Green Eggs and Ham

Posted on December 11, 2011 by alexk

This morning I enjoyed a delicious and relaxing breakfast with one of my closest friends from university.  We had green eggs and ham which did not look very appetizing but tasted great!   It was a leisurely morning and a lot of fun.

Since breakfast I have had a very focused 2.5 hours at the library.  Although it would have been better to have a bit more time here, I have achieved my objectives.  I have created additional participant communication, templates for data collection, and a solid set of requirements to customize my leadership questionnaire.  By the end of next week I should have a clear idea of the number of participants and will begin to work with the HR Delegates at each organization.  I am leveraging my project management and communication skills significantly!  I cannot  overstate how useful the Pilot Study, that I completed earlier this year, has been was in helping me to understand what is required for this research study. 

I have been in touch with my second thesis supervisor and hope to connect with her, via Skype, before the end of the year.  I sent her the video link to my recent colloquium presentation, and she has committed to review it and provide feedback.

Next week I will be working with the consulting firm to customize the leadership survey and determine the costs of completing the study.  Work is still very busy but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I am taking a day off this week to do some additional research and have decided to focus simply on reading and reflecting.   I still would like to try and squeeze in some writing before the end of 2011, not sure how this will be accomplished though!

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A Really Good Week!

Posted on December 4, 2011 by alexk

I have had a really good week!  Invitations to 30 organizations to participate in my research study were sent out this week via email and I am thrilled that there were many immediate affirmative responses.  I am hoping, by December 15, to have received commitments from 25 companies.  I have had invaluable  support from both a CEO and his executive assistant so far, and feel that this has been essential to these positive responses.  I am hoping that my approach to have a designated delegate at each organization to help “stick-handle” data collection will pay similar dividends in terms of response rates.

I had two other positive things happen this week.  The first was a team off-site at work, it was highly enjoyable, both personally and professionally.  The second was receiving the official feedback on my colloquium presentation and also reviewing the video tape.  I was pleased to see and hear from others that the presentation was well delivered –clear, logical, and understandable.  Also, I felt that my handling of the Q&A was very solid.  One participant highlighted this on their feedback form, they stated “Excellent answers to questions, very thoughtful.”  Perhaps most importantly, I received very useful feedback on both my research question and suggestions for how to enhance future presentations.  For example, I need to be more explicit about the “So What” and the residual in my research model.

I have a few more weeks of heavy lifting at work.  I am presenting at an external conference, need to think through 2012 planning in more detail, and conduct  individual performance reviews.  Hopefully by mid-December things should ease up and I am hoping to take a 4 day weekend before Christmas to do some dissertation writing.  If all goes according to to plan I hope to take a two week hiatus from research and return in earnest in the New Year.

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Communication Templates

Posted on November 26, 2011 by alexk

I am feeling a bit zonked but am committed to one more hour at the library.  Thought it would be a good idea to complete this post and then resume my work.  Increasingly, I am finding my weekly blog post to be an activity that I look forward to, it feels  somewhat cathartic. 

From an academic perspective it has been a low productivity week.  Work has been extremely busy and I also had several networking and social events.  All were enjoyable but I am definitely feeling drained.

Today, I have been focused on preparing communication templates and tools for my data collection.  It was very useful to leverage the documents that I created for my Pilot Study.  I now have some very solid drafts and will solicit some feedback -particularly on the tone and clarity- before finalizing.  My final task for the day will be to revise the demographic and open ended questions that need to be added to my quantitative survey.  I am planning to schedule a meeting with the survey administrator next week and share the customizations that need to be completed. 

I am looking forward to having a quiet evening.  Perhaps some take-out and a good film.  Tomorrow I am having brunch with a girlfriend and then will depart for my last business trip for 2011 -woohoo!!

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Colloquium #3

Posted on November 20, 2011 by alexk

I am sitting at one of my favourite Toronto diner’s about to enjoy an afternoon breakfast.  I have just finished presenting at my last colloquium for 2011.  I feel an immense sense of relief and am eager to get feedback from my supervisor who was also in attendance.  I have been a tad anxious for much of the week about the presentation, but feel that it went reasonably well.  I also feel that I was able to give solid responses to most of  the questions.  That said, I plan to review the recording of the presentation to see if there are some additional learnings to be gleaned.  It was also enjoyable to listen to the other research presentations and participate in the Q&A sections.

It has been a full “learning” week because I was at a Leadership & Learning conference in the US for much of the week.  It was very stimulating to be among global Learning & Organization Development  practitioners and hear new research and ideas. 

Breakfast has arrived.  Time to eat!!

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Marathon Not A Sprint

Posted on November 11, 2011 by alexk

Today is Thursday and I have had a productive, albeit emotional, week so far.  I had a valuable, and humbling, meeting with my supervisor on Tuesday.  She had a lot of questions about my “elegant solution” for grappling with participant response obstacles.  The conversation highlighted a few things to me.  First, I was too quick to adopt this “elegant solution” without thoroughly thinking it through.  Second, I still don’t know the methodology used in my field of study to the degree that I should.   Third, I am pushing myself to adhere to overly aggressive time-lines instead of recognizing that the doctorate is a “marathon not a sprint”!

Sigh…  So I have let go of my plan to write 30 pages by the end of this week.  Instead, I have spent a good deal of time thinking about my research question, revising my colloquium deck and reading.  Although I had hoped to not do work this week, I have had to spend a few hours each day checking email and addressing some operational challenges.  This was prudent because I am only in the office next Monday and then in the US for a conference. 

I have also decided to maintain my commitment to have another “free day” because between research and work this week, I am feeling pretty zonked.  I will take tomorrow off and then return to the library on Saturday.  Tomorrow I am looking forward to sleeping in and perhaps going to an art gallery.

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Progress Not Perfection

Posted on November 5, 2011 by alexk

I learned the phrase “progress not perfection” at a sales training workshop this year and it is an appropriate title for this post.  I have just finished revising my deck for an upcoming colloquium and am reminded that although many things have not unfolded as planned, things are moving in the right direction.  I also completed a solid draft communication for my sponsor  ahead of schedule so I will forward to him for feedback.

It continues to be very busy at work.  I had to deal with several initiatives proactively in order to free myself up for a week off.   I am becoming increasingly comfortable with delegating, leveraging the strengths of others, and adjusting my expectations of my performance given constraints.  These changes are definitely helping me to manage more effectively.

I have mapped out the game plan for next week, and have decided to take Monday off for some R&R before I begin research in earnest on Tuesday. If I make great progress I will also take next Saturday off from the library as well.  The main goal is to READ and WRITE!!!  I am hoping for 30 pages over 4 days.

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Key Stakeholder Secured

Posted on October 30, 2011 by alexk

The meeting with the CEO went very well this week!!  I have secured sponsorship support which should enable high participant response levels to my on-line questionnaire.  He has agreed to send out an introductory letter to all of the company CEOs with a request that they confirm their participation with him.  We have agreed to send out initial communication by end of November.  He also provided useful feedback on how to position the study so that “the ask”, requirements, and benefits are very easily understood by the CEOs.  I also had brief email and phone connections with other stakeholders this week.  Overall, I feel like I am making good progress.

It is now 4pm and I have been at the library for 3hours.  I had a VERY late start to my day because I played tennis last night for two hours, then stayed up late watching a movie –lots of fun!  Given my limited time today I have been exceedingly focused.  I have refined my colloquium deck, summarized my notes from this week’s meetings, updated my project plan, and reviewed components of a Henley thesis.  I am heading now for a late lunch break and then will do my best to read and summarize a paper before departing.

Next week I am travelling for work again so it is going to be challenging to get research done.  That said, I am scheduled to meet with my supervisor on Friday afternoon to get feedback on my colloquium deck and discuss progress to date.   I am looking forward to the following week which will be dedicated to research.  I plan to expand my literature review, finalize my study communication plans, and nail down an on-line approach to obtain consent forms from study participants.  Hopefully I will be able to COMPLETE some of the key milestones on my project plan…

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MSc Business and Management Research

Posted on October 22, 2011 by alexk

My degree arrived in the mail this week.  I have to admit I had a bit of an emotional moment when I opened the package.  It was good to pause and relish the achievement.  Of course, after my moment, I looked at the DBA names and thought:  “I can’t wait until my name is in that section!”  While I know intellectually that life is about the journey not the destination, emotionally I don’t always live my life in this way -too often I am rushing through the journey.  The funny thing is that I also don’t think that I celebrate the destination sufficiently either!!   Hmmm….

I have had a fairly productive week.  I submitted a research grant proposal, and had a good dialogue with a US Company that I will use for the on-line administration of my survey.  I also sent an overview of my research study to a CEO that I am meeting with next week and followed up with a key potential sponsor of my research.

I am feeling a bit zonked today. I started the indoor tennis season last night with my partner.  Also, we have some family members visiting this weekend.   It is great to see them, but it was very busy start to the morning and we are heading out for a family dinner tonight.  I am going to shorten my library stint today and head home for a nap before dinner.   Better get to work!

 

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Starting to “Flex” and “Flow”

Posted on October 15, 2011 by alexk

I am someone who thrives on structure but I am increasingly realizing the importance of flexibility and having an “open mindset” to ensure that available opportunities are optimized.  This is a small example, but I had the unexpected opportunity to speak to a key stakeholder about my research this week.  It was the end of a very long day.  I had spent half the day in our Toronto office, and then drove to an offsite location to set up for an early morning workshop scheduled for the next day.  Suffice it to say, it was quite late and I was very eager to drive to the hotel to relax.  As I was preparing to depart I unexpectedly saw this stakeholder.  After discussing a number of business issues I was able to deliver a short “elevator pitch” about my research.  This “pitch” resulted in some dialogue which should set us up well for a formal meeting that was already scheduled for late October.  This was a short occurence, but importnat for me to note.  A year ago I would not have seized the opportunity to communicate this short “pitch” or been prepared to deliver it so comfortably.  It definitely felt like a “win” to me.

Along similar lines, I am developing the habit if starting to work on multiple initiatives simultaneously.  In the past I tended to be very sequential in my approach to tasks with a high need to bring closure to projects before commencing new pieces.  I have been at the library for 2hours now and have completed three tasks -refined a presentation for a stakeholder meeting, updated my project document and drafted a research grant submission- and I am now writing this post.  This is unusual for me because in the past I would not have been able to accomplish as much in such a short timeframe and would have adopted a more routine approach.  Instead I sort of “flowed” from one task to the next because it felt like the right thing to do.  Also, I don’t think that I have ever written my blog post this early in my library stint… To be fair though, I think that this flow is enabled by a good deal of structure.  Because I am fully aware of the many milestones and tasks that need to be completed, I have a solid framework in which to “flow”.

I am off to a lunch break now and then plan to dig into some papers. I am looking forward to the week ahead.  For the first time in ages I have no business travel –woohoo!!  I am also looking forward to being at home with my partner and getting a bit more research work done during the week.

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Hit the Ground Running

Posted on October 9, 2011 by alexk

This is going to be another relatively short post because my ride is arriving in 15 minutes.  Last weekend I was enjoying a mini-vacation in NYC with my partner so I was not sure how productive I would be today.  It feels like ages since I was at the library.  I guess the break was good for me because I was able to “hit the ground running” today and am pleased with my output and focus.  I worked on two decks, read a research paper and summarized it, immediately, into my spreadsheet.  I now have to update my project plan for the week ahead and pack up. 

Work continues to be exceedingly busy, but I am managing to find doable tasks to keep my momentum going during the week.  For example, I try to read a statistics book on the train to/from work.  In the evenings I have been completing internet searches for academic papers, scheduling stakeholder meetings and staying on top of academic emails.  It is not a lot of dedicated time, but at least I am completing some tasks. That said, I am hoping to take a week off work  in early November to do some intensive writing and reading.   

It is a beautiful sunny day so I am eager to depart for some tennis.  We are hosting Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow so looking forward to lots of turkey and fixings!!

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