Wednesday September 29, 2004

iWork and Affiliation

I can't believe it! I just about had my blog entry finished and then I hit the wrong key and lost it. You would think that after as long as I have been working with computers I would have learned to save my drafts by now!!

In earlier posts I talked about teleworking and the virtual nature of work but I didn't mean to imply that iWork is all about never seeing the people you work with. We had an iWork Solutions Group staff meeting yesterday and we were talking about how iWork is not about working virtually. The internal program we call iWork is about allowing people to work more effectively. Most groups feel the need to come together. Face to face time counts. On Tuesdays everyone in our group who is in the Bay Area works in the same area in a building in Newark. We schedule face to face meetings and spend time affiliating :-) People who are effective know how important face to face time is and as a result make it happen.

iWork is about providing the services (space. technology and processes) that make any where any time affordable. It is a manifestation of Sun's corporate vision. I truly believe that what we are doing is the future of work!

Out of the mouths of children.....
My oldest daughter is a Teach For America teacher in San Jose. She teaches fourth grade. More than half of the kids in her class don't speak English at home. The other day one of her students was proudly telling her about how his Dad fought in the Gulf War. Then with a puzzled look on his face he paused and ask her " But, why is it called the Gulf War? Were there a lot of golf balls?" (2004-09-29 18:17:55.0) Permalink

Monday September 27, 2004

JDS, Change, and my Mom

As I said Friday my parents were visiting this past weekend. Mom mentioned more than once that she wants her old computer back.

Earlier this year my husband and I flew to San Diego to upgrade my parents to DSL. It was a long and painful experience. (We ended up buying a new computer and making a second trip to install it) As a part of the change we dumped AOL and moved to the SBC Yahoo browser based email interface. Mom finds it difficult to use and says she really wants her old computer back. I've try to explain that it is not the computer it is the fact that email was easier to use on AOL than on the browser mail client. She doesn't care. I've tried to explain that she has a faster more reliable system now and isn't tying up her phone line when she is reading mail. She doesn't care. The new interface is just plain hard for her to use.

I think the lesson here is that change is tough. And when the change involves the basic user interface with your computer the change is really annoying. You just feel less productive for a while. The difference of course between what happened to my Mom and what is happening at Sun is that the JDS interface is easier to grasp than the CDE interface. But we still have a lot of work in front of us to build the Change Acceptance for JDS no matter how good it is.

I've been mulling over what makes blogs interesting to read. Call me weird but I find it really interesting. Of course a part of it depends on the audience but I think part of it may be in the story we tell. At least one of the stories I want to tell here is the JDS Change Acceptance story. How will it turn out? Will Sun embrace JDS? Will our Change Acceptance process make a difference? Stay tuned to find out :-)

Friday September 24, 2004

JDS Change Acceptance

Lots going on. Today is my parents' 54th wedding anniversary. They are here visiting and we are having a celebratory dinner tonight.

I want to start my weekend but I want to write here first. I am determined to write regularly.

I'm changing over to Sun Java System Calendar to start to get familiar with it. I tried once before but didn't like using the web I'm ready to do it again. I like learning new things and I am telling everyone they need to be a JDS active supporter so I think it time. Let's just hope I don't miss any meetings in the transition.

We had our weekly JDS change acceptance meeting today. Among other things we did a Change Risk Assessment. We brain stormed what could go wrong, rated the impact and likely hood of occurence, and came up with ideas to mitigate the risks. The problem is there is so much we can and should do and so little time. It is somewhat daunting but it is a great team. Something that I always love is how the results of a team are always better than each person could do individually. The whole is more than the sum of the parts. Even though I know this both from experience and academically it still always surprises me a little. The challenge is to make sure I am doing a good job of leadership and greasing the wheels so that we all can get the absolute best results. Its a bit scary but fun at the same time.

Wednesday September 22, 2004

An iWork blog

One of my colleagues has started a blog to talk about iWork. He chooses to remain anonymous. I know he will have a lot of interesting things to say about iWork. I recommend his blog to you.

Tuesday September 21, 2004

The Change to JDS

We are in the middle of a change. Today some people at Sun still run CDE as their windowing system and use Windows on their laptops. (Shocking isn't it!) We want everyone to run Java Desktop System (JDS) everywhere. There are lots of very good reasons for us to change to JDS. But changing the way people interact with their computers is a fundamental change and change is never easy.

I'm leading a team that is focused on driving the change acceptance process. We call our Change Acceptance Process model Sun CAP. The model has several areas of focus that all work together to drive acceptance of change. One area of focus is engaging support and resistance.

Engaging support will obviously help us build on the momentum of change. Engaging resistance, however, almost seems counter productive. If you have ever heard Bill Vass or Jonathan Schwartz speak you can imagine that this is in no way an optional change. So, you might ask, why would we want people to tell us what barriers they see to the change. Of course we want to know about barriers so we can remove them, but there is another reason that engaging resistance is important.

Karen Smith told me a story that she heard in Sun CAP training. Apparently when cake mixes were first being developed some market research was done. What was discovered was that people don't feel they baked a cake if all they had to do was add water. So the cake mix companies require you to add an egg and some oil to the mix even though there is no technical reason to require it. This story really resonated with my experience. I know that I am much more supportive of a change if I've helped make it.

I'm looking forward to the next few months. I think they will be both fun and interesting as we lead the acceptance of the change to JDS. I expect to learn a lot.

Monday September 20, 2004

Productivity impact of Teleworking I recently read an interesting paper on Teleworking that reports the results of a 2002-4 research project on teleworking financed by the European Commission. The whole paper is worth reading but two things stuck in my mind.

One has to do with productivity. Often when I am in a meeting where we are discussing iWork someone will ask about its impact on productivity. Our group has lots of really good data from 8 years of iWork experience but productivity impact is very hard to measure. However, two of the cases in the paper show that exact productivity comparisons can be made if work is monitored electronically. In both cases teleworkers were significantly more productive.

The other had to do with safety. The paper said that occupational health and safety differences between office and home were minor. "The main points were back problems from carrying laptops and joint problems from computer keyboards. Someone also noted that " my office is under the stairs (just like Harry Potter) and I keep bumping my head!" "

Friday September 17, 2004

Why iWork is cool

As I said in my first blog entry iWork is a Sun's internal program that allows people to work in the way that is most effective for them and for Sun. Everyone at Sun is in one of three categories: Home assigned, Flexible, or Sun assigned. We have recognized that in today's world very few people come to the same office every day and just stay there.

iWork is cool because it really does support the way people work. I led a meeting this afternoon that included 10 people. 4 people were working from home, 3 people were in our Colorado office and 3 people were in California Bay Area offices. It really doesn't matter where I am located I can always work. I hardly ever do a meeting where everyone is in the same room.

iWork is cool because for a lot of people it is a big reason to work at Sun. People can live where they want to live and work from home. Just look at Mary or Tim. To work from Home you have to be focused, self motivated and a make things happen kind of person. But then those are the kind of people who thrive at Sun.

It is our systems. SunRay, JDS, Network computing they really do allow mobility with security. It is so cool to be able to check my mail and my calendar from home on my SunRay then go into any flexible office or drop in center and work on a SunRay there with exactly the same environment.

It is our infrastructure. We have dropin centers, flexible offices, the work from home program, iWork cafes to name a few. We call it a Network of Places :-)

It is the processes like change management, and the evaluation and assessment tools we have built to help people make the transition.

But what I think is coolest of all is that I really do believe that what we are doing reflects future work. I think that in the twentieth century we worked by going to our office and staying there. In the twenty first century we will work virtually. There are lots of challenges and lots to learn about how to work effectively in a virtual world but those who adapt and figure it out will have an enormous advantage!

Thursday September 16, 2004

iWork, JDS and Me

I'm one of the IT people for the iWork Solutions Group at Sun.The first thing I'd like to do is tell you a little bit about iWork and what I do.

iWork is Sun's internal program to provide the tools to support distributed work. iWork integrates edge technologies, forward thinking work practices, and new workplace ideas to create an innovative, wholly Sun work environment where the network is the computer, and employees can work anywhere, anytime using any device. Sun's Real Estate, IT and HR organizations have been collaborating on iWork Program development for several years. The result is a range of products, tools and support processes that enable Sun employees to work effectively wherever their work may take them.

I mainly focus on user acceptance for iWork IT technologies. My projects right now include change acceptance for Java Desktop System (JDS) internal to Sun and developing a change acceptance process for the JDS/SunRay transition for external IT organizations. The iSG IT team is also working on the SunRay at Home pilot, Printing tools, Global Session Mobility and a bunch of other cool things that enable iWork at Sun.

So it will be interesting (at least to me) how this evolves. Right now I think I'll be writing about iWork, JDS, Change acceptance, and whatever else hits me.