Matthew Lang

It’s a sad fact of life, but there’s many workers out there simply dotting the i’s and the crossing the t’s when it comes to their jobs. They start at nine, do what’s required of them, and then make a bee-line for the door at the end of the day. I'll be the first to say that even I have been guilty if this behaviour. Yes, you are doing your job, but surely there’s more to your job than doing the minimum necessary?

It’s not always the worker’s fault though, many jobs out there just don’t ask or want people to be creative. They look for the basic skills needed for the job and nothing else. Many employers just want the job done and nothing more. Is that enough?

NHS meals idea

James Martin, a British chef and TV personality had a show that recently ran on TV, where he was trying to improve the kitchen and meals service of a number of NHS hospitals in England and Wales. In one show, he improved the costs of one kitchen by reducing the amount of waste food generated. Rather than just making enough meals so that everyone had a choice, James suggested that the kitchen staff take orders for each ward and make enough food to fulfil the orders.

From one day’s service, the kitchen had reduced it’s waste and also it’s costs. That cost projected over a year ran into a saving of tens of thousands of pounds. As anyone who knows about the current state of the NHS and it’s financial problems, ideas like this are exactly what’s needed to improve the NHS to allow to run effectively and also pay for itself.

When the kitchen and meals manager was shown the savings, she did nothing more than just smile. Why does it take a celebrity chef to come in and implement such a simple idea that saves thousands of pounds for the hospital? Where’s the innovation from inside the NHS? Do employee’s even have the time to be creative during their jobs?

Be innovative on company time

In a previous job, I wanted to compile a newsletter for customers notifying them of news and events in the world of ERP software. I pitched the idea to my boss at the time, who wanted the same thing done. I suggested putting together a first draft of the newsletter together and sending it to him before sending it to customers. I was asked by my boss if I could do the newsletter in my own time. So I have an idea, but I must do in my time?

I don’t know if my employer at the time was aware of this fact but I have my own things to do in my time. Working on ideas that benefit my employer in my time is not own. And here in lies another problem. Employers need to allow their employees to be innovative and creative on company time.

I’m not suggesting that every company should follow Google’s example of allowing their employees to be creative. What I am suggesting is that employers allow their stuff to set aside some time to develop ideas and be more creative.

Being a game changer at work means doing more than simply doing the absolute minimum necessary to get through the day. Being a game changer means thinking about the work you and continually reviewing your work to look for more effective of ways of doing things. Not only does that require that as a worker you be more productive, but as an employer you need to allow your employees to be creative and develop idea during company time.

So what are you waiting for, how can you change your game today?

​

The ultimate play bike.

via BikeRadar

It’s become clear to me that there’s far too much stuff on my master list. It’s things that I want to do, but I’ve started reaching too far forward into the future and starting noting stuff down that I want to do but I won’t be able to do for at least six months.

Speculating on what I should be doing in months is no good. I need to see a short term list of things that I can be working on now rather than later. My master list is also slightly unbalanced.

One thing I can do about the issue of the number of items in my master list is to adopt an idea from
Kanban boards. In a previous role in an agile team, we kept a backlog of development cards that represented application changes that were next in line to be worked on.

In order to keep my master list lean but still keep a note of stuff for the future, I'm going to keep a separate backlog file that contains actions for projects that I want to do in the future but perhaps don't have the time in the near future. Doing this and reviewing it once a month will also mean that I can just forget about my backlog until I have cleared everything from my master list.

This morning I was curious about the amout of money I was spending every month on subscriptions for products and services on the internet. It turns out that I don’t spend huge amounts of money on products and services. Here’s where my money is going on a monthly basis:

• Instapaper
• App.net
• Dropbox
• Ruby Tapas
• The Changelog
• Github
• Pinboard

All in they come to just under £30 per month. The amount I am paying out each month is less than I thought, which means I have a few slots left for additional products and services. I’m already looking at taking out subscriptions to Treehouse to improve my iOS development skils, Instacast to sync my podcasts between devices and a Railscasts pro subscription.

What apps, services and products are you subscribed to on a monthly basis, and is there anything you are considering taking a subscription out on in the future?

I would love to sit down and teach my sons how to code, but I think it's more important to teach them about applying thinking to problem solving.

Scott Hanselman rounds it up nicely:

We need to teach kids to think and to be excited about thinking.

— Programming's Not For You by Scott Hanselman

... with Nicholas Bate.

Cultural Offering takes it a step further with his advice about connecting:

Go to them. When you are not happy with a business experience, don't tweet your disdain, go to them and explain the problem. Then ask for a resolution. Not happy with your grade on that paper? Skip the snarky Facebook status and go to them.

— Go to them by Cultural Offering

Another thought from episode 95 of the Ruby Rogues podcast had me thinking about just exactly what I do as a programmer. Yes, most of my time is probably spent writing code, but there’s one big aspect of being a programmer that is often over looked. Problem solving.

Most programmers write code that will end up solving a problem. Whether it’s a small web product or a large ERP platform, the code that we write as programmers usually has a single aim. To solve a problem. Solving problems doesn’t start with code though.

First you must understand the problem you are facing. You must be familiar with the domain language of the problem and understand why the problem is occuring. I like to visualise the problem I am facing. Sketching out the problem in a mind map or even as a flow chart for is always a first step to understanding the problem. With a visual aid of the problem you might recognise solutions that you have previously implemented or even gaps in the problem that require further knowledge.

With the problem now understood, you then set about providing possible solutions to the problem. One solution isn’t enough though. It’s highly unlikely that the first solution you think of will always be the best fit for the problem. I always like to try and come up with at least three solutions to a problem if I can. If I am stuck for solutions then it I like to implement the easiest solution to the problem that will work. Okay it might not be the best solution, but it is a solution. In time, a better solution will present itself, but I think it’s best to at least start with some kind of solution.

Problem solving is just one part of a programmer’s day, but it is an important one.

via Pedal Consumption