I’m Not a Bozo!

Something fun for Friday, this was a gift from the client I work with to lighten things up and do some stress relief – punch it and it comes right back up. It sits on a table in the corner when I’m in the room, but I’ve taken to putting it my chair when I’m […]

Done or Not Done

One of the things I hear a lot relating to work big and small is that it is “almost done”, with a close relative “basically done”, often spoken as they reach for the marker to cross of an item on the task list. I can appreciate that it’s useful to indicate progress in a simpler […]

Jedi Mind Tricks

Here’s a story from a recent meeting. We were discussing some problems and the team was talking through some options that were very interesting, technically good, just not ones that could get done for a variety of reasons. It’s frustrating to be in that position, seeing at least a “better” solution on the good/better/best range […]

Notes from the February 2012 MagicPASS Meeting

I was back at MagicPASS last week to do a presentation, my first time with the group at the new site (Disney Vacation Club). Great facility. Plenty of parking, accessible (at least if you live on the South side of Orlando!), good room. Actually 3 rooms. One that they used for the meeting that seats […]

The Armor of Transparency

Yesterday I blogged about hosting a daily status meetings and some of the tricks I use to make it work. One of those that is worth extra attention is the meeting notes – at the end of each meeting I send out notes (not minutes – not that formal) that include: Who attended Key metrics […]

The Daily Status Meeting

For the past six months or so I’ve hosted a daily status meeting for a large project. It started out scheduled for 15 minutes and as the team grew, I found that we often ran out of time – not due to idle chit chat, but because we spent 3 or 4 or 5 minutes […]

First Impressions

I was chatting with a friend recently who had been in turn chatting with a colleague about first impressions. The colleague had gone to the lobby to meet a candidate and escort them to the interviewer, and during the walk had tried to make small talk, offered them some water, and didn’t get much interaction. […]

Selected to Speak at SQLRally 2012

I was excited to receive the email on Friday that I’d been selected to present at SQLRally #2 in Dallas this year, doing my presentation Building Your Professional Development Plan. Always nice to get some good news on a Friday!

Speaking at MagicPASS on February 22, 2012

Next Wednesday I’ll be returning to MagicPASS to do a presentation on SQL security for developers. It’s an interesting topic, with the trick – in my view – to focus on things that developers care about or need to know, and not load them up on things that only a DBA would love. It’s a […]

Sarasota IT Pro Camp

The first Sarasota IT Pro Camp is being held on Saturday, February 18th 2012 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm at Keiser University, 6151 Lake Osprey Drive, Sarasota, FL 34240. I won’t be attending this one, wishing the team a great event! Here’s the current schedule: