Cam Findlay

Not long to go now and I will be moving up to Wellington, NZ Capital.

What is most interesting is that I will continue to work in my current job, but remotely from my home office as I mentioned in an earlier post.

I have spent a bit of time working out all the finer details, now I have in place a pretty robust system and have schooled up the rest of the team at Rock Star Recipes on the finer points of digital communication to make sure we all keep in touch.

For any one interested in putting together there own Remote/TeleWork proposal and making a case for why it would be a good thing for you company to let you work remotely either part or full time check out all these links to blogs and articles I came across while researching to put together my proposal (and I even went as far as making a power point presentation!).

• http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/sep2007/ca20070918_304769.htm?campaign_id=rss_null
• http://www.readsolutionsgroup.com/2007/08/remote-leadership-when-you-cant-just.html
• http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/08/11/what-is-remote-leadership/
• http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimLink?id=34865
• http://telecommutect.com/employees/approval.php
• http://www.mannaz.com/mail.asp?mailid=62&topicid=583
• http://www.v3.co.uk/computing/features/2072443/vodafone-moved-mobile-environment
• http://www.workingfromanywhere.org/

I will post some more on a few of the key points I looked at in my proposal as well as an outline of what I included and maybe even a cut down version of my power point which might be of help to anyone looking into moving their role and presence into more 1’s and 0’s.

On another 1’s and 0’s note I have just started a pilot project looking into RackSpace’s Cloud Environment (which has become affectionatly know at work as “Cam’s House”). All going well I will post some of my findings and reccomendations if your looking to make your web hosting and delivery of content more cost effective!

Check out Pranav Mistry at TED demonstrating his Sixth Sense personal augmented reality device! A paper computer, taking photos with your gestures, a phone call on your hand?… wow pretty amazing ideas.

Part 1

Part 2

Welcome back to 2010, it has been a while since I last posted anything Techy or Samurai related it reminds me how quickly we can go from leadership thinking to management thinking when one gets very busy (My company re-launched our flagship Guitar learning product Jamorama at the end of 2009 which didn’t leave me much time for blogging, a poor excuse I know!).

As it happens it looks like Julia (my partner) and myself are moving to Wellington! (NZ’s Captial City) for a change of lifestyle and a lot more Film and Television work for Julia.  So I am putting together a proposal to keep working at Rock Star Recipes but remotely!

Remote work and more interesting, remote or distance leadership is something I have become very interested in, how can we in 2010 with all the technology easily available to most businesses lead from a distance?  What are the challenges? How does communication, face to face time, company culture and atmosphere differ? I suspect a culture of great communication, trust and respect is key.

I’m hoping to document as much as I can while I learn more about this and also put my proposal forward to actually experience and work as a remote staff member and remote leader…

Perhaps we are coming to a point where there is no real difference whether someone is in the office or not as long at the end results are met and accountability is key. In the 80’s they called it “Tele-Communting” more recently it was dubbed “Tele-Work” (Perhaps to make it sound more like working for those managers who could not let micro-management go?) but I think going forward it will just be “work” as the technology and easy constant contact and communication from anywhere in the world becomes the norm.

More to come…

Oh, and for those who need their Technology and Ninja fix… check out the new Nexus One powered by Google Android.

A great video I had to share from the TEDxUSC conference earlier this year on tribe leadership, some useful insights and ways we can all become more inter-connected and interdependant. Joining your tribe to others and other tribes to others you don’t know will push things forward. If you enjoy this then check out the Seth Godin video I posted earlier in the year (be warned it a full hour length talk from him) or check out his book tribes.

Just a quick update, lecture for my uni paper have finished up for the year… I’m currently on some study leave to prep for the exam… wish me luck.

So whats next for the blog? Well I have planned a series of posts with some great info on how to become more independent from your computer and make use of some of the great cloud computing tools available out there.

Also before I forget a big shout out to Simon Waterhouse a great photographer and designer here in Christchurch for his help on the photos and design of my personal development plan(PDP) assessment. Be sure to check out his great photography here www.simonwaterhouse.com

Another shout out to the great guys at Silverstripe CMS… i used this to power my PDP website… once I had the design I was able to integrate and drop in the content in just under 4 hours work! A killer speedy content management system for anyone looking to jazz up their website.
My final big thank you goes out to Juliette Powell, Author of “33 Million People in the Room” who sent me a signed copy of her book… made my day! A great read if you are interested in social media, co-creation, and where things are headed online. I was lucky enough to meet her at a conference this year and really enjoy her contributions online through twitter and facebook.

On the leadership tip, I will leave you with some words of wisdom from the women herself, Juliette Powell, enjoy….

Last Thursday and Friday (8-9 Oct) I was lucky enough to be part of the very first national New Zealand Iaido Seminar held at the Auckland Kendo Club in of course…. Auckland.
It was a 2 day intensive training, grading and a good opportunity to network and meet the others throughout New Zealand swinging a sword in this age old martial art.

The plans moving forward are to start building numbers and really promoting Iaido in NZ and I am hoping that I can add my knowledge of social networking and online communities to work towards this.

Thursday saw a full day of training and learning some new kata in the Kendo Federation Seitei Iaido which consists of 12 kata (I know up to number 11 at the moment!)
It is interesting learning from others as each teacher does seem to put their own knowledge and spin on each kata.  At the end of it all I think gathering as much knowledge as you can from as many teachers as you can and then combining that with what feels natural with your own movement and focus is the way to go.

Thursday evening I dug deep despite extreme tiredness and a rather painful toe injury I performed the best I could at the grading and came away with a 2nd Kyu (ni-kyu) grading! A jump of 8 grades as I had been previously ungraded.

Friday saw more training and a Shiai (competition) and something even more fun… getting to invent our own kata!

The “build your own” kata concoctions were all very interesting with one of our (chch) dojos students ideas using an umbrella as a sword took it top marks.

The 2 days were a great challenge that everyone who attended met and got something out of…

Before I left for Auckland I flicked to a random page in my copy of Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s “Hagakure” (a classic Japanese warrior code text) and thinking back on it now it shared some insight into the days ahead, it read:

The talented rise to the challenge-
There is a saying, “As the water rises the boat rises”. When a person of talent … encounters a difficulty, his [or her] heart rises to meet the challenge, and the greater the challenge the more he [or she] is spurred to take it on. – Hagakure, Book 2, Line 42

Rather fitting I think! A big thanks to all those at Auckland Kendo as to all those who attended the Seminar. Look forward to next year!

My ratio seems to sit around 4-5:1 ratio positive to negatve responses with a conversation which is not a bad level. My less positive responses are of the “yeah, but…” type (Being a lateral thinker I usually always have something extra to add to what anyone is saying).  To increase this ratio even more I should take more time to practice active listening and reserve adding my my extra thoughts and opinions untill I have heard what the other person is saying all the way through and acknowledging with positive gesture and feedback that what they are saying is important before responding.

My score for the Losada positivity ratio was 4. The lowest positive emotion scores were in the “amused, fun-loving, silly” and “awe, wonder, amazement” areas for the particular day I took the test.

To increase these I could look at making some more time in my day to be humorous or watch/listen to something fun on the internet or with my work mates. Also perhaps spend some more time appreciating beauty in the world a bit more…. stopping to smell the roses so to speak on a more regular basis.

1. In your current or future leadership experiences?
   Get involved in more team based work and projects, lead by example with high organisational citizenship and inspire other to learn new skills, ideas and explore new ways of doing the same things things.

2. Within your university endeavours?
   Loving of learning is not a bad character strength to have in regards to study!  I could (and have) utilise this by reading more related texts, blogs and articles to a paper other than just the required readings.  Google and wiki some of the non-exam related facts and intricacies after lectures.
   Could also work in with other students when it comes to exam preparation and sharing the workload.

3. Within your personal life?
   I could find out something new about a culture or country I am interested in (at the moment I have been looking into Japanses language and history).  I am also one to share random irreverent facts at the drop of a hat with my partner bits and pieces I have picked up, read, come across on the net etc.
   

My signature strengths:

Love of Learning
Curiosity and interest in the world
Teamwork, Citizenship, Loyalty.

Just follow this simple flow chart! (Source: http://xkcd.com) Click the image for a larger view…