Instead of making resolutions, let’s celebrate our resilience

Posted on December 29, 2021 by Jessica Cheng Schrepel

Is it just me or do others find it challenging keeping track of time? Not in a “Is today Thursday?” kind of way (when it was Tuesday ALL day!), but rather in a “Are we still in 2020?” kind of way (when actually, an entire additional YEAR has gone by!) kind of way.

Our new time markers

The Before Times (BT)
People who know my husband Stephan and me have often said “no moss grows under their feet”. In the Before Times, we were always on the go: here at home, across the country, around the world, enjoying all the arts, cuisine, and culture we could find and fit in. If we weren’t fully immersed in an adventure, we were most likely planning our next one. On March 1, 2020 we were scheduled for our own Holy Cow Indian Adventure. Sadly, the closest we came at that time was take-out from Mela, our favorite Indian restaurant, down the stree

blog post - all packed v2

During the Pandemic (DP)
I remember exactly that Friday, March 13, 2020 (Friday the thirteenth!) when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Contagion was just a movie, right? RIGHT?! When I left my colleagues the night before, we could never have imagined that we would only see each other in flat, rectangle web conference screens for the foreseeable future.

Thankfully, a lot has changed since those early days of eerily quiet streets, toilet paper shortages, and wiping down our groceries before bringing them into the house. Thankfully, Covid-19 vaccines and simple infection control protocols help keep us healthy. Thankfully, for those of us who are fully vaccinated and boosted, contracting Covid-19 might more likely be an inconvenience rather than a death sentence.

blog post - masks v2

After the Pandemic (AP)
That all said, with all we can be thankful for, nearly two years on, we’re not “After the Pandemic”… yet. And with mounting concern around increased infection rates and Covid-19 variants, it just doesn’t feel like a new year.

At our recent “Friends-MAS” get together, after at-home rapid tests and appetizers, we mused on the topic of New Year’s resolutions. Did we make resolutions last year? What year is this? Is it still 2020? Unanimously, we decided while still living During the Pandemic, let’s not add undue pressure on ourselves and commit to new resolutions. Among the lessons in Switch, let’s focus on celebrating what works. Not that new resolutions would necessarily be negative experiences and fail; rather, let’s just give ourselves a break and celebrate the positives of our time During the Pandemic.

Resilience
Hopefully, we’ve all found resilience tactics that help us cope mentally and emotionally during this global public health crisis. In our Pandemic Pod, we have new-found bakers, knitters, and bird watchers. Among us, we have also found our own wonderful ways to meditate daily. Whether a few minutes or a few hours per day, in silence or guided by an app, we’ve all found that daily meditation helps us process the insanity, de-stress, and work towards a new normal.

blog post - one day at a time v2

Active meditation
For me, I can’t fathom sitting in silence for 10 minutes focused on a candle flame. To say I lasted 2 minutes trying to would be extremely generous. Thankfully, I learned that instead, I could meditate, actively, anywhere and everywhere!

Early on during the pandemic and new to working from home, I committed to taking a walk before I logged in every day. It took practice to walk without distraction; to breathe deeply and to purely enjoy the experience of walking.

I started with a few minutes a day, every morning. Walking around the block was easy. I picked up trash like David Sedaris. Soon, I expanded my boundaries and found green spaces for forest bathing. When I joined Dana-Farber in September 2020, I started “fake” commuting to Longwood. Now, my 2+ mile “commute” is at least 2 hours most days, rain or shine, and I LOVE IT.

This positive outcome of our time During the Pandemic is what I’m celebrating going into 2022. (Or will it be 2021? I’m not sure)  And even when this crazy time in history is behind us, daily active meditation is a practice I plan to hang on to.

blog post - commute v2

How have you been resilient?
What about you? What will you celebrate?

Posted in Fun, Motivation, Uncategorized, Work Life Balance | 3 Comments

Why I Could Never be President

Posted on December 10, 2021 by Jennifer Robinson

This fall I really felt my home office needed a refresh. The room’s closet serves as off-season clothing storage, with the bureau, shelves, and the entire guest bed loft area as the crafty project supply depot. I wanted to remove the clothes that haven’t made it back into rotation, and the clutter and art & craft supplies I don’t expect to ever go back to and make it possible for my sister to have a place to stay now that she is over 3 hours’ drive away. For this I needed to pull out some tools from the toolkit of skills and strategies I’ve learned in project management, process improvement, and avoiding complete chaos to tackle the job. 

First thing to do was to set some goals and requirements: Primary goal of fresh space for me to work, feeling less like a closet, and opening up the loft bed without exploding everything out to the rest of our living quarters or renting out a storage unit. 

Lots of colorful hats

Some of the crochet beanies from the yarn stash

I dug into my personal lessons learned and decided against selling clothes or craft supplies online. Even if you have only dabbled in this you probably know why. Instead, I joined local Zero Waste and Buy Nothing groups on Facebook (and had to promise myself not to respond to other offers!) This has been a good solution for many, many things. Good-bye felting kit, needles, and tutorials; fancy edger scissors – you’ll get better use scrapbooking with that young family; to the lady still making masks for free – here are all my funky fat quarters and some thread! When and why did I get a laminator? 

But – the yarn stash that occupies the entire guest bed loft area – ugh. I’d been working the different segments of the room and – yeah – avoiding the stash. I can’t usually see it from my desk. Out of sight/out of mind. Why could I never be President?…because my Cabinet would be chock full of yarn. 

No joke; there’s a lot of it. And it is so much harder for me to part with it than other supplies. Maybe because there is a thread of the textile profession in my family history. Multiple family members were in the R&D and manufacturing aspects of making thread, yarns and fabric. It was always around; everyone had a basket or bag with a textile or fiber project. I was taught to crochet, knit & tat before learning to write my letters. While I didn’t pursue it for advanced studies, I twice won school Science Fairs with presentations on thread spinning, dying, and quilting techniques. It’s in the blood.    

I really wanted to create things with the yarn, not just dispose of it! A lot of it was selected and purchased with specific projects and people in mind, which also contributed to my reluctance. Poring over patterns and yarns to make something special – your heart is already invested even before the first stitch. The sunk costs from the daydream planning can’t be re-couped, but a Ziplock full of yarn and a pattern isn’t a gift most people look forward to. I needed a different action plan for the yarn stash. 

Looking to my own advice in big projects, I knew I needed to pivot and revise the deliverables into smaller time investments. Most of the initial plans were big projects – like sweaters and blankets – which can sometimes take months to finish. Breaking it down into little items, with simpler steps and stitches, that I could finish quickly – Who doesn’t love a quick win?  – it would give me the satisfaction of creating and completing something. *Poof* Look what I made! With this in mind, I decided I wanted my success and happiness metrics to stay aligned: clearing out the space but to also contribute something more to the local community.  

Crochet beanie example

Example of a the stash busting beanie pattern

Even then it was important to drop some projects/yarn that were opportunistic – yarn I bought on discount or that was gifted to me, some partial skeins of scratchy basic acrylic yarn purchased for kids’ toys created years ago – good in the wash, but that is yucky to wear as a garment. I made bundles for the Buy Nothing/Zero Waste groups of this category. In hours, that cleared out a nice-sized swath and let me see some progress (namely a corner of the mattress.) 

With that decision made, and first pass at releasing the no-value-add products completed, next was to figure out what to make, whether to create or buy a pattern, and select the best yarn for donated hats. Some wool can be washed, most cannot – I wanted washable hats so selected non-shrink varieties. Now, I had some requirements to work with.

I believe hats are the perfect item for handmaking quick accessories. Scarves are a close second, but sometimes present challenges in keeping every stitch lined up AND in accommodating the variety of weight and lengths of available yarn. I found it took me several iterations to proto-type and stitch up the perfect hat pattern: simple, quick to memorize, but interesting enough to look at. The beanie I found & modified is easy enough to make while watching TV or listening to podcasts/books, and forgiving enough to hide any mistakes, slubs or yarn joins.  

The ongoing efforts to find interesting and attractive color combinations from suitable yarn had some external risks. Keeping the cats disinterested in the whole process presented some challenges because they are cats, and I like to pull out a few different skeins to compare at once. Cats & string/thread/dental floss is a baaaad combination. The mitigation strategy for this was to keep potential skeins to a clear portable storage box. I could see different combinations without tempting the cats, and I drilled a hole in the top to thread thru the yarn. I learned to institute the exact same concept to protect the completed hats from becoming cat beds. No one wants a cat fur hat – except maybe a cat. (See Briar in my first failed storage solution.) 

Briar in Hat Bag

Briar disturbed from her nap in the bag of hats

I have some more yarn to go, so more hats in my future and maybe still a few larger projects with the yarn that cannot be washed, but so far have gained about ½ a bed back and have made over 100 hats which I will gift to local community organizations like Haley House, More than Words, and Harvard Square Homeless Shelter. The remaining yarn now just needs a better storage solution so I can take up all the shelving space that was freed up by gifting that laminator.  

If you need a new beanie or would actually like a Ziplock bag of yarn + pattern – please let me know. 

Posted in Accomplishments, Fun, Lessons Learned | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Will Artificial Intelligence Take My Job?

Posted on December 3, 2021 by David Pesta

A good friend of mine has 2 pathological fears: goats and robots. While having lunch with him recently, our conversation went like this:

Me: Now, I have to tell you something and I don’t want you to be upset.

Him: Okay.

Me: I can already tell you’re getting upset.

Him: No, I’m not.

Me: You know don’t you, you sense it.

Him: Just tell me.

Me: I bought one of those robot vacuums.

Him: (winces, silently shakes his head, looking at me like I’ve sold my soul to the devil)

Downsizing from a large house to a modest apartment this summer, it felt like overkill to continue employing a cleaning lady. But I did still want clean floors. Thus, this purchase that so deeply disturbed my friend.

My robot vacuum is a fascinating addition to my household. During the initial setup the iRobot app prompted me to name the device. I called him Sparktronic. From the start he (not it) became more than an appliance. Sparktronic is a mysterious entity. He offers vague clues to the future of work. My friend does not like this development.

Going about his business Sparktronic buzzes around deftly navigating corners, table legs, and power strips while sucking up my dirt and dander. On the app his exact location is displayed graphically. Data is recorded, patterns are mapped. He is like an RTLS tracking device for my Dorito crumbs.

The working sessions of my robot vacuum are not unlike having a pug in the house. He scampers around at ankle height, out of sight much of the time, bumping into things, making snuffling noises. Every once in a while Sparktronic goes suspiciously silent leaving me to wonder what mischief he is up to. Then just as I think I should investigate; he merrily resumes activities.

Unlike a pug, Sparktronic seems to be learning. In each successive session he cleans my place in less time, taking more efficient routes. The fine works and intellectual growth of my robot vacuum made me wonder what else was possible. I would investigate.

Robot vacuums are imbued with artificial intelligence, so says the iRobot app. You hear that term thrown around a lot these days along with others like machine learning and deep learning. Understanding these concepts seemed the key to reassuring my friend that I could live peaceably with a robot.

To spare you the journey down this techno-rabbit hole, here’s a brief summary of my studies:

Artificial intelligence is broad catchall phrase for technological systems that mimic the patterns of humans. Programmers have to tell computers exactly how to behave in order to do this.

Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence. Computers learn through extensive trial and error based on a few basic guidelines supplied by a human. My best guess is that this is what’s going on inside of Sparktronic’s cranium.

Deep learning is a subset of machine learning. It learns without the input of basic guidelines. Instead, it emulates the functions of human neural networks, much like the way children learn language.

For anyone interested in a more detailed explanation, this article is a great introduction:

How to explain deep learning in plain English

As futuristic as all this sounds, these forces are already around us. Common things we take for granted like chatbots, driving navigation, and online shopping recommendations are forms of artificial intelligence at work. Even more intriguing are advances in fields that were once thought to be the sole domain of humans. These include:

barney_robotbartender v1a vaxbot1a

These staggering innovations got my attention. Sure, artificial intelligence is poised to take some people’s jobs (sorry researchers and cleaning ladies). But what’s in it for me, the average lazy man-child?

With my deadline for this blog submission looming, I dared to seek the Holy Grail. I dared to ask: could artificial intelligence write a blog post for me? While Hemingway turned in his grave, I discovered that the answer was a resounding yes.

Jarvis is among the best of several tools in the artificial intelligence copywriting sphere. There is of course a cost, but I signed up for a free 5-day trial to discover it’s capabilities. Jarvis claims to have read 10% of the entire internet. It’s deep learning functions use that (somehow) as the basis to generate titles, introductory paragraphs, or entire blog posts. Inputting just a few keywords or ideas generates content in split seconds.

After some monkeying around with it, the thought occurred to me to test Jarvis’s self-awareness. I asked Jarvis to write a piece on the merits of deep learning. Here is the result:

Robots and Artificial Intelligence Developing Emotions: Personality in Non-Human Entities

Deep Learning is a powerful tool that can help solve many problems. In the future, it may be possible for Deep Learning to take on tasks like President of the United States. We’re not saying you should fear this technology; in fact, we think it’s an exciting prospect that could lead to better solutions than any human could provide alone. What are your thoughts? Let us know by commenting below!

Of my tests, this last output was the most plausible as human writing. But could it pass? Could artificial intelligence take my job as a blog writer? It’s not my cup of tea, but in a content-starved world maybe it’s viable. From a business standpoint, Jarvis does not need health insurance benefits. Just saying.

How does this all play out? My conclusion after all my research and trolling is this.

Sparktronic is a remarkable creature who has showed me a glimpse of the future. As much as I now depend on him, he’s no pug. Sparktronic’s machine learning brain has no interest in sitting on the couch with me watching “The Godfather” for the hundredth time. Barney the Cocktail-bot does not have a hot take on Sonny Corleone. Pugs and bartenders understand why these things matter to humans. It seems to me that artificial intelligence is a clear threat to the job security of some humans. But if you excel at what you do and you understand people, you’re probably safe. Probably.

Posted in Fun, Innovation, Learning, Productivity, Time Management, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Babcia’s Tea Cake

Posted on November 22, 2021 by Agnes Chojnowska

I can’t believe that it’s already the holiday season. As I started thinking about this blog, I was also making grocery lists of everything that I need for Thanksgiving. I usually bake a pie or cake for my family and this year I’m thinking of making one of my grandma’s tea cakes. Growing up I would always help my grandma and mom cook and bake. They don’t use measurements, if anything is written down it usually says something like add a little bit of flour and some eggs. When I would ask what a little means, they would say you have to see it and feel it. When I was little I took that a fact, that someday I would also just know that the dough didn’t look right and then know exactly what to add to make it better. Sadly, as an adult I never developed their skill – maybe it’s because of the lab background but I need all the measurements precisely written out. It’s been a lot of trial and error over the years, but I’ve slowly started compiling measurements for my grandma’s recipes. I thought this holiday season I would share one. Below is what she called her cream cheese tea cake. Hope you enjoy!

Cake:

1 egg

1 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ cup butter

1 cup sugar

3 cups flour

Filling:

½ cup sugar

1 egg

16 ounces cream cheese (soften) – can use 8 ounces cream cheese and 8 ounces ricotta cheese for a lighter cake.

Topping:

½ cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup butter

½ cup chopped pecans (optional)

 

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350F. Grease pan – I usually use the standard 9×13 inch baking pan

Step 2: Mix ½ cup butter, 1 egg and 1 cup sugar. After it’s smooth add 1 cup sour cream and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

Step 3: Slowly stir in 3 cups of flour, 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp baking powder. Mix until it becomes a dough.

Step 4: Cut the dough in half and spread half of it evenly into the baking pan.

Step 5: Mix the filling together – 16 ounces of cream cheese, ½ cup sugar and 1 egg until it’s smooth. Pour filling over the dough in the baking dish.

Step 6: Tear remaining dough and drop it in over the filling. I usually do this by the spoonful. It should cover the top without the filling showing.

Step 7: Mix the topping together – 1/3 cup flour, 1/3 cup butter, ½ cup brown sugar and pecans. Crumble it on top of the dough. The reason we tear the dough in step 6 is so some of the topping goes in between the dough pieces.

Step 8: Bake for 40 mins. My grandma always used the toothpick tick to see if it was done.

Posted in Fun, Knowledge Areas | 4 Comments

Year End Reflections_What’s Ahead for 2022

Posted on October 25, 2021 by Theresa Falzarano

Every year around this time I reflect upon the previous year and assess my performance.  I enjoy this time of self-reflection and try to dedicate a good amount of time to thinking about what went well and what I am grateful for and what was challenging.  This process usually entails me digging back into various artifacts of each project to get reacquainted with them.

I had the opportunity to serve as a project manager on four initiatives all varying in scope in 2021.  I am grateful to have met so many talented colleagues across the institute and have a chance learn more about the inner workings of Dana-Farber.  In reflecting on my projects, my primary finding is that while I am an effective project manager, there are always areas where I can adapt my techniques across the various projects at Dana-Farber.  Based on this finding, I have developed a plan to focus in on some topics I’d like to explore more deeply.

I am grateful for all the resources we have available at DFCI such as the Project University classes.  Since I have already taken most of the classes in the Project Management track, I will instead explore classes in the Process Improvement and Soft Skills tracks this year. You can enroll for these classes and more via HealthStream by searching for the class title in the catalog tab.

  • Influencing Without Authority
  • Presenting and Public Speaking
  • Delegation
  • Current State Analysis Part 1: Qualitative
  • Creating Process Maps
  • Training Design and Delivery
  • Team Dynamics

DFCI Learning and Organizational Development also offers classes on some very interesting topics that are also assessable via HealthStream.

  • Introduction to Emotional Intelligence
  • Introduction to Mindfulness at Work
  • Conflict Management

LinkedIn learning is another great resource with a wide variety of courses.  My top picks for 2022 are as follows.

  • OneNote 2016 Essential Training
  • Inclusive Mindset
  • Top Tips for Creating Engaging Video Meetings
  • Writing with Impact

Lastly, I will also be taking the DISC and Clifton Strengths assessments self-assessments to glean some additional insights.

  • The DISC assessment measures your dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness and helps you to better understand your communication style and build more effective relationships.
  • The Clifton Strengths Finder helps you identify your top five strengths so you can be clear on exactly where you have the greatest potential to make the biggest impact.

One final step in this process is to create a vision board to capture my goals for the upcoming year but with phrases and pictures that you can easily cut out from magazines etc.  This is a fun way to stay mindful of my goals, so I don’t lose sight of them throughout the year.  Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and productive year ahead!

Vision Board

 

Posted in Fun, Innovation, Leadership, Learning, Motivation, Planning | 4 Comments

Our Dream Team

Posted on October 15, 2021 by Deb Cote

When we started this blog 10 years ago, one of the goals besides sharing knowledge, stories, and ideas was for the contributors to share something about themselves so that readers would get to know our team and its individual members. Usually something subtle, like “when on a hike” or “in my book club” or “during my recent kitchen rehab” set the stage for their blog post and gave a little nugget of information on the author.

Our team has grown quite a bit since those early blogging days. We have different personalities, roles, skill sets, work styles, experiences, and more. But no matter the differences, we are truly lucky to have a team that gets along and cares about each other, which in turn makes us more collaborative, innovative, and productive.

Working on performance reviews has me thinking about each team member. Instead of sharing something about myself, I’d like to share something about each of them in my post. In alphabetical order by *first* name so Izzy “Z” doesn’t always have to be last!

Agnes Chojnowska – Agnes is constantly looking back and forward for Epic training to keep things going now. She is a bridge between DFCI And MGB resources, taking best practices to give Epic trainees the best experience we can. She recently shared Polish holiday traditions with us and we all want to have dinner at her place.

Bridget McLaughlin – Bridget makes sure The AdvISor reaches our mailboxes and SharePoint site each quarter as a nicely formatted publication. She’s become adept at SharePoint Communications sites, and has expanded her role for Epic upgrades thanks to her organizational and communication focus. She is very family oriented and whenever I see her add vacation time to our calendar to go visit them, it makes me smile.

David Pesta – David cares immensely about providing professional development to everyone at DFCI and he researches opportunities endlessly, drawing on industry trends and his own insight. He takes his work seriously, but not himself. David’s sense of humor is both verbal and in his writing. I’m laughing just thinking about it now.

Dimitri Makrigiorgos – A colleague asked if I would consider Dimitri as a college intern, because even though he was a computer science major, he was more interested in project management. What a lucky stroke of fate. An incredible contributor since his first day, we hired him full time post internship. One year I jokingly “assigned BFFs” to pair our team up for internal projects. I assigned him to me so I could keep up with his generation. I learn as much from him as he does from me.

Doug Miller – One of the reasons Doug joined our team was his experience in numerous disciplines, skills we never thought we’d find in the same person. No surprise that he brings so much more than we realized, and he has quickly become a trusted advisor. Even though he doesn’t understand my use of postage stamps.

Islam Zinxhirija – Hundreds of people know Izzy for his incredible technical support skills, which are second only to his technical support “bedside manner”. He has a voracious appetite for learning and now also creates solutions for colleagues in addition to helping with fixes or training needs. Izzy lives in a multigenerational home that when I retire, that’s where I’m moving.

Janet Dougherty – After years as a teacher, Janet shifted to corporate training and even has her PMP. I haven’t found anything she can’t learn and create an educational resource for others. She is always happy and it’s infectious. I love meetings with Janet. And if she’s not in the office, she’s walking. She walks everywhere.

Jennifer Robinson – After working for several years at MGB, Jennifer was ready for a change. She reached out to me, knowing each other from MGB and the PMI Mass Bay Chapter. Soon after we had an opening that I thought she might be interested in. Onboarded 100% remotely, she hasn’t missed a beat in integrating with the team and I’m so appreciative of her project management skills and her knowledge of Office collaboration tools. Can’t wait to spend more time in person when we can.

Jess Cheng Schrepel – Also onboarded remotely, Jess didn’t have the luxury of already knowing some team members, but her personality quickly proved that to be a non-issue. She’s a mighty force in getting digital health projects off the idea board and onto the project dashboard. You may see her biking all over town. Although we’ve only met in person a couple times, her fun meter is conspicuously high.

Meagan Turner – Meagan has the longest DFCI tenure on our team, yet she is one of the most innovative. She’s always looking for new and better ways to manage projects, solve problems, and embrace opportunities. Meagan is outdoorsy. I texted her recently when I saw a sweatshirt that was perfect for me, because across the chest it read: Indoorsy. Despite that opposite aspect of our personalities, I adore spending time with her.

Ron Munroe – Ron was the first person I hired at DFCI and we’re so fortunate that he’s still putting up with us after more than a dozen years. He’s a gem – smart, thoughtful, and open. Ron is not only someone you want as your PM, manager, or colleague, he’s someone you want as your friend. Your brother. They just don’t make them any better.

Sandie Kimball – Hired only weeks after Ron, Sandie is another keeper. Over the years, she has managed projects for us in so many different areas; her experience is as wide as it is deep. We have a team of talented writers on our team, but Sandie is my grammar partner. We care about it way too much. And her sense of humor is heightened because of its unexpectedness, often having us in stitches.

Sandra Cadogan-Beebe – One of Sandra’s first projects when she joined us was the Technical Dress Rehearsal PM for DFCI Epic. Weird name, but at the time Partners and Epic emphasized the role’s importance. When I saw Sandra’s dedication to the project and role, I knew we hired the right person. Outside of work, she’s got so many interests and talents – loves dogs, has her motorcycle license, bakes delicious chocolate chip cookies, makes the smoothest gin & tonic…

Spyros Potiris – Spyros has packed more learning from work and school in his young life than most people I know, resulting in an amazing colleague to partner with. His process improvement background gives him an invaluable lens to look through tactically and strategically. Spyros got married during the pandemic, a happy event during a difficult period. And hopefully when traveling is safe, I will have a travel guide for Greece.

Tate Forgey – Another role that was proving difficult to fill due to its unique nature, Tate has been an amazing addition to our team. His technical aptitude is bottomless, but with that is an uncommon patience to explain anything to anyone. Even when something seems impossible or frustratingly difficult, he helps me look at it another way, or at a minimum helps me see the humor in the impossibility. As a fellow traveler, I call Greece first.

Theresa Falzarano – I met Theresa as a graduate student when I taught at Simmons, and she stayed in touch over the years. When she told me I influenced her career decision, she echoed why faculty teach. Those key students you make an impression on make it worth it. However, you normally impact them for other employers. I was thrilled when she applied for a PM position on our team and her peers selected her without reservation. She has helped implement project management improvements since joining, which will have a ripple effect throughout DFCI. Theresa has two adorable children whom we wouldn’t have gotten to know if it wasn’t for Zoom during COVID. Gotta look at the positives.

How did we manage to be on such a wonderful team with a mix of similarities and differences? Partly luck. And partly seeing wonderful qualities when interviewing. The one common characteristic that strikes me when I think about our team is kindness. You won’t see that under the list of job requirements on a job description. But if you consider it as non-negotiable when hiring, you won’t regret it.

Posted in Fun, Team | 9 Comments

I Don’t Think We’re in Kansas, Toto

Posted on September 15, 2021 by Sandra Cadogan-Beebe

(Author Note: written September 2, 2021)

I was in my basement at midnight last night cozied up with the two Sheltie pups, Gracie the cat, and my wife. No, we weren’t binge-watching Bosch on Amazon. And no, this time I hadn’t been chirped out of a sound sleep by the cellar’s smoke alarm warning of a low battery. Why this only happens during the nighttime I have no idea, can’t the smoke alarm let me know at lunchtime?!

Nope, we were awakened by a tornado warning for Southeastern Massachusetts, strongly advising to TAKE COVER NOW!

Wait, what??!!

Anticipating more than a few groggy skeptics – who would want to abruptly abandon their Sleep Number Sleep Bed to duck and cover just because their smartphone told them to? – the message warned that since the rain was so torrential “you’re just not going to hear this sucker coming, pal.” So…TAKE COVER NOW!

We don’t do tornadoes in Massachusetts. Do we?

I’m from the Jersey Shore. We do hurricanes. And just last week Plymouth dodged Henri. We are not in Kansas, Toto.

To be honest, the NWS advised retreat to the basement or any interior room away from windows. Darn it! This expanded ranch we call home has 11 skylights and 36 windows, give or take. And an open layout. We don’t have interior windowless spaces. OMG, into the basement we go.

tornado(Credit: Boston.com)

Truthfully, my basement sucks. The only good thing about it is I have a nice stash of coveted craft beers cellaring away down there. And the basement is always dry. It’s unfinished, dusty, has spider webs in the rafters, and except for the 90 square foot space leading to the bulkhead walkout, it’s a crawl space. Of course, it’s dusty and spidery in my basement, we don’t have tornadoes in Plymouth!

In 8 years of residency, the cat and dogs had never seen the basement before last night. To them, the door leads down to the not so vast unknown. They were not impressed.

Ultimately, we are unscathed and safe, and with a win record the Red Sox would die for this late in the season, 2 for 2 dodging huge weather events this last couple weeks.

I know what you’re wondering. Yes, of course I checked the smoke alarm battery while hunkered down in the basement. Yes, it was a bit stressful. No, I didn’t crack open any of the Founders KBS. No bottle opener in the basement. I might have looked for one, though. We’re going to have to plan much better for the next crazy weather event.

Posted in Lessons Learned, Planning, Team, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Any Change Will Do!

Posted on September 2, 2021 by Janet Dougherty

I struggle with change at times, and certainly the last eighteen months have been more “change heavy” than is normal for many of us.  For me, while change can be challenging and exhausting it can also be energizing.

We all manage changes to our routines continuously from a young age.  We ask our children to transition from a summer schedule to a school schedule and then back again.  We ask them to switch teachers and classrooms every 12 months, requiring them to learn new routines and adapt to new environments in the process.  As adults many of us move, change marital status, have children, and change jobs; any one of these would be considered a major life change.  But there are many changes that we make constantly that are not considered major changes.  For me, these types of smaller changes frequently help adjust my perspective and give me renewed energy to tackle a task.

Whenever I feel dullness creeping into my routine I know that I only need to make a few small changes to perk things up.  Changing location from one part of the house to another for reading or work can change my perspective and add interest to the task at hand.  Even something as minor as swiveling my desk chair around to a new direction enables me to notice my surroundings from a new angle; perhaps I notice something in a novel way from this angle.  Changing my daily routine just slightly, for example getting up 30 minutes earlier or sitting in a different place for my morning coffee, is enough to inject some added energy.  I’m fortunate to be able to walk to work and I have multiple routes I can take to get there.  Varying even part of the route keeps it interesting and undoubtedly helps me have a more productive day.  Beginning a new project, whether for work or for home, always energizes me.

By making a small change in your routine or your location you can reap much greater benefits than you might assume would result.  If you attempt a small change to your routine, try it for awhile and don’t feel like it’s benefitting you then change it again or change it back to the original.  And that’s another change!

Posted in Motivation, Productivity | 2 Comments

Time Management While Remote

Posted on August 17, 2021 by Bridget McLaughlin

Going on 17 months working remote it has been a journey to find a way to work productively at home without burn out. During the warmer days this summer I decided to commit to creating a healthy working schedule focusing on my peak and pit hours. What time of day am I most productive and what times of day do I need a mental break?

I started out by finding the time of the day I was most energized and would be the most productive, my peak. On Monday mornings, I began writing down a list of things I would like to accomplish in the week and prioritized the tasks, including personal tasks. Physically writing down the work I needed to prioritize throughout the week helped me to minimize distractions during my peak hours. Building this self-awareness allowed me to understand which tasks were urgent and important vs. not urgent and important.

Planning out my days ahead of time allowed me to determine what support I would need, what was my biggest prioritization challenge and what is one commitment I can make to focus on the not urgent but important tasks. Rearranging my responsibilities around my peak hours has made a huge impact on my productivity.

This past month I have started my days at the start of my peak hours, taking a run in the morning, logging on by 7:30am and catching up on emails. This has allowed me to take on my To-Do list with a clear head and ready for the workday. The early start has also helped with taking the 25 to 30 minute lunch break in the afternoon and stepping away from the computer. Prioritizing my tasks and realizing my peak vs. pit hours in the day has improved my time management skills. I encourage you this week to write down one goal to work on and share with a colleague or friend to stay accountable.

Posted in Lessons Learned, Planning, Productivity, Time Management | 2 Comments

I Wish I Was a Goldfish

Posted on August 10, 2021 by Dimitri Makrigiorgos

With the recent return to somewhat-normalcy, I’ve been able to get out of the house and see my friends more. I was at a friend’s house recently watching a T.V. show called Ted Lasso. It’s a comedy starring Jason Sudeikis about an American football coach who gets hired to coach a professional soccer team in England. The show is funny but also very inspiring; Ted knows nothing about soccer but has such a positive mindset that he manages to win over the hearts of his team, his staff, and the locals. While Ted is coaching practice, Sam, one of the players, makes a bad pass and loses the ball for his team. Sam is from Nigeria and has been struggling with his confidence since he moved to England, away from his family, friends, and culture. Ted calls him over and Sam apologizes, expecting to be chastised. Instead, Ted asks, “Sam, do you know what the happiest animal on earth is?” When Sam looks confused, Ted continues, “It’s a goldfish – do you know why?” Sam shakes his head, and Ted continues, “It’s because they have a ten-second memory. Be a goldfish, Sam.”

As a PM, part of my job is dedicated towards “worrying.” More officially, it’s called “risk planning.” Good PMs are supposed to think about what could go wrong with their project and develop a contingency plan should the risk become an issue. It’s definitely an important thing to do – projects can fail because of a lack of risk planning, or they can succeed despite curveballs because your team anticipated something in advance.

However, I think there’s also some value in “being a goldfish” at the right times. I took this quote from Ted to mean that it’s important to stay focused on the present, not to dwell on past mistakes or worry too much about things that may never happen. While it is important to consider the potential risks in a project, it’s also crucial to make sure that you don’t get stuck in “analysis paralysis”, where you and your team discuss all the exceptions, things that could go wrong, etc. and never end up making any progress.

I’m managing the Livelink Migration project right now, and we’re migrating data that we’ve been storing on Livelink for the past 20+ years to SharePoint. Livelink is used throughout the institute, and we had over 300 workspaces to migrate, each with a different owner and group of users. As we were planning the migration, our team kept discussing the users that would be exceptions: Group A who will need to have very secure permissions, or Group B who has critical processes that can’t have any downtime. The migration experts that we hired encouraged us not to focus on those exceptions in the beginning, but instead to iron out a standard migration process for an average group of users and begin migrating these typical groups. It was tough for us to shift our focus, but it was the right decision. Once we created an end-to-end process for migrating a standard group, we became more confident in our knowledge of the migration process, and as we realized that the groups with exceptions were the minority of our users, we had more time to focus on and determine a solution for each one.

From this experience, I learned that it’s important to stay in the present, and to make sure that risk planning for potential issues doesn’t prevent you from making daily progress on the tasks you can do immediately. One potential solution is to segment your recurring team meetings. Spend the first 50 minutes discussing current action items and save 10-15 minutes at the end for risk planning.

 

Posted in Lessons Learned, Planning, Time Management | 3 Comments