The Goings & Comings of Ant! (Social Recruitment)

I’m outta here!

So, after 3 1/2 years at Trinity I’ve spent the last month weighing up the pro’s and con’s of a great new opportunity and decided that the time and the place and the opportunity are right.

So I’m leaving the great people at Trinity at the end of September.

I’m joining Andrew Woodward (Microsoft SharePoint MVP, Owner & CEO) and James Fisk (CTO) at 21apps as Chief Strategy Officer next month.

21apps is a relaxed, high quality, deep thinking company that enjoys what it does, which is provide companies with the experience, techniques, tools and knowledge to deliver the maximum value from their people, solutions and services.

As an organisation we are currently focussed on adding business value through shared understanding, agile practices, leveraging our deep technical knowledge in the Microsoft stack (in particular SharePoint) to help deliver this value and working with the community to share our knowledge and passion.

21apps also embark on product development that solve real business issues and deliver value like 21scrum which was developed to provide a simple, easy to use, integrated scrum tool that meant companies could do SCRUM without the overhead/waste in using/learning complex products.

I am so excited to be joining Andrew, James and 21apps it’s a scary move going from a 250 strong  Gold Partner to a 3-person SharePoint start-up, but it is absolutely the best thing I could have done at this point in my life.. The opportunities are immense, challenging and just freakin’ awesome!

Interesting (for me) the whole “recruitment” process took a month and was executed completely with Social Media tools (Twitter, blogs & Linkedin) and personal communications both face to face and on the phone.

No CV, no interviews… It all started with just a single Tweet:

AndrewWoody: Fancy working with me and @draken ?http://www.21apps.com/jobs/weneedyou/

Where am I & What am I talking about?

OK, hopefully for the last time (ever, ever ever) I’ve moved my blogs around.. a combined one although less hassle for me is crap for you and so I’ve made the jump to have three “on-line” focal points plus Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook of course..

So you may find that RSS readers and stuff go a little weird and need updating.. sorry about that, don’t forget change is good, change is everything!

You can find out more about me (CV, profile, latest blog posts etc) here:

• www.AntClay.com
• www.AntonyClay.com

You can keep a track on my Sailing and more “personal” exploits at:

• www.Soulsailor.co.uk

All my Business, Strategy, SharePoint, Social Media focussed ramblings, guest posts etc will be accessible here:

• www.SharePointBusinessValue.com
• www.SharePointBusinessValue.co.uk
• www.FluffyCloudsofInnovation.com
• www.BusinessValueConsulting.co.uk

So hopefully that’s all logical now and we can continue to engage and exchange value…

Freakin’ Foiler…

So I finally did it, taking into account some of the other stuff that’s happening with “me” at the moment it may not have been the most sensible move, but god it feels good!

I trekked down to the other side of Bristol, to see Mike Cooke of Aardvark Racing to  pick up his sisters Axiom 3 (3190) International Moth. Some pictures below (not me) of Mike and the boat last year:

It’s a decent looking boat, 3 or 4 years old, solid, would probably benefit from a new main at some point, but for the moment the MSL10 or MS11 (it doesn't say!) will do me fine while I work-out how to keep the tramps and the red hull above the water!

The boat design does look absolutely amazing, and I am bummed that i didn’t get a chance to sail her at the weekend, but I’m hopeful that I’ll get a sail over the next week and post some proper reactions!!

It’s not until you get up-close-and-personal with these beauties and look at they way they’re put together, the lightness of the hull, the form of the hydrofoils (see above) that you can see the class has evolved massively over the last 20 years or so that I’ve been watching them from afar.

I’m really looking forward to the challenges (mental and physical) as well as the new era of me making and evolving “boat bits” in order to get the most out of the class. There’ll be lots more to say about this topic!

BTW any thought as to a name for the boat? “Aerosol Ant Killer” was my thought.. what’s yours?

Bloody Impatient!

So now I have 110% decided to buy a foiling moth and got first refusal on a second-hand Axiom 3 through Mike Cooke of Aadvark Technologies, I’m starting to get impatient… I always want stuff I have my mind set on now, or at least next weekend… but I need to be patient..

I wonder how mad I am, but life is for living and this boat will either breathe life into my sailing or physically kill me!

Certainly I need to start getting into shape.. running around after 3 kids helps, but I think some sensible eating and drinking and masses of WII Fit may also help a little!

I’ve got Stevie @ P&B already lined up to sort a cover for me…I spent the morning watching Colin @ Draycote rig, launch and sail.. and I keep watching video’s and reading the “moth blogs”… hooked potentially, even without a boat!

tap…tap…tap…tap…waiting….excited….waiting…tap..impatient…waiting….

The Zen Encyclopaedia of Presentation Design

So in the light in such mediocrity, one of the key ways that I see we can excel and become the Linchpin in our own right is through the way we present our thoughts and ideas, whether this is in an informal conversational setting or formally with PowerPoint and mic’s and all that paraphernalia.

So I read Garr Reynolds first book Presentation Zen and loved it, it’s simplicity is infectious, it’s impact on me was phenomenal, I rediscovered what it means to deliver ideas, my interview for a past role was completely transformed, I read, learnt and gambled for the death of the bullet point and the re-incarnation of the story-teller… So I was very very curious as to what Garr could write about presentations next; the first book being pretty awesome around the simplistic, but highly effective techniques you can employ to deliver your message.

But Garr has succeeded, this next book is centred around the design principles you can utilise around, amongst a plethora of other things:

• Colour
• Fonts
• Imagery
• Transitions
• Articulation of messages
• Photography

I learnt a shed-load from the book, you really should go buy this book (and the one before it):

But, his last book you could read & learn, embed those take-away messages into your psyche and then rock-up at your next opportunity to present ideas with some awesome innovation and techniques to make you rock…This book is different.

This book does absolutely, through the great style of writing and the emphasis of simplicity, deliver messages subliminally to your “art” of presenting, but there is so much more detail and technique in PresentationZen Design that it’s not the sort of book that gets read and popped onto the shelf or leant out to your colleagues, you need to keep this book by your side, dip in to refresh your mind or to replay the lessons or deck ideas brilliantly laid out within its pages. This book is your:

Zen Encyclopaedia of Presentation Design

If you are passionate about improving your presenting skills and the quality of your decks then go buy this book now please… for me, for your audience, for your message?

I Want it Wet & Wild – A Mid-life Crisis?

So, I think I want one of these… I’ve got the Miracle for sailing with the kids, but I do miss getting on the water on my own, don’t forget my roots are in the Optimist..single-handed sailing is something that I’ll never grow out…

Actually I really want one of these, its a foiling International Moth...

So currently I’m looking to invest, purchase, blow some money on a Foiling International Moth..

I may get a Low-Rider i.e. a non-hydrofoil one, play with that for a while and then get it converted… but ideally, mad, stupid, insane or not, I want to go straight into a foiler….

The challenge will be awesome, just check out the footage below taken at the Moth Worlds being held in Dubai currently…

So, the old, the original, Soulsailor, may be back with blog posts about the thrills and spills of trying to go freakin’ fast without, hopefully, seriously injuring myself..

So, the plan is:

1. Convince wife the investment is worth it (gotta be better than a sports car?)
2. Any of you with contacts in the Moth fleet put the feelers out (sorry no pun intended) for a second-hand boat
3. I need to get fitter!
4. I’ll keep trawling the web sites for a bargain
5. I’ll keep dreaming!

Fast & Low my Friends… Fast & Low & Close(ish) to the Water…

The Fear of the Linchpin

So I bought from iTunes Seth Godin’s latest creation from iTunes a a few weeks ago.. The audio book comes in two parts and during some of my commutes and occasionally at home I’ve been dipping into it and slowly working my way through the 8 hours or so of audio..

I like Seth, he has a great deal of interesting, challenging stuff to say… his voice works well in audio books (maybe he has a face for radio?). This book is another well thought out insight/self-help/business/innovation book, or piece of art as he may call it.

But I started to not enjoy it.. it wasn’t that he wasn’t making sense, ‘cus he was.. but he did seem to be banging on about “factories”, I’ve never worked in a factory, but my parents have, so although I can see it’s relevant, for some reason it feels distant and I didn’t connect. I found that lack of connection, for an undeterminable reason all the way through the first half of the audio book; I still learnt a bunch of stuff, I still got some of what he said, but the power and the connection wasn’t necessarily there..

But the second half…

Wow, Seth really started switching on some lightbulbs for me, that showed some scary insights into me and you and our behaviours that reinforce or work against us being the “linchpin”.

Disclaimer:- I haven’t actually finished listening to the book yet!

Stuff around a 2nd voice in our heads was fairly standard stuff, but the focus on fear stopping us from being freakin’ awesome and becoming a linchpin and developing a network of linchpin’s around us was extremely interesting. The leadership strands, seem to strengthen as the audio book progresses and I’m not sure whether this is because Seth get’s better at writing, kinda gets into his stride, or that I’m just learning in the first half and putting the relevance into play in the second… but persevere please, it’s worth it…

3 things stuck out on my way to and from a client meeting today listening to Seth..

1. Fear -  Don’t be scared, things fail, people fail, failure is good.. learn from this, don’t stress, focus on (as Seth says) shipping getting things done, delivering
2. Stop Checking In - In order to succeed, in order to become a linchpin stop wasting time through the day checking-in periodically (email, Twitter, LinkedIn, intranet, colleagues etc) use that time to be awesome, to deliver, to “ship stuff” & to make a difference
3. Gift – Give things, knowledge, gifts, books, time or whatever with no thought to reciprocation

So I spent some focussed time this afternoon culling my inbox… I didn’t get to “Inbox Zero”, but I did get down to only 6 unread emails. (Stopped Checking In)

I shipped stuff… No fear, no pause, delivering this blog post, reviewed a draft RFP response, a manifesto and agenda for a clients IT Steering Group, an agenda for a SharePoint 2010 Organisational Readiness session all done, efficiently this afternoon and this evening (Fear)

And finally, as I’d discussed previously with Matt Groves previously, I thought I’d buy a book, a gift for my colleagues at Trinity; so a copy of Seth’s Linchpin is slowly making its way to the office for you to read, borrow, discuss or ignore (Gift)

So, I’ve got a day’s leave tomorrow to spend with my daughter on her birthday, but Friday and all next week

• I’m not gonna let fear define what I do,
• I’m gonna focus on shipping stuff and not a stack of spinning plates
• I’m gonna give..

That’s all, simple, effective and movement towards my personal vision.

Personal ROI – Accept or Decline

I’ve been thinking a lot about “time” – my time, company time, family time…

I see time wasted all over the place, I hear people talking about wasted time, I see inaction and I see great uses of time and resources.

So I’ve had enough of wasting any time, mine, yours and everybody elses. To achieve balance “time” needs to deliver “value” otherwise what’s the point?

So from now on I’m going to start to re-dress the balance, every internal meeting, every conference call and every client meeting needs to deliver me, or my family, or my colleagues or my company an ROI.

Every time I receive a meeting request I’m going to question it’s value, I’m gonna do the maths in my head, work out the Personal ROI, then decide whether to click “Accept or Decline”…

• Why am I attending?
• What value will the other attendees add to me?
• What will this meeting/call add to our client?
• What will this meeting/call add to our project?
• What will this meeting/call add to our company?
• What value will I add?

Life is too short to waste on delivering “nothing”…
I am valuable…
I have something to add…
I am worth more than this…

Click “Decline” and go deliver.

LinkedIn to Infectious Generosity

 

Last week, now that my role has changed, I decided to request from a few close colleagues a “LinkedIn Recommendation” for my time as both a Strategic Consultant and Deputy Head of Strategic Consultancy. I don’t know whether I deserve any recommendations, but sometime you have to push a little to take your life forward, and I figure if people don’t want to then they’ll just ignore my request, now worries.

Christmas (or early February in reality) is for giving as well as receiving, so I decided to recommend some people I currently work with whom I felt at the time warranted recognition… these included:

• A Technical Architect at a client
• A Trinity project manager
• Two Trinity consultants
• A Trinity “technology leader”
• A Trinity solution architect
• And a Client Project Manager.

There are of course lots of other great people I do or have worked with, but in the spur of the moment these “felt right”.

It’s a cathartic experience writing a recommendation, but it’s a little weird when you push those little “boats of reputation” onto the virtual lake and hope that they get to their recipient and they are accepted and become reality…

Anyway, the deed was done, I felt good about the “giving” and life went on… One of the recipients of a “boat of reputation” (not sure i like the analogy anymore!) dropped me an email the next morning stating:

It’s nice to feel appreciated – what prompted this then?

I don’t usually give or expect recommendations on Linked in ....

My response was:

Decided this year I need to be more proactive in being positive and giving credit where credit is due..

Plus its always nice to do something unexpected!

So go on, think of the last 3 people that inspired, impressed or were just plain awesome and go to LinkedIn and write a recommendation.. Why wouldn’t you?

Reputation and attention are rapidly increasing in value, give the gift of a recommendation, it’s infectious!

Job One…

So after a fair few days of tweaking, the blog is now up and running, content is in from the old www.soulsailor.co.uk  and www.fluffycloudsofinnovation.com and I’m pretty happy with the layout, design and function…

This was job one on my way towards being Fookin Amazin’ – Now it’s time to start delivering quality adding value and engaging everyone.

Feedback is always welcome… but remember it’s after 1am when I’m writing, I haven’t been drinking, and its been at least 8 hours since my last coffee; so I’m kinda sensitive now… Any criticism leave till after my first coffee of the morning please!!

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