Kaiser Permanente - Thrive

Disclaimer: As a reminder, the postings on this site are my own and do not represent Kaiser Permanente positions, strategies, or opinions.

I am happy to announce that early this fall (September), I accepted a role to help support Kaiser Permanente’s technology investment strategy.   This support will come mainly in the form of business and technology planning process development (but I may also sneak-in some of my technology management philosophies when appropriate).

Joining the health care industry, in many ways, is a departure from my technology industry experience.  I anticipate there will be many cultural differences.   While I have worked at large companies before, my support network (with some folks in the know) cation me that there are likely many  business style and etiquette differences between working at Kaiser Permanente and other large high-tech organizations (Sun or Cisco).

At the values level however, I have a found some refreshing similarities:

1. An organization wide commitment to a common vision: Providing the best health care to members at the most affordable price.
2. A value to leverage technology as competitive differentiators: KP HealthConnect; KP.org; Tele-Health; etc.
   
3. A passion for data and fact based decision making.
4. An entrepreneur’s instinct to rewrite old rules, listen to customers, and improve: Kaiser’s integrated Health Care model.
   

The health care crisis in America is profound.   It will take collaboration from many communities to reorganize the industry to meet our shared challenges.   I believe Kaiser’s successes (and failures) in leveraging technology within care delivery, patient engagement, and knowledge organization contexts, will be invaluable contributions towards building a next generation health care system in America.   I look forward to contributing to Kaiser’s ability to thrive as an organization.

CrowdVine - Meet Smarter

Earlier this year, I accepted an advisory and research position with CrowdVine.  CrowdVine is in the “white label” social networking business.  The company helps people in groups, associations, and attending events to meet smarter through their software solutions and associated services.  You can learn more about the current product features here:  http://www.crowdvine.com/home/features

I can’t believe my good fortune! It is an honor to work with and learn from CrowdVine’s visionary product team and their dedicated customers.  The company is viable and boot strapped.   My role is to help the CrowdVine community “cross the chasm” in pursuit of a sustainable social networking platform.

My thoughts on social networking, product management and community management will likely be organized on CrowdVine’s blog in the future and cross referenced here when appropriate.

Welcome to your Network!

This week is huge for me, both professionally and personally.   I am very excited for all the its potential.   Yesterday, the highlight was the opportunity to cheer on my running mates virtually, as they raced the Boston Marathon.  Impressive times were had all around as the top male from the club (3:03:30) and top female (3:10:43) finished with incredible times.   I have a lot of respect for these running mentors.

The Web2.0 and New Communication Forum conferences are in (or near) San Francisco.  These conferences are buzzing with interesting social media companies, practitioners, and industry thought leaders.  I am very excited to meet and network within participants at the conferences and all of its associated events.  This could be the start of finding my Dream Job!

And finally, this week I get to CARBO LOAD!  Pasta, Cake, Juice, Pretzels, Cookies, and Sweet Potato Pie will all make major appearances in my diet this week.  My first marathon, Big Sur International Marathon, is this Sunday.  While I am very nervous, I feel prepared and excited.  This is one of the most beautiful races in the world and I feel lucky to have the opportunity to compete.

Make work a game and you may need rename it play!  What’s wrong with that anyway?

One of many cool tips from Jeffrey Fox’s Dream Job Book is the idea that if one focuses on the activities that will facilitate success, successful outcomes will result.  In my case this applies to finding my dream job.

This is a very similar premise to Six Sigma applied within corporate environments. My critique with Sigma is that the insights given from studies are never presented in a fun context.  Most often, the practitioners concerned with presenting their findings as “pure” science, data-validated maxims of life, and reducing the human involvement in successful business process as a risk to be mitigated.  There is no fun with that approach!

The problem that many user communities perceive at the conclusion of  a Six Sigma effort, is that they no longer feel empowered to impact business results by their own efforts.   Their involvement is commoditized.  Change and improvement projects need a 5 points a day approach to keep things fun, while also motivating end users to reach business goals by managing their supporting activities.

Here is my 5 point for the dream job search.  I need to make 5 points a day combining any of the following activities as appropriate:

• 1 point for a Job lead or introduction to a job from my network
• 2 points for establishing a meeting to pursue dream job further (info interview, etc)
• 3 points for formal interview
• 4 points for commitment from company to hire

If you have a job tip for me, help me make my daily points and ultimately land a job by contacting me here!

When I told my wife that I would start a blog to support and augment my dream job search, she was worried. She challenged me with the following questions:

• Don’t you waste enough time on the internet / your computer already?
• I am not sure I understand how this will help you?
• I am worried that this may just be an excuse that prevents you from really putting yourself out there. Instead of taking a real risk and face possible rejections with phone or in person job inquiries (sale calls), you will spend your time trying to perfect yet another digital thing [like your resume]

She brought up some great points. I am also happy to say that I have been able to convince on the merits of this activity. Here is a quick time chart that shows how much effort has actually gone into this blog to date (since last Friday):

Grand Total: 4 hours; 40 minutes !!!

1. Buy Blog URL : 20 minutes
2. Set up Website: 30 minutes
3. Install WordPress: 30 Minutes
4. Select and Install Theme: 10 minutes
5. Install Cool Widgets and Support Functions: 2 hour, 30 Minutes
6. Write Blog Entries! : 40 minutes

WordPress Rocks!

While I am thinking “outside the box” on my current job search, I am also a closet compulsive when it comes to playing around with anything web 2.0. In as much as the web 2.0 things I check out also support my job searching activities, then I will highlight them in this blog. The following is a quick pro / con evaluation of a new job searching tool called Job Fox:

Overall Impression: Neutral. I will wait to see if this site actually facilitates meaningful employer/employee interaction or just the same spam threads of Yahoo Jobs, Monster, and Dice.

Pros

• This website has a seemingly sophisticated skills assessment mapped to your candidate profile. The process of filling out the skills assessment may seem daunting for someone who does not have 1/2 hour to devote to the activity, but it does build some confidence in the candidate that they are in for a more meaningful “job search”. The interactivity (skills suggestion) experience of their skills list was impressive and the overall performance of the website was acceptable.
• Interesting job ranking algorithm that describes how employer job posting match your skills profile. The fact that I saw / found job postings that were beyond my former professional job functions and industries was impressive. This “job fit” information has the potential to be presented in graphical way (maybe a heat map) for greater end user satisfaction.

Cons

• Could be my specific computer set up, but the website seems to be having some trouble rendering on my Firefox, Mac OS X combo.
• The resume upload and skill assessment section was a bit long. It got the point that I was rushing to fill out the questionnaire just to skip the activity.
• Seems like the service is again following a traditional model of gaining as many candidates for employers as possible based on their skills gimmick – - in place of building / facilitating deeper connections. [Side Note: This is one reason why I believe LinkedIn could be the killer application in the job/recruiting space. JobFox should be an affiliate / partner with LinkedIn if they are interested in competing in this space in a true Web 2.0 way. The next pinnacle for Online Job Search tools is to move beyond being simple "filters of people" and towards "connectors between people".]
• I like the idea of a “trackable resume”, but it isn’t clear how else I can integrate and promote my JobFox profile within their “system” or in the many other tools in my digital life (blogs, IM, Skype, Email, etc). They need to work on creating a job ecosystem that better maps to the API of my life and job searching needs .

Today I listened to an interesting podcast from the Accidental Creative team. They interviewed famed business consultant, Peter Block, who provided me with several quotes for my quote book as follows:

• • Anxiety is the price of freedom.
  • Certainty kills creativity.
  • I was born and everything is else is fiction.

I relate well to the last point. In my journey towards defining, finding, and then thriving in a “Dream Job” I have had to reflect on my story and how I present it to the world. My inner critic often challenges me on the life choices I am making:

• • Why did you resign from Industry Leading Tech Company X in 2007?
  • What do you want to do now? Why do you want to do this?
  • When will you have a statement of certainty surrounding your employment interests and life path?
  • How will you introduce your current employment state and interests to friends and business network?
  • How can you market yourself better?
  • Isn’t the time for growth and self discovery over?  Isn’t it easier to  “fall back” on your professional inertia and known/demonstrated talents?
  • Etc. Etc. Etc.

The truth is that my life story is dynamic and incomplete and that is okay! I am beginning a process of self discovery which I hope will land me a dream job.    Besides, I have realized something funny over the past few months: No one in my network has challenged me with the endless stream of questions that my inner critic produces in my idle and unsure moments…. Perhaps my network of contacts are too consumed struggling to understand and write their own “post birth” stories or maybe others are far more patient with the “uncertainty” I am facing than I am?

“Anxiety is the price of freedom” and for the moment, I would not have it any other way.