Interns and Value ~ Expectations, aspirations, realities in the non-Professional world

 

CONTENTS

  1 Introduction
  2 Interns vs Staff
  3    Where to go?
  4 A Program
  5    About their Aspirations
  6    Aspirational needs
  7    Aspirational values
  8    Program Framework
  9    Feedback
10 Points to Ponder
11 In conclusion

from "A medieval baker with his apprentice". The Bodleian Library, Oxford.*1

Introduction

Interns.
Internships.

Two honorable words sourced from the medical profession.
It's an upgrade on the apprenticeship model ~ “you’ve done your training, got your learner’s license, and in a year’s time you get your full drivers and then you can start practising.”

The dictionary definitions mirror this,

OED	Webster
The position of a student or trainee who works in an organization, sometimes without pay, in order to gain work experience or satisfy requirements for a qualification	An advanced student or graduate usually in a professional field (such as medicine or teaching) gaining supervised practical experience (as in a hospital or classroom)

but not so reflective of interns coming into non-professional positions in our economy today.

Sidebar! If your company is in the lowest common denominator, we can shrink OED to “The position of a student or trainee who works in an organization without pay to kick-start their cv’s” Then this post is not for you! Nothing to see here, moving on, moving on.

With that little bit of background. let’s talk interns and how to get the best out of them.

Interns vs Staff

When we look for staff, and/or look to be employed, our aspirations (and theirs) are a big part of the decision making process – obviously.

It’s a somewhat different look and feel when we talk interns, though.
Interns are on the threshold of their careers. This creates a very different dynamic.

Many companies have a clearly defined path for their interns, veering between cheap labour and talent spotting.

• In the former the role of oversight is dropped to the lowest common denominator in the existing work force. 
• The latter have an internship program which is designed to identify talent early, and then lock this into the organisation.

Neither are particularly interested in the aspirations of their interns, though. Both ends of this spectrum become to a greater or lesser degree exploitative. Of course, there are many well-thought out Internship programs in both the Public and private sectors, but they are no the focus of this post.

Because it’s unusual to ask the interns what their aspirations are, and hence to deduce their aspirational needs. I suggest you will limit the value derived from the interns, and so by the organizational and the team or area they are placed in.

Where does that put us

Now, If your company isn’t on the prowl for cheap labour or cornering the market for raw talent, what then?

•  Maybe you’re not big enough for a formal internship program.
•  You might also be thinking “we have all this additional work to do, we can’t afford a junior, but we can pull on board an intern and get the work done on the QT”.

The problem with these (and most other) approaches is easily highlighted: for work to be effective and valuable requires oversight. And having a warm body sit on a chair waiting for “the what to do” is boring and depressing for the intern, and irksome and time wasting for the manager.

Here is a program which might help you

(it always has for me)
Let’s start with putting ourselves in the intern’s shoes. Some really basic questions to kick off with, followed by a discussion on value, and finally some process. Addressing the intern(s):

 About their Aspirations

•  What do you aspire to be one day?
•  Do you have any thoughts on how you will become that?
•  What can you learn here which will be part of the foundation of that becoming?

Which leads to Aspirational needs

•  What skills do you (believe you) need to pick up in order to meet those aspirations?
•  What tools do you (believe you) need to learn to work with / about?
•  What things do you (believe you) need to know about in the industry (in general) and our company’s positioning (in particular)

Aspirational values: Tell them the following

The year that you will spend here will bring about a change in your life. We hope that this will bring you closer to your aspirations, maybe lay the groundwork for a career. While you are here, the level and quality of your work will contribute to our success. In doing your work, you will observe something of the effort, commitment, and time required to become a Professional in this industry; of our role in this community; the value it contributes; the quality expected; and the difficulties and issues it faces in remaining relevant. In other words, you will acquire something of our values, what we aspire to be, and this will help you to mould your own values in your chosen career.

Program a framework as part of their induction

1) Start by writing a short paragraph on your aspirations as above.
2) Think about, list and discuss the needs above. If you have additional bullet points to add, go ahead and do so.
3) What made you come to us?
4) What did you think the role of an intern is?
5) Discuss what you expect to do as an intern

•  Induction
•  Tasks
•  Oversight and feedback
•  Usefulness of the work

6) Which parts of the business do you expect to be exposed to? It’s also OK to say “I am happy to be guided by you” or “I'm not sure what to expect” if that’s the case
7) What kind of work did you expect to do? Again, if you aren't sure that’s also ok to say
8)  How do you expect your work to be measured?
9) What are the things that you have seen which makes you think that a career in this field is exciting and attainable for you?
10) How do you think your work will be valuable to the company? And to yourself?
11) Does your work might detract from the Value that the company tries to deliver?

12) As you continue with the internship, keep a journal of your experiences and motivate how best to make use of your role within the framework of the workload of the Senior people. In particular, journalise regularly on  9-11.

Use these Questions and their responses to

• Set expectations (up or down!)
• Determine a "fit"
• Decide on level of oversight, placement, position, work

Feedback

At regular intervals and at the end of the internship, measure how expectations are/were met by revisiting Questions 5 to 11. Add these:
13) What would you do differently if you were to run an internship program?
14) Think about your experiences to date, and suggest changes (where needed)

Points to Ponder

Young people go in one of two direction: self-indulgence or sleeves rolled up. The difference really comes down to motivation. Even innately lazy kids step up to the plate if they “get” your message.

Cautionary! It’s a mistake to make the internship “all about them”. They are with us first and foremost to work, and only through work, to learn. In many ways, an internship is partly an apprenticeship and partly a mentorship: they learn that their value comes from what they do, how well they do it, and by observing and listening, discover a model for their future careers.

With this in mind, I did these things especially with my interns:

•    I made real sure that they would understand how what they were doing was valuable, and how it released me to spend more time on the critical aspects of success. Without them, success was lower, with them, raised the bar. So work that might seem trivial is shown always to be, in its own way a critical part of overall success. But if done poorly, requiring re-work and too much oversight, pulled us back. To be in the team they had to work really hard, and with genuine enthusiasm.
•    At regular intervals we would do lessons learned. This was part of a promise to provide insight into the my job, and their contribution to my (hence the team’s) success. Regular isn’t a diary designated thing. It might be for instance, after an event over coffee discussing what worked and what didn’t, and how to improve. It might be a morning into a filing job, to see what was happening, what issues were coming up, and to give feedback on what is happening elsewhere. This is also a part of the promise to help them to learn and understand the industry.
•    Let them make mistakes and then work the mistakes out of them. High oversight to begin with, immediate (and sometimes quite abrupt) correction, but always with an eye to improving their performance and hence our output.
•    Provide positive feedback on the outcomes of their work e.g. “I would have battled to find that xxx if we hadn’t got it filed properly. Made a difference in getting yyy out on time”. That sort of thing.

In conclusion

When people feel valued, they perform miracles. Interns only feel valued if you make them work hard, value the results, and strictly build up their standards . . . They need to be turned into foot soldiers ready to go through fire and brimstone and rain, mud and slush for the cause, because they know that foot soldiers eventually climb up into the officer ranks.


*1: Public domain image sourced from Wikimedia Commons

Being Professional: a Manifesto

Integrating the concept of professionalism into your working life.

if I wish to be a Professional,
I must behave in a Professional way:

• towards my work discipline, 

• towards my colleagues and competitors, 

• within my community,

• in my social and family circle.

It's all encompassing, because it comes down to the values and the behaviours we exhibit towards our Professional Aspirations. So below I offer you two things:

• A set of four Aspirational Values to live your life by and briefly what that means (see part 1 and part 2 for elaboration)

• A complimentary set of Behaviours to practice which align to the values.

It's stated as a Manifesto, a Manifesto of Professionalism, if you will.

 

****

I am a Professional if

1. I make a Life Time Commitment to Learning (a personal undertaking to the discipline I work in and a commitment to continually keep myself up to standard independently of my employers)
2. I encourage and work towards Professional Autonomy in my discipline (Belonging to a community that sets and maintains the standards that encourages the community we serve to place its trust in us - including codes of conduct, process and framework standards, etc.)
3. I am driven by a Personal Ethic and Morality (Work is driven by Personal behaviour towards our stakeholders internal and external, acting out the ethic in an unbiased way)
4. I Have Goals that are Distinctive and close coupled to my roles in the Services I am a part of (For all of us, there must be a clear understanding of our role in the process, how we add value, how we lose value and what we must do to maintain and improve it)

As a Professional, I undertake always to:

• Keep pushing the boundaries of knowledge in my disciplines (value 1);

• Set, challenge and conform to the standards by which the community judges the work done in the work place and discipline (value 2);

• Behave in a manner that ensures everyone who works with them and with me is in a safe space (value 3); and

• Always know and can articulate how Value arises out of our actual work, thus incorporating the first 3 steps into a valuable working life (value 4)

This is part 3 of the series.
the image is in the public domain & taken from the Wikimedia Commons page "Oath of the Horatii "

Four Principles for Understanding and Improving Systems

Edwards Deming is well known for his 14 Quality principles.

What is less well known are the four basic principles of Systemic Improvement that he identified and which underpin all his work. He called these his System of Profound Knowledge.

We could do well to revisit them whenever we~

• Look to introduce new tools and processes
• Do Requirements gathering and Functional design
• Solution architect
• Build Project plans and Programme manage.

In this article, lets unpack the principles and at the same time (for illustrative purposes) frame them in the context of Function Point Counting:

1. We must have a deep appreciation of our systems and processes.
   
   DEEP Appreciation!?
   What's that?
   Why Deep? And what's that mean ~  "Appreciate"??
   
   Well, it’s certainly more than a process flow diagram, or a set of documentation, I assure you!
   
   
   • Its an understanding of the process from the point of view of its strengths and weaknesses, its bottlenecks etc;
   • Its knowing more than the Main process: it's knowing its tributaries and Streams, and why they exist, and how they came about;
   • Its knowing the expedient things that happen off the record, and why these have never been formally incorporated;
   • Its knowing the shortcuts that people take, and why; and
   • Its knowing where the controls sit, and how they protect/limit/constrain the process
   
   How else do we take advantage of the good things, buttress weaknesses, and find points where improvement is necessary or possible? All the roles, values, responsibilities of the process need to be thoroughly understood in this fashion, and the impact of changes to the process understood/predicted in the same way.
Introducing FP counts must follow this principle: ie know exactly where an FPC is applied, what Gap it is filling, what it replaces or supplements, when it is pertinent, how this feeds back into the wider project, what the window of its value is, exactly: and how that is applied in the project and without. This does not require an expensive analysis with lots of consultants: just knowledgeable people who work within the system capable of collaborating and motivating back to Management.


2. Simply put: if you cannot measure, you cannot improve.
   
   This feeds directly back into the first principle, because the importance of measurements is knowing what to measure, when, why, to what level of granularity (because measurements abstract as they accumulate), for how long the measurements remain appropriate, and the time-window within which it is most important to act.
   
   It is impossible to set these things without that deep appreciation that he spoke to. As a corollary, if you do not have mechanisms to measure and improve, then improvement tools are a drain on the organisation. Function Points are layered measurements, by which I mean they can act at several levels.
   
   
   • The first of these is their obvious role as an estimating tool for sizing projects, and as an assist/traffic light in committing to work.
   • A second is across the project, to see how the delta between what was understood/designed early and what was delivered later conforms to a norm.
   Both of these are project focused.
   
   
   • They can also be used to normalize other metrics, as a way to make apples and pears comparable: particularly iro scale. You can do this by referencing other metrics to the FPC baseline. Getting this right is not trivial.
   
   All this goes to usage: how do we intend to use the FPCs now, at what point do they reach the point where we are confident that the counts are consistent; at what point we become confident that their ability to provide accurate estimates occur; and at what point they shift from measures within a project, to measures that contribute to continuous improvement: the point where Deming’s second principle is met.
   
   
3. The underpinning theory of knowledge must be well understood [from a training point of view and from a Knowledge base point of view]
   
   
   • Training because we must know who to train and what to train them with, the depth of their existing skills which make it possible to absorb the content, when and how often to train, what the context of the knowledge must be for its users, this most importantly, because we must at any time be able to justify its value in driving the organizational framework.
   • We also need this Theory of knowledge to guard against using tools/measures/processes/whatever inappropriately. Somewhere, someone in the organisation must be able to think things through and watch the process unfold: this is the point at which the first 2 principles converge because raw data becomes organisational Knowledge - ip.
   
   From an FPC viewpoint, what's needed is an owner who is process oriented, Business driven, and Technically adept. And who is not fooled by Statistics and statistical mumbo-jumbo.
   
   
4. You must understand the psychology of the workplace because everything is done through people, and (crudely put) without the goodwill of your workers up and down the chain: find something else to do.
   
   In the context of FPCs,
   
   • The counters must understand and buy into the counts they are doing, and must feel that what they are doing is valuable. This protects the integrity of the counts.
   • We must remember that they are not (yet) recipients of the value of their work. This only happens when time has passed. It is easy for them to become disheartened and (more serious) disinterested.
   • A QA process is needed to maintain the standard of the counts, this builds Business confidence in their efficacy.
   • There must be consequence management for those who do not apply themselves, meaning that there is also a KPA implication.
   • The users of the outputs must understand both the value in their existing projects, and the long term value (lessons learned).
   • And most crucially, Business (in particular) and IT must be confident that the tool acts as the intended bridge between estimation and reality.

Especially for corporates - tier 1 companies, and the majority of tier 2 companies – they must be clear on their goals (in itself not an easy thing!), and act on them confidently and with insight.

In tier 3 companies (and to a lesser extent, tier 2) this can often be done without a great deal of formality: a POC can be rapidly deployed and the intent made understood. Value can be extracted through the direct oversight of Line Management.

In tier 1 companies this is commonly not the case. They can prove it locally, but to roll out widely (and quickly) demands hard work and attention to detail, more than many have been able to apply until now, for reasons such as short-termism and cost containment.

---

Last Word

Stepping away from FPC's and back to the original argument. Deming's 4 principles apply to every endeavour, but they are especially pertinent for Project Managers and Business Analysts, for whom context and understanding is everything.

So the Lesson is, surround yourself with line-of-business people who have that deep appreciation of the nature of their business and then tease out from them the implications of the other three principles.

---

Buzzword corner

• FPC - Function Point Count
• ip - intellectual property - what you know about the Business, what makes it different and gives it it's edge, what you don't want to give away, and what you want everyone inside to use to make the difference
• POC - Proof of Concept
• Tier 1 multi-national
• Tier 2 Regional (national, or in the case of the US, State-wide)
• Tier 3 Local

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Further Reading

• Deming's 4 Principles: his System of Profound Knowledge
• Deming and Quality
• Dr Edwards Deming (on the W. Edwards Deming Institute)
• Function Point Counts - the International FP User Group has many links if you want to know more about this field of Analysis and Estimation

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Image (c) Author

Latent Defects: When software has something to hide

Just recently, I've been working with Service Level Agreements.

And, in trying to set up the right performance indicators and measures that will allow everyone a fair deal, the problem of how you handle latent defects resurfaced.

Most surprising was that neither the client nor the supplier really understood what latent defects are. So here is my definition, as well as some of the downstream implications, and issues that arise.

Let's start with a definition:

Latent Defects: Systemic Flaws that are hidden in the preexisting and current production system which will manifest at some unforeseen time in the future.

The idea of latent defects comes from the building industry. There's a slew of laws which protect the buyer of a property or home from dishonest sellers and developers. Essentially, the latest defect is a problem in the property or home that no reasonable person would have been able to find there, even with the most careful inspection. This idea is carried over into software development.

Latent defects are therefore defects that still remain after the software product has been placed into production, and which pass the normal tests of reasonability both in terms of pre-production testing and extended use. They lurk there, hidden deep in the woodwork when nobody would think to look.

Typically, the triggering of the defect is the result of an unusual or rare set of conditions, or an outcome of usage over an extended period of time. Latent defects will manifest a considerable period of time after being placed into production.

How do you know it's a Latent defect?

The easiest way is to process the set of triggering events against older versions of the software and find that the bug has been hanging around from some distant time in the past.

In the building industry, the rule of thumb is: if you could have founded by inspection, then it's not a latent defect. You just didn't put enough energy into looking for the problems. The same rule of thumb applies in the software industry. You don't get to call a bug a latent defect if you haven't paid enough attention to testing the system properly. That's just negligence, no matter how long the bug has been hanging around!

Compounding Issues

Because they have lain undetected for a long period of time, there is a risk that the cumulative effect of Latent defects is to cause data corruption and mis-reporting. To correct this it is probable that there will have to be data fixes to the System's databases, and adjustment entries and explanations to Stakeholders.

Downstream Implications

Sometimes the cost of making good is too high to justify full systemic repair, in which case the errors are left unrepaired, and the organisation makes do with manual adjustments and explanations to Stakeholders. This can (and almost invariably does) cause a high percentage of failure when the system is retired and replaced by a new System. The data errors present unpredictably to the normal conversion programs causing them to fail, and this leads to substantial delays and project cost overruns. Routinely, each data error must be examined manually using tracing processes that involve a disproportionate amount of cross-checking: line by line and record by record.

The lesson is: as far as possible fix the problems as early as you can, and don't leave them for the next generation!

Latent Defects and their placement in an SLA

Amongst many other things, an SLA determines the performance profile, quality measurements and Service checkpoints for the associated contracts. It governs the behavior of the people tasked to do the work.

The intention is as much to encourage good work as it is to punish bad performance, and it does this by ensuring that the proper expectations of the service are recorded, monitored and acted upon.

Latent defects skew the relationship. This is because, being unusual, the time to repair almost always breaks the SLA conditions. Until they are resolved, they impact on the remediation work everywhere else. Latent defects come in from left field, and can and do confuse managers and workers; so fixing them might well impact everywhere.

That's why we put a clause into the SLA that ensures that Latent Defects are accounted for, we handle them separately in the SLA.

They are the Black Swans of the Software Services world, and as such we expect them to be rare, and to handle them and move on.

If they move out of the rare space - then there is something fundamentally flawed with the system - and that demands much more than the SLA is designed to handle.

Illustrative SLA Entry:

Failure arising from Defects in the Configuration	Where the number of defects in Production arising from bad workmanship in the   Service team results in re-work, the following shall apply:
Latent Defects:	The cumulative work effort arising from these defects as measured  over the 3-month measuring  period exceeds 5% of the total	After due consideration and review by the GM (operations-Client) and the Service Delivery Manager (Supplier), Supplier will either refund or provide a credit for  an amount calculated by the product of (the sum of the hours spent by the Service team) and (the prevailing Blended Rate) of the excess over the percentage.
Arising from Production defects:	The cumulative work effort arising from the defects as measured  over the 3-month measuring  period exceeds 10% of the total	After due consideration and review by the GM (operations, MIH) and the Portfolio Executive (SDT), SDT will SDT will either refund or provide a credit for an amount calculated by the product of (the sum of the hours spent by the Service team) and (the prevailing Blended Rate) of the excess over the percentage.
Review of limits:	The limits imposed above shall be reviewed annually with an expectation of steady improvement to the escalation limits: ·           Latent Defects: 1% ·           Service Team Defects: 5% The outcomes of an improvement or regression shall be a material input to the re-negotiation of the contract

Other views of Latent Defects:

Some authors and authorities define Latent Defects as any defect that occurs once the system is placed into production. This is a way of distinguishing between defects discovered during construction and those discovered in production. This moves somewhat away from the original intention, so be careful to ask the question and set the tone when discussing with peers and academics.
An example of this approach is found at the Open Process Framework site (OPF) here:
 http://www.opfro.org/index.html?Components/WorkProducts/RequirementsSet/Requirements/LatentDefectRequirements.html~Contents 

It's a new Spring for me, Same old winter for them

If you don't know what you don't know ~ Honour those who do: 

A Season's lesson in looking after core values,
honouring and respectng knowledge, 
and rewarding the people who work in the Engine Room

A little over a year ago I had breakfast with a stranger in a coffee shop not too far from where I am typing this. Chance had brought us together: I had resigned from my previous job because my daughter was coming back from far-away lands and I wanted to free myself up to be with her. The question of gainful employment was furthest from my mind. He was looking for someone to fill a hole, help to move his ship from its present rocky course back into navigable waters and safe passage.

..

It was a cold winter's morning in July, and we had been brought together by a mutual third party. As we sat and drank steaming hot coffee and spoke about the challenges he had, and his vision for the journey, we both felt a sense of a common destiny and purpose. He had a clear understanding of the issues, and I could see clearly where I could make a contribution. We shook hands on it, a mutual agreement that once the space opened I would Lead that part of his convoy. Today marks the end of that venture, and it ends, bittersweet, with both success and failure.

..

The ship has changed course, and sails on a safe passage. There lies the success.
But the crew is decimated, the best have left and callow youths stand in their stead.
The ship's owners, knowing little of the work at hand, what it takes to deliver, or the carrying capacity of their crews, have responded to the successes by raising unrealisable expectations and punishing the shortfalls.

..

This is an analogy of course: in reality we are talking about COTS Software and IT systems:
the "crew" delivered a 51% increase in turnover, 47% increase in profit, the clients were universally satisfied and new, more equitable and sustainable deals were on the table. The owners responded by cancelling all bonuses and cutting back increases: excellence is not sufficient when there are shareholder pockets to be lined.

..

The collapse has followed quickly. How do people respond when they find their rewards yanked, and their targets raised still higher? The best go immediately, the second tier follow in the months to come. Delivery is curtailed, Sales dwindle, existing work can no longer be resourced, and quality drains away as juniors replace seniors. Expectation from existing clients were raised: the new course is working, but alas! The crews do not have the know-how or experience anymore, and those few who remain are worked to the bone: one by one they slip away. Without the leadership and navigational skills, the ship strays once more towards the rocks and shallows.

..

Deming said that you need a deep appreciation of your systems in order to create sustainable processes. If you lack that appreciation, then employ people who do, or who can realise it if there's time. Our owners did the reverse: With the best gone already, and income shrinking, they took to the fire pumps: sideline Management and start a round of retrenchments.

..

Let us change analogies for a moment:
I am reminded of a passage in The Call of The Wild, Jack London's story about sled dog teams in the deep of Alaska ... we are at that point where the team, dogs, harnesses and sled have been sold to a family of Southerners, who know nothing of travelling (or indeed, life!) in the near-Arctic. They know only of the gold they are hoping to prospect, and the smell of it is in their nostrils. They make slow time, they overburden the team, they quarrel and bicker amongst themselves. Time passes and they reach a moment where the lead dog, knowing what is coming on the trail, exhausted (as is his team) by overloading, lack of sleep and poor food, refuses to go further. They beat it half to death, then are forced to cut it loose and leave it on the trail.

..

As they move off, the dog lifts its head and watches as his team staggers out onto the ice, watches as the ice cracks and gives way, watches as the whole lot of them, men, woman, dogs and sled slide to their doom.

..

To reality:
The Leader is gone.
The lead dogs cut loose, and
the best of the pack have long since fallen by the wayside.
Those who remain answer to a Management of lawyers, and chartered accountants, and a sprinkling of old timers who have doubled their salaries by returning as consultants.
But since that was never my way, I refused that offer and will watch them from afar.

..

As for the Stranger and me: we are strangers no more, and the long journey has moulded us both. Its a new Spring for me, and I expect the same for him: but its the same cold winter that waits on them.
__________________

Jack London's "Call of the Wild" is generally taken to be a rather dated childrens story.
That's a great pity.
It tells us a lot about life and what we do to cope and survive.
You can read it on-line here :)

__________________
The images are from the original publication back in 1903, and can be found at the link above. To the best of my knowledge, they are in the public domain

Professionalism and You in the IT Industry

Being Professional

 Everyone and his dog (or her cat) claims to be a Professional these days.
 Every organisation likes to lay claim to that too.
 And most every product has a "Pro" version: For the Pros.

"I'm a professional"
"We do things professionally"
"Hi, I'm the Professional Services Manager"

Are they really professionals? Or is this just another manifestation of Fake News?
Let's do a little unpacking.
Webster has a range of definitions for the word, but the one that is most pertinent is
3: "following a line of conduct as though it were a profession"
which is about the behaviour of adherents in comparison with people in Professions.

But wait, there's more:
A person who is in a Profession gets to Profess (that's the root for all these words).
Webster, once again: Profess ... 4a: to practice or claim to be versed in (a calling or profession)

Maybe we need to look at some real Professionals for a bit of guidance. Those that the Law says are professional, and which has legal restrictions about who can, and who can't be in.

Professions are regulated

Literally regulated, you break the law if you claim to be a Medical doctor and aren't one!

 

Here is a quick list:

•     Doctors and Dentists
•     Lawyers & Attorneys
•     Chartered Accountants
•     Architects
•     Engineers
•     Religious Ministers (well, the law doesn't really apply there ~ but they seem to belong somehow)

These are people expected to know what they know . . .

and risk being criminalised if they don't!
To be in a Profession then, you are going to have some Education: High School is not enough.
Some Education? Oh no, no, no. Lots of education. In fact, a life time of it.
I hardly want to be treated by a Dentist who still believes in pliers and forceps!
Or give my tax returns to an Accountant who hasn't boned up on this year's regulations . . . .

In a Profession there is a deep commitment to formal knowledge, and skills, and continual and never-ending replenishment over time.

It doesn't stop there:

You know that I know what I know: Oversight, experience, practice.

Qualifying is not enough.
You don't get to be a doctor, or Engineer, or CA just by studying.
You have to serve some time.
Experience is built into the process.
Got a medical degree? Go onto an internship before you get your ticket.
Or Articled Clerk. etc.
There is an oversight process, and it's built in

 So what have we gleaned from people in Formal Professions so far?

• You need an education in the Discipline which is normalised across institutions;
• reinforced by ongoing and continual re-education and self-learning, also formal study, followed by 
• an internship with oversight from Practitioners leading up to minimum set of experience; and only then
• you qualify to be a Professional. 
• You become "One of Us. Accepted by the Medical Council; Or Institute of Engineers; etc. this is called

Professional autonomy

That's what you get when you are registered with a formal body and allowed to practice. It's a big deal, because only NOW can you call yourself a professional working in a real profession.

• It's this Professional Autonomy that gives you the initial Trust and Acceptance of the Community you will serve

The certificate on your wall means that they don't have to interrogate your qualifications or the right to provide them with services.

Welcome to the Trust Regime.

The community trusts you to do a good job.
And if you do a bad job, you get reported to the governing body which has extensive powers to reign you in, discipline you, kick you out, and even set the law loose on you.

The important thing though, is that the community grants you the right to practice largely unhindered and expects the profession to look after its own affairs. The basis of your expertise is not questioned.

Codes of Conduct: I do what I do

The governing body has a code of conduct which you must adhere to, and a clearly defined end goal in sight: "Mission" and "Vision" isn't some vague marketing con. It runs deep (witness the Hippocratic Oath). And people live it out in their lives. It drives them forward to long hours of sacrifice and hard work. And despite what many think, a lifetime commitment to your discipline demands long hours of study and catch-up, which isn't easy: personal life, family life, all live on its edges.

The hidden code: Morality and Ethics

Would you go to an unethical doctor?
Well, maybe a lawyer!
How do you feel about an unethical priest?
As I noted earlier, to belong to a Profession you also subscribe to its spiritual code of conduct, and this is as often as not unwritten.

Failure to hold a high moral standard is regarded as anathema, you can get drummed out for failing to behave in the way that the profession and the community expects.

The key Attributes of a Professional

can now be answered. Reading all of the above, we can arrive at four key characteristics which, if you adhere to, will give you the right to claim that you are acting and behaving as a Professional in your discipline

    A desire to gain and keep up specialized skills & knowledge

•     Tools, skills, education, process constantly keeping up with changing times

    Professional autonomy

•     Metrics, communication, delivery are not enough. A desire to be part of the wider community is needed, these replace that certificate on the wall.

    A Distinctive Goal

• Again, simply doing your job well isn't enough either. Your role is continually challenged, so that sense we give of adhering to a Personal or Academic or Corporate Code of Conduct which you are striving towards is a key attribute of your Professional competence.

    Value Realisation within and towards a Community

•     An Ethical Motivation 
•     Driven by our behaviour to each other and to the Community of colleagues, clients, and competitors.

Those four characteristics are more than merely items on a check list to be ticked off. They are a part of a value set that all Professionals worthy of the name would aspire to. They are, indeed, Aspirational Values, and they demand a set of Behaviours if they are to manifest in an individual. In you.

Coming next

In the third part of this 2-part series (*grin*) I will look at how these characteristics play out in our lives by offering a personal manifesto of aspirational values and their associated behaviours to live up to and keep.
You can also read Part 1 (the Conversation).

Putting profesional into "Professional Services" - Part 1. The Conversation

Professional did you say? Project Managers, Programmers, Business analysts? The rest of the pack of running wolves that make up the IT Industry?
Says who?

The late evening sunset chat

So we are sitting in the evening talking about this and that, and the conversation turns to doctors, lawyers and other professionals. The sun is slipping down and that’s OK, because generally that’s about the time that the kids have been tucked away and the non-PC stuff will soon come out: deep glasses with the remains of red wine make way for whiskey glasses, cigars and Port.

Professionals they are not, says Sarah. She has survived a greedy surgeons grasp, largely because her husband Tim insisted on a second opinion. And a third, who confirmed number 2's. Yes, says Keith. We nearly ended up paying for our attorney’s summer vacation. One by one the stories pop up, everyone has one, even if it is only second or third hand.

The Salesman

Several days later I am sitting in an office. A mid thirties man is giving me the Consultants con. Suited and tied, cuff linked and silver tongued. He’s from a big consulting firm, and they have just pitched for, and won, the outsourcing for entire IT department for the large firm my little one consult to. We are a professional company, he says. We won’t steal your staff, or terminate your contract. After all (and he gives a little chuckle) we are all in this together: not enough qualified people out there, after all: must work with folk like you.

He is lying through his gold plated teeth, of course. My ears prick up “We are a Professional organization” he’s saying, and before he can complete the sentence I butt in “what do you mean by that? Professional, that is. What does it mean, you’re ‘Professional’ ... ” I leave the dots hanging in the air. Last Sunday’s conversation has intervened between us, its there now, in the back of my head.
He’s nonplussed, but recovers himself quickly. Giving me a hard, careful look now, he repeats sections (no doubt memorized by heart) from the Corporate Brochure, while looking over my casual outfit, chinos and checked shirt. I can see that he does not rate me. I fleetingly regret not having come in more formally dressed, and I think to myself “We’re a damn sight more professional than your lot, Mr, with or without the fancy words.”

It’s the service that counts. After all, we sell “Professional Services” don’t we?
But while he didn't answer the question to my satisfaction, I didn’t have the answer myself. Well, not off pat, in any case. It needed some thinking.
That was some months ago: and having been on the mission, I think I might be able to answer the question. Its in part 2 of this mini series :) Part 3 is a manifesto to live by Of course, as in so many of these things, there is also a back story.

The Back Story.

Back in the early noughties, two things were going on. Someone I knew well had started a home cell to help the people in her church whose relationships were collapsing (or had collapsed), and concurrently I had been challenged by an MBA undergrad to justify the title of “Professional” when applied to non-professional disciplines, and in particular the IT discipline.

To answer the students was one challenge, to find some literature to help my sister was another. As so often happens, these two things coalesced and gave me the answers that I was struggling to articulate.
I was able to have a conversation with the undergrad while at the same time providing some guidancee to the home cell leader.

Coupled to my own experiences in life and work, a number of things informed my determination of what it meant, in practice and in theory, to be taken to be a professional in those other disciplines. They are, or were, the unwritten background to it all.

Chief amongst them work I was doing on the Theory of Constraints, Dr Edward Deming’s work on Systemic improvement, process control and quality and a book - “Ethics and Spiritual Care: A Guide for Pastors and Spiritual Directors” by Karen Lebacqz, Joseph D. Driskill. In the work place you may well know much more about than I do; but the book is a mandatory read if you are interested/concerned about the role of ethics in daily life (or you know someone who works in the space of spiritual guidance/leadership). you can get the value you need by turning the words towards yourself, and not as it's intended, as a primer to help others.

My Advice to Allan

Charting a way forward from the open door trap
So what should Allan do about his predicament?

• Is it all Doom and Gloom, or
• does he have any positives?
• Should he up and leave? (There's that should word again! . . . I'll talk to it one of these days) and
• if not, how does he behave going forward?
  
• and what about the company? What's all of this doing to the organization itself?

Lets take these one at a time, and look at the advice I gave him.
What are his positives?Well, to begin with he has a case for constructive or wrongful dismissal in the future. Clearly, the employer has caused a number of unfair conditions to arise:

• He has been disintermediated in his functional role
• Time has passed to such an extent that he can no longer be held solely accountable for any further collapse in morale (if there was a morale problem!)
• Senior Management have behaved negligently towards its shareholders by allowing the situation to persist

The first two bullets are clearly prejudicial to him and if he ever is dismissed or disciplined on their account he will have a strong case to make against the company. He is fortunate in that he knows that the situation is unfolding, so he can do some things to protect himself from downstream troubles:

1. Keep a daily Journal
2. Maintain his professional conduct and behave scrupulously fairly to everyone in the team
3. Be fully transparent in all his dealings with the team and the client

Go or Stay?
Now that's a contextual question. To quote the shyster lawyer "it all depends".
My answer is Stay if a suitable combination of the following apply:

• he is persuaded in his own mind that he has retained the goodwill of the key influencers in the team
• its not personal (i.e. the attack is on the team, and he is merely the quickest target to bring the team down)
• he can continue to fulfill his role without damaging his cv
• he can maintain his personal integrity and keep his sense of injustice in check
• there is no succession plan to hand over his duties (start immediately to set that to rights!)
• he is approaching a milestone that will allow him to disengage gracefully

Otherwise, get out as fast and as gracefully as possible. Without recriminations. This is a time to resign without apology or explanation: serve notice and go. Its a small world out there, and one doesn't want to get into a "he said, I said, they did, I did" discussion.

How to behave if one stays
Over and above the three points above ~

1. Try to avoid one on one situations. That way one won't land in the "he said/she said" situations.
2. Do NOT try to double guess who your accuser is. There lies a pathway to madness which will surely undo one. Let go of all personal feelings in this matter. In many cases, people who push back hard are merely behaving in accordance with their natures: its not personal. It's easy to fall into the trap of believing that people who don't share one's opinions are necessarily working for one's downfall. "If you can't let go of your paranoia, then get out of the situation".
3. Observe my Grandmother's first Rule: "If it's not written down, it don't even exist". Confirm everything within the team in writing. This is a great rule to keep in any situation. Sometime in the future I will blog it.
4. Build a succession plan. Plan to get out of the project, by empowering Junior Management and handing over duties.
5. Build a collaborative structure. This is a great time to build a collaborative work structure, its the best defense against team mates who wish to undermine Management or the team. Its also the best defense if the project is under attack, rather than the individual.

And what about the Organization?
Well, now, the cliched quote goes that a fish rots from its head, not its tail. But, as Joseph Wambaugh noted, "the whole fish still goes bad". So this is a company that is headed in directions that no sane person would want to stay with. It appoints Managers, and then acts in ways that disempower them. It allows Kafkaesque situations to arise. It encourages a playground attitude. It's Senior Management is clearly immature and naive.

My long term advice to Allan is: Sooner or later, leave. You deserve better.