I’m starting a new series called Sequels for SQL Server. In this series, I point you to sites where you can go beyond the nose-to-the-grindstone resources that we see every day as SQL Server professionals. These are the story that comes after and outside (the sequels) of our daily working lives (the other SQL). Let’s broaden our horizons together. If you hit on an interesting but overlooked topic, I’d like to hear from you.
Professional Development: Because there are two words in “database professional”.
Peter Drucker, one of the greats in management thought-leadership, would’ve turned 100 last week were he alive today. Check out these top 20 quotes from the man who revolutionized management theory.
Society: Important issues to discuss with your friends and family.
Quoting the Motley Fool, “We spent the latter half of 2008 feeling the wrath of “too big to fail.” Today, banks are bigger than ever. We need to end that. Now.” It’s Time to End “Too Big to Fail”. Read this thought-provoking article soon.
WorldView: If James Bond knows that the world is not enough, then so should I.
The smartest analyst on international issues out there, Fareed Zakari, discusses US and Indian relations in this insightful article from Newsweek.
‘Tis the season for travel! With the PASS Summit just around the corner and lots of other interesting events waiting in the wings, such as TechEd Europe, lots of IT people will finally be allowed to stretch their wings (and budgets) to get in some first class training.
I’ve been a very frequent flier for a long time and seldom get surprised by much these days – exasperated, yes – but surprised, no. And I’ve certainly seem my share of fellow travelers doing it all wrong. The one thing they all share in common is that they’re not experienced and, usually, haven’t thought much about the upcoming trip. You know the type – they’ve packed an eighty pound carry-on and are then surprised that it neither fits in the overhead space nor is light enough to get past their waist line without a herniated disk. They’re the type who stands at the security line, backing it up fifty deep, because they’re trying to get a 2 liter of soda or, even worse, $50 worth of hair care products past the checkpoint despite the prominently displayed signs and constantly playing recorded reminders that you can’t take any liquids or gels of more the three fluid ounces in a single quart-sized Ziploc bag.
I’ve got a few tips to share, and I know many of my fellow blogomaniacs do too. So I thought I’d start a meme asking my colleagues to chip in their three favorite tips for successful air travel. Just to pad the results a bit, everyone can provide three beginner tips for the infrequent traveler and three expert tips for those who might have travel a lot. Here are my tips:
Beginner Tips
Here are some useful tips if you travel three or less times per year and aren’t too familiar with the ins and outs of air travel:
1. You’re at risk to forget some of your stuff in those bins at the X-Ray machine at the security checkpoints, especially if you’re hurrying to make a flight. An easy way to make sure that never happens is to put everything first (keys, mobile phone, belt, laptop, carry-on bag) and send your shoes in the very last bin. You might run off in a hurry without your laptop (I certainly have – once), but you WON’T run off without your shoes. Putting your shoes last means you won’t forget anything else in your kit.
2. Expect annoyances and plan accordingly:
There’s always a chance of delays on the tarmac, sometimes a really long delay, so stock a bag or two of mixed nuts or another hearty snack. I recommend unsalted nuts since they’re filling, fend off hunger for a long time, and won’t make you thirsty.
Plenty of time on the flight is “no electronics” time. Bring magazines or books to read. I, personally, enjoy writing letters (yes, using a real pen and real paper) especially to my older relatives who think computers are “of the Devil”.
There will always be screaming babies and obnoxious youngsters to make a nap just so much wishful thinking. So get one of those nice sets of foam ear plugs (a dozen for two bucks!) and a nice sleep visor. You’ll never see these people again, so don’t worry about how you look.
3. Packing is the novice traveler’s mine field. Don’t pack more than you need – one more shirt and pants than days you’ll be gone (in case of stains) and no more than one pair of shoes (over and above what you wear onto the plane). Unless you’re traveling to a place without electricity and indoor plumbing, you can buy anything your lack.
Expert Tips
Here are some useful tips if you travel, or plan to travel a lot during the year and know all of the regular things to do:
1. American Airlines is the only airlines with standard “cigarette lighter” adapters under the seats. There’s one per row in coach on their standard mid-range MD-80′s and one per seat in first class. An adapter is one $20-30 at your standard drug store. I prefer unlimited power, especially for long flights, which is on reason that I’m a platinum frequent flier on AA. Delta and United have proprietary adapters that cost nearly $100.
2. Prepacking with redundancy. It sounds a little like a level of RAID, but it’s really just a better way to travel if you have to do it often. First, get redundant computer equipment, such as power adapters and mice for your laptop, and toiletries so that you don’t have to pack up your regular office gear for the trip. If you don’t plan to do this, you will after a year or two of frequent travel because you’ll simply forget each of these things enough times that you’ll wind up buying doubles of most of them anyway.
3. The airline clubs are nice, really nice. But each airline has their own club and they’re expensive, in the $500 range, even for high-level frequent fliers. I recommend instead that you pay the $450/yr membership fee for an American Express Platinum Card. One of the many benefits of the card is free club access to four different airline clubs, which means there’s never an airport where you can’t relax between flights. Another less well-known perk is that if you book travel with AmEx, they’re often able to give you a “buy one get one” free deal. It’s always unwritten and not posted on any website. But if you call and ask, there’s a 30/70 chance that a flight between two major cities will have the deal. (Note that this is unsolicited advice and I’m not getting any sort of remuneration in any way for this recommendation.)
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose.
Dr. Seuss
Dr Seuss makes a great point. Only you can determine where you go in life and where those you lead in life (your significant other, your kids, your family, your business associates) will follow. What happens when you don’t have your feet in your shoes? What if you’re not wearing shoes? Or what if your shoes are sandals? Which direction do you steer? Do you head to the beach or to the snowy mountains? What if you’re not only steering yourself, but an entire professional association?
I’ve watched the blog posts and comments pile up throughout the community with eyes wide and mouth hanging open in consternation. In a way, I’m thrilled to see all of the discussion. After all, prior election were rather placid affairs. An election with a lot of discussion should be a good thing, right? Normally, I’d say “Absolutely!” However, the rancor and negativity have been impossible to ignore. In response, please allow me to walk you through PASS’ history relating to elections, as well as the entire nomination and election process to give you a better understanding for this situation in its entirety.
Before I go further, I want to thank the members of the Nominations Committee (NomCom) for their steadfast dedication and self-sacrifice. NomCom members include uber-volunteer Allen Kinsel (twitter), former board member and co-founder of SQLServerCentral Brian Knight (blog), PASS EVP Rushabh Mehta (blog), PASS executive director Judy Christianson. PASS president Wayne Snyder also sat in the sessions (since he’ll be leading this effort next year) but did not vote. The committee spent many hours of time on the entire process, frequently, at the cost of family and personal time.
The Context
Historically, PASS nominations were entirely committee-driven. In many years, there were only as many candidates, good or bad, as slots. As the years advanced, the board directed that the NomCom alter the nomination vetting process in several ways. For example, for many years, the NomCom simply rubber-stamped existing board members if they wanted another term on the board. After experiencing a handful of board members that were unproductive or even counterproductive, the board wanted to make sure that returning board members were subjected to the same rigors as a newcomer. The NomCom was instructed by the board to develop a set of interview questions to assess the candidates and also to analyze the candidates’ performance as a board member or a high-level volunteer for the organization. (An unintended consequence of this change was that some candidates without much experience within the organization didn’t pass the vetting.)
As time passed and the board seated many top technical talents, the board began to see a definite pattern of technologists who couldn’t focus on the big picture, couldn’t formulate strategies, and would derail board meetings with unending discussions of deep technical details. Using a hypothetical example, if the board was considering a strategy around collecting information and feedback from chapters (to better advocate to our founders and vendors about the reach of the organization), some board members loved to spend huge amounts of board time building data models and noodling over what sort of client- and server-side code should be written to support the application, when in fact the board hadn’t even settled on what strategy to pursue. That’s like spending all your time writing an application without requirements – worse practice!
After all, these other board members had all been great technologists and had willing spirits and giving hearts, but they actually obstructed PASS’ advancement rather than helping it. There wasn’t anything intrinsically wrong with what they were doing. They were simply playing to the skills that had made them such successful technologists and key players throughout their careers. However, it was simply counterproductive. PASS simply needed more business and leadership skills and less, yes LESS, technical skills in the board room. Consequently, the board further instructed the NomCom to begin assessing incoming candidates for strategic and leadership skills. And because strategic and leadership skills were shown through many years of experience to be at least as important as SQL Server-related skills, the NomCom was also encouraged to entertain nominations from candidates outside of the traditional applicant pool in search of those business skills.
The Process Today
As the chair for 2009′s PASS Nominations Committee, it’s my job to ensure that the candidates presented to the PASS membership for the general election meet the standards and objectives set by the board, the bylaws, and the processes and procedures currently in place. The NomCom had very clear directives and processes (at least internally):
From Here to There, Funny things are Everywhere
Collect all of the “paper” applications that come in through the Call for Nominations. (We received only 11 this season.)
Each member of the NomCom then ranks each “paper” application on a variety of criteria, including criteria like leadership experience, volunteer experience, educational experience, performance, and much more. Based on those scores, we looked for a clustered scores among the candidates. There is usually a clear break of a full point or more between the top scoring candidates and the lower scoring candidates, and this year was no different.
Candidates who scored strongly on the “paper” ranking then advanced to phone interviews with the entire NomCom. (Only seven of this season’s candidates had scores strong enough to advance.)
With leadership skills now as important as other overall skills and experiences, candidates needed to provide the NomCom with a vision statement for what they’d like to accomplish while on the PASS board. Then, the candidate had to answer questions like “Describe a situation where you were able to use persuasion to convince someone with an opposing view to see things your way” and “Tell us about a time when you had to much on your plate and had to reprioritize all of your projects” and “Tell us about your biggest successes in your volunteer/board work this last year”. (It is at this stage that a candidate can establish their leadership credentials. It’s also worth noting that those leadership experiences and examples could come from any aspect of the candidates’ life – not just PASS, or professional work, but examples such as the local PTA, the Girl/Boy Scouts, athletic teams, civic groups, and church activities were all acceptable and encouraged.) Each candidate was then reranked by the NomCom members with all new scores.
Since the candidate’s volunteer track records was given equal weight to their interview and discussion with the NomCom, a candidate who was strong in both areas would definitely advance to the elections while a candidate who was weak in one area or the other might land on the fence or, in a couple situations, performed so poorly during the interview that they didn’t advance. (Once again, there was a strong clustering of scores with a top four and a bottom three by a wide margin.)
While the NomCom wanted to put forward a slate large enough to have two (or more candidates) per open slot, the simple fact is that the NomCom only felt a strong confidence in four candidates. In other words, the NomCom felt that anyone of the four would perform admirably as board members and by advancing the candidate to elections it, in effect, endorsed them. One of the candidates, Tim Ford, who went through the tough interview process commented on it here. Once all the candidates were notified, they were allowed to begin campaigning according to the rules set up early this year.
The Fallout
I want to point out that a lot of the criticisms of this year’s elections are, in some form or another, a declaration of what people think the elections should be rather than what they actually are. This is a lot like assessing a family sedan for racing performance, and then criticizing it when the quarter mile and zero-to-sixty numbers aren’t too strong. The fact is, you’ll always come away disappointed. (Of course, I’m TOTALLY aware that PASS is too veiled about all of these processes. To extend the analogy, it’s like a family sedan that you can’t tell is a sedan until you get inside of it.)
Much of the turmoil seemed to start with Brent Ozar’s blog post and interview with candidate Matt Morollo. Be sure to read the comments! (I’m not going to speak to the specifics of any individual candidate, btw.) In our case, the nomination process was designed in pre-collaboration days before Web2.0 capabilities were ever conceived. Transparency was not a strategic goal of the board or of the NomCom, vetting the best candidates was the main strategic goal of the NomCom. Examples of this sort of criticism, and I’m not saying that the criticisms are wrong only that they target an ideal situation rather than what is currently in place, are illustrated when Geoff Hiten declares a PASS Fail, when Chuck Boyce says It’s the Transparency, Stupid, or when Andy Leonard says that only database professionals should be board members. Again – these are not wrong per se, they’re simply personally held views about the way things should be. Marlon Ribunal’s recent blog post seemed to reflect an awareness that NomCom policies are a reflection of directives coming from the board and attempting to help drive the board’s core strategic goals. Stuart Ainsworth, on his blog entry, pointed out that all candidates should experience a high degree of scrutiny and questioning. And Joe Webb pointed out that balance is extremely important for board candidates regarding not only their skills, but also who the candidates work for, what the candidate does in their day job, and much more in his post on the PASS Board of Director elections.
Times, They Are a Changin’
Would You Eat Them Here or There?
Web2.0 has definitely arrived on PASS’ doorstep. The board has, traditionally, not been motivated by transparency coupled with direct collaboration with the wider community. The gyre of Twitter conversations and blog posts with long trailing conversations are a new experience to many with a seat at the board table. While it’s important to one or two of the current board members, a transparent and collaborative approach hasn’t taken root with everyone on the board. Do you want that to change? Then I am directly calling you to action! Meet with like-minded individuals at the Summit in two short weeks. Identify a champion (or two) within the board who will spearhead the effort and then work cooperatively to build the proposal(s). But beware what you wish for. Governance changes are surprisingly draining on a board, especially if they’re expected to draft the new governance policies themselves. In effect, by retooling the governance of the organization, you’ll also be asking the board NOT to accomplish something else among the major goals for the year. Perhaps the very first proposal should be for the establishment of a Governance Committee that could discuss the issues openly and collaboratively, while taking the majority of the workload off of the board?
There have been so many ideas about what needs to change for the election process, many contradicting one another. Do you want to require a director to have attended one or more past PASS Summits? Or do you want to promote diversity between North American and other countries where Summit attendance is probably prohibitively expensive? Do you want to allow the board to prescribe a certain ratio of consultants versus corporate IT versus vendors? Or do you want the most experienced candidates, even if they’re all from one sort of career path? Or, as these multitudes of conversations have asked again and again, do you want someone who can sling some great Transact-SQL code or do you want someone who has a more diverse viewpoint with more of a general business orientation in their daily job? Do you want direct open elections without a NomCom or only a cursory check on qualifications? (Be prepared for a lot of candidates to come out of the woodwork from all over the globe!) Or do you want to have a strong quality-control process in place for nominees as a prerequisite for the elections? Would you feel good seeing a candidate conduct a train-wreck of interview in which that can’t clearly articulate why they should be a board member? That gives us transparency, but discourages a lot of people from considering putting their hat in the ring. Or would you rather shelter them from possible embarrassments? You get more candidates that way, though transparency declines. The trade-offs aren’t always so easy.
Let me be direct on a second point – not enough people are answering the Call for Nominations. If you want to see elections with multiple candidates for each open slot, PASS will need many more high-quality candidates each year.
Finally
I don’t mean to put any one on the spot or make anybody feel bad. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, after all. However, I hope that I’ve helped illuminate some of the dark corners of this process and why the NomCom put forward the slate of candidates that they have. Don’t like it? I’ve given you what you need to set about bringing change to your professional association. Let me know what you think!
Please join me for SQL Saturday #21 coming up on Saturday, October 17th. There are over 50 sessions on tap with great speakers from the area and across the nation. Some of the notable speakers include:
Not only do we have SQL Saturday coming up, but Andy & company put together five world class seminars the week leading up to it! Use code “KKLINE” to get a 20% discount if you register for two or more seminars!
Seminars will be held at the Embassy Suites in Altamonte Springs, FL. Each seminar is $149 and includes a full lunch. Seating is limited, register today!
Attendees of my seminar will get a free copy of my book, Database Benchmarking: A Practical Approach for Oracle and SQL Server, plus other free goodies from my employer, Quest Software. As an added note of explanation, Buck’s excellent seminar centers around detecting and troubleshooting performance problems, while my seminar focuses on writing high-performance and highly scalable SQL and Transact-SQL code. Why not sign up for both of them to get comprehensive education on the entire process of writing great code, deploying it, and monitoring it for continued excellent performance?
Finally, I’ll be speaking at user groups in the area leading up to SQL Saturday. If you can join me at my seminar or at SQL Saturday, maybe one of these other events better fits your schedule:
Tuesday, Oct 13, Tampa SQL Server User Group (http://www.tampasql.com)
Wednesday, Oct 14, Orlando SQL Server User Group (http://www.opass.org)
Friday, Oct 15, Jacksonville SQL Server User Group (http://jacksonville.sqlpass.org)
It’s my pleasure to report that Andy Warren has asked me to participate in the SQL Saturday Advisory Council. I’m really excited by the fantastic learning opportunities presented by the SQL Saturday system of events that Andy and company have established. They’ve taken great pains to set up a system of high-quality events that are free or very low cost to attendees. In addition, they’re leading SQL Saturday altruistically and transparently, as indicated by their blog. I’ve spoken at the Atlanta SQL Saturday and hope to speak at more in the future. In fact, the leadership of my local SQL Server user group where I’m active are trying to get one started ourselves. If you haven’t already taken a look at SQL Saturdays, you really should take a look, as either an attendee or as a speaker. I’m honored to be invited to participate with this team of servant-leaders and hope to actively contribute to the growth of the SQL Server community at a grassroots level.
Join me and many other great SQL Server gurus on September 1st for a 24-hour virtual event, 24 Hours of PASS. I’ll be there along with many of the great SQL community speakers (and personal friends) such as Louis Davidson, Kalen Delaney, Steve Jones, Andy Kelly, Brian Knight, Brad McGahee and many more. Each session is one hour in length with a 45 minute presentation and 15 minutes of live Q&A. Local PASS Chapters from around the world will be hosting each hourly segment.
If you live in middle Tennessee, northern Alabama, or southern central Kentucky, be sure to check out our great Nashville PASS chapter. The Nashville SQL Server Users Group meets on the last Friday of every month. Hope to see you there soon!
If you’re a SQL Server professional who hasn’t been to the website of the Professional Association for SQL Server, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Membership is free and, in addition to all of the technical resources that it provides, it connects you to a world of networking opportunities with other like-minded professionals. I strongly encourage you to register and then go the second step of creating a PASSport profile.
Once you’re registered, you can get access to many resources such as live and recorded webcasts, SIG events, and much more. Not to toot my own horn too much, but you’ll also get access to my monthly column on professional development called Plays Well With Others. My latest article, Successful Directors versus Successful Technologists, is about the sort of skills retooling (or simple growth in your skills) that is needed to move from a highly tactical job to a highly strategic job. You do have to register to see the article, but again, it’s free. (For more information on this worthwhile topic, take a look at Andy Warren’s post at SQL Server Central and at Tom LaRock’s post.)
I won’t spoil the surprise by telling you what the article itself says. However, I will make one addition point and it’s an important point to make. I didn’t have the skills that I describe in the article when I started with PASS.
That’s one of the great things about taking a seat on the board of PASS. You get to learn a lot of skills that might not otherwise come your way as an IT pro for many years. Why wait to learn the skills needed to be a great CIO or CTO until you’re applying for those lofty jobs? Why not learn the skills years and put them into practice years before your peers as a member of the board of directors? And although learning to build a clean and tight budget doesn’t sound exciting or building a strategy for an important new program might sound pie-in-the-skill, these are the sorts of skills you’ll need to reach for the C-level positions in a big IT organization.
