Got to run

Participation in a CPATH Workshop

2010-10-06T10:10:00.002-05:00

Here's an article that I wrote for the Carolina Communique about my participation in a CPATH workshop back in June:

Do you rely on developers for critical information? Then ask yourself this: would you benefit from them being better communicators? Raise your hand if you have ever struggled through a complex explanation of a software feature, or have puzzled over a terse response to a multi-part question. Isn’t it at times like those that you wish that developers had learned, in addition to algorithms, programming languages, and logic, how to speak and write more effectively?

Well it turns out that we’re not alone. Computer science and software engineering faculties keenly recognize the value of good communication skills, and they want their undergraduates to acquire them as they earn their degrees. They know that having these skills not only make graduates more competitive in a global economy, but that cultivating them actually improves learning, engagement, and attainment of core engineering skills.

This was the context when, in June, I was invited to attend a CPATH (CISE Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education) workshop at NC State about "Integrating Communication Components into the Computer Science Curriculum." Supported by a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation, this specific CPATH project aspires to build curricula that enhance Computer Science and Software Engineering (CS/SE) students' technical and communication abilities. They want to do this by integrating writing, speaking, reading, and teamwork activities into instruction and assignments throughout students' four years of undergraduate study.

Achieving this would not require additional courses. Communication outcomes could be woven into the requirements of core CS/SE classes. For example, you could have students in an introductory course present the results of code and pseudocode inspections to the entire class. Students in more advanced classes could work on complex projects in teams and organize and share results. Throughout their four years, students could write papers about various topics such as data representations, programming control structures, program constructs, and object-oriented programming concepts.

The workshop that I attended brought together academic researchers from NC State and Miami University of Ohio with industry professionals from NetApp, Fidelity Investments, Microsoft, EMC, and other companies. During breakout sessions, small groups of researchers and professionals considered the most critical skills needed by CS/SE students. Among the questions that faculty asked professionals was “what communication abilities do you expect a recent CS/SE graduate to possess? “ And “which of those abilities do they generally not possess?” They also wanted to gather specific information about the kinds of teams that graduates would participate in after joining the workforce.

After those breakout sessions, each small group reported to the assembled participants. The whole group identified common themes across reports and then determined gaps between industry professionals' desires for CS/SE graduates' communication abilities and faculty-developed program-level communication outcomes.

One signficant gap identified was listening. Studies have shown that though is the communication skill we use most frequently, it is the one in which we’ve had the least training. That skill profoundly affects someone’s ability to contribute to a team and to produce a deliverable that meets a target audience’s needs. Another important gap was the ability to tailor material for the needs of a specific audience. The faculty knew that communicating to a technical audience was important. The industry professionals stressed that, after being hired, software engineering graduates would need to communicate effectively about highly technical topics to a variety of non-technical professionals.

I made a point of asking that developers be more diligent about inserting useful comments into their code. But a participant from Microsoft took issue with my point, saying that detailed comments could become a legal liability under certain circumstances. I had never thought of it that way.

The assembled faculty was going to take the data gathered during our June meeting and draft a set of learning outcomes to apply to various CS/SE classes. They planned to meet again in August to review that draft. The hope is to begin applying new learning outcomes as soon as is practical. I hope it’s not too long before rookie software engineers surprise us with their good communication skills.

Satori Walking the Dog

2009-08-18T20:56:00.004-05:00

I was walking the dog the other evening and everything that had been filling my mind emptied. With profound lightness, I found myself doing nothing, absolutely nothing, but walking the dog. She strained against the leash, then hesitated, then sniffed the ground, then walked nicely by my side, then stopped dead in her tracks and rolled in the grass. It was me, the dog, the leash, the sidewalk, the grass, the smell of grass, my steps, my breathing, her panting, her pink tongue bobbing in rhythm with her breathing, the heat and humidity, the occasional car passing by, and that was all.

This did not last long. Other thoughts intruded. The dog needs a bath. Reality shows are more artificial than scripted shows. Those who inveigh against a public option for health care very likely have an elderly parent on Medicare, but these folks seem oblivious to the irony. And what if they lost their job - how would they pay for health care then? I should go to the Myrtle Beach Marathon web site and sign up. Why do my kids consistently leave the lights on after they leave the room? Why does it take only minutes for a tidy room to look like a cyclone blew through after my kids get home from school? When am I going to put to paper that Runner's World piece that I've been writing in my head for about for two years now? I need to get together with an old friend for lunch. When will the dog stop chewing on everything?

I enjoy walking the dog, but I am stressed by the responsibilities of being a parent to the dog. I have less formal responsibility at my current job than at my previous one, but I have a lot more to do, and what I do is a lot more rewarding. My father is gone, but his presence has never been stronger. I am learning a lot, but I don't think that I know very much. I am older, but I have never felt fitter. Most nights I sleep soundly, and I probably should get more sleep. I have reached a healthy weight, and I wonder whether I should try to lose more. I love my kids more than words can ever express, and some times I feel like disowning them. My wife and I have been together for over 23 years, and we continue to discover new things about one another.

I have found it pointless to whine about the unfair things that happen, or to rail against the obdurate opposition to common sense and empirical evidence that some individuals evince. Arbitrarily bad things happen despite our best efforts to guard against them. Rather than be paralyzed by an unwelcome or unpleasant events, I try to embrace them, deal with them, and move on. I often fall short though.

A thunderclap under the clear blue sky.

Communicate your value

2008-12-19T14:00:00.004-05:00

Here's my latest contribution to the Carolina Communique:

These are tough economic times. Many of my colleagues are now without jobs or are scouting openings because they feel insecure about the jobs that they have. What can we technical communicators do? Put our writing skills to work for us.

One thing that I learned during my job search in 2007 is that you should always keep your resume up to date, regardless of how secure you feel in your current position. I also learned the value of creating and maintaining a marketing plan, which focuses your time and effort when you are searching for employment. Whether you are out of work or employed and pondering your next career move, both documents are critical to landing a rewarding job.

Your resume sells you to prospective employers. You want to tell hiring managers about your career to date, but want them to be eager to learn more. As you write or revise it, think about how you want it to direct an interview. Some tips I’ve picked up for writing an effective resume include:

For every accomplishment that you list, be sure that you actively did or delivered something. On many resumes that I have seen, including my own at one time, there were bullets that described being a “member of a team” that did something. That’s fine, but a hiring manager is not considering your team, she is considering you. What was your specific role on the team? What did you contribute or deliver? Did you bring the team together? Did you lead it? Did you organize meetings and take minutes? Did you facilitate brainstorming? Were you the key presenter?
For every way that you describe yourself, whether as a team player, a goal-oriented project leader, and so on, be prepared to tell an anecdote that illustrates that quality. If you do not have such a story, replace the item with one that allows you to tell such a story. You get bonus points if your accomplishments tie to your qualities. For example, if you say you are a goal-oriented project leader, it helps if you follow that up by reporting that you led a team to deliver a large and complex documentation set on an aggressive deadline.
Focus on deliverables and accomplishments that clearly contribute to the trajectory of your career. If you point out that you were a volunteer for the United Way, do not list it on your resume unless you can clearly explain how that experience prepared you for the position for which you are applying. Did working for the United Way help you develop fund-raising skills? Did you solicit contributions by phone or in person? That might not be a bad item if you are looking to fill a sales position. If you report that you were on the Citizens Advisory for Cable TV, ask yourself, “so what?” How does that accomplishment lead you to where you are now? If you don’t have a clear answer, drop the accomplishment. If the answer is, “that experience gave me insight into understanding customer media preferences, and that insight informs my skill in writing clear material for specific audiences,” keep it.
Use strong verbs in your resume. In your summary, you can say that you have “experience producing materials that facilitate understanding and clarity for internal and external users” or that you “write and edit clear, direct content that helps users get work done quickly.” The second phrase is more powerful and persuasive than the first, because you can picture someone getting work done by reading content, whereas it is tougher to imagine someone having their understanding facilitated by whatever it is you do with materials.

A resume tells a prospective employer what you have done and how your experience makes you the best candidate for an open position. A marketing plan, on the other hand, guides you in selecting the best position for your skills and experience. A resume explains what you did – a marketing plan captures what you want. You want to precisely define the target market for your job search so that you do not waste time – yours or your interviewer’s.

A few simple steps can help you get started developing your marketing plan.

Identify the industry or type of organization for which you want to work. If you have spent nearly all your career in the computer industry, it is logical to target that industry. But will you limit your search to that industry, or will you consider others? What about pharmaceuticals, health-care, or energy? Going to a new industry may mean that you would have to consider a less senior position, but if hiring in the computer industry is tight, a less senior position might be better than none at all. By expanding your range of target industries, you may find a job that exercises your talent and skill better than you had ever imagined.
Do you want to work for a big or small company? Would you prefer a Fortune 500 company or an up-and-coming firm? Do you feel more productive in a large or small workgroup? Give some thought to these questions.
Identify the geographical area where you want to work. Are you rooted to where you now live? Would you be willing to relocate? If so, what locations interest you? Would you be just as willing to move to Maine as to Maui? In tough times, the answer may be “wherever there is a paying job,” but consider the expenses of moving, both in terms of money and spirit, before accepting a position purely because of pay.
Also think hard about your personal preferences in terms of work/life balance and career aspirations. Think about the kinds of tasks that you like to do, day in and day out. In a tough job market like the one we are in, we cannot let personal preferences rule our decision-making, but we cannot ignore them either. A workplace is where you spend the better part of your life. Is it important to you to work in a supportive environment where ongoing learning is encouraged? Can you sit alone at a desk and not say a word to anyone all day, or do you need to interact with others? Ask questions during the interview to give you a sense of these things.

When you finish your marketing plan, it will look something like this:

Professional objective with preferred function: for example,”Technical communicator who wants to lead projects and communicate complex technical material to a variety of audiences. Preferred functions include writing and editing, project management, and making technical presentations.”
Competencies: for example, “writing and editing, project management, team building, motivating others, mentoring, budgeting.”
Target market characteristics: these will include all your personal preferences, such as “within 25 miles of Raleigh, NC” and “a large, diverse workgroup.”
Provide a list of specific industries and companies that appeal to you.

Your marketing plan helps you focus the conversation whenever you discuss the kinds of jobs that you prefer with your network of contacts. Your contacts will have an easier time referring you to others because they clearly understand your target position. And sooner or later, one of those referrals will result in a hiring manager perusing your resume. That well-written resume will guide a successful interview. That interview could lead to you landing the job that you want and deserve.

As tough as these times are, you owe it to yourself to be prepared for job loss. Use your writing skills to create a marketing plan and resume now, so that you can put them to best use for an employer later.

Glide into gratitude

2008-12-19T13:29:00.004-05:00

When I find myself getting irritated over someone being late to meet me for lunch, or when a car repair takes longer or costs more than expected, or whenever my plans are unexpectedly thwarted, I make myself stop and notice my irritation. I do not judge it, and as I observe it, its power over me dissipates. I start to formulate a plan B. OK, I’m standing here waiting, what can I observe? Or, this is a good time to become more aware of my breathing. OK, I cannot access the Internet, what do I have on my local hard drive that I can work on? OK, I cannot run this morning, so what about this afternoon, or tomorrow morning? There’s always an alternative.

When I find myself getting impatient with the tedium of a task at work, I stop myself from getting discouraged by reminding myself that I am lucky to have a job with a supportive company that provides so many perks and benefits. I remember that I am learning new things and being paid to do something I love and do well. Smile and quietly spread cheer and enthusiasm from the time that I log in until the time that I click off my desk lamp.

When I get irritated with my kids over a snarky remark or an undone chore, I stop myself from letting that irritation turn into full-blown anger by reminding myself how truly wonderful my kids are and what incredible human beings they are becoming. It wasn’t that long ago, or it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago, that they were toddlers following my every step and emulating my every action. I tear up when I review old photos of them and see the unadulterated delight in their eyes and smiles. Sweet little children no more, they are nevertheless fundamentally kind, caring, and loving individuals of whom I am so very proud. I am so lucky to have them in my lives. They will be out of my house sooner than I know, so I should relish every minute that we share the same roof even though they leave dirty dishes on the table, lights turned on, and clothes strewn on the floor. Count to ten, hug them, and kiss them good night every night.

When I find myself tuning out my wife when she complains about something or tries to prod me into action on an overdue domestic task, I remind myself how lucky I am to have such a loving partner who has put up with me for over twenty two years. We are not young anymore, but so what? We are approaching old age together, committed to one another until the end of our days. Do or say something kind or affectionate for her every day.

When I fret over a sore heel or a cramped hamstring after a run, I stop myself from letting that fretting develop into full-blown self pity by reminding myself that I am fortunate to be able to run at all. I remind myself how precious my health is, and that I must work to maintain it, and that this work will never stop as long as I’m alive. Stretch, take anti-inflammatory medicine if necessary, and run again tomorrow.

Has aging made me more appreciative? Have the recent shocks of my life shaken me awake and made me keenly aware of the countless blessings I receive every day? Has realizing that everyone suffers in some way made me more tolerant and more thankful for friends and family? Does it matter? Be here now. Notice the momentary negativity, do not judge it, and glide gracefully into gratitude. Am I always successful with this emotional aikido? Of course not, but I don’t mind the practice.

Not the best, not the worst

2008-11-09T12:24:00.005-05:00

Earlier this week, well wishers asked me how I fared running the City of Oaks Marathon. My response varied in length and detail depending on who asked, but it pretty much boiled down to this: 4:11:52 gun time. It was not my best marathon, but it was not my worst.

It was 6 seconds slower than my third best. It was faster than Richmond, my first Raleigh Marathon, and Disney. I ran faster at Myrtle Beach and two Raleigh Marathons. It is square in the middle.

When the gun sounded a little after 0700, it was in the 40s. I started way too fast. I did not have my Timex Bodylink system to give me ongoing feedback on pace and heart rate, so I had to rely on my watch at the mile markers to get a sense of pace. I settled into a rhythm after the first 5K.

The field was crowded the first half, but I minimized weaving in and out of traffic as much as I could. I kept telling myself "smooth, smooth, smooth." I felt fluid and loose.

The course was challenging. Going up Ebenezer Church Road wasn't as daunting as I had feared it would be, but later miles showed that it took its toll.

Grace met me at the intersection of Graylyn and Ebenezer to run about a mile and a half with me into Umstead Park, at about mile 15. I felt really good at that point, bouyed by my strong attack of Ebenezer Church Road. But a twinge in my calf a little after mile 16, going up the short hill between the stone bridge on the Graylyn trail and the T intersection with the Reedy Creek trail, punctured my confidence ever so slightly.

I was surprised and delighted to see Christopher in running gear at mile 20, announcing that he was going to cover the last 10-K with me. His arrival was a true blessing. By that point, it had gotten hot. My confidence was deflating more rapidly as the twinging returned.

Bad cramps started shortly thereafter, and didn't let up. My calf would cramp, then relax, then my hamstring would cramp, then relax, then my quad would cramp, and so on. Christopher kept me focused on keeping my upper body loose, my arm swing fluid and correct, and on moving forward. It made all the difference in the world.

The last two miles were terrible. There were times that I was reduced to swinging my arms in an exaggerated arc and walking like a circus clown simply to keep moving forward. Christopher encourged and coached my every step.

Afterwards, he sent me e-mail saying "maybe we should call you Crampy instead of Wheezer." Here's my response:

I’ll answer to either.

I took a look at my splits:

Bib# Name Div 10k Pace 13.1mi Pace 2ndhalf Pace Chiptim Pace Guntime
369 Michael Harvey M50-54 53:52 8:42 1:55:59 8:52 2:15:28 10:21 4:11:27 9:36 4:11:52

Here’s a big “duh” moment – I had a rough second half. But things would have been far, far worse (dare I say Richmondesque?) had you *not* been there to coach me through my numerous cramps. I thank you again, my friend. You kept me focused on moving forward, not on my miserable legs.

Perusing the results, I see that I wasn’t alone in my misery. Take a look at the runners who finished with me:

William Hefron M25-29 49:17 7:57 1:46:30 8:08 2:24:46 11:04 4:11:16 9:36 4:11:38
Larry Spero M40-44 53:09 8:35 1:56:21 8:53 2:14:52 10:18 4:11:13 9:36 4:11:45
Brian Mims M25-29 52:46 8:31 1:52:02 8:34 2:18:58 10:37 4:10:59 9:35 4:11:50
Michael Harvey M50-54 53:52 8:42 1:55:59 8:52 2:15:28 10:21 4:11:27 9:36 4:11:52
David Zarbatany M45-49 50:28 8:09 1:46:13 8:07 2:23:41 10:59 4:09:54 9:33 4:11:53
Sarah Phelps F30-34 50:51 8:13 1:50:45 8:28 2:21:09 10:47 4:11:53 9:37 4:12:05
Kerri Fisher F40-44 56:59 9:12 1:59:56 9:10 2:11:48 10:04 4:11:43 9:37 4:12:20
John Rohrs M40-44 53:19 8:36 1:55:21 8:49 2:16:21 10:25 4:11:41 9:37 4:12:34

Even some runners at the front of the pack experienced a slowdown:

Michael Combs M20-24 37:30 6:03 1:19:01 6:02 1:28:29 6:46 2:47:30 6:24 2:47:33

Did I start out too fast? Perhaps, but I felt *good* going into Umstead Park (mile 15). I felt a twinge in my right calf going up the small hill to the T intersection with the Reedy Creek Trail (past mile 16), but I recovered quickly. Did I not hydrate enough? I don’t know – I drank *something* at every water stop and I had 6 bottles of G2 Gatorade. Was I under conditioned? I don’t think so. Was it a tough course? Well “duh!”

What does this event have in common with my other marathon misadventures?
Cold start – warm-to-hot finish
Clear, low-humidity day – you sweat like a pig but you don’t feel the sweat
Many miles in direct sun

So the planets did not align. However, I’m only 6 seconds (man oh man oh man) off my third best marathon time, despite finishing those last miles at a crawl.

She’s a cruel mistress, the marathon. Next time, I think I’ll run a flat course.

The Tuesday afterwards, a fellow marathoner told me that he was impressed with my time and would be delighted to match it in his upcoming event. Others offered their congratulations. Anne, as always, kept me grounded, reminding me that a) no one puts as much stock in my finish time as I do and b) the fact that I ran and finished a marathon is remarkable by itself.

The marathon is a tough race. Duh! I achieved 1:48 and change for the Inside-Out half marathon earlier this year on a cold, cloudy day. I extrapolated from that finish to shoot for a competitive time on the City of Oaks. But City of Oaks was not on a cold, cloudy day.

The physical challenges compound when you double the distance, and a large set of intangibles (weather, hydration, confidence) exacerbate those challenges. As I said in my response to Christopher, the planets have to align. I have to accept how they align, learn from my experience, and attempt to apply what I learn to my next race.

And, as Anne points out, I should be glad that I can cross the finish line at all. I should enjoy the event no matter what time it takes me to complete it. I've run seven marathons so far. I need to look forward to my eighth, and beyond.

The Wall

2008-08-24T17:02:00.003-05:00

I planned to run 20 miles yesterday, but I had to stop and walk after about 18. I chose to run a challenging out and back course through Umstead Park. It was a warm and humid day, but I held back and sipped water more frequently than usual. I felt fine up until around 16 miles, when I started to feel slightly lightheaded and dry. By that point, I was out of water and had half a bottle of Gatorade left. About two miles from home, my right calf started to cramp. I stopped, massaged the calf, and walked a bit. Each time I tried to run again, the calf cramped.

It was a long walk home.

I'm following a more rigorous marathon training schedule than I had for previous marathons. My speedwork earlier in the week had gone very well, and an easy run the next day felt great. But my experience yesterday shows me again how important it is to hydrate the day before and during a long run. It reminds me that heat and humidity continue to be my running nemesis.

Luckily, it's early in my training schedule. I have time to adjust, and three more 20 milers on the calendar. I can drink more and hope for cooler weather.

Accessibility: Usability for Everyone

2008-04-03T19:44:00.001-05:00

Here's an article I submitted to the STC Usability and User Experience (UUX) newsletter:

Technical communicators and usability professionals share an interest in how easily someone can use technical information. How efficiently can someone glean the meaning of technical text? Is the experience of acquiring information satisfying or difficult? Can someone retain the information so that, after a period of not using it, she or he can easily reestablish proficiency?

Most of our usability discussion and research focus on those who have no functional impediments. But what about those who do? What about the software engineer with impaired vision? What about the IT professional who cannot hear, or the technical writer with limited range of hand motion? How do we best serve someone with dyslexia?

Addressing these questions is the domain of the field of accessibility, which studies the degree to which a product is usable by as many individuals as possible. A primary focus of accessibility is on persons with disabilities and how they access products through the use of assistive technology. This technology enables them to perform tasks that they were unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, by providing alternative methods of interacting with products.

While some individuals are born with disabilities, nearly all of us face the possibility of reduced function as we become older. Vision degrades as we age. Our dexterity diminishes and our hearing fades. Many of us probably have already increased the default font size on our browsers or have switched to more ergonomically satisfying keyboards. We might have adjusted filter keys to compensate for slight hand tremors. Perhaps we have cranked up the volume for e-mail alerts. At some point, we may want to stop typing altogether and use speech recognition software exclusively. Thus, accessibility might become more than simply an academic subject for all of us – it will become a practical imperative. As the elderly population grows over the next several years, the accessibility of technical information to that population will become a more critical factor in its design and creation.

What is another compelling reason for us to study accessibility? The U.S. government mandates that all Federal agencies make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. These requirements are defined in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, with the intention of eliminating barriers to using electronic and information technology and encouraging development of technologies that will help achieve that goal. Moreover, conformance to Section 508 guidelines is an increasingly heavy weighting factor in Federal procurements from its vendors. Information technology includes computers, software, firmware and similar procedures, services, and related resources. Electronic technology includes telecommunication equipment, information kiosks and transaction machines, Web sites, multimedia, and office equipment. Not only must the information technology itself, but also the technical support and technical documentation must be accessible. If you provide information or electronic services to federal agencies, you must respond to Section 508.

Federal agencies that acquire electronic and information technology use a tool called the Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs) to help them access how well Section 508 guidelines are met. The VPAT is essentially a checklist that spells out relevant accessibility criteria and asks companies to describe product features that support the criteria—and any deficiencies—and to provide supporting remarks.

There are eight distinct VPATs that correspond to the functional capabilities of specific technologies:

• Software Applications and Operating Systems – covers alternative access to applications, such as screen magnifiers for those with impaired vision and alternative keyboard navigation for those who cannot rely on pointing devices, such as a mouse.
• Web-based Internet Information and Applications – covers guidelines based in part on checkpoints and techniques developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium.
• Telecommunications Products – covers access to people who are deaf or hard of hearing
• Video and Multimedia Products – focuses on accessible alternative representations. For example, audible content is translatable into text and presented as closed-captioning. Audio description of important video content is provided through the secondary audio programming (SAP) channel within a standard analog video broadcast signal.
• Self-Contained Closed Products – are expected to provide accessibility as standalone units, without the support of external assistive technology.
• Desktop and Portable Computers – focuses on keyboards and other mechanically operated controls, touch screens, use of biometric form of identification, and ports and connectors.
• Functional Performance Criteria – concerns general accessibility criteria – for example, is at least one mode of operation and information retrieval provided that does not require user vision?
• Information, Documentation, and Support – covers user guides, installation guides for end-user installable devices, and customer support and technical support communications. Such information is to be available in alternative formats, such as Braille, large print, or cassette recordings, upon request at no additional charge.

Addressing accessibility issues has a practical effect on what we produce. These days, many technical documents include a section about accessibility in their introduction. If you’re familiar with the structure of the VPAT and have access to your product’s VPAT, you’ll have an easier time writing this section for your document. Also, as we design compelling graphics to communicate complex technical points, we might also need to author text alternatives for the visually impaired. As we work with usability specialists to make interfaces more intuitive, we can act as accessibility advocates.

What should technical communicators do to become more knowledgeable about accessibility? Find out whether your company employs accessibility analysts, and then talk to them. Research the topic on the Web and through groups like the STC UUX and AccessAbility SIGs. Attend relevant workshops. Knowledge of the area can become a marketable point on your resume.

As technical communicators, we put the needs of our audience first. Enlarging our audience is of benefit to them and to us. Caring about the changing needs of our audience as it ages is sensible. Learning about the area of accessibility is professionally smart and personally practical.

Surprised

2008-04-02T18:52:00.004-05:00

I ran a new PR, 1:48:10, at the Inside-Out Half Marathon this past Sunday. That's over three minutes faster than my old PR, which I ran this past November on a much flatter course. And it's over eight minutes faster than the last time I ran the same course.

And I placed second in my age group.

I was not expecting to do this well, especially as I was running without my tunes.

Here are my splits (the wide variation shows just how hilly the course was):
8'01"
7'56"
8'10"
8'46"
8'32"
8'56"
8'04"
7'47"
8'11"
7'52"
7'36"
8'18"
(GPS lost signal on the 1.1 miles)

Without a doubt the cross-training and the pool plyometrics have helped increase my overall strength. It was a very cool and damp day, and I always run better in those conditions. But because it was such a challenging course, I expected in the best case to meet my old PR, 1:51:52, not beat it.

So this week all runs are easy runs. And my kids and I are going to sign up for a 5K at the end of the month. I am going to have to think hard about what goal time to set.

Rant

2008-03-26T19:37:00.006-05:00

This Sunday, I'm running the Inside-Out Half Marathon in Cary. I'm looking forward to my third attack of this challenging course.

The last time I ran it, in 2006, I listened to tunes on my iPod. I finished in 1:56:57. Led Zeppelin helped me over that last hill.

But I cannot listen to tunes this time.

begin{rant}
According to the event website:
"RRCA rules and our insurance do not allow the use of iPods, MP3 players, headphones, or other personal listening devices during races. While you may be accustomed to using one during your practice runs and prefer to run with one, we must ask that you honor our policy. Runners violating this policy will be disqualified from the race and banned from participating in the event in future."

What kind of boneheaded rule is this? Has fear of litigation robbed event organizers of their common sense? Whatever safety hazard is posed by running with an iPod has to be eclipsed by the hazards inherent in racing 13.1 miles! I mean, we sign a waiver! What next? Will we be denied the right to wear fuel belts? Will technical shirts have to meet esoteric standards?

Listening to tunes helps me disassociate from the discomfort of physically pushing myself. I keep my iPod at a volume that allows me to hear what's going on around me. Why deny me my iPod during the race? Stupid, stupid, stupid!
end{rant}

Rain or shine, I have the same goals I always have for a race:
1) Finish
2) Finish feeling good
3) Finish faster than the last time I ran the event
4) Run a PR

Four for four would be great! I'll be happy with two for four.

The True Genius of This Nation

2008-03-25T18:54:00.008-05:00

I was 12 years old when Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed. I was too young to appreciate what he was saying to the American people, or to understand his vision for our country. But even at that young age, I could sense that he was different from the other candidates for President. The crowds who gathered to hear him seemed younger and more engaged than those who cheered for the other candidates. His words flowed naturally - they sounded like poetry compared to those of Humphrey or Nixon or any of the others.

As I matured, I could reflect on what Bobby Kennedy said during that campaign of 1968 and recognize what our country lost when he was killed. And over time, I wondered whether we'd ever see someone like him again.

Today I read Barack Obama's speech on race. On YouTube, I watched him give it. The text is a work of art. Its delivery is as moving as a sermon. Its message rings true. If we are to achieve the more perfect union our founding fathers envisioned, we must accept the challenges it poses.

Our country has another chance.

Silver and Gold

2008-03-25T16:35:00.001-05:00

Here's my latest contribution to the Carolina Communiqué:

We understand the value of becoming aware of our strengths. We know it’s important to develop and use them in an increasingly competitive job market. We comprehend that we need to market our strengths, skills, and accomplishments in a variety of venues and on social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Yet if you’re like me, you were brought up not to boast. So when does talking about your strengths and accomplishments bleed into unseemly self-aggrandizement? At what point does marketing your skills turn you into a blowhard?

Well, it depends on who’s receiving your message and under what circumstances they’re receiving it. It depends on how much time you give the receiver to contribute to the conversation. Do you spend as much or more time listening as speaking? Do you use your listening skills to get others to open up?

Just as we should be scholars of new tools and technologies, we should be students of our colleagues’ interests and accomplishments. We should cultivate a reporter’s skill in getting others to talk about themselves. A two-way exchange is more satisfying and beneficial to both parties than a monologue. Let us remember that the verb “communicate,” comes from the Latin communicare, which means “to share.”

And by colleagues, I don’t mean just old friends. Perhaps you remember this verse from childhood: “make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold.” When was the last time you initiated a conversation with someone you didn’t know? Irrespective of how hard opening up to a stranger may be, mastering that skill can be one of the best things you can do for your personal and professional growth.

It helps if your strengths, as defined by Marcus Buckingham, author of Now, Discover Your Strengths and Go Put Your Strengths to Work, include “Individualization,” which means that you naturally focus on what makes someone unique, or “Woo,” which means that you are energized by winning over others. But even if you don’t naturally have these strengths, it is not difficult to develop effective skills in light conversation.

Some easy, open-ended questions are sure-fire ways to start a conversation:
“Where do you work?”
“What sorts of projects do you work on?”
“How did you get started in technical communication?”

If you know something good about the company where the other person works, say it and then let the other person follow up. If you and the other share a friend or co-worker, bring that up, but don’t center your conversation on the third person lest you inadvertently drift into gossip. Find something in common with the projects mentioned. Share war stories about tools. There may be something in the other person’s “getting started” story that has a common thread with yours. The key is to listen keenly to the other. Rather than think about what to say next, absorb what the other is saying. Before you know it, the conversation will flow with its own momentum.

Why is developing conversational skills important? First, to be a well-rounded technical communicator, we should develop oral as well as written skills. Skills such as light conversation and giving presentations supplement and reinforce our writing skills. Having facility with the rhythms of speech contribute to fluid writing and conversational prose.

Second, conversational skill is the foundation of successful networking, which has been referred to as “the art of building alliances.” As Ed Fletcher pointed out at a recent chapter meeting, networking is not a cold, self-interested accumulation of contacts. Instead, it is a thoughtful development of a web of connections based on shared interest. Networking works when you engage another person with personal integrity and sincere concern.

Buckingham said "I believe that every single person can do at least one thing better than 10,000 other people.” Think of the opportunity this presents us! As we get to know others, we have a chance to uncover that one thing that the other can do better than 10,000 others. And the other gets a chance to find out what we do better than 10,000 others.

It’s not that every person with whom we network is going to become our friend. Some of our new connections can develop into friendships, but friendships require time and work to blossom. Reaching out professionally, with integrity, means that you’re not just in it for you — you’re in it for both of us. How can we help each other? If the answer is “we cannot help each other at this time,” there’s always another time.

Our chapter’s recent awards banquet was a perfect place to test drive conversation skills. During the banquet, our colleagues were recognized for excellent work, and it was easy to start conversations about awards and achievements. This summer’s upcoming cluster progression program, on which our chapter is working with the NC State student chapter, will present another good opportunity. Come see the variety of fields that technical communication supports and get acquainted with the next generation of technical communicators.

The network that you grow needs ongoing care and maintenance. As Lisa Pappas pointed out in a previous issue of the Carolina Communiqué, “…I have learned that (networking is) far more than schmoozing. … (The) connections — contacts, referrals, and friendships — that we form through networking are the strands of our network. And like any net, those bonds need maintenance — keep in touch with your contacts.”

Reinvention isn’t easy and it never stops. Even if you are uncomfortable opening up to strangers, the more you do it, the less stressful it becomes. The more you practice it, the better you become.

Share what you have and give others a chance to shine. It is the right thing to do, and it will reflect well on you. Build your network, grow your professional community, and you will reinvent your work world.

How Does Reinvention Work?

2008-01-10T21:57:00.000-05:00

Here's my most recent President's Message from the Carolina Communique:

How does someone go about “reinventing” themselves? Where do you start? How do you know whether you’re making progress? When are you done?

Where you start is simple — with yourself. Reinvention does not mean becoming a different person. On the contrary, it means hewing to your true nature — becoming more of who you really are. It requires becoming keenly aware of what you do best and what you could do better. Understand your strengths so that you can spend more time using them on the job. Equally understand your weaknesses so that you can figure out to work on or around them.

How do you hew to your true nature? You can take personality or aptitude tests, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, to get an objective sense of who you really are. You can observe yourself during the day and notice the things that come naturally and those that require more effort. When something comes naturally, you’re playing to strength.

Marcus Buckingham has written a series of books about this, the most relevant being Now, Discover Your Strengths. Buckingham spent years working with the Gallup Organization studying effective managers. Through exhaustive quantitative research, he extracted 34 personality themes, such as “Learner,” “Ideation,” and “Communication.” If you buy the book, you get a key to take an online test that tells you which of these themes and their related strengths apply to you.

For me, reinvention meant becoming a writer again. Writing allows me to play to my strengths of “Communication” and “Ideation.” Time flies when I write, and I sometimes achieve a state of flow.

It turns out that hewing to your true nature is an effective defense against the commoditizing of technical writing jobs and tasks. As I and other speakers said at our November program, “Don’t Offshore Me,” one of the best ways to preserve your value on the job is to be the best at what you do. You cannot be the best unless you are doing something that plays to strength.

To excel at technical communication, ask yourself these questions: do you truly enjoy technical things, and do you truly enjoy communicating? Is technical curiosity second nature to you? (See my previous article, “Developing Technical Curiosity – A Marketable Skill.”) When you are engaged in an act of communication (writing, speaking, designing, and so on), do the hours fly by?

If the answer is yes, reinvention may mean rededicating yourself to the assignments and responsibilities you already have. Or it may mean seeking a different assignment. If one of your strengths is “Learner,” as it is for me, technical communication is a suitable profession, because there will always be something new to learn and write about.

If the answer is no, reinvention may mean finding a different job. Many technical communicators parlay their experience into job titles such as Information Technologist or Usability Specialist.

So how do you know whether you are making progress in reinventing yourself? Again, the answer depends on whether you are spending time doing things that flow rather than drag. Are you getting energy from your work, or is it taking energy out of you? The more energized you feel by your work, the more progress you’re making.

And when are you done? Never. The world will continue to change. Change with it — be in charge of your personal change.

There are lots of opportunities for reinvention when you’re active in STC. Do something you haven’t done before — we’ll be there to help. Check out the programs we offer — we strive to provide information and knowledge to help you grow professionally and keep current. Come to one of our events and meet fellow professionals. Write an article for our newsletter. Volunteer to help in some way through the committees our chapter offers.

Becoming more active in committees helps you connect with others. A past president of our chapter, Diane Feldman, once wrote “real networking doesn’t happen at the meetings — it happens on committees! In the context of accomplishing a task, you also accomplish all of the goals of networking. You learn about your colleagues — what kind of work they do, what their skills and interests are, what they have to offer — and they learn about you. You find out which companies are doing what, who the managers are, and where the opportunities are. You get a chance to practice or develop skills that you might not get to work on in the regular course of your job. People in your industry come to recognize you as a committed professional who gets things done.”

And when you are trying to reinvent yourself, perhaps with a new company or in a new role in your current company, having contacts who know the value you bring is a priceless benefit. When you embark on reinvention, an established network will support you along the way in your journey.

As with a weight loss program or a new fitness regimen, or a commitment to learn a new language or how to play an instrument, there will be peaks and plateaus in your progress in reinvention. The results are worth it. You’ll be recognized as the committed professional you are. You’ll feel more energized and engaged in your work. And you’ll have fun.

2007

2008-01-01T12:52:00.000-05:00

Here are my running stats for 2007:

Total miles: 1664.7
Average weekly mileage: 32
Highest weekly mileage: 42.5 miles the week of 1/22/07, preparing for Myrtle Beach
Lowest weekly mileage: 20.5 miles the week of 10/8/07 - I was participating in a Concept 2 rowing challenge at work
Longest streak of 30+ miles: 9 weeks, 6/18/07 through 8/20/07 - didn't run 30+ the week of 8/20 because that's when I started work at SAS. In fact, the period from 4/9 through 8/20, I had only one week with fewer than 30 miles - 29.8 the week of 6/11. I think I was busy with job search activities that week. Between 4/9 and the end of the year, I had only 6 weeks with fewer than 30 miles, and one of those was the week of the City of Oaks Half Marathon, where I ran a new PR of 1:51:52.

Today I'm battling a cold. Ran 4 yesterday in the neighborhood to finish out the year - boring because I had to loop around so many times to get the distance. Trying to decide whether I'm going to go out today.

Happy 2008!

Reinvention Continues

2007-11-30T18:33:00.000-05:00

Here's an article I posted on the Carolina Communique earlier in the fall:

When I became president of our chapter this summer, I was searching for a job. Now I am a statistical writer at SAS, documenting risk management products and solutions. I’m reinventing myself. I’m learning a new set of tools, technologies, and products. I’m getting to know and respect a new group of colleagues. I’m having fun as I build a professional routine entirely different from the one I followed for the last nineteen years.

The theme for my chapter presidency is reinvention. Our chapter needs to reinvent itself to face the challenges of attracting new members and keeping existing members active. Our profession needs to reinvent itself as it faces accelerating technological change and globalization.

Our chapter is changing. With the goal of not being left behind, we are taking advantage of some of the tools available that can extend our networks. We used Facebook to publicize recent events such as our Trends & Technology LSIG talks about social networking and our membership luau, sending invitations to those events through its embedded tools. It’s a little more advanced than sending a blanket e-mail announcement to a list server, and it’s a far cry from mailing printed invitations, which is what we did in previous years. Our group page on Facebook has attracted the attention of individuals as far away as Ireland and as close by as NC State University. We are glad when that attention draws someone new to attend one of our events, and opens new lines of communication and ideas—we hope that it inspires new membership.

Another tool we recently deployed for the chapter is LinkedIn. There’s now an STC Carolina LinkedIn group that chapter members with profiles can join. Add it to your LinkedIn profile.

If you don’t know about LinkedIn, check it out. It’s a way to set up a professional, Internet-based network. Think of LinkedIn as a Web-based Rolodex on steroids. You may have seen an article about it in the local paper’s business section one Sunday this summer. After you set up your profile on LinkedIn and allow others to view it, search engines can find information about you. LinkedIn provides you with a way to ask business or technical questions and get them quickly answered by knowledgeable professionals. You can get back in touch with old friends and colleagues. For example, I reconnected with a man I worked for 20 years ago, and he is now part of my network.

Make sure you are not violating any company policies if you use LinkedIn at work. Many employers, including SAS, do not allow you to access networks like these through corporate systems.

The business of technical writing is changing. The September/October 2007 issue of Intercom focuses on what Web 2.0 means to technical communicators. Web 2.0 refers to changes in technology that allow the Web to serve as a dynamic platform for collaboration and development. Think wikis, blogs, and social networking. Web 2.0 is a bridge to new skills for technical communicators to develop. That’s good, because the old skills aren’t going to serve us well in the years to come. I’m working on an article for a future issue of Intercom about the continued commoditization of “low-end” technical writing. The trend to outsource more mechanical technical communication tasks to workers with lower billing rates, often living several time zones away, is unstoppable. That shouldn’t make you panic, but it should make you think.

STC Carolina is planning an event in November to explore how to find your place in such a global technical communication market. Note the emphasis—it’s not that your job is going away. Your job is changing, and you need to guide the change.

Reinvention cannot stop. In the 21st century, technology has accelerated changes to our workplace so much that we cannot rest with the skill set and knowledge we have today. We must be willing to reach out and network. We must be eager to learn new things, to be alert to trends, and to be vigilant against obsolescence.

Reinvention must continue.

Shelfari

2007-09-21T16:46:00.001-05:00

Everything links to everything else. I found an application called Shelfari that allows you to show what books you've read, are reading, or that you own. I learned about it through Facebook. I figured out how to make the changes to my Shelfari book collection show up on Facebook, the Shelfari web site, my Naymz page, and here.

I can't decide if this is geeky, cool, or a little of both.

Fasting

2007-09-09T11:29:00.000-05:00

I'm to undergo a medical procedure tomorrow that requires that I fast all day today. Clear liquids only. Nothing red or purple.

So far, I've consumed a can of chicken broth and sixteen ounces of Gatorade. My wife just went out to buy some ginger ale and more broth.

My son's and daughter's breakfast smelled especially good this morning. He had an omelette and she had waffles with syrup. My stomach growled.

Not eating is making me grumpy. "Quit whining!" my wife said. "You can do this for one day." She's right, of course. I'm glad it's only one day.

High school

2007-09-03T13:28:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about high school lately. These past two weekends I drove two hours west to visit my parents. Mom's having some health issues, which have for the most part resolved. I needed to check in on Mom and Dad. I want to appreciate the time we have left.

When I drive through the town and visit the house where I grew up, remembering becomes reflexive. With my kids entering their teens, memories of my own teen years bubble to the surface. They're mostly good memories.

I remember certain individuals and moments from high school almost photographically. More generally, I remember being impatient to finish high school so that I could move on to college and the rest of my life.

I took my high school yearbooks off my parents' bookshelf and carted them home. I showed my class photos to my kids. "You look younger than everyone else," my daughter observed.

I skimmed the sea of fresh, exuberant faces. I perused my friends' comments jotted on the back pages and in the margins. Apart from the kinds of things you would expect to see written in a yearbook, things like "didn't we have fun in such and such a class," "hope we're in some of the same classes next year," and "to a good friend" I found things that I hope still apply to me.

"You're a good listener."

"You're a truly good person."

"You could be an outstanding writer. All it takes is a little self-discipline."

My daughter started high school last week. She's adjusting to her new schedule and a different homework load. I suspect she's also radically changing the way she looks at the world. It was during high school, especially the summer I spent at the Governor's School of North Carolina, when my questions about why things were the way they were became sharper, and my world view became more jaded. My daughter is testing her limits these days, just as I did over thirty years ago. She's thinking that she may want to become a writer.

When I started high school, my parents were younger than I am now, but I think I'm in better physical shape than they were then. My daughter is more self-disciplined about writing than I was then, but I think I may have something of value to teach her now about the craft, the art, and the experience of writing.

Good writing reflects an artful balance of living and remembering. Being present in the moment, at work or in high school, rather than living in anticipation of the next thing. Being honest but not brutal, true but not harsh. Remembering what happened, not what you wanted to happen or wished had happened. I can put words together, but assembling them so that my reader truly experiences what I'm expressing takes work.

I didn't really understand that in high school. I wonder if anyone does? The teacher who wrote that I could be an outstanding writer was admonishing me as much as she was complementing me.

I wish I had heard my teacher more clearly. I hope that my daughter hears me.

Fall teases

2007-09-02T20:27:00.000-05:00

The cooler temperatures we've enjoyed the last two days make me eager for fall. Yesterday I ran 12 in Umstead, running from my usual corner to the Reedy Creek Road bridge that crosses I-40 and then back. Even though it was humid, it was an easier run than last week's when Christopher and I were melting in heat plus humidity.

When I went out to get the newspaper this morning, I wished I had waited to go long today. The crisp air and cool breeze were glorious. I hope it's as pleasant tomorrow morning, when I hope to run 8.

Low mileage week

2007-08-26T16:46:00.000-05:00

After a long string of 30+ mile weeks, I finished only 23.2 last week. Between starting a new job, getting my daughter to soccer practice, going to the dentist, and presenting at an STC meeting, I simply couldn't squeeze in the workouts. Oh well. I'll try to get back on track this week.

Christopher and I ran 12.2 in Umstead early Saturday morning. It was brutally hot and humid. We encountered Eric as we were heading out of the park and onto Trenton Road. I wanted to see how far it would be to run to work. Eric was training for the City of Oaks Marathon. The three of us ran together for about 5 miles, then he continued down Ebenezer while Christopher and I turned into my neighborhood. By the time Christopher and I finished, we felt as though we had sweat half our body weight. When is this heat going to end?

First week at SAS

2007-08-26T16:34:00.001-05:00

My manager stopped by my office this past Friday afternoon and asked "so how was your first week?" My genuine response was "Great! I'm really glad to be here."

He put this note on the Documentation Development website: "Michael Harvey, a person who seems to hardly need an introduction to our division, started in Business Analytics Documentation on August 20. He has a long career in technical writing, working most recently as a Senior Manager at EMC. Many in Doc Dev already know Michael, whether it be from his stint as a technical writing instructor at Durham Tech, his turn as a manager at Data General, or his leadership roles at the STC Carolina chapter (where he is currently the chapter president)..."

I'm really looking forward to learning about my subject matter (risk management), learning a new set of tools, and adapting to a new professional environment.

Getting data OUT of Facebook

2007-08-10T13:01:00.000-05:00

Getting data OUT of Facebook by ZDNet's Dennis Howlett -- One of the ongoing criticisms of Facebook is the perception that you can’t get data out. This goes down well with the open source crowd who love nothing better than a walled garden. That perception may be wrong. Here’s how. SAP’s Craig Cmehil scared the living daylights out of me yesterday by pulling some of my [...]

Only three months

2007-08-01T13:59:00.000-05:00

Time is relative. When I start work at SAS on August 20, I may look back and say to myself, "I was out of work for only three months." While I was out of work, the months seemed to drag on and on.

I think it was Einstein who said "When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity."

Reinventing myself

2007-08-01T13:54:00.000-05:00

Here's an article I wrote for the Carolina Communique:

My most difficult task as a manager was to face colleagues, friends in many cases, and deliver the hard message that their position was being eliminated. Sometimes it was because of business conditions. Other times it was due to reorganization or rebalancing. Every time it was gut-wrenching, for the person getting the news and for me, the person who gave it.

Recently, I got the message. And so I am now engaged in a job search.

I began my career with my former employer as a Senior Technical Writer, responsible for TCP/IP and X.25 manuals. I became manager of my group a few years later. My employer rode out a lot of turbulence in the technology marketplace, but not without significant downsizing. A few years after I became a manager, my employer was acquired by another company. The new regime stabilized some uncertainty, but not all. Some years I could hire, other years I had to let people go. Some years I had over a dozen direct reports, other years, I had two or three. By the time we parted ways, I was the only one in my group who was there when I started.

I stayed with the company as long as I did because I was always given a chance to stretch professionally and grow personally. I never wanted for a challenge. I could work with and hire exceptional individuals. Tempted on occasion to take a position elsewhere, I stayed because I got opportunities to play to my strengths and do things I loved doing in the workplace.

Things changed. My organization could not sustain as many senior managers as it had. Tag, I’m it.

I was given thirty days to find another position within the company. If at the end of that time I had not found one, my active employment would end. I got generous help from my Human Resources representative in dealing with the shock and planning my next steps. Most appealing and appropriate positions were out of state. Moving was not an option for my family. So here I am.

It has been disorienting not to make the commute I had made for the past 19 years, and unsettling to realize that, in all likelihood, I will never drive it again. It has been sad not to see the folks I saw every day, exchanging small talk and tackling big problems.

After taking a couple of weeks to decompress, I reentered the job market. I met folks for lunch, networked, and asked for advice. I gathered information about other companies, what they do, how they do it, what they foresee for the future. I reached out to new groups, like TriUPA, the Triangle Usability Professionals Association, and to familiar ones, like STC. I answered the call of a friend and colleague to run again for president of our chapter.

I took advantage of my company’s engagement with a career services firm to learn how to manage my job search more effectively. They coached me on how to fine tune my resume and prepare for interviews. They gave me access to a wealth of resources about how to market myself effectively to an intelligently assembled list of target companies. An effective job search will require me learning and doing new things. It will require reinventing myself from a “Senior Manager, Engineering” for my employer to a “Technical Communication Professional.”

One of the exercises that firm had me do was to survey my professional environment. In other words, understand the trends having an impact on my profession so that I could “avoid dangers, identify opportunities, and make the right decisions about where (I) will best fit…”

In surveying my environment, I repeatedly found that “technical communication” as a profession is in the process of reinventing itself. In a previous column, I wrote about how and why we need to reexamine our job descriptions. A white paper I came across made a similar point. It said:

Technical writing teams face complex challenges as they struggle to help their companies get products to market faster. Increasingly sophisticated technical products and the need to deliver clearly written documentation in multiple media formats and languages are forcing them to work under intense pressure. …managers of technical writing teams have to contend with the widely held perception that the documentation team itself is a cost center and needs to be constrained. ...By adopting an approach that combines single-source technologies, information reuse standards such as DITA and innovative sourcing strategies that include offshoring and outsourcing certain tasks, technical writing teams can leapfrog the perception that they are merely cost centers and prove themselves a source of competitive advantage for their organizations.

We have to prove ourselves a source of competitive advantage. We have to market ourselves and our product in a different way. We have to partner with offshore colleagues, not wish that companies realize an error in engaging them. They won’t – geographically distributed teams are here to stay and some tasks are going to be performed by less costly workers elsewhere from now on. Adapting to our changing profession will mean learning and doing new and different things.

A by-product of my personal reinvention is that I’m now approaching my circumstances positively. My current full-time job is to find a new position where I can play to my strengths and do things I love doing in the workplace. Find a position where I can never want for a challenge, and where I have a chance to stretch professionally and grow personally. It is out there – I will find it.

As I continue my search, I will draw upon my experience and on my research to serve our chapter in the coming year. Even after I find my new position, I will continue to serve as best I can. I now have a keener appreciation of our STC community and the excellence therein. I want to be an active part of it as long as I can.

1000 miles

2007-08-01T13:52:00.000-05:00

Today I ran 5 miles on an out-and-back course into and out of Umstead Park. It was hot and humid, but I felt surprisingly strong coming up the hill on the return leg. When I entered the mileage in my running log, I discovered that I've run 1000 miles in 2007 (so far).

Inquiring minds want to know

2007-07-15T17:29:00.000-05:00

Today I got e-mail from an old friend inviting me to be his friend on Facebook. I accepted the invitation.

Several hours later, I finally stopped tweaking my own Facebook page. I had inserted cross references to this blog. I had uploaded photos from my last two marathons. I had joined a regional network. I could have kept going but the sun was going down and I felt a need to attend to important things in 3-D space.

My cyberspace presence thus expanded, I return to this blog to attempt to record my thoughts about creating a Facebook page.

On the one hand, it feels terribly self-indulgent. Now everyone in the Raleigh-Durham Facebook network can discover that I like the Beatles. That I'm a serious runner. They can see what books I've read recently. They can read these blog entries. Big deal.

On the other, it might lead to like-minded individuals contacting me and sharing information of mutual interest. It might start a correspondence. Spark a potential business venture. Lead to an actual meeting in 3-D space. Who knows what?

My wife is profoundly skeptical of blogs, Facebook entires, and the like. She reveals herself to others in real time in the real world on her terms.

I, more trusting of cyberspace, maybe foolishly so, take the risk.

Another blog

2007-06-02T19:12:00.000-05:00

I've started another blog on KeyContent.org to "document the process of letting go of the old and reinventing a new work self."

http://www.keycontent.org/tiki-view_blog.php?blogId=9

But if a blog starts on the Internet and there's no one there to read it, does it make a difference?

19 years later

2007-05-16T10:37:00.000-05:00

Nineteen years ago this month, I started work at Data General as a Senior Technical Writer and Editor. My first day on the job, my office did not have a phone.

Data General was acquired by EMC in 1999. Many of us wondered whether we would keep our jobs. Some of us did not, but I did.

In late March of this year, I was told that my position at EMC was going to be eliminated. For the first time in over 20 years, I'm job hunting.

My marathon training is coming in handy - don't start out too fast, pace yourself, get into a groove, it's going to be a long event so hang in there.

Is technical writing your calling?

2007-04-05T14:09:00.000-05:00

Here's an article I wrote for the Carolina Communique.

Over the past several weeks we’ve interviewed candidates to fill an open position in my group. Afterwards, each interviewer completes a form that closes with a hiring recommendation: hire immediately, hire, consider, or do not hire.

After one interview, a member of my staff recommended to “consider” even though everyone else said “hire” or better. I asked her about it. “I have concerns,” she said, “because she said that she doesn’t consider technical writing her calling.”

This made me stop and think. Is technical writing my calling? Is it a calling at all? What is a calling?

Definitions vary. One says that a calling is “the particular occupation for which you are trained.” I was never trained for technical writing, but I did teach the subject for three years at Durham Technical Community College. Another definition says it’s “an objective or task that somebody believes it is his or her duty to carry out or to which he or she attaches special importance and devotes special care.” I devote special care to what I do, but is it a duty? I suppose my employer would say yes. A third definition says “a process whereby the parish discerns whom God is calling to various ministry roles in the life of the church including ordained ministries.”

This is closer to what I think when I hear the word “calling.” Whether or not you believe in God, a “calling” implies a summons from a “higher” authority. It moves out of the realm of choice and into one of obligation or obedience – you must follow a calling. And it is a joyful compulsion – most are glad to find and follow their calling. Most relish the tasks that a calling requires.

Marguerite Moore was a member of my staff, on and off, from the early 1990s until just last year. She built a very successful technical writing career since graduating from the Durham Tech program. She walked away from that career to accept an invitation to attend Princeton Theological Seminary. She was pursuing her calling – the ministry. As I said when I announced her departure:

On the one hand, I am joyful for Marguerite in taking this courageous step to follow her calling. On the other, I am sad because I will miss her and our organization will be the poorer for her absence.

For Marguerite, technical writing was not a calling even though it was something to which she attached special importance and devoted special care. That care was reflected in the high quality of her work. It was important to her to get her deliverables as clear, correct, concise, and conversational as she could. But I am pretty sure she would tell you that God called her elsewhere.

Personally, I don’t think that writing installation manuals, product guides, or help panels is a calling. It’s a job – an enjoyable career if you’re good at it. The underlying activity – clearly communicating complex concepts or procedures to help someone get work done – feels close to a calling. Clear communication makes a connection between human beings or between ideas, creates understanding, and promotes efficiency and order. Those are inherently good, if imprecise, goals to pursue.

I believe I’ve pursued good goals in my job. When I think back to the tasks I have enjoyed most during my career (which is a good interview question, by the way, because the answer gives you insight into a candidate’s strengths), I invariably recall those when I made that kind of connection. I connected two disparate ideas to create a new one. I connected sentences and paragraphs into a flowing chapter or article. I connected old paragraphs with ones I had just written and forged a seamless whole. I brought opponents into a room and, by pointing out how their positions connected, fashioned consensus. I won someone over to my point of view without trampling on theirs – we emerged from the conversation seeing things the same way. I remember reaching something like a state of flow during these times. There were good outcomes in each case. Making a connection is a truly human activity, which my job as a writer and a manager for a technology company gives me the opportunity to perform.

So my career is writing and managing, but my calling is…what? Communication? Ideation? Diplomacy? No, those are my strengths.

The interviewer who recommended “consider” originally envisioned a career in the non-profit field. She gets joy from helping others. While she was in school, she performed charity work with United Way, Boys and Girls Clubs, local development centers, and the like. After she finished school, she couldn’t afford a move to Virginia for a job as Marketing Manger for a United Way office. She had always enjoyed writing, so she snagged a job close to home as a technical writer, using her undergraduate degree in communications as credentials. She took graduate level courses in Technical Communications, her company footing the bill. That led to attending the first TriDoc, which led to a technical writing career in RTP. For her, the challenge of rendering chaotic material into something useful is a way of helping other people. She turns her job into her calling: helping. She makes a connection with others who follow that calling.

We extended an offer to that candidate, by the way. For various reasons, our funding limited us to a part-time position. The candidate expressed a willingness to take it so that she could spend time pursuing other interests, and perhaps through that pursuit find her calling. I thought she’d be a valuable addition to our team, as the quality of her work and the wealth of her experience would be assets to our productivity. We’re waiting to hear whether she accepts our offer.

All this leaves me still wondering whether technical writing is my calling. I don’t know. In the meantime, I’ll continue to seek the moments of flow, the opportunities for connection, and the good outcomes. So should you.

One week after the marathon

2007-02-25T17:24:00.000-05:00

Amazing!

In December, I was marveling at finishing a little over 12 in Umstead in 1:50:06.

Yesterday, one week after posting a marathon PR at Myrtle Beach, I ran 12.6 in Umstead in 1:47:18.

So in the following months, I'll maintain weekly distances of 25-30 or better, continue to strength train twice a week, and cross train on "rest days."

Crossing the finish at Myrtle Beach

2007-02-25T17:14:00.000-05:00

I would have settled for 3:59:59. I'm very glad I ran faster.

Finally!

2007-02-25T16:59:00.000-05:00

I finished the Myrtle Beach Marathon on February 17 in 3:58:15 (gun time)/3:57:10 (chip time) - finally broke four hours!

Here are my pace splits according to my GPS:
8'43"
8'18"
8'19"
8'53"
8'29"
8'51"
8'56"
8'54"
8'56"
9'00"
8'57"
9'04"
9'04"
9'01"
9'01"
8'57"
9'01"
8'58"
9'20"
9'02"
9'03"
9'07"
9'09"
9'29"
9'16"
9'19"
9'00"

According to my GPS, I covered 26.47 miles. It took a minute to cross the start line, I did weave in and out of traffic quite a bit, and I took a short detour to pee in the woods once.

I got into a groove after mile 6, listening to the playlist I had created for my iPod, allowing the music to help me focus on my form and my breathing. As the splits show, a headwind and some distractions slowed me down on mile 19, but I got back into swing fairly quickly. I started to tire around 22, but I just relaxed and kept leading with my core. At mile 24, I started to feel a twinge in my left hamstring. I remember exclaiming out loud, "no, no cramp this time." Passing folks who were walking, stretching, or hobbling after that, I just doubled down and kept focused on form, listening to my music. When I saw the split at mile 26, I was ecstatic!

As my last post showed, I was running very well in December, covering 15 miles with relative ease. I had time to train properly for Myrtle Beach, so I scheduled longer runs to test my legs. I finished strong on my 17, 18, 20, and 22 mile runs and I recovered from them more quickly than ever before. So after my 20 mile run, I talked things over with my wife and registered for the marathon. We made it into a beach trip for the family.

I went into this event more confident in my ability to go the distance than for all previous marathons. It took six years, but I met my goal.

Now, should I even think of trying to qualify for Boston?

Running fast!

2006-12-17T21:13:00.000-05:00

Saturday, I ran a little over 12 in Umstead in 1:50:06. My average pace was 9'03." For five one-mile splits, my time was under 9 minutes!

This in Umstead!

It helped that it was cool and the humidity was low. It helped that I dressed correctly for the weather, which started off in the 40s but quickly got warmer.

But I think what helped the most were the changes I made in my diet since the summer and the fact that now I weigh 165 instead of 185.

Last week I ran 16.3 in Umstead and my average pace was 9'40." My course included the Turkey Creek Trail, which is like a roller coaster.

On 12/2, I ran over 15 with Christopher at the ATT in 2:15:34. My GPS malfunctioned, but that makes my calculated average pace 8'38"!

Should I register for the Myrtle Beach Marathon?

See my Sparkpage at http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage.asp?id=mtharveyrunner

The finish line in sight

2006-11-19T21:15:00.000-05:00

This is at the finish of the Inside Out this past October. By that time I had conquered those last three hills and it had started to rain. Some see pain in my face. As I remember, I was determined to finish strong.

Feeling light at the Inside Out

2006-11-19T21:03:00.000-05:00

On October 22, I ran the Inside Out Half Maraton in 1:56:53. That's not my best time for a half, but it's three minutes better than my worst. It was a challenging course in Umstead Park, and I didn't train specifically for the race. I tackled the last three hills more steadily and with more confidence than in 2004, and I finished strong. As I told Christopher, I considered it a 13.1 mile training run at marathon pace.

It didn't hurt that I was almost 20 pounds lighter than in 2004.

Thanks to SparkPeople.com, I weight myself every morning and the numbers range from 163 to 168. I can really feel the difference, especially when I run. SparkPeople doesn't offer a diet - it offers a lifestyle change. Just as I've been committed to regular exercise since 1998, I'm now committed to sensible eating. I was on a weight plateau of about 185 pounds since around 2000. I'm on a new plateau where I intend to stay for the rest of my life.

I am eating poultry again. I had not eaten poultry since 1983. But I wasn't getting enough protein. Poultry was the only meat I've missed, so it wasn't hard to take it up again.

For all but three of the last eleven weeks, I've run 30 miles or better. I've not felt sore or exhausted. For the last three long runs in Umstead, I've averaged under 10 minute miles, and they've felt smooth and fluid.

I've plenty to be thankful for this coming Thursday.

What a run!

2006-10-01T14:56:00.000-05:00

I woke up at around 7 this morning, wondering how far I'd run. I had set up the coffee maker the night before, so all I had to do as I munched on a Clif Bar was hit the button. I retrieved the Sunday paper from the end of the driveway, weighing my choices. I could run 12 today and go longer Saturday, or I could go long today and "cut back" to 12 or even 11 on the 7th. That way I could be ready for a long run with Christopher and Eric on the 14th.

The air was cool - the coolest since before late spring. I started fast going down the steep incline of Panther Branch. It felt comfortable though. On the first uphill my stride felt natural and I could sense my legs were rested from sitting in the car for four hours yesterday, traveling to Salisbury to visit my parents.

After I got into Umstead, I still felt pretty relaxed and was going at a pretty good clip. I turned right at the T intersection of the Graylyn Trail and the Reedy Creek Trail, figuring that if I wanted to go short today, I'd prefer to get a hill workout on Cemetery Hill on the way out rather than push up the multiple hills going in the other direction.

So I came to the point in the trail where I could either turn left toward home, or go straight and go long.

I was feeling a little tired, because my pace was faster than it had been on the previous two or three runs in Umstead. But I pushed on.

And so I finished 15.3 today in 2 hours and 29 minutes. I finished strong - my legs still had some zip going up Panther Branch. And I had something in the tank at the end!

Amazing what cool weather can do for my running!

Can you hear me now?

2006-09-15T15:33:00.000-05:00

Here's another article I wrote for the Carolina Communique:

Listening is a skill every technical communicator needs to hone. Too often when we speak, we tune out the other person before they’ve stopped talking and start thinking about what we want to say next, or think about something else altogether. I’m just as guilty of this as anyone, and it’s a bad habit I want to eradicate. But kicking that habit requires a commitment, like running a marathon, not a single act, like a mad dash through a rainstorm to your car in the parking lot. It’s something that requires thought, practice, and diligence.

Here’s one simple exercise that anyone can do to sharpen their listening skills. After you make a point or a proposal, or communicate something that requires some degree of buy-in or understanding from your listener, stop and ask “what do you think?”

Four simple words, but the hard part comes after you say them.

Stop talking. Absorb what the other person says. Don’t say a single word until the other person has come to a full stop. Only when you’re sure the other person has stopped, say “now let me see if I understand you.” Then paraphrase what they’ve said.

I don’t intend to pose this exercise as an insult to the conversationally savvy or as a condescending lecture to those who are less so. I do wish to emphasize the power of four simple words, the act of willful, conscious listening, and a sincere paraphrase of what you hear. You’ll gain the trust of the person with whom you’re speaking. If you make this a deliberate practice in every conversation in which you engage, just as you brush your teeth a certain number of times every day, you’ll find you’ll become a better listener. It will become second nature to stop talking and take in what the other person says.

A side benefit of listening is that you won’t talk as much as you used to. This will do wonders for your throat and for the disposition of those around you. You’ll have more time to read and think which is good for your mind.

According to Terry Wildemann (see http://www.itstime.com/apr2000.htm#good for more information), a good listener exhibits the following skills

Is always prepared to take notes when necessary. That means having writing tools readily available.
Repeats the information he or she heard by saying, I hear you saying ... Is that correct? If the speaker does not agree, repeats the process to ensure understanding.
Remains curious and ask questions to determine if he or she accurately understands the speaker
Wants to listen to the information being delivered
Is physically and mentally present in the moment
Listens by using the ears to hear the message, the eyes to read body language (when listening in person), the mind to visualize the person speaking (when on the telephone), and intuition to determine what the speaker is actually saying
Establishes rapport by following the leader
Matches the momentum, tone of voice, body language, and words used by the speaker
Uses common sense when matching. If the speaker is yelling, don't do the same because it will make a bad situation worse.

Listening effectively is challenging enough when you agree with someone. It’s difficult but even more important when you disagree. And how you express that disagreement must be nuanced by your relationship with the other person. Does that person know you or not? Is that person a peer or a boss? Is this someone whose cooperation you need? Michael P. Nichols, Ph.D. at http://www.winstonbrill.com/bril001/html/article_index/articles/151-200/article192_body.html says “keep in mind the difference between dissent and defiance. Defiance means attacking the other person's position and making him wrong. Dissent meant having the courage to stand up for what you think and feel. It's the difference between saying "You're wrong" and "This is how I feel." Clearly, a dissenting message is much easier to hear than a defiant one. The listener is more willing and interested in hearing a dissenter's objection. Someone who hears a defiant objection will tend to either ignore the comment or rudely be counter-defiant. This is a common problem that tends to increase barriers between people, something you don’t want in a work environment where teamwork is necessary.” Someone who hears dissent also needs to know that you, the dissenter, has truly listened to what they have to say.

Listening is critical to dealing with customers effectively. In an article about Teaching Customer Service Reps the
Art of Listening (http://www.businessknowhow.com/marketing/artlisten.htm), Adrian Miller provides these simple tactics for effective listening:

Tune out distractions and focus on each call as if it were the most important of the day
Concentrate on what the customer is saying rather than thinking about what YOU want to say
Don't interrupt; a customer's willingness to talk, within a reasonable time period, represents a golden opportunity to find out the problem / situation
Don't jump to conclusions
Become attuned to tone of voice and inflection; these can be as telling as the words themselves
Occasionally repeat what the customer has said--it shows attention and comprehension
Ask for clarification if a statement or objection is vague
Create rapport by smiling (even in telephone sales a smile can be HEARD through the phone!)
Take notes to be sure you remember the customer's key points
Be familiar with common questions and problems and practice responding in a natural, conversational manner
Control your emotions and be courteous, no matter how rude the customer might be
Continually evaluate whether you are asking the right questions to uncover and solve the problem

If you’re interested in becoming a more effective listener, check out these additional resources:

Listening factoids presented by the International Listening Association
A comparison of poor and good listening habits at http://www.ccsf.edu/Services/LAC/lern10/listening.html
Tips for effective listening at http://www.drnadig.com/listening.htm
Listening skills provided to University of Minnesota students at http://www.d.umn.edu/kmc/student/loon/acad/strat/ss_listening.html
Another take on listening skills at http://www.infoplease.com/homework/listeningskills1.html

Although there are many practical reasons to improve your listening skills, ranging from how it positively affects how others perceive you to how it improves your chances for professional advancement, the most important reason is simple and impractical. It’s the right thing to do. Steven Covey, who’s authored the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, says to “seek first to understand, and then be understood.” As Covey points out, as you learn to listen deeply to other people, you will discover tremendous differences in perception. Only then can you begin to achieve win-win outcomes.

What do you do for a living?

2006-09-15T15:28:00.000-05:00

Here's an article I submitted to the Carolina Communique:

We need to revise our job descriptions. Rather than authoring printed manuals and on-line help panels, we should be involved in or leading projects that make them unnecessary. Why? Because consumers increasingly demand intuitive interfaces to the products they use. Users and administrators of more complex products expect interfaces that guide them through decisions rather than require them to read details. We must stay ahead of this trend, rather than allow ourselves to be flattened by it.

Examples of intuitive interfaces to technology abound on the Internet. Who isn’t familiar with Amazon.com? The site will create “your store” and update the information it displays based on your previous searches and purchases. After you buy something, Amazon easily lets you track your purchase as it makes its way to you. You don’t need documentation to use the site effectively.

But Amazon.com hires technical writers. I found this job description on their careers site:

Amazon.com is looking for an exceptional technical writer to join our Voices team, a group dedicated to drive platform improvements based on community feedback and involvement. We help to ensure that the experience of Amazon's partners is smooth and problem-free. … As a technical writer on this team, you will lead initiatives to develop documentation and training that (users) will depend on to help them quickly and efficiently launch and manage their stores on Amazon’s website. You will also design and write documentation (for those who) interact with our clients on a daily basis, to help them through all phases of the client lifecycle: from sales, through the development and data integration process, and on into operational maintenance of the Web site solutions we provide them.

Look at the emphasis here – “drive platform improvements,” “ensure the experience …is smooth and problem free,” “lead initiatives,” ” (help users) quickly and efficiently launch and manage their stores.” Not your traditional job description, is it?

And here’s a qualification for that same job that you don’t see every day.

You should have a demonstrated affinity for technology and software and a genuine desire to consolidate and streamline workflow.

I thought only managers desired to consolidate and streamline workflow. It shows you how things are changing.

Now consider www.pandora.com. Created by the Music Genome Project, Pandora asks you questions and customizes an Internet radio station based on your responses. When I started out, Pandora asked me the name of a group or a song. I responded “The Beatles.” So it played a tune from the first Beatles LP, “Please Please Me.” I gave that song a “thumbs up.” Pandora next played something by the Who. I gave that song a “thumbs up.” The next song played got a “thumbs down,” and so on. The site also gave me an opportunity to tune my preferences – naming another group or another song I liked.

The engineers at Pandora analyzed hundreds of thousands of songs and tagged them with attributes, which they then stored in a database. For example, that Who song I liked, “Glittering Girl,” has these attributes:

basic rock song structures
a subtle use of vocal harmony
mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation
major key tonality
a dynamic male vocalist
romantic lyrics

When I responded to a song, Pandora referred to its database and offered me a choice with similar attributes, refining the mix each time. The site, as the New York Times puts it, provides “a stream of music with similar ‘DNA,’ …micro-tailored to each user’s tastes.1” I needed no documentation to use Pandora – I simply interacted with the site and got results. Can you see how similar technology and analysis could yield a site providing a stream of relevant information micro-tailored to your needs as you use a software application or attempt to install a client or a server?

I certainly can. Last year my company rolled out something similar to, but not as sophisticated as Pandora - the first phase of “user personalized documents.” Now EMC users can visit a company website, choose among several system characteristics, and receive a customized document based on those choices. Customized documents comprise XML chunks stored in a database and rendered into PDF format.

Writers at my company were involved with chunking material and writing the rules combining chunks. Still, as I’ve suggested, the trend is toward having a user rely on documents like these only when stuck or when attempting to do something complex or extraordinary. Otherwise, why bother? The interface should step me through the process.

I’m not suggesting that the need for printed documents and help panels will vanish. I do foresee these products becoming a commodity, and their production being shipped to lower cost workers. We’ll continue to write, but our value will be in designing interactive scripts or shaping the repositories of information tapped when using sites like Amazon, Pandora, or my company’s UPD. We’ll be doing more “developing content re-use and single-sourcing strategies” and less “employing various authoring and desktop publishing tools to produce printed or electronic publications and integrated online help systems.” And that’s fine with me – learning and doing new things should be second nature to anyone whose career is in technology.

Is it just Delta, or do all the airlines do this stuff?

2006-09-03T19:25:00.000-05:00

I am on the Mass Pike, driving to Logan, when my wife calls. "Your flight's been canceled," she says.

Tropical Storm Ernesto was making a beeline at the North Carolina coast. So Delta Airlines cancels my 6:20 p.m. direct flight to Raleigh and promises me a spot on a flight the next day at 6:00 a.m. It would make a connection in Atlanta and arrive at RDU close to noon.

Ugh.

"Let me call you back when I get to the airport," I say. I had left work in Southborough early because I didn't know how long it would take me to navigate the detour around the I-90 connector. Also, having tracked Ernesto on the Weather Channel web site over the previous two days, I thought something like this might happen. Perhaps I could snag an earlier flight out of Logan.

I call my administrative assistant, alerting her that I might need to book a room close to the airport. What kind of deals could Corporate Travel scare up for me?

After arriving, I was directed to the phone bank. I explain my situation to a polite young lady, who offers me a direct flight at 7:45 a.m. the next day. OK, but wasn't there an eariler flight out of Logan that I could catch today? "Well, there's a 5:00 p.m. that connects at JFK and arrives at RDU after 11:00. Do you want that?"

I let this sink in. "Wait a minute. My direct flight, which would have arrived at RDU around 8, has been canceled because of bad weather. This earlier flight, which connects, arrives at RDU later, when the weather is going to be worse. Aren't I likely to get stranded at JFK if I take this flight?"

Silence on the other end. "I don't know," she finally says.

So I book the 7:45. I'm going to have to get a room. "Can I print my boarding pass now, and check my bag in the morning?" I was going to be barely conscious at 4:00 in the morning, so the fewer details I have to fuss with, the better.

"Oh yes, I'll print your boarding pass at desk 6."

"Now wait a minute..."

But before I knew it, a lady behind desk 6 was calling out "Harvey!"

I quiz the lady at desk 6 about the logic of these flight arrangements. "It seems to me that the weather's going to get worse tonight and not get better until Friday afternoon." She looks at the boarding pass. "You going to Raleigh?" I nod. She types. She picks up the phone, and asks the person on the other end "you still boarding?" She types some more. "OK, I have one more for you."

She looks up and tells me "we got you the last seat on the 4:00, but it's boarding now."

I almost kissed her.

"What about checking my bag?" Too late for that. I throw away 3/4 of the contents of my toiletry bag and follow another lady through security. My cell phone is ringing as it passes through the screening machine. It's my assistant. "Call me now if you need a room!" I call her back and tell her about my stroke of good fortune.

I run to the gate. "I'm here for the 4:00 to Raleigh!" I puff.

"Oh, we're not boarding that flight just yet."

I turn around. A phalanx of disgruntled travelers hovers in a semicircle around the gate. Two of these travelers tell me that they had been booked on the 2:00 direct flight to RDU, but it had been canceled. "Is is just Delta, or do all the airlines do this stuff?" one of them asks me.

So we all wait to board the 4:00 direct to RDU. Until 4:30 or so. Finally we board. I was sitting in a seat! I was going to make it home! I call my wife. "Guess where I am?"

After I turn off my phone, the woman beside me says "I bet the 2:00 and the 6:40 weren't full, so they did this! They have to fill these flights or they don't make money."

Fifteen minutes later, the plane was still on the ground and the hatch was open. "Water?" asks the attendant as he makes his way down the aisle, handing out small bottles. It wasn't looking promising.

Then someone, I think it was the grim reaper, boards the plane and announces that there was "a weight situation." He needs nine volunteers to leave the flight, accept a $400 voucher good for any flight within the continental United States, a free motel room, a free meal, and a promised spot on the 7:45 flight the next day. If there weren't nine volunteers, he'd have to call out names.

Two folks depart immediately. "Folks, I need seven more volunteers." A man behind me mutters "I ain't gettin' off this plane!"

Moments pass.

Finally, we're down to two volunteers needed. Tick tick tick. "OK folks, I really hate to do this." The reaper calls out two passenger names - neither of them mine.

OK, now I'm going home!

Tick tick tick. The hatch is still open. I look out the window. A conference between the reaper and two other flight personnel is underway. They don't look cheerful.

The reaper comes back on the plane. "Folks, I'm sorry but I'm going to need ten more volunteers." What!

I'm beginning to wonder whether the passenger manifest will dwindle down to just me and the guy who declared he "ain't getting off this plane" by the time this weight situation is resolved.

And I'm wondering whether the longer we wait, the more likely this flight will be canceled because of bad weather. Like my original 6:40 flight. I call my wife. "I can understand why you're grumpy" she says.

The reaper comes back to announce that they're going to remove some fuel. They had loaded extra in the event the plane needed to circle RDU to wait for weather to improve. With that and the baggage they'd removed to accomodate the earlier volunteers, we'll be airborne in about 15 minutes.

Thirty minutes later, a truck arrives to remove the fuel.

It's almost 6:00 when the plane finally takes off. There were some bumps during the flight, but nothing as turbulent as I had anticipated, given the approach of a tropical storm.

When I arrive at RDU, it's raining hard, but it's not very windy. Inside the terminal I find a replica of the scene in Boston - anxious passengers, long lines, and a stream of red CANCELED notices next to many flights on the departure screen.

When I get home, morbid curiosity compels me to check the Delta web site.

The 7:45 direct flight from Logan to RDU has been canceled.

Summer vacation is over

2006-09-03T19:22:00.000-05:00

And so is my five month hiatus from this blog. It's been a busy summer - swim meets, sports practices, and two trips away from home.

What I regret

2006-03-26T17:43:00.000-05:00

As I approach my 50th birthday, I look back and find that I have one big regret.

I regret quitting the Beatles before they really took off.

I'll never forget that fall night in 1959 when I toddled into the Casbah Coffee Club in West Derby. John, Paul, George, and Ken Brown, as the Quarrymen, were playing a skiffle number. I think it was George who remarked, "what's a bleedin' 3-year old American kid doing here?" But they needed a drummer and I had a precocious sense of rhythm. All I needed was a pot and a spoon, which Mrs. Best gladly obliged. After rocking with the lads on "Long Tall Sally" and "Too Much Monkey Business," John said "yer in."

Of course, as soon as my mom found out that I had wandered off, she came after me. I don't know how she made it across the Atlantic Ocean so quickly. For that matter, I don't remember how I got to Liverpool either. No matter. I apologized to the lads and quit the group. I was getting sleepy anyway.

It was just as well. I never would have been admitted to any of the Hamburg venues where the Beatles honed their skills. I mean, after they found out that George was underage, they deported him. You can imagine that they would have stopped a 4-year old at the door.

I never hear from Paul, but then I suspect neither does Ken Brown.

What's your tell?

2006-02-15T21:07:00.000-05:00

The other Friday night my family gathered around the dinner table to play Texas Hold-em. My 10 year old son arrived at the table wearning sun glasses.

He need not have bothered. He has a tell.

Whenever he gets a good hand, he pumps his fist and whispers "yes!"

Whenever he gets a bad hand, he rolls his head back and hisses "oh man!"

I think my wife drums her fingers when she's bluffing, but we didn't play enough hands for me to test my theory.

The scary thing is that I couldn't tell my daughter's tell. This may prove problematic as she gets older.

I have no idea what my tell is. But I'm bound to have one.

Dad's service to his country

2006-02-05T17:15:00.000-05:00

On July 18, 1995, while my wife, infant daughter, and I were enjoying a week at his timeshare at Sunset Beach, I interviewed my Dad about his experience in the U.S. Army during World War II.

He still remembers his serial number. Pretty amazing when you consider he hasn't used it since November, 1945, when he was discharged.

He was drafted in March, 1942. After a physical at Camp Croft, he went to Fort Jackson for basic training. He served stints at Santa Anna, CA, Camp Gordon in GA, and Camp Miles Standish in MA.

And then the time came to go to into action. Dad embarked for Glasgow, Scotland on the Queen Mary from NYC. It took 3 days and 18 hours to get to Scotland. The men were fed twice a day in groups of 50. After disembarking, Dad headed for Wales for more training.

Dad went into action on D-Day +3 in 1944. He served in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. He never got into Germany, but his outfit got close to the border.

Dad served with the 8th Infantry, 3rd Army. That army was commanded by General Patton - but Dad never saw him. His company commander was Captain Charles Shamer. His platoon commander was 1st Lt. Steve Dolinski. His squad leader was Sgt. Jon Maheren (sp?). There were 12 men in a squad - Dad was one of two Southerners in the bunch - the other one was Ralph Loudermilk from TN.

Dad worked in ordinance for a while. He was a rifleman and a munitions worker.

One time John Shell, the Master Sgt., saw a cow, shot it, and butchered it on the spot. They roasted the meat over a fire. It was their best meal in the field.

One time the guys got a 3 day pass. "Let's go to Paris!" someone said. "Does anyone know how to drive a truck?" Dad said he did, even though he really didn't, because he wanted to go to Paris.

My Dad's first cousin Harrison, who was a 1st or 2nd Lt. (Dad couldn't remember) was killed during the Battle of Anzio. My Dad's brother Jack was 4F because of flat feet.

So I asked Dad, "did you kill enemy soldiers?" He paused and then said, "well we shot at them, and they shot back. I don't know whether I ever hit anything."

When the war ended, Dad was sent to Hampton Roads, VA, From there he took a troop train to Ft. Bragg. There were too many soldiers to process, they couldn't discharge them all. Dad got a 21-day pass, took a train home, and arrived at his front door at about 2:00 in the morning. He didn't want to wake anyone, so he slept on the glider rocker on the front porch. His mother found him there the next morning. At the end of his pass, he went somewhere to be formally discharged.

The U.S. Army paid my Dad $75 a month for his service. He sent some of it home.

Dad said they didn't lose anyone in the squad. He was grateful for that.

February already!

2006-02-05T17:11:00.000-05:00

January passed quickly. Basketball games. Science Olympiad. A business trip to Massachusetts. Ten hour days at work - managing two groups is time consuming. My wife is working again, having secured some freelance assignments.

My last entry was New Year's Day. I've lost count of the number of ideas I wanted to write about in this blog, some occuring to me during my commute, some during a long run, that have dissipated like smoke after getting home and getting into the mix of our daily routine.

Oh well.

Running with Chi

2006-01-01T15:07:00.000-05:00

ChiRunning by Danny Dreyer is causing me to rethink how I run. I tried 'running from my core,' or at least act on my rudimentary understanding of what that means, yesterday during a 13 miler in Umstead, two days before that during an 8 miler in Umstead, and earlier in the week during a quicker 6 miler at Lake Lynn.

I was pleased to find that my perceived effort was lower and my pace faster during each run. Hills felt a lot easier to climb. I felt fresher during the last 1/2 mile, when I pick up the pace but often begin to sag. Today I'm sore in places I've not been sore for a long time. According to Dreyer, this is to be expected.

Ring out the old, accept the new

2006-01-01T14:18:00.000-05:00

Happy new year!

Something I just read in an online article, the "10 Keys to Happiness" by Deepak Chopra, struck me as similar to something I read the other day in Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell.

One of Chopra's keys is to "accept what comes to you totally and completely so that you can appreciate it, learn from it, and then let it go. The present is as it should be." In other words, don't fight what is happening now - go with it. Though it may be hard to stay focused on the present, it's the only moment you have.

Gladwell's Blink is about "thin slicing" or the "adpative unconscious" - our ability to make instant yet sophisticated choices by filtering out everything but the stuff that really matters. Examining the art of improvisation comedy, he explicates the "idea of agreement," "the notion that a very simple way to create a story - or humor - is to have characters accept everything that happens to them." If during an improvised skit one actor says "let's hop in the car and go!", another one should say something like "I'll drive," not something like, "but I wanted to walk!" Gladwell adds "if you can create the right framework, all of a sudden, engaging in the kind of fluid, effortless, spur-of-the moment dialog that makes for good improv theater becomes a lot easier."

Both authors are showing the value of, in Gladwell's words, "successful spontaneity." Life is easier, more fun, more interesting, and ultimately more rewarding if you follow the "idea of agreement." Or put another way, view your life as improv theater. Accept what happens, appreciate it, which doesn't mean you have to like it, learn from it, and flow to the next scene.

Write right

2005-12-06T10:03:00.000-05:00

Here's an article I submitted to the Carolina Communique earlier today:

When you scan job postings for technical communicators, you’ll find prospective employers seeking candidates who have an understanding of current technology, working knowledge of publishing tools, and time management skills. A bullet may ask for “excellent writing and editing skills,” but that bullet rarely appears at the top of the list.

Not for me. As a manager who hires technical communicators, excellent writing skills are what I seek first. By writing skills, I mean the ability to produce clear, concise, and compelling prose on deadline. Any candidate we interview must bring writing samples, which we evaluate during the interview session. If samples don’t evince sufficient skill, we won’t hire candidates, regardless of their other qualities.

Technology changes, publishing tools become obsolete, and there are only so many hours in the day. In contrast, good writing is a constant. Someone can learn about the latest technology in a matter of months. Someone can master current publishing tools in a matter of weeks. You can buy a PDA to point you to your next meeting. It takes a lifetime of practice to master the art and craft of writing.

There are varying degrees of writing skill. Consider a martial arts metaphor. A writing white belt can put together clean sentences. A yellow belt can combine clean sentences into lean paragraphs. A green belt can assemble paragraphs into a coherent and compelling narrative. A blue belt can extend the narrative over several chapters. A brown belt can disassemble and reassemble chapters without losing the thread of the book. A black belt can juggle material in a library of books so that a reader knows where to go and never gets lost. More important, a black belt can tutor others.

You get better at writing by writing, just as you get better at marital arts by performing them. It pays to have a good tutor. It also doesn’t hurt to read as much as you can to guide your practice. In my judgment, there are four books every writer needs on her bookshelf. They should be regularly consulted, like a favorite English teacher.

Strunk, William and White, E.B. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. ISBN: 0881030686 – I consult my dog-eared, yellowed Third Edition copy almost every day. Broken into well-polished rules of usage, principles of composition, and guidelines for form and style, this classic covers all the basics in less than 100 pages. As White explains in the introduction, the book was Strunk’s “attempt to cut the vast tangle of English rhetoric down to size and write its rules and principles on the head of a pin.” White goes on to say, “today…(the book’s) vigor is unimpaired, and for sheer pith I think it probably sets a record that is not likely to be broken.” If you have only one book in your writer’s library, make it this one.
Shertzer, Margaret. The Elements of Grammar. ISBN: 0028614496 – A companion to Strunk and White, this comprehensive guide covers everything you forgot from 6th grade English about parts of speech, capitalization, and punctuation. Don’t use it as a style guide – there’s the Chicago Manual of Style and your company’s style guide for that. Instead, refer to Shertzer to remind yourself, for example, just what “case” is, and why you should care about it. When, if ever, should you use the subjunctive mood? When should you use a semicolon instead of a colon? It matters.
Blake, Gary, and Bly, Robert W. The Elements of Business Writing: A Guide to writing clear, concise letters, memos, reports, proposals, and other business documents. ISBN: 0020080956 – One time I complained to the director of my children’s day care center about its badly written memos to parents. I offered to give a presentation on “professional communication” to the staff. I consulted this book as I prepared my slides. Blake and Bly explain their mission in the introduction: “Bad writing hangs on…because new employees tend to check through old files to see how others have written a memo or a letter before they write one. So it’s no surprise that antiquated expressions and stuffy, pompous nineteenth-century verbiage emerge from (contemporary) word processors. This book aims to update those filing cabinets by giving contemporary advice on the style, tone, and format of business writing.” For anyone who’s read or written a memo that included phrases such as “in reference to” (versus “about”) or “inasmuch as” (versus “since or because”), this is welcome help.
Brohaugh, William. Write Tight: How to keep your prose sharp, focused and concise. ISBN: 1882926889. Once I wrote an article for my company’s newsletter. I thought I’d done a pretty good job trimming the fat, so I was surprised when I saw that the published version was nearly half the size of my final draft. No substance had been lost, and the published version was much crisper and easier to read. I asked the managing editor how she did it. She pointed me to this book. I ordered it from Amazon.com that afternoon. Chapter 2, entitled “Sixteen types of wordiness and how to trim them,” is almost worth the price of the book by itself.

These aren’t the only books you need, but they are ones you shouldn’t be without. I also consult Judy Tarutz’s Technical Editing and heartily recommend William Zinsser’s On Writing Well. Other favorites are The Careful Writer by Theodore M. Bernstein and A Handbook for Scholars by Mary-Claire Van Leunen. And no library is complete without H.W. Fowler’s A Dictionary of Modern English Usage.

One thing all writing books worth reading and re-reading have in common is the directive to write simply. It is the simplest advice to give and the hardest to follow. As Zinsser puts it, “Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what — these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence.” Weeding out the adulterants is hard, time consuming, but ultimately rewarding work. Developing judgment about what to prune and what to leave alone takes practice. I find joy in that practice.

We professionals are paid to write strong prose to help readers figure out who is doing what or if something needs to be done right now. This means putting excellent writing and editing skills at the top of our list. It means going for the next belt. Whatever other changes your encounter in your career, the constant quest for writing mastery should prove a worthy and rewarding endeavor.

Imagine the smell

2005-11-27T15:49:00.000-05:00

My wife has been sensitive to smells as long as I've known her. In a previous life, she must have been a bloodhound. If I snack on something, say some Kalamata olives or a dill pickle spear, and she enters the kitchen well after I've finished, she'll sniff and ask "what have you been eating?" If I don't reply immediately, she usually guesses.

There's a scene in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves where Snow White teaches the dwarves how to bathe. "Do we have to wash where it doesn't show?" one of them asks. Stop and think about that. That is a practical question from someone who works in a mine all day and whose house was a trash heap of dirty dishes and filthy clothes before this princess arrived. Why bother washing some place where it won't be appreciated?

So I have to wonder. What did this dwarf cottage smell like when Snow White first arrived? What would my wife do if she came upon this cottage?

Walk past it, I think.

We gather together

2005-11-23T20:27:00.000-05:00

My wife will start cooking the organic, free-range turkey breast around 10:00 a.m. My parents' brown Buick will pull into the driveway shortly after 11:00. My mom is bringing iced tea, both sweet and unsweetened. My father-in-law will arrrive between noon and 12:30. This year, my sister is driving to Connecticut with her husband and daughter to visit her mother and sisters in law. Otherwise she'd be here with deviled eggs.

We'll gather around the dining room table with its extra leaf around 1:00 or 1:30. We got the turkey breast for free because of a mixup at the store. They couldn't find my wife's original order even though she placed it in person last week. They offered this turkey breast at a reduced rate, but she still balked at the price. So the store manager said, "Happy Thanksgiving!"

We have much to be thankful for.

Rigor mortis

2005-11-16T20:12:00.000-05:00

I ran the half-marathon I'd planned, a slower 20 miler than I wanted, and the slowest 10K of my life this past Saturday at the Richmond Marathon.

I was 1:57:02 at the half - on pace to break 4 hours. I was 3:06:17 at 20 miles, which was slower than I needed to be to break 4, but that goal was still within reach.

I finished the marathon in 4:35:58 - the worst time I've ever posted for 26.2.

I felt great before the gun. It was about 40 degrees, clear, and the humidity was low. Wearing a short sleeve Coolmax shirt, split shorts, new sunglasses, my fuel belt loaded with four bottles of Gatorade and four gels, and my trusty Gel Kayanos on my feet, I found the 4:00 pace team and started very comfortably and smoothly with them. I felt great at 6. I felt great at 10. I felt great at the half. Starting to tire at 16, I fell slightly behind the 4:00 pace leader, who turned and reminded me "it's only a 10 mile training run from here." He was still within sight at 18.

Just before I crossed the mat at 20, I got a cramp in my left calf.

Between 20 and the finish line, I couldn't cover any significant distance without a sharp jolt in my calf or hamstring. A discouraging pattern emerged: the cramp would stop me dead in my tracks, I would stretch, then walk, then move as if cross-country skiing, then jog, and then BOOP, the stabbing pain would return and I would have to stop again. One time, I thought to myself, "if I weren't in so much pain, I would be incredibly impressed with the muscle definition of that calf." And most of the time I was thinking, "where's the next mile marker?"

I wasn't alone. I encountered several other runners, men and women, young and old, all stopped and stretching, frowning and limping.

The last .2 mile was downhill but I couldn't take advantage of it. No more than 200 feet from the finish line, I had to stop. A medical volunteer on the side shouted to me "is there anything I can do?" "No" I croaked. I heard the announcer call out "Michael Harvey, from Raleigh, North Carolina!" Grimacing, I hobbled over the finish line. I wonder what the finish photo will look like.

A young boy put the medal around my neck. I wrapped a foil blanket around my shoulders and let them clip the chip off my shoe. I walked around the chute for several minutes, trying to work out the cramps.

I hobbled down the street to the food station. I guzzled a bottle of recovery drink and snarfed two bananas, a bagel, and a slice of cold pizza. Grabbing another two bottles of recovery drink, I retrieved my belongings from the bag check and limped back to my hotel room.

I called home - my daughter had already looked up my time on the web. "Sorry about your time dad." "You can always run half marathons," my wife observed.

I called Christopher, who reminded me "dude, you finished!" We briefly spoke about entering Myrtle Beach in February, but agreed it would be a hard sell to our wives.

It's Saturday

2005-11-08T11:05:00.000-05:00

The Richmond Marathon is this Saturday. I ran 4 on the treadmill yesterday, and I probably will not have time to run today, so I'll plan to run 4 tomorrow. Then that's it. I'm ready.

Crashed and burned

2005-11-08T11:02:00.000-05:00

I spoke with Christopher yesterday about his experience at the New York Marathon this past Sunday. He said that he passed the mile 24 marker at 3:47. Somewhere between there and mile 25, something happened, and the next thing he knows, he's waking up in a medical tent. DNF. He's disappointed but very philosophical about it.

22 tomorrow

2005-10-14T20:38:00.000-05:00

Christopher and I are running 22 tomorrow - our longest run of the training regimen. We ran 20 week before last. I seem to be out of my training doldrums. And the weather's turned cooler - thanks goodness.

Usability – full-time work for the expert; part-time work for the vigilant technical writer

2005-10-14T20:33:00.000-05:00

Here's an article I wrote for the Carolina Communique, our local STC newsletter.

We became technical writers for different reasons. One reason many of us share is that we enjoy expressing ourselves. The irony here is that technical writing affords little opportunity for self expression. We can make up for that by taking pride in the clarity and concision of our work. We can claim to be vigilant advocates for “the user” as we transmute jargon into understandable prose.

It’s understandably hard when we realize that the audience for whom we toil has little interest in reading what we produce. In fact, most of the time, our audience reads what we write only as a last resort. They peruse our prose only when the application or the system didn’t lead to the expected result or product. It’s our responsibility to write crisp information and to provide adequate context that allows readers to find it as soon they need it, comprehend it quickly so as to act effectively, and get back to work.

Congruent with that responsibility is one to become familiar with the subject of usability. The definition of usability my organization has adopted is “a design attribute that characterizes the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which users can accomplish desired tasks with a product.” Determining the usability of something means asking whether someone can figure out what to do with it, what’s going on at the moment, what, if anything, is going wrong, and what to do next.

It’s easy to make something unusable, as Donald Norman illustrates in his book The Design of Everyday Things:

Give no hints about what to do
Provide no feedback and no visible results of actions just taken
Fail without indication or explanation
Use obscure command names
Provide uninformative error messages
Let something be done one way in one place and another way somewhere else
Make operations dangerous by allowing a single mistake to destroy work

It’s hard, though, to make something truly usable.

The January 2005 Intercom focused on usability and the user experience design. One article spoke of the trends that “usability practitioners” should consider, suggesting to me that technical writers may consider themselves usability practitioners. Usability experts and technical writers share a passion for customer advocacy. My own immersion in the subject leads me to conclude that you can be a full-time technical writer knowledgeable about usability, or you can be a full-time usability expert knowledgeable about technical communication, but you cannot be a full time technical communicator/usability expert. You do both professions a disservice if you try.

Earlier this year, I attended a Usability Boot Camp run by Bentley College. The most important thing I learned during that intensive one week program was that usability, done correctly, is a full time job. Each aspect of usability can in fact lead to a different full time job – you can be a full-time user-centered designer, or a full-time expert in gathering and evaluating customer requirements, or a full-time usability tester, or a full-time data analyst. Some companies go all out (think Apple) and thus have a devoted customer base (think iBook or iPod). Most companies don’t invest this heavily into usability, and expect a smaller staff to implement it in their development process. Either way, it requires someone’s full-time attention to do it justice.

Developing a set of core tools for implementing usability during the development process requires a lot of effort. The core tools are:

Personas
Heuristics
Usability testing

Personas are fictional characters whose personal and professional characteristics closely match those of real customers. They can be personal descriptions, with names, families, college allegiances, all to make them as real as possible. They represent groups of users, not just a single individual. A key ingredient of a persona is her or his goals. For example:

Joe is a system administrator for a 300-person company. He’s 30 years old, married, and has no children. He’s got 10 years of experience. He went to college for two years and quit when the part-time system administrator job that he had as a student became a full-time position. He works about 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, even though he’s expected to respond to emergencies at any hour. He wears a cell phone on his belt and it goes off at least four times a day. He would love to get caught up on his project work (upgrading the server, installing new applications, swapping out old network hubs, and so on), but he doesn’t expect to ever get the time. Every day he’s interrupted in his project work by folks asking him to solve their specific problems. He’s an expert in Windows, and knows a little bit about Unix. He works with two other technicians who informally report to him; they serve 500 PCs networked into two clustered servers. When he’s not working, he likes tinkering with his Harley and riding it in the mountains.

The idea is that as you’re designing an administrative interface for a large system, it will be easier to design for Joe rather than for “the administrator.” Alan Cooper makes a strong case for personas such as these in his book, The Inmates are Running the Asylum.

Heuristics are guidelines written in everyday language that help verify that you’re meeting specific usability criteria. One of the most important characteristics is that they are measurable. “Is it easy to use?” is impossible to measure in a repeatable way, but “Is the system status clearly visible?” can be measured precisely.

Heuristics can be applied to different aspects of a product, such as the user interface, error messages, or the installation process. Here are some sample heuristics for error messages:

When an error occurs, is the person informed of it and of what stage of the operation the error was detected?
Does the error give a clear indication of the underlying problem?
Does the system tell the person how important the error is and what will happen until the underlying problem is fixed?
Does the message suggest specific actions to fix the underlying problem?
Is the message complete enough that the person doesn’t have to refer to another document to know what the message means or what to do?

Usability testing is a process by which you observe or interview real users as they interact with live systems, prototypes of systems, or paper mockups of systems. Users are given goals to achieve and are facilitated by someone as they attempt to achieve them. Tests are often recorded or transcribed for detailed analysis afterwards. In some tests, users are encouraged to think aloud as they work through the problem. Analysis of the tests should reveal what contributed to the success of the participant and what inhibited success in achieving the goals.

You don’t need a formal lab to conduct usability tests; you can use portable equipment in the customer’s environment or you can use paper mockups in any available conference room. While I was at Bentley’s Usability Boot Camp, I watched one of the instructors perform a usability test on Quicken in our classroom. Someone unfamiliar with the application attempted to add an account, make a deposit, write three checks, and list transactions of a particular category. The participant thought out loud as she tried to perform each of those tasks. The professor in a non-directive way kept things on track. Because I’m experienced with Quicken, I was surprised to see someone struggle. I imagine most engineers who are experienced with the applications they produce would be surprised by the results of usability tests on their products.

Even though putting these core tools together into a successful usability regimen is not a part-time job, technical communicators can serve valuable part-time roles in contributing to its success. We can help run the usability tests. We can record and help analyze the data. We can review and comment on heuristics. We can help implement heuristics by, for example, editing or rewriting error messages. We can help flesh out personas. We can interview customers to gather characteristics that would help lead to representative personas or usability criteria. We can help make sure that the ideas that usability experts need to communicate to those who actually build the product are clear, concise, and complete.

The more intuitive a product’s interfaces and procedures become, the more usable it becomes. Thus, the less formal documentation it requires. To do our part, we can strive to reduce the number of words a customer needs to read. Focusing on clarity and concision, we can take pride that of the words that remain, because every word will count. Working with usability experts, our fellow customer advocates, we can transmute unwieldy products into easily used ones. To me, that’s a compelling reason to remain a technical communicator.

Want to know more about usability? Start with these books:

Cooper, Alan. The Inmates are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity. SAMS, 1999.

Nielsen, Jakob. Usability Engineering. Morgan Kaufmann, 1994.

Norman, Donald A. The Design of Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books, 1988. (2002 Edition)

Rubin, Jeffrey. Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests. Wiley, 1994.

And of course, you can get involved with STC’s Usability and User Experience SIG

Busy busy busy

2005-09-25T15:57:00.000-05:00

It's hard to keep up with a blog. Last weekend, my wife's sister and brother-in-law came down from New Jersey for a weekend visit. The weekend before that, my son and I went whitewater rafting on the French Broad River and spent the rest of the weekend at Camp Rockmont for the Trail Blazer Fall Outing.

My Duke University Continuing Studies class was canceled due to insufficient enrollment. That recovers several Thursday evenings over the coming weeks.

Too fast? Too hot? Too wimpy?

2005-09-25T15:46:00.000-05:00

Went on a long run with Christopher this morning - out and back at the Durham American Tobacco Trail, adding the Riddle Road spur. Our goal was 16 - stretch goal was to go longer if we felt up to it. He wanted to run at marathon pace for a few miles, so I demurred. We ran at pace on the spur on the way back, which is about mile 11.

Felt fine until that surge. Went slower after getting back on the main trail, but I felt fatigued. Then, I simply ran out of gas about .75 mile from the finish. Just simply ran out of gas. Heart rate was around 165 - it took a while to recover after I got back to the car and started sipping Gatorade.

This is annoyingly similar to what happened last weekend during my long run at Hanes with Christopher and Eric. Ran out of gas just before the finish.

What was common to both episodes?

It was warm (70s)
It was humid (90%)
I went faster than I would have preferred
I wore a hat that didn't breathe

I'm going to have to run the long runs slower - the goal is to finish! I've got 20 miles coming up next weekend - I need to finish it.

Need to eat more protein for recovery - so, for the first time since 1983, I'm going to add chicken to my diet until after the Richmond Marathon.

Notes from Marcus Buckingham’s “The One Thing You Need to Know”

2005-09-08T11:55:00.000-05:00

I really resonated to this book, especially now as I've broadened the scope of my authority at work. Here are my notes.

"To excel as a manager you must never forget that each of your direct reports is unique and that your chief responsibility is not to eradicate this uniqueness, but rather to arrange roles, responsibilities, and expectations so that you can capitalize upon it."

"To excel as a leader requires the opposite skill. You must become adept at calling upon those needs we all share. Our common needs include the need for security, for community, for authority, and for respect, but, for you, the leader, the most powerful universal need is our need for clarity. To transform our fear of the unknown into confidence in the future, you must discipline yourself to describe our joint future vividly and precisely."

"...sustained success depends on your ability to cut out of your working life those activities, or people, that pull you off your strengths' path. Your leader can show you clearly your better future. Your manager can draft you on to the team and cast you into the right role on the team. ...it will always be your responsibility to make the small but significant course corrections that allow you to sustain your highest and best contribution to this team, and to the better future it is charged with creating."

Average managers play checkers. Great managers play chess.

In the happiest couples, the husband rated the wife more positively than she did (herself) on every single quality (like open, warm, patient, etc.)

Find the most generous explanation for each other's behavior and believe it.

Not everyone can be a leader.

No matter what the situation, (the first response of a great manager) is to think about the individual concerned and how things can be arranged to help that individual experience success.

Great leaders rally people to a better future.

Discover what is unique about each person and capitalize on it.

The three great levers:

Strengths and weaknesses - the most influential qualities of a person are innate and that the essence of management is to deploy these...qualities as effectively as possible and so drive performance - overconfidence is not the problem - self-awareness drives performance - unrealistic self-assessment actually stimulates performance, but the person has to have a healthy respect for the challenge/difficulty of the task - the person should have a fully realistic assessment of the difficult of the challenge ahead, and, at the same time, an unrealistically optimistic belief in his ability to overcome it
Triggers - recognition, praise, "being on someone's case," etc.
Style of learning - analyzing, doing, watching

How do you identify the levers?

What was the best/worst day at work you've had in the last three months?
What were you doing?
Why did you enjoy it/did it grate on you so much?

What was the best relationships with a manager you've ever had? What made it work so well?

When in your career do you think you were learning the most? Why did you learn so much? What's the best way for you to learn?

Leading - discover what is universal and capitalize on it

Five fears, five needs, one focus

Fear of death/the need for security
Fear of the outsider/the need for community
Fear of the future/the need for clarity
Fear of chaos/the need for authority
Fear of insignificance/the need for respect]

To inspire confidence, be clear

Points of clarity:

Who do we serve?
What is our core strength?
What is our core score?
What actions can we take today?

Disciplines:

Take time to reflect
Select your heroes with great care
Practice

Discover what you don't like doing and stop doing it

Sustained success means making the greatest possible impact over the longest period of time

You will NOT learn the most in your areas of weakness

You will not feel most energized and challenged when focusing on your flaws

Discover your strengths and cultivate them

If you are bored, chances are you're deep interests are not engaged
If you are unfulfilled, chances are that your values are not engaged
If you are frustrated, chances are your strengths are not in play
If you are drained, chances are your job requires strength where you have weakness - find someone else to do the thing that drains you

Rockmont, putting in the miles

2005-09-08T10:18:00.000-05:00

In a few minutes I'll pick up my son from school and we'll pack for a Trail Blazers outing to Camp Rockmont. We've been looking forward to it for weeks. It'll be the second time this month we'll head to the mountains. We'll go white water rafting on the French Broad tomorrow. The weather forecast is good.

Ran a little under 11 earlier this morning, but I had no zip in my legs, so my average pace was over 10". Then again, I did 8 Yassos with Christopher and Eric yesterday, so my legs probably haven't recovered from that speed workout. Won't be running this weekend. Still, my weekly total is 25, and last week's total was close to 40, so it works out.

17 tomorrow, and then we head west

2005-09-02T20:22:00.000-05:00

I'll run 17 tomorrow, swapping next week's scheduled mileage for this week's scheduled recovery because I'll be at Camp Rockmont next weekend with my son. It will be my longest long run since I trained for Disney in 2003.

Christopher and I had a good Yasso workout yesterday. Times 7 @ around 3:40, an easy mile on either end. Christopher cannot join me tomorrow because he's traveling to Dallas to visit his ailing father. Eric may join me tomorrow - I e-mailed him what I planned to do but I haven't heard back from him.

After the run, the family willl pack up and head to Salisbury to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Then it's off to the mountains for a Labor Day vacation. This despite $3.50 gasoline and the governor advising against unnecessary travel. It's not as though this is an impulsive trip - we'd been planning it for weeks. The kids have never seen the mountains. Question is, how available will gas be in the western part of the state?

As I write this, I have live video streaming in from WWL TV in New Orleans. No matter how sore I feel after a long run, no matter how stressful it gets at work, no matter how hectic it can get at home, no matter how high gas prices get, it pales to the horror that those folks are living through. We suffered through Fran, but Fran was a picnic compared to Katrina.

Different strokes for different folks

2005-08-29T16:49:00.000-05:00

I've gotten different reactions to this blog or to the fact that I started a blog. One person warned me not to reveal too much about my kids. Another person said "...I checked out Yahoo's 360 page, that has a blog to it, but I didn't really care for the site ..... Maybe I'll have to try out blogger.com like you here..... I want to think that I'll do it, but I doubt that I will keep up with it......" Still another said "I will look at your blog. It will be my first experience with one." My daughter said that the photo of me from 1974 was "embarassing."

I wonder how well I'll keep up with this blog. This is my first experience with one. My daughter is easily embarassed these days.

2005-08-27T14:58:00.000-05:00

My hair used to be longer and less gray, as this photo from around 1974 shows. That's Derrick on the right - he was my best man when I married Anni in 1987.

King Crimson, ethical companies, and Lyndon Johnson

2005-08-27T14:02:00.000-05:00

Surfing the web, following an arc of hyperlinks about King Crimson and Robert Fripp, I find this on http://www.disciplineglobalmobile.com/cat/index.htm (under "Business Aims").

"May we trust the inexpressible benevolence of the creative impulse.

DGM is a business structure & vehicle for the projects of Robert Fripp, David Singleton & The Vicar, trading under precepts of the ethical company. These projects include King Crimson, the ProjeKcts, Soundscapes, Ton Prob & The Vicar Chronicles.

The Ethical Company

Recognisable features of the ethical company, in the literature and discussion of business ethics, involve these attributes:
transparency, straightforwardness, accountability, owning-up, honesty, fairness, common decency, distributive justice.
Recognisable features of a company whose base is ethically challenged are these:
dissembling, use of threats, unkindness to employees, a widespread use of gagging orders, an inequitable distribution of company income."

An ethical company! Imagine!

Is there some size after which a company cannot help but strain to remain ethical? When the decision makers are far removed from those affected by the decisions, do ethics lapse? Is there some size after which it's impossible to consider input from all who contribute to the revenue of the company? Is it more likely that companies in the 21st century will be directed by someone like Robert Fripp or someone like Ken Lay, or even worse, someone like Dennis Kozlowski?

Will the answer to that question depend on the level of government oversight of business?

I recently finished a fascinating book entitled Judgment Days : Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Laws That Changed America by Nick Kotz. Johnson spent his political capital pushing landmark civil rights legislation, collaborating with King to marshal support for it. A bipartisan coalition of liberal Democrats and moderate Republicans formed to get the 1964 Civil Rights bill, 1965 Voting Rights bill, and 1968 Open Housing bill through both houses of Congress. Imagine! A president spending political capital to help his least powerful, poorest constituents! Forcing businesses to behave ethically - opening their doors to blacks!

Sigh. Will we ever see such a president, such a congress, again in our lifetimes? Of course, I wax admiringly with the benefit of hindsight and the buzz you get from a good book. At the time Johnson was president, I could only see that he was getting us ensnared into an unjustified quagmire in Vietnam. That he refused to level with the country about the futility of that war.

Not too many folks read history these days.

I don't like humidity

2005-08-27T13:44:00.000-05:00

I'm training for the Richmond Marathon in November 2005.

There used to be a Raleigh Marathon, but for the three years that they held it, something managed to go wrong. The first year, they had to postpone the race one week because a snowstorm was forecast so the police pulled their support, but the storm didn't happen. Imagine a group of runners who were primed to run a marathon on Sunday. They were told Friday "no, there's going to be too much snow." They wake up that Sunday and see nothing on the ground. No one laughed.

The second year, helpful officers of the law directed the front runners off course, causing them to run less than the requisite 26.2 miles. Those who were trying to qualify for Boston were, well, let's say they were disappointed. Luckily, the race director smoothed things out with the BAA and those who would have qualifed did.

The third year, utiltity crews were cleaning up branches and downed power lines after one of the worst ice storms on record. I had to tiptoe over black ice. The Raleigh Marathon seemed to be a jinxed race.

Anyway, I ran 15.1 miles this morning in Umstead Park. I started around 8, and as the morning progressed it got hot and humid. This means I'm sucking in more water vapor than oxygen. I run slower than usual. Afterwards, I literally had a pain in the butt - I guess I overtaxed my glutes going up the last hill. But overall my pace was pretty steady. I am looking forward to 50 degree mornings.

First entry

2005-08-27T13:34:00.000-05:00

I've been writing since I've been able to hold a pencil. I've written short stories, news stories, poetry, games, essays, technical manuals, presentations, abstracts, journal articles, and now a blog. So let's see what happens with it.