In 2016 I wrote the blog ‘Monetizing Being a Public Servant‘ which looked at the question, ‘what do you do after your retire from the public service?‘. That blog was an individual’s perspective of what to do post-retirement. This blog takes a slightly different view in that it asks: ‘should society more actively engaged retired public servants through an alumni function?‘
In my ongoing effort to remember what I have read, some notes on The Drug Hunters: The Improbable Quest to Discover New Medicines; Donald R. Kirsch, Ogi Ogas.
The popular media portrays pharmaceutical companies as fat cats scheming to make the most money from those unfortunate enough to require their product. While there are some cases of this, drug companies are better compared to gold-prospectors who find enough mineral wealth to pay the bills with the occasional strike-it-rich dream to keep them motivated.
Tile Mosaic – Graz Austria
New drugs are very difficult to find and bring to market. By one estimate, only 1 in 20 (5%) of all projects are funded by a pharmaceutical firm. Of these funded, only 1 in 50 yields a drug. In other words, if a drug prospector has an idea for a cure, there is only a 0.1% chance it will become commercially viable. Drug companies spend most of their effort on creating copy-cat drugs of those already approved. For original research, the focus is on drugs treating chronic conditions in which the medication needs to be taken for months, years or decades. A quick cure is a bad business model if your return on investment chances are less than 0.1%
Kirsh breaks drug hunting into a series of time frames, the earliest being simple trial, error and superstition from our early ancestor days. Botanical origins trace the role the emerging fields of science had on identifying plants that could cure disease. Industrial and Synthetic eras continue the use of science to better hone drug finding.
Kirsh is an insider with a sympathetic view (mostly) of the drug industry and thus makes a good commentator. He provides some excellent examples of both well-known discovery stories (penicillin, quinine for malaria) and those less well known (the birth control pill and a cure for syphilis).
The conclusion of the book is that drug research is not an engineering process (although copying an existing drug to create a copy cat is pill is) it relies more on luck and artistic merit; it is akin to knowing how to develop a block buster movie:
“…drug companies can never be sure that they will get a drug that works the way they hope it will. The reason is as simple as it is profound: there still are no clear scientific laws, engineering principles, or mathematical formulae that can guide an aspiring drug hunter all the way from idea to product… The thing about trial and error is that if you keep on trying and keep on being willing to make errors, eventually you will find something that works. …Big Pharma must price their few successful drugs to cover the immense costs from their myriad unsuccessful drugs.”
A good read for those interested in history, business, medicine or how did that pill get to the bottle in your bathroom.
What exactly does government do? No, this is not the start of a Libertarian rant, this is a question of what are some of the big building blocks of a modern government as it pertains to education. My first pass suggests that there are eight, as listed below. It will be interesting to do some research on each of the blocks in sequence and see if I missed any or included too much in my first pass.
By way of clarity, this is not a discussion about the philosophy of government, the degree the state should interfere in the economy or the affairs of its citizens or the programs it should (not) provide. Also, this focuses exclusively on education although I consider education starting at birth and ending with working. In addition, there is a continuous exit and entry process. A high school student gets their first job or a middle-age person is laid off and returns to school for re-training. To this end, I am proposing that there are 8 core functions or enablers of education:
Each of the above functions transcend the Education government-function and are found more or less through out the rest of government. Conversely, there are functions that are absent or implied in the above list that are more prominent in other areas of government. For example, taxation exists in the Education function, at least in Canada, through property assessments. However, I will de-emphasize this function mostly because other areas of government perform these tasks on behalf of education (e.g. a ministry of finance).
As a straw dog and 50,000-foot view, what do you think? Have I missed a function noting the focus on education or would you remove an element? Next stop on the school bus, curriculum.
You have to be impressed with the bad-guys/girls who come up with new ways to try to separate you and your money. I got this email a few days ago letting me know that I had 2 days to buy bit coins and send them to their wallet. Well 2 days have come and gone and I am sad to say that the promised porno-site has yet to materialize. Nevertheless I am happy to share the brilliant bit of Spoofing put on by this determined bad guy/girl.
You may not know me and you are probably wondering why you are getting this e mail, right?
I’m a hacker who cracked your email and devices a few months ago.
Do not try to contact me or find me, it is impossible, since I sent you an email from YOUR hacked account.
I setup a malware on the adult vids (porno) web-site and guess what, you visited this site to have fun (you know what I mean). [Do kittens playing with yarn balls count as a porno site?]
While you were watching videos, your internet browser started out functioning as a RDP (Remote Control) having a keylogger which gave me accessibility to your screen and web cam.
After that, my software program obtained all information.
You entered a passwords on the websites you visited, and I intercepted it.
Of course you can will change it, or already changed it.
But it doesn’t matter, my malware updated it every time.
What did I do?
I backuped device. [Back ups are important, good for you!] All files and contacts.
I created a double-screen video. 1st part shows the video you were watching (you’ve got a good taste haha . . .)[Thank you, I like a good kitten/yarn video], and 2nd part shows the recording of your web cam.
exactly what should you do?
Well, in my opinion, $1000 (USD) is a fair price for our little secret. You’ll make the payment by Bitcoin (if you do not know this, search “how to buy bitcoin” in Google).
My Bitcoin wallet Address:
1MT6jgF7YS7SDpuQfVHe6sEC8W7PxrwEH4
(It is cAsE sensitive, so copy and paste it) [You are very considerate to provide this information]
Important:
You have 48 hour in order to make the payment. (I’ve a unique pixel in this e mail, [YIKES, AN unique pixel] and at this moment I know that you have read through this email message).
To track the reading of a message and the actions in it, I use the facebook pixel. [My GOD you are sophisticated, a FACEBOOK Pixel]
Thanks to them. (Everything that is used for the authorities can help us.) If I do not get the BitCoins, I will certainly send out your video recording to all of your contacts including relatives, coworkers, and so on. [Please do, they also like a good Cat Video – here is the best of 2018 – www.youtube.com].
I sent the Polish internet provider (retsat1.com.pl) a copy of the email so hopefully some poor infected user can get their anti-virus updated.
Apparently this scam is about six months old (hmm, I appear to be a late adopter of being targeted) but the messages are the same. Strong passwords, don’t put things like your real birthday, name, etc. into social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) and get a password tracking tool.
Read more: www.businessinsider.com.
New Year’s resolutions are dangerous affairs, so dangerous that most people quickly abandon them for the familiar arms of bad habits. It is with this in mind that I am sharing my resolution: I no longer plan to drive to work. Dear boss, don’t worry, I am planning on coming to work just that I don’t plan to drive there.
There are of course a number of reasons to not drive:
I am comfortable enough with my parsimonious-ality to let you know my motivation is a combination of numbers #4 and #5. As for the other reasons (#1), I doubt my little Ford Ranger will make that much of a difference to climate change as compared to the 259 NEW GW of coal-fired generation plants China is bring online. Fortunately I am both capable and legally allowed to drive (#2 and #3). Besides, like the vast majority of people, I am an above average driver!
Having just come back from Vienna with a world class transit system, I will be using a system that is definitely middle of the road. Not chickens in cages seated next to me but definitely not at the Western European standard either. My son swore off the bus when going to University with horror stories of them blowing past waiting passengers at bus stops, arriving late, excessively early and surly drivers. Hopefully my adventures are more pleasant.
U2 U-Bahn (metro) crossing the Danube heading into Vienna City Center
But back to my motivations and the first is economics and while the cash flow is positive it is not great, here is how driving versus the bus stacks up:
| Factor | Driving | Bus |
| Bus Pass per Month | – | 116.00 |
| Gas Costs*/Month | 130.00 | – |
| Parking Pass**/Month | 126.15 | – |
| Insurance/Maintenance | $$$ | – |
| Total Cost | 246.15 | 116.00 |
| Cost per Work Day$$ | 12.30 | 5.80 |
| Driving time # | 30-45 minutes/day | 60-90 minutes/day |
Assuming 20 work days per month ($$), the difference in cost is about $6.50/day or about $130.00 per month or perhaps a grand a year. Mehhh, not really big enough money to be spending 100% more time in my commute, so why would anyone want to give up a comfy(ish) Ford Ranger for a bus?
My motivation is the 3.2km walk from my house to the bus depot. 3,200 metres in the morning is about 3,000 steps (of a suggested 10,000 per day total) and 40 minutes in walking meditation. Once on the bus , I plan to read. While I can listen to books in my vehicle, taking notes while driving is not recommended. There is also something peaceful about letting someone else worry about the stop and go of traffic while you either read or stare into middle space. Finally, the most important reason involves a bike.
I hope to bike commute more this year. Not having a parking pass is like burning my boats; there is no going back! Okay, I can pay for expensive day parking but that metaphor is not nearly as good as smoldering boats.
So that is my new year’s resolution and given that I just dropped $116 on a pass to get started. If I can get through January, then February should be easier, etc.. Wish me luck and if not, see you on the road in February.
Next January I am off to a new gig, it is back with the Alberta Public Service. In December I will be leaving the Vienna Based International Organization (VBIO) I am currently work for. It has been a good/strange/learning ride and have met some great people and have had a few successes – but time to get back to reality (and my pridwife, shoveling snow, etc.).
One of the upsides of starting a new role is that you get to leave your baggage behind and start afresh. Ideally you take what you have learned from your past mistakes and ask yourself how you can be a better person, employee and boss. The following is in my spirit of my ‘Phrankisms‘, homage to Steven Covey and also a (non) secret plan of how I hope to carry myself into my new role in a few months.
Ideally you should know the shark tank you are easing yourself into wearing your brand new (metaphoric, I hope) Speedo on your first day. A word to the wise, work communities are surprisingly small. I have been in about 6 separate work-eco-systems (Health, ERP Implementations, Consulting, NATO, Vienna and the Government of Alberta). In all cases, the community members had a high degree of connection – even before social media tools such as LinkedIn. When you are a young pup the pool is large; as you take on more senior roles the shark tank gets smaller.
What does this mean? One’s brand becomes more important and it becomes increasingly more difficult to shed a ‘poor-brand’ within a given Shark Tank. I don’t have a specific set of actions for my new gig other than to carry a simple awareness that brand matters and don’t be surprised who has heard of you from obscure corners.
My New Gig Desired Brand (and my LinkedIn Summary): Accomplished Professional Accountant with proven success in corporate budgeting/reporting, strategic planning, system implementations, process improvement, internal controls, contracting and organizational change. Specialties: Budgeting, Strategic Planning, Process Design and Improvement.
We have all sat in marathon mission statement drafting sessions in which the merits of a definite versus indefinite articles are discussed ad nauseam. This is something I discussed in a risk management context: Purpose: Why Does the Organization Exist, what are its objectives?.
Is there a consistent and wide spread understanding of what the organization does? Widespread is both top-down and inside-out.‘
Whether or not an organization has a purpose, the unit a person is working for should have a reason to exist. In my chosen profession, finance and accounting, we are ultimately in the business of client service. Certainly we need to consider risk, controls and compliance – but ultimately we are there to make the rest of the organization successful.
My New Gig Leadership Maxim: I will take pride in the work I am doing. I will seek to improve the craftsmanship and quality of the product or service of my team’s efforts to help the rest of the organization be successful.
Leadership varies by circumstances and individuals. There are a few individuals who are larger than life and leadership comes naturally to them. For most, it is a skill and behaviours to be learned – and that is the good news! Good leadership is not innate and can be practiced and improved upon. Have you ever heard of the leadership boat metaphor? ‘There are some who need to row the boat and a few who need to steer it‘ (2×2 courtesy of Governance Today).
Courtesy of Governance Today.
I would suggest the maximum can be expanded a wee bit to be more complete:
My New Gig Leadership Maxim: ‘Leadership is recognizing that a large group of rowers must be well led by a smaller group who steer. These two groups are in turn shoved into the water by fewer individuals who can provide a general direction of where to take the boat and then who must trust the rowers strength and the skill of those who will steer‘.
Now that we all have our places in the boat and ready to start rowing or steering or shoving, now onto my next reminder: Shut Up and Listen. Steven Covey said this more eloquently in his fifth habit (of Seven): Seek first to understand and then be understood.
There is an inverse relationship between one’s seniority and the amount one should talk. Of course it is hard not to talk, the more senior you are the more reverently people file into the meeting room, eyes diverted waiting for a divine message. However, unless you can process tap-water into a nice Merlot, you had better be listening:
My New Gig Leadership Maxim: The person who talks the least and softest is often listened to the hardest.
If necessary, after asking a question, I will silently count to a number (e.g. 30, 60, etc.) before saying anything else. Silence is okay and it allows people to respond in a more intelligent fashion.
As an extension of the above, it is easy to use email as a form of conversation. As a result, sending an email at 9PM on a work night or early Sunday AM may seem nothing more than ‘chatting’. However, the more senior one becomes the less latitude you have to send emails out of all hours. Your staff will wonder if they should respond and wonder if is it an expectation that they be available and online during these periods?
The reality is that unless there is a baby dying or building burning to the ground, almost nothing requires an immediate response. Also, the last person to join the email conversation often has the greatest impact on the conversation (see the above for more on this).
My New Gig Leadership Maxim: Email belongs in work hours; use delay send and other functions to keep it there. Alternatively let emails stew in the draft folder. If the email is complex or controversial, send it after going for a walk or a good night’s sleep.
I will make better use of messenger like tools (e.g. Lync/Skype) for informal communication rather than email. A messenger tool allows me to ask discrete question without the implied formality of an email – better still; a messenger tool means that email is seen as more formal and therefore has more impact. To this end, I will also try to start each email with Thank You and Great Work and then the email content. Of course walking over to the person or telephoning them builds even better person connections.
‘Walking the Ship before the Battle’, ‘Management by Walking Around’ or ‘Eat One Lunch a Week in the Staff Cafeteria’. These are all examples of the importance of moving beyond formal positional authority and building casual informal contact with both direct reports and the organization in general.
By being visible at least once per day, creates a human connection which builds trust and a shared sense of community. By having lunch in the cafeteria you are building on a very strong human connection between food and community.
My New Gig Leadership Maxim: Strive to say good morning to my staff and try to physically visit other staff at least once per week in an informal setting (e.g. popping in, saying hello, a coffee, walk, etc.). Visit to listen, visit to understand but don’t commit – that requires a formal setting‘.
Humans are hard-wired to seek out community and affiliation. If the work environment is not providing this environment then the humans will create their own affiliation and management will have no control over its direction, values or purpose.
This human foundation is based on realistically aligning the somewhat immutable organizational objectives to the honourable personal objectives of the staff. This alignment is based on trust; the staff must believe that the leader has their individual and collective backs. This does not reduce personal accountability or responsibility – but it does mean that when they honourably screw up you won’t throw them under the bus.
A side benefit of building the trust and community is receiving ‘organizational-intelligence‘ from your staff about the organization. As with all information though, never believe/react to information blindly, trust your sources but verify before you act.
My New Gig Leadership Maxim: I will create a client service focused organization that people are proud to be a part of. I will help people understand the larger organizational objectives so they can align their personal objectives to them.
Related to this, I will set up periodic team and 1:1 meetings with my staff. These are the most important meetings in my calendar and protect them accordingly.
I will set up a method to track our operational and project work to not only make people accountable but also so they have a tool to prioritize their work and in due course remember the good work they did for when they go on to their next gig.
While leaders and managers are expected to have vision of what the organization should be and where it should go, the best vision is one that is collectively formed rather than a messiah-like-prophecy. Invite others to contribute to the vision by not starting off with the position of ‘do it this way’. Participation leadership increases group cohesion and helps to teach leadership. To be clear, accountability remains with the leader and in a few instances a ‘GO DO IT‘ mantra is needed.
My New Gig Leadership Maxim: ‘I will strive to ask for input and recommendations before making significant decisions. I will make it clear that their contributions does not reduce my accountability but it does increase my team’s participation in the decision and helps them learn decision making‘.
Strategic indifference means picking your battles and recognizing the principle of Control, Influence and Affect – CIA. You are not going to win all or even most of your battles so get over it. Steven Covey discussed this in Habit 3: Put First Things First Manage your life according to your needs and priorities. Spend time doing what fits into your personal mission, observing the proper balance between your production and building your production capacity.
My New Gig Leadership Maxim: I will seek to pick my battles carefully applying my team’s limited resources to the highest priority operational and project work. Having said this, it is my expectation that my team constantly becomes more efficient and effective so as to absorb higher work loads with static resources.
Bonus! Some bonus questions to ask as you receive information:
That is quite a list and I already know that I will have varying levels of success. Once again, the upside of starting a new role is the ability to become a better person, leader, manager and mentor to my staff. Wish me luck and I will let you know when I start the NEXT gig as to how this one fared.
CPA Canada invited me to review their proposed changes to their student/qualification competency map. I am happy to contribute because the current map is pretty good and CPA Canada did a pretty darn good job out of the gate.
Continue readingHave you ever had this feeling, you come home after a hard day and you hear the door close behind. You are HOME and just for a moment you feel that overwhelming sense of security. Perhaps there are voices in the distance in an earnest conversation, maybe a pot of something with smells of a supper about to be consumed or perhaps complete quiet – only broken by the familiar sounds of house creaking – clock ticking and peaceful stay-in evening awaiting.
The homey setting was shattered for about 9/10’s of the former Jewish population of Vienna [1]:
The formerly flourishing Jewish community of Vienna was all but obliterated by the National Socialists. By May 1939, roughly 130,000 persons considered Jews under the Nuremberg Racial Laws had left the country …. In 1938, approximately 206,000 persons of Jewish extraction (181,000 of which were members of the Jewish Community of Vienna) had been living in the Austrian capital.
Over 65,000 Jews were murdered in concentration and extermination camps. They are part of the six million victims of a mass murder organised with mathematical precision. We owe these victims the solidarity and respect due to them and their suffering.
Organizing the self-exile of the above individuals or their transportation to a final end required the machinery of government. This machinery in turn coined the term ‘the banality of evil’ [6]:
In her 1963 book ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem’, Hannah Arendt reports on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, a German SS official who managed the logistics of the deportation of Jews to ghettos and concentration camps during World War II. Arendt’s portrayal of Eichmann is surprising — rather than an evil monster, she describes him as “terribly and terrifyingly normal”. Arendt’s observation of the “coexistence of normality and bottomless cruelty” in Eichmann led her to coin the term “banality of evil”. Under this lens, evil was not something incomprehensible and different but something almost ordinary.
Each of these victims whether they be Jewish, a homosexual, a communist or simply different, had a home to come home to at one point. So while there are a number of memorials in Vienna for not only the Jews but other victims of the National Socialism, I find the most powerful to be the Stolperstein [2]:
…literally “stumbling stone”, metaphorically a “stumbling block” or a stone to “stumble upon”; plural stolpersteine) is a cobblestone-size (10 by 10 centimetres (3.9 in × 3.9 in)) concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution.
Over 61,000 stolpersteins have been laid in 610 different places with the first installed in 1992. The stones are laid in front of the last place of residence by choice (as opposed to a residence selected by force) or if necessary the last known work place of the individual. Each stone is made by hand (about 450 per month) which is done in direct contradiction to the industrialized mass murder of the National Socialists.
To install a stone, the project originator Gunter Demnig has provided the following guidelines [3]:
Within Vienna, a private association Steine der Erinnerung or ‘Stones of Memory’ have laid over 1,000 stolpersteine since 2005. Inspired by the work of Gunter Demnig, there is not a formal association between the two organizations and in fact Demning has accused the Vienna based organization of plagiarism [4].
Nevertheless, the Vienna organization appears to be mostly honouring the wishes and standards set by the originator of the project. In some ways the association may have gone beyond Demning’s original vision by making it a more community affair rather than focused on the original artist. As well, the organization also has a searchable database and maps [5] of the 1,000 stones they have laid.
Only when researching this blog did I discover the last two resources, a database and maps [5]. In many ways I am glad that I did not know about these. Instead I simply walk-about Vienna looking for a Stolpersteine. To me this was a better way of doing it because finding a stolperstein should be a profound act of ordinariness. This is beauty of this art project, the banality of the monument that shatters the sense of peace we all love when we walk into our home.
Visit June (24-30) 2018 – A Photo a Day to see the pictures.
70+ years is a lifetime, literary, yet it is also the amount of time that has passed since the end of the Second World War. Nevertheless it is still a prominent feature in our collective consciousness and certainly the war and the subsequent peace (and wars) have created the world we live in now.
This is a photo-blog about one reminder of this event that will probably continue to stand for easily another 70 years, the flak towers in Vienna.
There are lots of better sources describing the flak towers, their construction and their future. See below for a partial list of some of these but suffice to say there is not a lot that I can add to this information. Nevertheless, some details before the pictures:
Fire control tower in Augarten Park.
Fence on a defence in Augarten Park
Base looking up at the fire control tower in Augarten.
Main Flak tower in Augarten Park.
Main Flak Tower in Augarten.
Flak tower 2-L new life in Esterházypark as an aquarium “Haus des Meeres”
Flak tower 2-L new life in Esterházypark as an aquarium “Haus des Meeres”
Augarten show damage as a result of children setting off an ammunition dump left in the tower.
Fire control tower in Arenbergpark.
Main Flak Tower in Arenbergpark.
The base of the fire control tower now makes for a shady and sheltered bike path as part of Arenbergpark.
https://www.viennareview.net/news/special-report/towers-of-burden
Sitting in my new office, in a new city, on a new continent in a different country than usual; a staff member asked me: ‘Why Are You Here?’. A seemingly innocuous question that took me aback for a response.
For those who faithfully follow my blogs (hey, it could happen), you will know that I snowshoe, cycle, hike, blog and generally hang out in north-central Alberta (aka the Edmonton area). This past week has not been a normal one as I finished work with the Government of Alberta on Friday, hopped on a plane Saturday, landed in Vienna Austria on Sunday and started with an international organisation on Monday, whew.
The role? I am the Deputy Director of an international organization. Lots more on the organization in coming blogs, but for now, Why am I Here?
Over the past two months, it has been a whirlwind both in Alberta and finalizing this sojourn to Central Europe. So whirlwindy that time for simple questions such as Why Are You Here had barely time to be answered… until now…
To start, I believe in managed serendipity. Take a read of the blog from a few years ago, but one theme of this life-philosophy is: a) answer the door when opportunity knocks, and, b) opportunity usually knocks when you are in the bath tub. In other words, opportunity is seldom convenient.
The next reason to be here is that I just spent 3.75 years in a very good gig at the Government of Alberta within the Ministry of Advanced Education as the controller for a large IT shop. A good gig is not the same thing as an easy one; nevertheless, I look back at the body of work my team accomplished with pride.
But, all good things must come to an end and the government has chosen to change how it delivers IT services toward a much more centralized model. I really do wish the government the very best as it seeks to consolidate this critical function. I have my own views on the merits of making things bigger but that is no longer my business. Suffice it to say, when the music stopped I was left without a chair and was just as happy to be left standing.
The intention is to return to the government. I am a few years away from my first retirement number so my preference is to at least arrive at that number and then see how the world looks. I enjoy being a member of the Alberta Public Service but sometimes it is important to take a vacation from yourself.
Finally the last but not least reason is because Vienna is a cool city and the organization does important work. I think there will be lots to learn and I look forward to cycling, walking and exploring this part of the world.
Of course nothing is ever free. The costs include the time and space from family, friends and familiar circumstances. There is also always a risk of taking a risk. Although I am guaranteed a job upon my return what it will be is an uncertainty. Living in a city in which you feel like you are 3-year-old language wise is always humbling (my goal is to speak ‘not-bad’ very-bad German in six months).
So that is why I am here, to scare myself a bit, to contribute to a larger civil society via the organization and to learn/hone my professional skills in a different context so I can return to the Government of Alberta refreshed, retrained and refocused.
Wish me luck and look for more on Vienna, the organization and new adventures.
Organizational Biology 