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We leave London in 205 days on one way tickets to Sydney. After spending nearly 7,500 days in this wonderful city (yes, I cheated by using this site), there’s not a lot I haven’t done that I still want to do.
But there are a few things.
- watch the Aussie cricket team play England live (I am holding out for tickets for the Oval ODI in June, fingers crossed!)
- re-visit some of my favourite museums, such as the Imperial War Museum and the British Museum
- update some of my London walks
- check out the i-Max cinema at the South Bank
- see a couple more west end shows
- try and fit in as many Saturday morning trips to Borough market as possible!
We were also hoping to do a couple more trips to Europe before we left for Oz, but given everything we have to do to organise for the big move, this may not now be possible. Oh well, places like Greece should hopefully still be around for a while yet.
On the subject of London, I’m not quite sure what I will miss about the place and maybe I’ll only realise it once I am back in Oz. I know already that I will miss my friends and my house and the feeling of being in the midst of history as I walk London’s streets. But life goes on. And its time for another big change. (They seem to happen around every 20 years for me.) I’m quite looking forward to not living in a big city, and to working for myself.
And in “never say never” style, who knows, we might come back to London one day for a visit. After all, its “only” a day away! So I guess there’s no harm in leaving a few things unchecked on the list.
I thought I’d use my final blog post for 2009, and in fact for the first decade of the twenty first century, to reflect on what I think has been the best of the last 10 years.
Happy new year, happy new decade and happy rest-of-your-lives to all my friends and family across the world.
To paraphrase Quentin Crisp, think how you’d be – how you’d behave, how you’d dress, who you’d love – if there was no one in the world watching you – and JFDI.
SG’s 10 best bits of the last 10 years
Best sportsperson – Ricky Ponting (Australian cricket captain)
Best album – Hairspray the soundtrack
Best book – Shantaram
Best pub – Hermits Cave, Camberwell
Best film – The Boat that Rocked
Best holiday – Kangaroo Island, Australia
Best web things – BBC, Facebook, any of the google sites and apps, spotify
Best tv series – 24
Best purchase – Trixie, my BMW. She stood the test of time and served me well for most of this decade.
Best gadget – its a toss up between skyplus and the creative range of mp3 players
remember, be nice to one another and kinder to animals, children and those less fortunate than you.
happy new year
sg x
Gosh, haven’t blogged since the end of August! No particular reason – just been busy, busy, busy. Since I last visited, Wordpress has gone through 2 new releases.
I’ve even turned a year older.
S’pose I’ve been busy mulling over loads of ideas for self learning. Thinking about trying my hand at wordpress theme design (but I haven’t got a creative bone in my body……), creating a site using html 5 (but on what exactly?), getting the hang of Aptana Studio (for building the html 5 site, maybe) and learning a little Jquery coding.
You see, there’s always something to learn about, the pleasure and pain of life I guess. My brain never really rests; if only my body was the same.
Then there’s work.
Absolutely thrilled with how well the recent project went, the team were indeed fabulous – those Amazonians, those MandSers, those designers, creatives and testers. All worked their socks / heels off and did brilliantly.
Me – I talked a lot, planned a lot, browsed a lot, drank a lot of starbucks, stressed loads and probably drove folks mad… but we did it! And now we are going to do it more….. soon.
And then there’s the Australia thing. Sadly, still waiting….. and waiting …….. and waiting. We’ve done all we can and just need to …..
Currently loving Spotify, and House, riding my vespa, reading a couple of good books, and planning for Rome next week.
Oh, and looking for a new wordpress theme for this blog. And fixing it, the tagging is broken somehow.
<end of brain dump>
Finally, on Wednesday we submitted SDF’s migration visa application for Australia. I say finally because it took us ages to pull together all the supporting evidence needed – official documents, statements from friends, certified evidence of our relationship, copies of bills and so on.
Now the waiting starts. No idea how long it will take until we hear from the Australian High Commission in London, who apparently will do the application processing. We might also need to go in and have an interview with them. Some say it takes weeks, some say months. Still, we’re in no major hurry.
In the meantime, I have started simplifying my life here. Am stepping down from the TandRA after the fete in September, and after the big project goes live at work in Oct, SDF and I will be having a mega sale on eBay  Time to seriously declutter.
Am also showing more interest in the property markets and currency markets lately. Sad, I know, something I really don’t like doing. I’ve never wanted to know the value of my house – its just my home and all that – but needs must if I am going to sell it in a year or less. And if we can get a place in Sydney – inner west – without needing a mortgage, that will be ideal. Hence, trying to see what places are selling for on both sides of the world.
I’ve also discovered a great FX company called UKforex (aka Ozforex) – no transaction fees and better rates than banks. Now I’m waiting for the currency to hit the heady heights of 1.97 (those days of a pound being worth 2.32 are sadly a pipe dream for a while, I fear.) 1.97 and I’m happy…..
So I feel we are slowly making steps towards the big move. The next things to do will be to start the ball rolling with the cats moving over and getting estimates for our stuff to be shipped. But not until SDF gets the go ahead to have her medicals and police checks. It will happen soon enough – hopefully!
Within a couple of days of arriving in Sydney, I’d decided that for so many reasons it was probably time to move back permanently.
What I hadn’t done after 20 years in London I was probably never going to do – and I was torn between my dislike of corporate life generally and my desire to do something more challenging, which for me meant having to try and continue the corporate ladder climb. Hardly the most interesting or exciting future, no wonder I was getting rather depressed about it all.
And then my father gave me a wonderful opportunity. He asked me to take over the running of his company when I return to Sydney.
No bosses to report to, no corporate processes or politics, being in sole charge of decision-making (after initially working alongside him while I learn the ropes), deciding my own hours and just making things happen in order to continue to grow the business.
For the first week or so after we discussed it, I think I was wandering around stunned, overwhelmed by all the possibilities and opportunities it offered. I’m now slowly getting my head around it all and just can’t wait!
Now its hardly BHP but its a good, solid and profitable business with low debt and an established operating model and customer base. It also has a reliable supply chain and a growing distribution network across eastern Australia. And its got loads of opportunities for further growth across the rest of Australia and into NZ.
I’m no expert in the stuff it makes and sells – which currently includes fire pumps, pressure cleaners, generators, compressers, plate compactors and so on – but there are plenty of technical guys there who know loads about it.
My job will be to steer the business, steadily expand into new markets, continue the development of new products and ensure we continue to build on the brand values of low price and high quality and after-sales service.
There’s also loads of warehouse and office space which I can use to run an internet business – which opens up even more opportunities. haven’t even started to get my head around this bit yet.
So the first thing I’ve got to do is unpick my life in London and then hopefully we will move back in the next 12 – 18 months, depending on visas and so on.
Meanwhile, since returning to London I now have a whole new attitude to work. It’s simply a job, not a career, just something fun to get me through until we are organised to leave.
And I feel so much better. Thanks Hector.
As the song goes, “I’m coming home, I’ve done my time”.
Unbelievable that next week it will have been twenty years ago that I left Sydney for London. A 6 month trip soon became a year, then 2, then 5, and now 20. But the time is right for me to bring my family to Australia to live – yes, sdf, I can hear you saying “its about bloody time” as you start packing.
I’d been thinking about it for a few months but as soon as I drove past the Sydney Cricket Ground this morning in the beautiful Sydney winter sunshine, I knew in my heart this was where I now need to be – I just knew. It has to be done.
Its going to be scary. I’ve got a load more to think about than I did when I left Sydney with a backpack and £200 in my pocket. But I’ll do it – and I will use this part of my blog to write about the fun and games I have in unpicking my life in London and resettling somewhere in Oz (probably, but not necessarily, Sydney).
I will be inspired by the beauty and simplicity of inner Sydney, the classic Aussie pubs, the ease of buying decent fresh food, the wonderful outdoor places and the friendly locals. It doesn’t mean I have become tired of living in London – London is a wonderful place too – I just know that its time to come home.
So this trip is a reckie mission. Checking out what I need to think about, talking to people, making sure its the right decision, creating a plan and so on. Had a great chat with Kimberly today about it and I reckon Hector will be delighted to help me when I see him on Sunday.
I reckon there are 3 key things that I need to sort out when I get back to London:
1 – figure out the best way of getting sdf over
2 – start getting pet passports for the girls
3 – sell my house and get rid of / prepare to ship my stuff
No definite timing yet but hopefully within the next 12 – 18 months. Which also puts all my work stuff into perspective, finally, as it now becomes a case of getting whatever experience I can which is likely to be of use to me when I get to Oz.
I can’t wait to tell sdf. Its going to be a great adventure!
So we went live as planned on Friday, on the date we decided back in December and only 2% over budget. This was the first phase of a major site refresh project, and I also believe we will go live with the second phase as planned in early October.
I see no reason why we won’t so long as we follow a similar approach.
Its a credit not to the project management process but to the team of talented and committed individuals involved in project delivery – the Customer Experience team, the design agency, the Amazon developers and advisors, our external testing team and more.
The approach basically boiled down to:
1 – having a committed team of talented people from across different organisations, empowered to work together and JFDI in order to get their areas of work completed to time and quality, and supported by myself and others to quickly resolve any blockages where needed. Its amazing what empowerment can do for motivation.
2 – top-down planning – a simple high level plan (more like a roadmap) with key milestone dates supported by more detailed plans for certain activities and deliverables where needed. Plans that the whole team understood and bought into, with dates they signed up to and were willing to go for.
3 – a good set of working relationships across the teams, lots of open communication – phone calls, face to face meetings, etc – and people being prepared to give and take around their roles and responsibilities, being flexible where needed to get the job done. Jobsworths were frowned upon – if someone had the time to do it, or it made more sense for them to do it because of their background knowledge, they got on with it and did it if it resulted in a better quality product or us remaining on track.
4 – everyone wanting success – Everyone wanted to deliver the project on time and within every team, people worked ridiculous hours, weekends and so on if it meant we kept on track. It probably helped that with each new milestone, I reminded the team responsible that we were on track to date (green) and that they might not want to be the one to turn us amber.
Fear of failure also does wonders for motivation!
So what did I personally do?
1 – Fortunately I have what I think are very good working relationships with the others in the “project management team” – both the head of CX and the Amazon Dev manager. Between us, we helped keep the project on track by reaching decisions quickly, being pragmatic and having open, regular communication.
Having good relationships with each of them helped me to try and build trust between the different organisations, reducing the pressure on teams from others and giving them a little flexibility and space to get their work done.
2 – I kept my nose out of the detail unless necessary to keep the project on track. We had people on point for certain deliverables or milestones and the extent of my involvement was to get weekly status updates from them and have chats with them on an ad hoc basis to get a feel of how things were going. But I also encouraged them to raise things with me quickly if they had a blockage that needed clearing.
3 – I pulled together a high level plan (more like a roadmap really) and ensured that everyone involved bought into it. Once work was underway on one set of deliverables I let the teams get on with it and looked ahead to the next set, ensuring we were ready for work to kick off, again looking for risks and issues and working to remove blockages in advance of when work was due to start.
4 – I kept asking myself what could go wrong with a certain milestone or set of activity, and then worked to guard against it. Whether it meant getting more closely involved, producing a detailed plan with the team concerned, chewing it over with the management team, whatever.
5 – I talked a lot. I played diplomat in encouraging individuals to trust, I played referee in disputes between organisations, I played taskmaster when it came to getting work completed on time, I played leader where needed to motivate the team and help them see the way forward and I played watchful observer when someone else stepped forward to sort something out.
In many respects I felt more like a sports coach than a project manager – prepare and empower the team and let them get on with playing while I look ahead to the next game – with a focus not on winning just the game but on winning the competition.
So roll on phase 2 – it might not be green all the way but we will deliver on time! Let’s JFDI, team.
I hate the term “project management” with a passion.
That might come as a surprise to those who know that I am currently “managing” a large and commercially important web project at work. And not as a surprise to those who know how much I hate bureaucracy and admin as a general rule.
But allow me to explain what I mean when I say “project management”. I’ve been reading my friend Jason’s blog over the past couple of weeks and nodding in total agreement with him. Particularly his posting about project plans and gantt charts.
For me, the problem with the term is that it has most people, especially those starting off in it, firing up their MS Project apps, reaching for their PRINCE2 / Waterfall / Agile books and creating loads of highly detailed or weighty reports, documents and spreadsheets as that’s what they think project management is. The stuff they can easily learn out of books. It almost becomes their comfort blanket, their “evidence” for when things go wrong – “its not my fault boss, it clearly says in the functional spec or the plan ……….. ” and so on.
Yuk yuk yuk.
So I’d rather be called a “project delivery manager” – not responsible for managing the project as such (producing a hefty report each week to explain why the project is late, exactly which line in the 1000 line project plan we are up to and how we are 67.56% complete against plan) – but responsible for ensuring the project gets delivered on time, on budget and to the appropriate level of quality for the customer, given those two constraints.
Which means doing the bare minimum process and admin needed to get the project delivered and the compliance monkeys off my back – not to create a historic record of why the project failed.
And I must be doing something right because my project at work is one of the few that has been green since it started – and will hopefully still be green when it goes live next Friday. And any projects I’ve delivered in the past have usually also been green.
So what’s the secret?
Well, I mentioned to someone a few weeks ago that for me, successful project management is primarily about managing people and relationships, not about managing detailed processes or creating loads of paperwork.
Relationships
Build healthy relationships with both stakeholders and suppliers and ensure open, transparent and regular discussions from day one.
Build an atmosphere of trust – to the point where they both trust you and each other to do the right thing even when they aren’t clear themselves what it might be. Remember, all 3 have an interest in the project being delivered – work together, not against each other.
Be prepared for conflict, as it will happen – but deal with it quickly and effectively and don’t let tensions build up across this important senior team.
Teamwork and empowerment
Have a clear vision and scope for the project, supported by a high level plan showing only the milestones and deliverables, and ensure the entire project team buys into both. The whole team has to understand the project vision and scope, and feel the project is achievable (“our project”). If anyone doesn’t, encourage discussion around it and work to gain their support.
Give team members responsibility for appropriate deliverables and milestones (or entire workstreams) and leave them to get on with doing it. Don’t micromanage – instead, empower these smart people to get the job done and get short, regular status updates from them on progress.
If things start to look like they are going off track or risks and issues start appearing, that’s the time to step in. If things are ticking along fine, leave them alone to get on with it.
If a milestone looks tight, suggest they produce a detailed plan to build up to it, and keep an eye on progress against it.
Encourage a team atmosphere where collaboration replaces directives from “above”, where trust replaces the need for arse covering and where flexibility and teamwork replaces jobsworth behaviours.
Risk and Issue Management
As project delivery manager, this is the area I tend to focus on most. I am always looking ahead across the high level plan, checking for any potential bottlenecks or problems that may be looming and then working in advance to remove them. At a previous employer, some of the team used to call me “the plumber” for this reason – I was forever removing blockages so that projects could maintain momentum.
If issues come up, bring the relevant people together quickly to sort them out. And don’t stop until you have an agreed way forward to resolve them. Time is critical where an issue is concerned or a decision needs to be made – otherwise, things quickly grind to a halt and team morale dives.
If risks are identified, quickly discuss and agree actions to mitigate. Never have an open risk on the risk register without an owner or mitigating actions for it.
And don’t just look for project risks and issues, also watch for dependencies with other projects or wider things going on (holidays, mandatory departmental meetings) that could affect the delivery of your project.
The key is speed – don’t sit back while time ticks on, identify issues and risks and deal with them quickly.
Communication
Like many, I hate email. There is way too much of it. And I particularly hate emailing / being emailed by people in the same office as me. If it can’t wait and you think you might forget the point you wish to make, send it. Otherwise, wait until a time when you can have a face to face conversation about it. Or even a phone call. Face to face / phone helps build relationships – misinterpreted emails often help destroy them.
Have weekly meetings with the team – what have you done since the last meeting, what are you planning to do before the next one, and what issues do you need to table. Add any new risks and issues to the risk and issues register.
Minimal project management documentation
The only ones I happily use and feel are beneficial to project delivery are as follows:
- project charter – in my view, the most important one for the project, as it sets out the vision, scope, milestones, deliverables, key risks, approaches, roles and responsibilities. It is the one I tend to put the most time into producing and discussing with the team, the first thing I do at the start of the project and about the only one I refer to afterwards. If you can’t get agreement to the points in this document, don’t go any further until its resolved.
- high level project plan, showing deliverables, milestones and key tasks only. It doesn’t go into too much detail – if you need it, create separate detailed plans for the team to work against. The purpose of the high level plan is to provide a general guide on project progress and an indication of upcoming activities, not to specify in detail what tasks need doing and by when. ie. it’s not a workplan.
- project budget – keep it simple, summarised and up to date. But don’t overanalyse it.
- status reports – again, keep them short, simple and to the point. If you truly know the status of your project, if your high level plan is up to date and if everyone is in agreement on status, risks and issues, producing this should take less than half hour each time.
- risk and issue register – the things on here are those that can really derail your project so keep on top of them and follow through to resolution.
The most important thing is to focus on delivery, not management. Don’t manage a failing project, deliver it effectively and hopefully it will never become one.
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