listening to it

Every employee at Wisegate gets a three-day weekend every month. I love this benefit (I made it up and implemented it, so that makes sense). I love it because we work hard; our environment is fun and intense (given that I started and lead this company, this also makes sense). Taking time to recharge on a regular basis is good for all of us – it’s good for problem solving, creativity, vibrant health and getting a fresh perspective. I came across this story and it made me think of the Wisegate three-day weekend:

The Border Guard

There was once a Swiss guard who worked at the border of Austria. He had worked there for many years and took a great deal of pride in his work.

One morning, an Austrian man arrived at the border riding a bicycle. On the front of the bike was a basket filled with sand. Another guard might have simply waved him through, but the Swiss guard did not. Instead, he brought out a special comb he kept for just such a purpose and began to sift through the sand in the basket. You see, he suspected the Austrian might be a smuggler. Finding nothing but sand, however, he waved the man through.

The same thing happened the next day, and the day after that. Though he never found anything, he kept on looking, day after day, for thirty years. Finally, one day, the Swiss guard spoke to the Austrian man. “I must ask you a question,” he said, “that has been on my mind many years. This is my last day of work. Today I shall retire. And all these years, I suspect you have been a smuggler. Now I ask you, for I must know – are you indeed a smuggler?”

The Austrian man hesitated, and the Swiss guard reassured him. “Do not worry – I give you my word of honor that I will not prosecute you. But I must know.”

“Very well,” said the Austrian. “Then I will tell you – I am indeed a smuggler.”

“Ah-ha!” said the guard. “I knew it! But each day I look through your basket and find nothing but sand. Tell me, please, what have you been smuggling?”

“Bicycles.”*

We take regular time off so we can see the bicycles.

*Taken from The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness by Joel Ben Izzy.

I was talking with Philip Sarofim, a lead investor and board member here at Wisegate, about our members — what they need, who they are, who we serve — and he came out with this great line: “With Wisegate, it’s no longer lonely at the top.” I love that.

A lot of members tell me how isolated they feel in their jobs. Recently one of our founding members, Martin Sandren of Blue Cross Blue Shield, made the point that he is the only person at his company who has his job. A lightbulb went on for me with that comment. THAT is who we serve. THAT is who needs a Wisegate: those who have reached the point in their career where they are the only person at their company who does their job.

When you’ve reached that level, you have big decisions resting with you — purchases, strategies, hiring, big projects — and you are at the top. In a company, there are many tops — it’s not just the CEO. It’s CISOs, senior architects, directors of IT, project managers on big projects – the list goes on.

If you are the only person at your company doing your job, you are at a top. And you need access to people with jobs like yours who face challenges like you face to share experiences in a private manner.

I’ve had members tell me that having that kind of access makes their jobs more fun (fun is underrated in the work environment, but that’s a topic for another blog), reduces the risk and stress of these big decisions and saves a lot of time.

How great that with Wisegate, it’s no longer lonely at the top.

• Driving a radical degree of transparency in the industry while giving our members a powerful voice
• Saving our members time and making their jobs less stressful and more productive

I recently saw this necklace highlighted in a magazine. It immediately struck a chord with me because I agree so strongly with the sentiment it expresses. I thought about ordering one but decided against it as I am drawn less and less these days to owning things. Plus I am not sure how it would go with my fall wardrobe (haha).

Reality TV does make me sad.

When you were young, did you want to be known for something? Maybe breaking the homerun record, curing a disease, creating the ultimate computer game, or perhaps holding a political office? The people who accomplish these types of wonders (yes, there are even some very good people in political office) are the ones who until recently got a lot of our attention. And while one could argue that the level of adoration given sports figures has always been a bit much, they do illustrate what can be accomplished when you work hard, focus and develop your particular brand of genius (we all have one).

But now we have a new type of celebrity. Rapt attention is given those willing to be in front of the camera or worse, degrade themselves in front of the camera. Sometimes it’s in a highly edited competition with competitors selected because of their attractiveness or caustic personalities. Sometimes it’s people filming themselves when they shouldn’t be. And the two feed on each other. It’s a group of people who are famous not for contributing to society —or to anything of worth — but who are simply famous for being famous.

Damn this makes me sad. Because I know so many people who are doing very real things every day that make a positive difference. In a way, it also makes me happy.  Happy because I have a job I believe in, where I help give the limelight to people who truly deserve it. They deserve to be appreciated for being hyper smart and intelligent — as well as practical, resourceful and hard working. Not the character traits you find in most reality TV stars. But they’re the qualities that really count.

So if Reality TV Makes Me Sad, then Wisegate Makes Me Happy. Now there’s a necklace I could wear.

Part of the mass move to conformist thinking that seems to be sweeping our culture:

While we have more social networking sites now, what I am consistently hearing is that people’s meaningful networks are on the decline. We are back in touch with high school friends on Facebook and we know where professional acquaintances are working from LinkedIn, but our ability to meaningfully connect with our true peers – people at our career level and in our professional area – is on the decline for many people.

Here are a couple of stories to illustrate this point. In recent conversations I’ve had with hundreds of senior IT people, many have shared that their meaningful professional peer network is typically 4-6 people. One very senior Information Security guy at Aetna recently told me that there are 22 people he needs to be in contact with and yet he is only in contact with 6 of them. An SVP at Bank of America told me that in the ten or so years he has been working at the bank, he’s been so busy with his job that his professional network has been on the decline – and now just about all of his professional contacts are from BofA.

Enter the anti-social social network. Not a social network that promotes online reunions and meaningless conversation, but a very purpose-specific professional social network where real insight is gained.

The anti-social social network brings together a group of people who have something meaningful in common and because of that, they can help each other. They come together for a specific purpose – to solve problems together.  It is the ultimate resource if, like me, one of your primary ways of learning is from other people.

The anti-social social network is the place where people at our personal career level and in our specific profession (all of whom have been vetted and with no one trying to sell anything) get together – whether virtually online, on the phone or in person, in order to solve problems, share insights based on experience, and save each other time (e.g., how long would it take otherwise to get 20 or 30 well vetted peers to tell you the answer to the question you have to present to your boss next week?) Contributing provides recognition for professional expertise that we often don’t have the bandwidth or inclination to go make happen for ourselves (we are the anti-social lot, after all).

We don’t need a million anti-social social network “friends.” Just a few dozen good ones.

Recently I was sharing a meal at the Gartner Catalyst conference with Anil John, one of Wisegate’s Founding Members. Anil is on the adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University and is the technical lead of the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate Identity Management Testbed at the university’s Applied Physics Lab. He has one of the coolest jobs.

Since we were in the midst of an identity management conference, we were talking about identity topics of late. While on the topic of uber-privileged users, Anil posed the question, “Who’s keeping an eye on God?” Now there’s a provocative question (which is the norm for Anil). It is a great question as it relates to identity management and it is a great question period. I am not sparking a religious debate here, but more thinking about how to keep an eye on the people in charge. Better said, putting people in charge who keep an eye on themselves.

The truth is that all of us are in charge of something.

For us to reach our potential as human beings we must strive. Striving means we end up out on limbs sometimes. We strive to push our limits, unfold our potential, do the right thing. As we strive to reach our individual potential we hit roadblocks, hit many points of uncertainty. We’re in charge (of our projects, of our lives) but how do we get past the roadblocks we come up against?

We’ll call the guy in charge god-no-caps. In that kingdom, we are god. Knowing other gods with similar kingdoms – lives, jobs, projects, problems, challenges, demanding bosses – can bring relief simply by knowing there are others going through what you are facing and it can bring answers. I believe that coming together with other little-g-gods who rule over similar kingdoms to sort out the best approaches and the right paths brings more god to the table and lets more innate potential unfold. It helps us to not get so steeped in the details and demands that we lose site of the bigger picture — and the bigger potential. And in the end, it helps by bringing wisdom. Wisdom dictates we keep an eye on ourselves.

At a recent IT Security event, two of  Wisegate’s founding members, Todd Inskeep, most recently SVP from Bank of America, and Chauncey Holden, CISO at Fidelity, happened to run into each other. They had never met in person, but Todd read Chauncey’s nametag and recognized him. They had participated in a range of discussions on Wisegate.

Chauncey was talking to a handful of other CISOs. Todd walked up and asked, “Don’t I know you from Wisegate?” and Chauncey replied “I love Wisegate. It’s cheap and it’s easy to ask my peers questions.” He then turned to his CISO colleagues and told them that he was going to invite them to join as well.

We’re hearing these kinds of stories more and more. Senior IT pros are so happy to have a way to connect with each other in a safe and secure environment, to discuss their challenges and get or provide solid feedback. And the fact that you have to qualify to join helps – you have to be at a senior level, not work for a software or hardware vendor, and you have to be invited. This means that Wisegate is full of real-world suggestions and advice from peers.

Most of all, I’m glad to hear our members like it.

I get to spend a lot of time talking to people, and doing a lot of listening. I love that about my job. Over the last year or so, I have noticed that the different days of the week have definite feelings to them. I suppose really these are moods of the people with whom I am talking, but I have translated it into the feelings of days as they span people and are quite consistent to the day of the week.

Everyone is grumpy on Monday. It’s not a good time to think about new things or look ahead, unless it’s about planning the week. People seem to be heads-down in work, mourning the end of the weekend, feeling overwhelmed and trying to get their hands on what the week holds.

Tuesday is when people are more open to thinking about new things, making plans and considering new options. Same for Wednesday and Thursday. People have gotten into the swing of the week, schedules and tasks are pretty clear and the mood of people on these days is consistently positive.

Then comes Friday. It astounds me how often meetings on Fridays get cancelled when I am scheduled to talk to someone about something that is new to them. I would place it at more than 90% (with remarkable consistency). Plus, Friday seems to be the day when emergencies happen and people get pulled into last-minute meetings and conversations. People are winding down, wrapping up and looking forward to the weekend ahead. If a work call or meeting doesn’t fit into this mode, more likely than not, it won’t happen. Fridays are great days for conversations about current projects or general discussions. But brand new things? Nope, better wait ’til Tuesday.

I like the saying, “Stop the struggle. Keep the effort.” In that vein, I am now riding the wave of this set of observations, no longer struggling to schedule things on days that just don’t work. This is just how it is.  I know that I can look forward to some really great conversations in the middle of every week—and on those days, that’s where I focus my effort and energy.

I had a great mom. She taught me things that are with me every day, like: If you have to ask the question, you already know the answer. Examples of this would be things like “Is it too late to call?” Well, if you have to ask, then yes, it is too late to call. Or, “Should I say this or would it be rude/unhelpful/tactless/etc.?” Well, if you have to ask, then no, don’t say it. Or, “Am I wearing too much blue eye shadow?” (I hit my early make-up years in the ‘80s when this was a real question.) Alas, yes, too much blue eye shadow.

Another thing she taught me is that people don’t think about us nearly as much as we think they do. This came to mind recently when I ran into a friend and former colleague who sells software for one of the large vendors. We’ll call him Bob (because that’s his name.)  He had heard about Wisegate and his initial comment to me was, “Man, our customers will be in there bashing us all the time.”

He couldn’t be more wrong.

My mom was right; people don’t think about us nearly as much as we think they do. I’ve seen that when smart, senior technologists get together on Wisegate, they are not out to bash vendors. Often, they are not talking about vendors at all (most of the time, in fact, they are discussing other things.) They learn from each other, share their experience and expertise, and get great insight from true peers.

The reality is that when people are able to get information from those they trust, it can enable them to move faster on complex decisions. To ask the right questions. And to ensure smoother projects. No bashing required.