Management nugget number 5: Sometimes doing nothing is the fastest and most efficient way of solving a problem

Nugget 5: Sometimes doing nothing is the fastest and most efficient way of solving a problem

 

Explanation:

Now I know that sounds like a stupid and very Zen thing to say but bear with me.

There is a movie theory that says that in Raiders of the lost ark,  Indiana Jones had absolutely no effect on the movie at the end, The Nazis would have still got the Ark and still died when they opened it, This same theory can be applied to a lot of management work.

let’s take a theoretical problem, Something has gone Bang, There are 5 people who would normally be your go-to people to fix it, An email is sent to them but only two respond, The other three are currently busy and not reading emails, The management all get over excited because their email has not been immediately acted upon, They send chase emails, They have individual meetings with each other, They call multiple meetings with all of the 5 people who can fix the problem and by the time they reach all of these 5 people and get them all into concert, they finally get a solution.

Now step back from this, Let’s say that the management had done nothing after they sent the original email, The five important people are already busy, chasing after them doesn’t actually get them any quicker, When they finish their current work they go and have a look at the email, One of them has a solution to it, Provides the solution and then the problem is solved. This normally happens in just about the same time frame as the management running around and doing all the meetings, They haven’t actually made the problem go away any quicker, All they’ve done is waste their time and the time of the few technical people they could get hold of.

So the moral of the story is don’t do knee jerk reactions when your immediate needs are not pandered to, particularly if it’s something that is not immediately costing the company money or can wait a few hours, better to have control than a panic attack.

Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.

 

 

Mobile Painting Pt 2: Decent Light

As I built my mobile paint station, one of the most pressing issues was a decent light, I think this might be due to my age but without a harsh white light, I have a devil of a trouble picking out details, I have tried a load of lights and by and large found the modelling ones to not work for me, they simply are not bright enough.

My solution was found in the movie industry who not surprisingly have amazing kit, and the one that turned out perfect for me was from Aputure in particular the MX series

This mini beast has 120 LEDs rather than the 8 or so you get on hobby or normal USB lamps

and also has a full set of controls where you can alter the hue and brightness

So good and powerful is it that in combination with a normal desk lamp arm (with a standard camera screw attachment) that it has become my desk lamp.

and for travel I use a “JAWS” flex clamp (you can get these under a number of brands including GOPRO

I hate rambling reviews so lets go with pro’s and cons.

PRO’s

  • Amazing bright
  • Highly portable, on battery power it lasts between 1 and 3.5 hours of painting, and you can just take any USB power bank and recharge it on the go with no outage.
  • Uses a standard camera mount so you can find a wide variety of stands and mounts to suit your personal taste.
  • Looks so Cool.

CONS

  • Far more expensive than a normal hobby light.
  • The front feels very fragile, the LEDS are exposed and the magnetic plastic filters don’t feel like they can take much grief, so a good travel case is essential.
  • The included case feel very cheap, I opted for a small neoprene camera case as an alternative.
  • Buttons are small and not what you would consider “Everyday use”, but this feeling soon wears off and you get used to them.

All in all the perfect hobby and desk lamp, I now use it for everything, but I do have to be careful and sooner or later I just know I’m going to damage the fragile front.

 

Management nugget number 4: Late night management emails are not an attack.

Nugget 4: Late night management emails are not an attack.

Explanation:

For once this one is not aimed at managers, it is aimed at the Techs and Frontline associates, I used to hate receiving management emails late at night or at the end of a Friday or the weekend or something like that. It put me under stress, it was uncomfortable and I thought they were watching me and wanting me to work the hours they were, But it turns out this is not always the case, If you’re stuck in bloody meetings all day or constantly on chat being chased for deliverables email takes a second place, and the only time you can sit down and deal with it (Other than the Odd Crisis Email) is when  everybody else has stopped working and therefore stopped chasing you, The reason that management do emails late at night and at the weekends is because that’s the only time they can try and clear their inbox, it’s not a personal thing, they just know that they won’t have a chance to send it during the week.

Weird.

Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.

 

 

Painting Guide – Necromunda Bases

Painter: Stickfight

Model(s): GW Necromunda Bases (all sizes)

Paint(s): Leadbelcher , Chaos Black , pro acryl: Bold titanium White , Iyanden Yellow , Dirty Down: Rust , Abaddon Black , AK – Streaking Grime , Munitorum Varnish , Scale Colour – Metal n’ Alchemy – Speed Metal

Method(s):

  1. Base coat with Chaos Black, then Leadbelcher
  2. Paint the raised areas you want to hazard stripe with pro acryl: Bold titanium White
  3. Then paint the raised areas you want to “hazard stripe” with Iyanden Yellow till nice and yellow (may take multiple layers)
  4. Cut thin strips of FrogTape masking tape and place over the yellow areas you want to keep yellow.
  5. Paint the remaining exposed yellow areas with Abaddon Black
  6. When dry, CAREFULLY peal the masking tape off to expose your hazard stripes.
  7. (optional) if you want rusty pipe areas, first paint them with Scale Colour – Metal n’ Alchemy – Speed Metal till shiny.
  8. (optional) Then use Dirty Down: Rust to make them all rusty again.
  9. Varnish the bases with Munitorum Varnish as AK – Streaking Grime is oil based and will eat your paint.
  10. Dab AK – Streaking Grime generously all over, particularly in corners.
  11. leave for AT LEAST 30 mins, then rub the areas you want to still see metal through gently with a lint free cloth (the cheap glasses cleaning cloths are my favourite).
  12. when happy with the effect, re varnish with Munitorum Varnish to set everything,

Paint Time: 1 hour end to end (quite a bit of drying time)

 

 

Management nugget number 3: Office working is far more productive than remote working.. Somtimes

Nugget 3: Office working is far more productive than remote working when dealing with human interaction, but its a mistake to assume it can be maintained at that level forever.

Explanation:

Even before the pandemic, there was a debate over office working vs. remote working and the thing is that both of them are productive in their own way, but after 5+ years of hard remote working and learning to deal with it on a large team scale I think I’ve reached an epiphany.

Day to day working is more efficient from home, you can actually get on with working, you  are actually more productive in completing tasks (providing you actually spend the hours working that you would in an office) as there are far less distractions, Plus there is the absence of Lost time from travelling, but that doesn’t mean that home working is always more productive. For example workshops or large meetings particularly those that involve forms of conflict are far far more productive in person, as sales people have known forever.

But one thing that seems to have been forgotten, particularly by older generations of senior managers is that this kind of productivity cannot be sustained day after day after day, so in my opinion the new hybrid working model is the best, I personally go in for one day a week on a Monday to kickstart me into the work mentality.

But also I have seen the one week workshop where everyone comes together to solve a major goal, get tons done and deliver massively finish with a senior manager saying that we should work like this all the time and this is why being in an office is better,

NO! it’s not, everybody is mentally shattered, such work should be consider a sprint, and while its attractive to think such a pace can be kept up, it cant and should be used now as a usefully times tool to resolve issues or reconnect humans with each other

Sorry if this nugget got turned into more of a rant but it’s something I feel quite strongly about at the moment.

Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.