On the Critical Path

The Day that We Get Out

Posted on April 16, 2020 by Dimitri Makrigiorgos

I really tried to write a blog post completely unrelated to coronavirus. The ongoing pandemic is so overwhelming that I thought it would be nice to just write about something with no ties to COVID-19. Unfortunately, I usually get my inspiration for my blog posts from the things that are going on in my life, and right now that’s pretty much… nothing.

So, although the blog post is still influenced by the virus, I’ve decided to focus on the opposite of the virus: namely “the day that we get out”. I hope this will be uplifting for all of us to think of going back to a “normal” life, and that it will be helpful in reminding everyone that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that things will go back to normal. Quarantining for (potentially) a few months seems like a daunting prospect, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s a short blip in the span of our lifetime.

The return to normal life is probably not going to be “all systems go” on a single day – it’ll probably be a gradual return. But in my head, I still tend to daydream about all the things that I would do on day 1 if there was a hypothetical day when the quarantine was officially over. I made a list of activities that I miss and that I’ll definitely want to do on the day that I get out:

Go to Kaze: Kaze is my favorite restaurant on the planet. It’s located in Chinatown, and it’s “hot-pot” style. Hot-pot is a style of dining found throughout many countries in East Asia, where they bring you a boiling broth on a self-heating plate and a bunch of raw ingredients, and you cook them in the broth and then eat them. I highly recommend it.

Play soccer: Growing up, soccer was my main hobby and I played it year-round – summer leagues, club teams, indoor futsal, and so on. Recently, I’d been playing soccer every Wednesday in my old high school gym with a group of friends (before the pandemic). I love playing soccer and I can’t wait until I can get back to it.

Get a haircut: I was already overdue for one before the quarantine. Now my hair is far longer than I prefer. I’ve seen some videos of people learning to cut their own hair for the quarantine, but there’s no way I’m doing that. I can barely shave my beard in a straight line – I’m not messing with my hair.

Hug my friends and family: I haven’t had any physical contact with a human in weeks. My family and friends and I are trying to social distance to be safe, and my girlfriend works at Children’s, so we are also staying six feet apart since she is constantly exposed. My dog is the only living creature that I get to hug these days!

Those are the things that come to mind when I think about what I miss the most. What about you? What will you all do on the day that we get out?

Posted in Planning, Work Life Balance | 4 Comments

So What’s New?

Posted on April 9, 2020 by Doug Miller

So what’s new? Few points in recent history could have so many profound responses to such a simple question from every person in a society, and yet, here we are. Until a few hours before this blog entry was due, I was adamant that my subject needed to be about anything other than the crisis at hand. We’re all in our own version of it. Our new normal changes every few hours. The 24-hour news cycle, email, and social media all bombard us with “the latest”. I refused to add to it. But I’ve given in and settled on a parallel subject which, although related to our situation, is hopefully distant enough to distract for a few minutes.

This morning before commuting down the hall, I sat with my 11-year-old son to review his schedule for the day. As we perused his tasks, I made sure he had everything needed to complete his school work for the day. (Hopefully without interrupting Mom’s or Dad’s workday.) That’s when it hit me – his day looked a lot like mine.

Backing up to when we started this surprise homestand mid-March, my son had a loose schedule with some general guidelines cobbled together by my wife and me – read a book for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon, spend 45 minutes on your online math class work, spend an hour practicing Spanish on DuoLingo, etc. It was far from perfect, but the best we could do after school was cancelled on short notice as we were trying to manage our own work. That was effective for about a day, which is to say that we didn’t get many interruptions during business hours. (I made it clear that if the office door is shut, he needs to knock and get an answer before entering – unless the house is on fire or the Bills somehow won the Super Bowl.) However, by the second day we were arguing about schedules, workload, etc. My son insisted he could manage his time. It was clear we needed a better plan.

Fast forward a few days and his 5^th grade class had quickly moved to an online curriculum. We created a daily schedule together in Excel broken into 30-minute intervals. He adjusts the schedule each day based on changing Zoom meeting times for different classes, rotating in things like art and music to fill gaps. We agreed that he’s in charge of his day as long as his work is done, his commitments are met, and his grades are sufficient. (At least he feels like he’s in charge.) Expectations were set, all stakeholders had a say, measures were in place, and our improved “new normal” was implemented.

As I started reviewing his daily work and the tools he was using to complete assignments, the parallels to my own day were striking. He was using Excel to plan and manage his time. Teachers were using Google Classroom to organize lessons and share documents. Students all have Google Docs accounts to store and hand in assignments. Others are submitted by scanning and emailing. Daily lesson plans are distributed to students as PowerPoint decks. Virtual classes are conducted on Zoom. Questions can be posed and answered via email. And for the most part, he has quickly learned to manage all of this on his own. At first, I made it a point to occasionally look over his shoulder and offer tips on using some applications, but he has required very little support to get what he needs out of them. And apparently 11 is the age at which he has reached enlightenment, as he now knows everything. (Insert sarcastic overtone.) A subject for another time.

But back to the observation of parallels in our day. Our 5^th grader has been challenged to manage his time effectively. He is required to attend scheduled meetings. As schedules shift, he adapts accordingly. He has output to produce and testing to complete. He is utilizing a suite of applications to accomplish all of this. And he must interact with his peers and teachers in new ways. Plus Mom and Dad are around the corner. All the time.

It’s a lot to take in and none of it has been easy. It has only been a few weeks, but he is quickly adapting to our environment and finding a way to live up to new responsibilities and expectations. Isn’t that what we’re all doing? Maybe on the other side of this, we’re going to realize we’ve grown in some ways we didn’t anticipate. I can already see it.

Posted in Accomplishments, Learning, Lessons Learned, Time Management | 2 Comments

The Logic Place

Posted on March 17, 2020 by Sandie Kimball

Have you ever gotten a knot in your stomach because you’re afraid you’re going to make a mistake: missing a deadline or a small detail that could impact your project success; or saying the wrong thing on a conference call? I have. And often, when I have successfully cleared one hurdle, all I can see is the next one, looming large and ominous.

I recently had to do a “reset” on a project that was causing me to lose sleep, worrying about missing something important. When I’m in that place, I wake up in the middle of the night trying to figure out how I’m going to clear that next hurdle, or groan aloud when I think back on something I said that I thought made me sound like a babbling idiot. To get rid of those feelings, I might skip a few planning steps and go right into “just do it” mode. That may seem like the right thing to do under pressure. But before long, I realize I haven’t taken time to do my monthly status reports, check how much time team resources are spending on the project, update the project schedule, or determine if I need to make a scope change to make the work or schedule more realistic.

In this case, I decided to take a step back and go to my “logic place”.

My “logic place” is furnished with templates and processes that my fellow PMO team members and I have developed over the years. It contains valuable tools like Microsoft Project and the IS Project Portfolio. These tools, templates, and processes are driven by logic. For instance, if a team member tells you they are feeling pressured by another team member to finish something in an unrealistic period of time, you can start by looking at the RACI chart. What exactly are the roles of each of those resources, and what tasks should be assigned to those roles? Do the roles need to be changed to accommodate changes in the project? You can look at the project schedule to determine which task needs to be done before the next one, and which tasks can be done at the same time.

As I drilled down into the schedule for this project, I was reminded that this was the most important place I could be spending my time and energy. It is the role and responsibility of the project manager to manage the schedule, and it is one of my greatest areas of expertise. As I worked through it, I began to see possible solutions, not only to the delays in the timeline, but to team members’ feelings about those delays. The steps involved in creating and maintaining a project schedule are very logical and concrete. But a by-product of logical outcomes can be a greater sense of comfort and confidence for team members.

I also took some time to look at how many hours each resource was spending on the project, so that I could support them and justify their allocations to the project. Then I made sure that every outstanding issue was documented and included in my monthly status report, which I sent to stakeholders to let them know where we were making progress and where we needed help.

Many people have little understanding of, or tolerance for, the importance of adhering to process when handling project challenges. This is the reason why the role of a project manager is vital—not to convince people how important planning tools are, but to be the one to make those tools work for the project.

Spending a few days in the logic place has decreased my insomnia and loosened the knot in my stomach. More important, however, is that it has cleared more space in my head, so I can be a better listener and a more effective leader.

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Albania the Hidden Gem

Posted on March 5, 2020 by Islam Zinxhirija

We all come from different backgrounds, have faced tough challenges, have gone through major changes, and we all have a story to tell. This is my story…

It was October of 1998, when my family and I came to this country. My parents made a huge sacrifice to leave their family behind and sell everything that they owned so that they could save some money and start a new life in United states. They were excited and optimistic about the opportunity to come to the US and create a better life for their children. It was tough for them to adjust to this new country and lifestyle where they didn’t speak the language and didn’t have anyone to help them and show them around. They had to work multiple jobs, take care of their children, and make sure that they put food on the table. My sister was eleven and I was nine at the time. We were able to adjust quickly because we picked up the English language easily and made friends at school. We both graduated from college and now have full-time jobs in industries that we love and are passionate about contributing to society. We have created our own families now. We are both happily married, and each have a child. My niece is now seven and my son is four.

My parents wanted to move out of Albania because of the civil war that was going on in 1997 due to the pyramid scheme crisis. The schemes, active since 1991, were based on making payments to old investors using money contributed by new investors. The interest rate they offered to the Albanian people was 50-100%. When the International Monetary Fund realized that they were Ponzi schemes, they advised the government to end the operations. The government instead allowed the firms to continue their activities, often participating in them.

In January 1997, the schemes collapsed, and the government froze the firm’s assets. Albanian citizens lost everything they had, an estimated $1.2B overall. The Albanian people protested, demanding their money back from the government. The protests led to riots all over the country in different cities. The Albanian government was unable to control the situation and maintain order in the time of chaos that was going on all around the country. Rival gangs stepped up in many major cities and led violent crimes between the people and the government, killing more than two thousand people. Later the Albanian government decided to open the weapon depots all over the country to give the people weapons to protect themselves. Albania was a battle zone where every person aged 10 and up had at least one gun and plenty of ammunition to defend themselves. The civil war lasted about six months until the president, Sali Berisha, declared a state of emergency. The United States alongside Italy, Greece, France, Austria, Turkey, and others came to help the Albanian government to restore law and order. The civil war came to an end in August with $200M in damages, 5,000 people wounded, and more than 2,000 killed.

Albania

Berat

Even though Albania has gone through a devastating civil war, it has changed a lot in the past 22 years. It is now considered one of the best tourist destinations, boasting exotic beautiful beaches alongside a rich history. My city of birth, called Berat, is considered as one of the prettiest towns in Albania for its Ottoman style houses. It is called the “city of a thousand windows” because of the windows that look out from the houses on the hill.

Xhiro (official evening walk)

In the evenings, the locals like to walk. But it’s not just a walk, it is known as “xhiro”. It is an official evening walk where every resident comes out to stretch their legs and catch up with their neighbors. In Berat, the roads close to cars for certain hours and everyone gathers at various places, walking and talking until nightfall.

Ksamil Beach, Albania

Located in south of Saranda, Ksamil is one of the best beach destinations in Albania. Ksamil is also called “the Ionian pearl” because of its beauty. It is located in a bay with three small islands, reachable by swim or a boat ride, and surrounded by turquoise water.

Almost every year, my family and I go back to our homeland to see my grandmother, uncles, aunts, and cousins. We go to a variety of beaches on the Albanian Riviera for about two weeks, spending a couple of days on each beach. Every now and then, we reminisce about the devastating tragedy that our country faced. We mourn the people we lost during that time, including my cousin’s father. We remember being frightened to come outside of our houses because of people shooting guns. We see Albania now and realize how much it has changed in just 20 years, and how it is possible to improve our country and ourselves. Albania is doing much better now. It went from being a third world country to a top vacation destination with a chance to join the European Union. Occasionally, I use this tragic event to motivate myself when I am feeling down or helpless and remind myself that anything is possible. We can overcome any obstacle if we find the courage deep inside of us to keep fighting for what we want and believe and never give up, no matter how hard things are, until we see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Fitbit conflict

Posted on February 20, 2020 by Meagan Turner

I started wearing a Fitbit® last year. I thought the heart rate, sleep and other data could be interesting to have; plus, it could help me hold myself accountable for my fitness and sleep goals. It wasn’t quite clear how I would use the data, but I decided to commit to collecting it, which would mean wearing the watch every day.

I now have enough data to set a baseline. I know my resting heart rate, my active heart rate, how much I’m sleeping on average, etc. Nice information to have, albeit not the most interesting subject for a blog post. I started to then think about how I could use this data to analyze my response to different activities. I decided to compare my physiological response between two very different situations.

I’m an avid hiker. My leisure time is often spent “suffering” on a trail somewhere. I really do enjoy steep ascent and never-ending views. There is something about the exhaustion and endurance needed on a mountain ascent that makes the views that much more enjoyable. Over the summer, a friend and I decided to do one of our favorite hikes in the White Mountains. The hike was a 16-mile traverse with 3000 feet of steep elevation gain and a long descent. We finished the hike in 10 hours. It was a very challenging and rewarding day.

fitbit1

This is a typical heart rate chart for me when I’m doing an extended activity. I tend to level off and stay in a reasonable cardio zone. My recovery is quick during these periods, meaning I can take a quick break and regain the stamina to keep going. You can even see where we stopped to eat lunch and nap on the ridgeline around 14:00 (2pm), not far from where this photo was taken.

fitbit3

I decided to compare this data to a relatively impactful situation within a recent project. As a part of some scheduled conflict resolution, all parties involved decided to have a conversation to discuss the conflict and problem solve together to move forward. These types of conversations/interactions can be a source of anxiety and discomfort, but like the mountain ascent, can be rewarding if the conflict is overcome and a resolution is found. The hour long meeting was also very challenging, but in a very different, obvious way.

What is most interesting about this data is the peak heart rate (133bpm) on 6/13 was achieved in a chair. No cardio, no movement. Instead, it was solely the emotional response to the situation that sent my heart rate higher than the mountain did that weekend (max was 123bpm). Physiologically speaking, the stress that is generated within each of us, is specific to us. We are both the producer and experiencer of stress. Our thoughts can produce a physiological reaction and that reaction manifests as stress in the body. Does this mean I should add more stressful situations to my cardio workout routine? 😊

I read a lot books, blogs and content about managing stress, mindfulness and meditation. I am a casual meditator. I try to get my 15-30-minute meditation session in daily. For me it makes a difference in my ability to manage the day. I tend to notice the difference when I haven’t meditated for a period of time, especially if things are stressful, like they were last June.

Why didn’t I use any of these techniques the day of this stressful meeting? Instead, I just went about my day without any preparation for the stress and discomfort that would occur during that meeting. Would my stress level and heart rate be any different had I stood in a power pose or meditated for a few minutes beforehand? The answer is probably yes. The truth is, I would never go into a hike cold, the way I went into that meeting. I would have prepared for the hike by hydrating and stretching to ensure my body was prepared for the task at hand. Last summer was a reminder that my self-care routines are a daily practice and I need to make sure I make the time for these routines. I need to care for my mind in a similar manner that I do for my body.

What self-care practices do you use to manage stress?

Posted in Work Life Balance | 3 Comments

Recovering from Three Fractures

Posted on February 5, 2020 by Ron Munroe

My last few months have been dominated by working to recover from an accident that broke my dominant wrist (both radius & ulna) and collarbone. It has been a humbling, frustrating, and sometimes even an uplifting experience. Since two weeks after my misaligned wrist was corrected in surgery, the rest of my recovery has indeed required work, mainly by me, but also by my excellent physical therapist. In the first therapy session in early October, it was daunting to learn I would need two sessions per week for 8-10 weeks, and daily exercises to do on my own. The nature of my weekly routine was about to dramatically change.

It was difficult adjusting to a one-handed life – typing, eating, and grooming with my left hand. (I am not a very coordinated lefty.) The therapy sessions themselves have been quite ok, if sometimes excruciating, but progress has been very slow. For the first few weeks, it seemed like I was not improving at all; my hand would only close a little, and my wrist would bend and rotate only slightly.

But after six to eight weeks, my wrist and shoulder succumbed to progress. Recovery became more noticeable. I could type with both hands, carry things with my right hand, eat righty, itch the back of my head, and raise my right arm way above my head. But I was still quite far from fully recovered. In fact, in late November I learned that the originally anticipated 10 weeks of therapy would need to be increased to at least four months. I was not surprised, but a little depressed.

As of today, I have just finished that four months of physical therapy and daily exercises, and am mostly recovered, but not quite done. I can make a fist but not tightly, bend back the wrist but not quite all the way, rotate my wrist both ways (but it is still stiffer in the morning than the afternoon). I can rotate my arm up to almost fully vertical, but I’m not close to being able to itch the middle of my back. (This rather awkward arm movement just happens to be the hardest one to exercise for and recover.) I still have several weeks before the physical therapy sessions end and will likely have to continue exercises for several weeks after that. The doctors and therapist now say that I may need 9-12 months from the date of the accident to fully recover. Wow, that was a pricey accident!

I’ve learned a few things along the way that I’ve found both fascinating and difficult:

It is staggering how quickly a part of the body can get stiff and lose most of its range of motion. A week after the wrist surgery, the doctor asked me to try to make a fist; my fingers barely curled more than a few degrees.
In between therapy visits, I was told to do daily flexibility exercises up to five times a day. But I found that one set of exercises took me 1.5 hours, so I was not able to muster more than two cycles per day. (Doing five per day would have taken 7.5 hours, the equivalent of a full-time job. I could not do that and continue working.) I suspect doing only two cycles per day slowed my recovery, but to me that was a necessary trade-off.
After several weeks of scant progress, the doctor said he was not surprised that my recovery was slow. He said that because I broke two bones on the same side of the body, the healing is slower for both as each inflamed area affects the other.
My collarbone had broken into a few distinct pieces easily discernable in the x-ray. The doctor said he would not take any action. Since the pieces of the collarbone were fairly close to their original location, the bone should heal itself. This was the most fascinating part to me. The pieces did indeed find each other, refastened, and the collarbone essentially reconstituted itself over 6 weeks, sufficiently healed to add shoulder exercises into the physical therapy.

I had never broken a bone before and in this accident broke three. Recovery is an incredibly work-intensive, painstaking, and mentally exhausting process. I have newfound appreciation for the physical therapy process and respect for the therapists. Theirs is hard work and they need to persevere through months of sessions which sometimes seem like they are barely helping at all. But it does help that at least they know that gradually the body will yield and the patient will recover most of his or her previous capability, eventually forgetting the struggle needed to get there. Part of the therapist’s job is to coach the patient through the process and help them to trust that the process will work. That trust made all the difference at times.

Posted in Learning, Work Life Balance | 6 Comments

A different kind of CV

Posted on January 15, 2020 by Spyros Potiris

Conversations with friends, colleagues, and classmates often revolve around missteps in our personal and professional lives. Most of us recognize that failing is part of life and, to a degree, we understand that it helps us grow. We read about how great achievers, past and present, routinely experienced colossal setbacks. We are constantly bombarded with mantras, such as “to succeed, one must be open to failure” or “fail fast, fail often”. Yet, a common takeaway from my conversations is that we all still struggle with failure.

We hate to fail. We fear it, we dread it, and when it does happen, it burdens us. It takes power over our emotions, and sometimes prevents us from moving forward. Some of us go to great lengths to avoid failure because of all the pain and shame associated with it. And some of us try to hide it.

Reframing failures and turning them into opportunities for learning and growth is not easy. There are plenty of frameworks out there and it takes time to figure out what works best for you. However, I recently came across an unconventional concept that I found very refreshing and practical.

It’s a CV of failures! I first encountered the idea in a Nature article, written by Dr. Melanie Stefan, currently a lecturer at Edinburgh Medical School, after she got rejected for a fellowship to which she had applied. According to Stefan, the CV of failures is a running, up-to-date list of every setback one has faced. It could include unsuccessful job applications, refused business proposals, or rejected research papers. Stefan is a person of tremendous achievement, but she realized that for every hour she had spent working on something that succeeded, she had probably spent six hours working on something that failed.

Stefan acknowledged that the problem with ignoring those setbacks is that it leads to false perceptions of how success comes about. “As scientists, we construct a narrative of success that renders our setbacks invisible both to ourselves and to others,” she wrote. “Often, other scientists’ careers seem to be a constant, streamlined series of triumphs. Therefore, whenever we experience an individual failure, we feel alone and dejected.”

The simplicity, honesty, and generalizability of the concept captured my curiosity. After a brief research online, I was able to find an example of such a CV published by Dr. Johannes Haushoffer. By any measure an accomplished academic, Haushoffer shared publicly a long and detailed account of his disappointments and setbacks. Through Haushoffer’s CV, I found more examples here, here and here.

And CVs of failures can be used by companies as well. Bessemer Venture Partners, one of the country’s oldest venture capital firms, has been very successful by investing in startup companies, such as LinkedIn, Yelp, Pinterest, and Blue Apron. Over the years, though, it also chose not to invest in deals that would have led to big returns, including Apple, eBay, and FedEx. At most VC firms, these missed opportunities would be treated as dirty little secrets. At Bessemer, they are entries in its publicly available Anti-Portfolio, basically a CV of failures for its partners.

Here’s the entry on not investing in Facebook: “Jeremy Levine spent a weekend at a corporate retreat in the summer of 2004 dodging persistent Harvard undergrad Eduardo Saverin’s rabid pitch. Finally, cornered in a lunch line, Jeremy delivered some sage advice, ‘Kid, haven’t you heard of Friendster? Move on. It’s over!’”

Here’s the entry on not investing in Google: “David Cowan’s college friend rented her garage to Sergey and Larry for their first year. In 1999 and 2000 she tried to introduce Cowan to ‘these two really smart Stanford students writing a search engine.’ Students? A new search engine? In the most important moment ever for Bessemer’s anti-portfolio, Cowan asked her, ‘How can I get out of this house without going anywhere near your garage?’”

I understand that reckoning with mistakes or missed opportunities could be emotionally draining. But perhaps a willingness to chronicle our failures could help us create the kind of resilience that allows us to go beyond them. My CV of failures is already in progress.

Posted in Leadership, Learning, Lessons Learned, Motivation | 1 Comment

The AdvISor/IS Newsletter

Posted on January 3, 2020 by Tate Forgey

Did you know that there is a new Information Services newsletter? Go check out all the posts on the redesigned SharePoint site:

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Boxing Day and Other Holiday Remnants

Posted on December 20, 2019 by David Pesta

If you have a calendar at your desk, have a look at December 26^th. Most calendars show that day as Boxing Day. Not many of us here in the US have the slightest clue what Boxing Day is. Yet every year I see it on the calendar when I’m trying to figure out how many shopping days are left until Christmas.

Sadly, it has nothing to do with the sport of boxing. It would be great if it did. As I’ve written in the past, there are a great many life lessons we can learn from the sport of boxing. Lessons we need as we reflect on the passing year and brace for the next.

Wikipedia, usually an all-knowing, undisputed source of truth, is uncertain about Boxing Day. One theory says it was when the wealthy lords and ladies of old-timey England gave out little presents to the domestic servants who, of course, had to work on Christmas day. But even that seems like a best guess of semi-professional historians. It might just as well have been the day that Santa went 12 rounds with the Easter Bunny for the Best Holiday Character Ever championship.

Whatever the origin or meaning, I like Boxing Day. In fact, December 26^th is my favorite day of the year. Sure, Christmas is sometimes a pleasant day. If all goes well you might get some nice presents, have a good meal with loved ones. But there is a lot of pressure in the run up to December 25^th. The logistics, the preparations, the expectations that I for one am certain I will never live up to. It’s all incredibly stressful.

But on December 26^th it’s over, 6 to 8 weeks of pressure is finally over. You can let down your guard and go back to normal day-to-day life, while still basking in the residual glow of yesterday’s good cheer. You don’t have to get dressed up and sit in a stiff dining room chair for hours, trying to remember not to swear around Grandma. On December 26^th there are leftovers in the fridge that you can just eat on the couch in your sweatpants while watching “Die Hard” which is the best Christmas movie ever (again according to Wikipedia).

Here’s a few more fun facts I discovered in my exhaustive research on December 26^th:

(Guess where I did all my research? It starts with a “wik” and ends with an “ipedia”.)

December 26, 1919 – the Boston Red Sox trade Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees thus creating the Curse of the Bambino. You have to imagine that the Red Sox owners sent the Babe packing on the day after Christmas on purpose as some sort of spiteful message. They could have just as easily waited until January. We deserved the Curse for all those years.

December 26, 1939 – music producer Phil Spector is born. Spector produced hundreds of classic songs that shaped modern music including “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” by the Righteous Brothers, “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School” by the Ramones, and “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” by John Lennon, a Christmas classic.

December 26, 1944 – the Relief of Bastogne. Considered a turning point in World War II, General George Patton’s Third Army overcomes winter storms and superior numbers to free surrounded U.S. forces at Bastogne, Belgium. This scene in the movie “Patton” has a real Christmas-y feel to it. Definitely watch it after “Die Hard”.

December 26, 1947 – Red Sox legend Carlton Fisk is born. Great as he was, even Pudge could not help the Sox break the Curse. Maybe being born on this day was a curse within a curse.

December 26, 1986 – British actor Kit Harington is born. He played Jon Snow on “Game of Thrones” where he won the “Battle of the Bastards”. The next day it snowed in Winterfell, because winter was coming, Father always promised. The show really hammered home the Christmas theme on that episode.

We can see now how important December 26 is, in history and as a much-needed function of the holiday season. Babe Ruth and John Snow and the Ramones are all trying to show us that there is eventually relief from the pressures of the holidays. Just as Patton saved the 101^st Airborne Division in the frigid Ardennes Forrest, Boxing Day is coming soon to end the holiday siege for us all.

So from my family to yours, I wish you all a Happy Boxing Day and a Merry New Year.

Posted in Lessons Learned, Motivation, Time Management, Work Life Balance | 3 Comments

Pete Frates (1984- 2019) – A leader and dedicated teammate

Posted on December 13, 2019 by Michael Madden

Pete Frates, former Boston College baseball captain and committed advocate for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as motor neuron disease and Lou Gehrig’s disease) died on December 9^th in his hometown, Beverly, MA at the age of 34. He was diagnosed in 2012 at the age of 27 with the disease. A husband, father, brother, and son, Pete truly represented the definition of a leader and team player.

ALS is a disease that has no treatment and no cure. It had for several years stayed under the radar with little to no progress made on its cause(s) or treatment. Pete Frates sought to change all this and tried to offer hope to those who are affected and would be affected. Through his leadership abilities he championed the cause (along with others) of the “Ice Bucket Challenge” where participants would have someone (or administer it by themselves) dump a bucket of ice water over them and would then nominate other people to take the challenge. Such was the scope of this initiative that even Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama took on the challenge.

Though the ice bucket challenge existed in other areas for different causes, it was Pete who used it to rally awareness and fundraising for ALS. In 2014, videos of ice bucket participants became viral and a global phenomenon. It is reported that more than $220 million has been raised because of this.

Though Pete suffered through this awful disease for several years, he kept up his fighting spirit and leadership abilities. He has been an inspiration to many people around the world. Because of his efforts, he has given hope to ALS sufferers, assisted in new genetic discoveries and treatments as a result of massive dollars raised from the Challenge, and hopefully someday a cure for this disease.

Let’s all look inward to discover our natural leadership and teamwork abilities and do whatever we can to make this world a better place.

“A natural born leader and the ultimate teammate, Pete was a role model for all, especially young athletes, who looked up to him for his bravery and unwavering positive spirit in the face of adversity. He was a noble fighter who inspired us all to use our talents and strengths in the service of others.” Statement from the Frates family on the death of Pete Frates, Campus & Community/Alumni, December 9, 2019

Posted in Accomplishments, Leadership, Motivation, Team | 6 Comments