworthy. The results will amaze you.

In my last post, I traced my career path.   Somewhat oddly, I left out the MBA part.  You know, that degree that I received from Simmons?  Gee, why would that be strange on a blog post for Simmons?  Oh, I see...

In my defense, I ended the story with becoming an IT Director, which happened ~3 years before I started at the School of Management.  You probably don't want to hear excuses, though, so I'll stop dithering and get down to my real questions: What about that MBA thing?

In 2002, at the age of 28, I became the IT Director and head of technology for a Boston law firm.  I had less than four years of experience in technology and a degree in biology from MIT (as cool as bio is, I really didn't need my lac operon knowledge at a law firm).  Although I certainly had the spunk and resources to do the job, I kept wondering, "What do I not know?"  In other words, I didn't know what I didn't know.

I was pretty sure that I had a good handle on technology.  But the business part?  That was the mystery.  I could get through a budget, and I had built a great team of good people, but what was I missing?  What could I be doing better?  How was I holding myself back by not knowing about business?

It took me a while to decide on a business school, despite having wanted to go for a while.  Why?  Well, honestly, I really wanted to go to Harvard.  Or back to MIT.  But neither had a part-time program that coincided with my goals (MIT has something for executives in science or engineering, but not exactly the OB concentrations that I wanted), and, after buying a house, I couldn't afford to quit my job and go six figures into debt.

Enter Simmons.  I started looking at local part-time programs, and Simmons responded to my inquiry almost immediately.  I went in for a meeting a few days later, and was intrigued by the quality of the faculty and the concept of an all-female class (quite the opposite of the IT gender skew I'm usually around!).

I took my GMAT, applied, and started the program less than two months after my initial inquiry.  Culture shock aside, I have to admit that there were times that I wished I had done more research.  However, as I got deeper into the program, I realized that the same classmates who drove me nuts because they didn't remember enough algebra to handle Econ had brilliant insights in our other classes.  I realized that I was surrounded by amazing women who I never would have met otherwise.  I realized that I had learned what I didn't know before, and I was given the skills to actually use the knowledge as well.

Thanks to that Simmons MBA, I was able to get another job as head of technology at a larger firm, and I am no longer afraid of what I don't know.  Instead, I have the courage to ask about things, and the resources to understand the answers.  Business isn't easy--largely because it's not a hard science--and I'm very grateful to have that MBA. 

I didn't start out wanting to be a Leader of Geeks.  For most of my formative years, I was absolutely convinced that I was going to be a college professor at a research institution.  One of my role models did exactly that, and I desperately wanted to be her or have a job like hers.  I was a big nerd, so I had a chance.

So I concentrated in sciences in high school, and joined every non-sports club imaginable.  I got bored, so I decided that I didn't need to take a senior year and applied to 5 different colleges (got into 3).  I went to MIT when I was 17, and still don't have a high school diploma.  Or a GED. I'm a high school drop-out, believe it or not.

At MIT, I became a biology major (minor in writing!), and set my sights on a Ph.D. in protein biochemistry.  Then I actually worked in a lab and couldn't stand the isolation of the research environment.  As my sister (who is a newly-minted Ph.D. in biomedical engineering) says, I would have made a great principal investigator but a really crummy grad student.  I graduated with my B.S. and had no idea what to do.

I became a really lousy medical secretary.  Hey, it made more than being a lousy lab tech, and it allowed me to figure out whether to go to medical school.  Well, in theory, anyhow.   I applied to medical school and figured out during the interview process that I really didn't want to actually be a doctor.  (Wish I'd figured that out BEFORE spending all the cash on flying all over the country.)

There was no reason to continue being a lousy medical secretary if I had no future in the field, so I circulated my resume.  I was hired as a Computer Training Specialist because I had taught and been a TA in a few classes at MIT, and my boss's husband had a degree from there, too.  I flew all over the country and taught social workers how to use Windows 95 and WordPerfect 7.  Turns out I was also a lousy trainer--I don't like repeating myself, so it didn't work well.  When no one would show up to my classes, I followed the network guy around.  The roll-out ended, and I got bored.

That's when I ended up at Burns & Levinson as the Applications Specialist.  Finally, something I could do and NOT be lousy!  While I was at Burns, Donovan Hatem split off and became its own firm.  One day, one of the partners at Donovan Hatem called me into his office, and asked me to sit down and close the door--quite surprising, since I figured he wanted me to fix his Treo.  He asked, "Where could you see yourself at Donovan Hatem?"

I thought for a moment and said, "I could be your IT Director."

Six months of negotiation later, I was.  I was a 28-year-old leader of geeks, and I got to start a new technology department from scratch.  I'm now on my 2nd IT Director position (at Morrison Mahoney), and I have to say that, even on bad days when the systems crash, I love what I do.  Oh, and it turns out that I'm not a lousy IT Director--go figure.  

You know, I could come up with some wonderful-sounding philanthropic reason that I chose to be an alumna blogger for Simmons.  I could tell you all that I really want to foster community and help us all get to know each other as fellow alumni/ae/whatever the heck the ending of that word should be.  I could tell you that I really want to foster the School of Management's presence in our alumni/ae/e-i-e-i-o community.  I could tell you that I hope that whatever humble words I might put in our blogazine might truly help one of you feel closer to the Simmons community.

But I'd be lying.

Bloggers blog for two reasons: they have something to say, and they want people to know about it.  So, why am I part of this initiative?  Because I have something to say, and I want you to "hear" it.

If it helps you get to know your fellow alumni/ae/QED, great.  If it makes you recommend the School of Management to your friends or consider going there yourself, fantastic.  If it helps you feel closer to our community, awesome.

But that's not why I'm here.

I'm here because I have a passion for leadership (specifically, leadership of geeks), a somewhat bizarre point of view, and the desire to spread my ideas.  I'm here because I appreciate the way that the SOM helped me shape my thoughts on leadership and gave me the courage to spew those thoughts all over the internet.  I'm here because I want you to know who I am, and I hope to get to know who many of you are, as well.  I'm here because I want to use the Simmons community for personal and professional gain for myself and others.

What might you hear from me?  If I haven't scared you away yet, you'll probably read posts on communication styles, language, management skills, burn-out, and figuring out geeks.  You'll watch me analyze some of my real-life challenges, and you might even get a peek at some of the skills the SOM forced down my throa--er, taught me.  I hope to make you laugh, and I sincerely wish to make you think.

That's why I blog.  My question for you is, "Why do you read?"  But that might be a conversation for another day.