2nd Ryan Companies US, Inc., "Eagle Award"

Tim Gray Congratulates John Leeper

 In 2006 or 2007 Ryan Companies US, Inc. initiated a Lean Process Improvement program following the vision of Jim Ryan to transform processes and improve efficiency across the organization.

As the CIO I was a co-executive sponsor of the new ERP implementation and added the Lean program to my charge.  It was great.

At the end of 2008 I was awarded my second Eagle Award which was presented by Tim Gray, Co-Owner and CFO.

That was thoughtful...

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My Hand in the 75th Anniversary Parade Spring 2013

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Eleven-Month Check-In August 2014

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One of the noticeable changes when you leave an executive/professional position is that the phone stops ringing.  Vendors, as friendly and chummy as they might be spend their time calling people who still have a budget, discretionary spending, etc.  You have no worth to "internal customers" and peers once you are officialy "out of business."  Money cannot buy you friends, only vendors and transients.

LinkedIn has been interesting.  There are a lot of good feeds and a certain amount of networking that takes place.  I'd recommend going beyond simply positing your profile.  There are many 'groups' with specialized interests, whether that be some niche part of IT, everything you ever wanted to know about concrete and on and on.

Several "positions" have been of interest.  I am quite particular about the kind of organization and work that I'm willing to commit to.  After eleven months the notion of getting up and going to a job five days a week is becoming less attractive.  There are a lot of opportunities outside of the 8x5 paradigm.  One of my profile photos is of me at my desk at that place I used to work. You all know the look...business casual, fake wood desktop, vinyl wall covering, file cabinets and credenzas that represent the way people used to work.  Work and the nature of work and the nature of work spaces (check out http://cocomsp.com/ ) changed.  Forbes has been interesting in their progressive moves in the media and publishing world and their reliance on a world of contributors.  Clearly companies are decoupling functions into specialized networked organizaitons.

Working today is remarkable.  While I still like my home office setup I spend a lot of time writing and creating and networking and working while out an about.  Wifi creates a remarkable opportunity.  At the moment I'm sitting at a Ramsey County Library in front of a window overlooking a delightful small pond surrounded by large one-hundred year old oaks.  This experience also includes sitting next to a nice guy covered with prison tatts who offered up an extension cord when I ran out of juice.  I switched offices about two years before my departure.  To the best of my recollection I put nothing in the file cabinet or desk other than a few office supplies and my nail clipper.  Upon my departure I missed a couple of things.  If there have been any company messages about a found nail clipper or two bottles of "Five Hour Energy" please let me know.  Actually I brought home four or five boxes of past work that I thought might be useful; I've thrown (recycled it all, now).  It's a nice world out there.

While employed I did have access to a lot of computing resources.  During this post-work time period I've employed and explored a lot of web resources.  I will confess that 98% of my work is done on a $219 Samsung Chromebook using Google applications, including spreadsheet, and presentation tools.  I have versions of Microsoft Office, both fat-client and hosted solutions but rarely use them.  I believe they are close to a non-necessary expense.  LibreOffice and Ubuntu also play into this phase of my working.  One should still remain cautious of "cloud" tools, resources and storage.  Many of these solutions still remain unprofitable and as we've seen in the past year cloud storage certainly is totally open to the eyes of the cloud vendors and government.  You might want to consider encryption and an anonymous proxy server solutions.

I have not been to Denmark yet to visit my son.  I am a terrible father but you can't be good at everything.



Some of you know that I've had a few lose end in the real estate world and that has taken some time.  I'm still working on my mother's condo and hope to have that on the market by this weekend....the tattoo guy just made me have a mental flinch...I hope to have it on the market by this fall.


Tim Gray and I have kept in touch and will be having lunch in a week or two.  Years ago, before his racing career, I told him that golf was a pretty boring game.  Traveling around a track at 100+ seems to have caught his attention much more than a 15mph golf cart.  Tim and I share some small town upbringing experiences but it ends there.  We were of dramatically different work styles when we began working together.  I learned a lot from Tim.  He was a quick study, requesting just the needed information to make or confirm and decision and let you do your job.  Once after a couple of years I tested him a bit asking about a performance review (we never had them back in the day).  His response 'Why would we do that?  I'll tell you if there's something we need to talk about."  I loved working for Tim.  Never underestimate his compassion and caring for people and employees.  When you fall out of boat or end up in the deep end of the pool you want him holding the life ring.


The creative side of my head and hands is getting a bit more time.  I've written several articles submitted for publication, kept up a couple of blogs, one serious, the other profane and tested the limits of friendship on Facebook.  I've restarted "Marriage for Dummies" after the loss of the first rough draft.  Attached is a recent small project, one of many.  My plan is to take a carload of work to the Nova Scotia Folk Art Festival in 2015.


When I consider taking a "real" job I think of Dave Sterk.  Dave and I were left-handed, shared a birth year and seemed comfortable with our ad hoc conversations.  When I asked him why he was retiring his response was simple.  "I can and I have things I want to do."  We spend a lot of time as employees doing what others want us to do.  Certainly we perform professionally and enjoy some parts of our jobs but at the end I don't think we'll surround ourselves with proposals we've written, contracts negotiated or work done long ago.  Once in a while I create an image of some old geezers standing around a shuffleboard court, all of them retired programmers or network administrator (or perhaps even a long-ago CIO) talking about some algorithm implemented, a unique VLAN solution or a Ruby subroutine.  Nobody cares about your past work.  Being gone from the corporate world helps define and narrow the definition of what you really like,  what you want to spend your time doing and what you may or may not be good at.  It's a good transition.  The fish was a simple little thing, a basswood log culled from a acreage clearing effort, a slab sawed off and tossed aside and then a notion of something that might look like a fish to hand work and then it turned into something else.  I follow other artisans and craft persons' work on Facebook and have found some delight in international collaboration.  This would not have happened if I was still doing the commute, parking in the ramp, walking past the local, pondering the mall sights through the four seasons and gluing myself to that fake wood desktop.  Spending your time on lasting work and lasting friendship should be a priority.  Dave Sterk retired and died two or three years later.  Going back to an office 8x5 (or more) seems like a pretty illogical thing to do (some sort of 3x10 thing might be good).


Dave Hahn repeats the same lines pretty regularly.  "Life is short.  I try to enjoy each day."  It's good advice.


I've reconnected with some of my past employees, even some who left not of their own choosing.  Jobs and companies change, dissolve, morph, grow, shrink get better  and sometimes disappear.  The connections (other than vendors), relationships and friendships persevere. 


Years ago I worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota.  During the new employee orientation this hard nosed old HR woman stated simply that there would be a six month review to determine if they had made a mistake.  At that very moment I decided that I had made a mistake.  I waited two weeks and then two more but then began a job search and left successfully at eleven months.  It was the best bad job experience ever.  Following that experience I had a great five year run at a startup  and then provided the IT infrastructure for the growth from $35m to $750m at that place I used to work.  There were other jobs, too, that  are topics for the future.  Now I'm enthused about each day in this era of my creative life.
 

Other than one business casual funeral I've not worn any business casual attire in almost eleven months.  Not once have I pondered a departmental budget statement or attempted to explain the core issues of IT governance to people who just want free iPads.  The place I used to work was OK, but it was the place that I "used to work" and the work there was of a certain type, not necessarily the work I'm doing now or in the manner of working that we are evolving to.  

As I mentioned in my earlier update I do miss a few people, those with authentic greetings, smiles, a sense of humor and a commitment to unconditional teamwork.

You can follow my life, even be a part of it, if you wish.

Best wishes.

Six-Month Followup March 2014

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The other day another "ex" commented that the only thing they missed were the parties.  Not being much of a party-guy I cannot say that that's been a vacuum.  As I pondered his comment I thought about what I did miss and foremost would be a limited number of people.   The professional collaboration and personal exchanges with "those missed" has left a bit of a loss.  Creating solutions, solving problems, sharing updates on families, outside interests, a laugh and a knowing smile is tough to replace.

On a professional level I'm working on a few projects, the most interesting of which is a national collaboration solution for IT people in the construction industry.  Commercial construction remains when of the least progressive in technology deployment and investment and as such, committed IT workers in that industry often find their careers flat at best.  Every company operates as an island, doing the same research, struggling with the same decisions and most often each make the same poor choices.  We've put together a small group of interested parties to work creatively on some innovative solutions and that's exciting.

Personally I've been busy catching up on a lot of things set aside over the past two, almost three decades.  I've worn out one paper shredder and the second one is making weird noises.  Logic prevailed and I could come up with no reason for saving things like every flex spending form I'd ever filed.  On a practical level I've found that a good shot of WD-40 right in the jaws of the shredder allows for a slightly longer life.

My daughter and wife's cafe business continues to grow and I do get sucked into that on a fairly regular basis.  I attempt to develop no skills there with the goal of them never calling me.  A month or two ago they called and asked me if I could make a catering delivery which I jumped on in hopes of getting a $10 tip.  After I carried in four or five boxes of box lunches into a large conference room, led and directed by the twenty-something office manager I sort of lost focus.  Looking around the room I saw the AV equipment and thought I should check that before the meeting started, looked for the podium and wanted to go get a feel for the view from the front of the room, thought about a few welcoming comments, perhaps with a little humor and put some words together to create enthusiasm for the agenda and goals and outcomes for the meeting.  The I heard the office manager ask 'is there anything else?"  Oh, I thought, that's right.  It's not my meeting.  I'm just delivering box lunches.  There was no tip.

My son and daughter-in-law were here for the holidays and have returned to Denmark, enjoying the opportunity to visit many countries that I've not yet seen.  My plan is to get to Denmark during the summer when my son tells me the Danish stay awake for long periods of time, alternating caffeine and alcohol, and of course smoking.

You work hard, focused on the goals, real and abstract, of an organization because you believe in the mission and the people...and of course you get paid.  It's easy for that to become a big part of your life, perhaps to the distraction of focus on other parts.  One of the thought-provoking references I've enjoyed has been Life Reimagined.  I'd recommend it for everyone, even those less hair-color and hair-follicle challenged.  On a lighter note and more in the vein of the closeted artist creative person I think I am I've enjoyed the work of a young artist turned writer Austin Kleon.

I've passed on a couple of interesting "job" opportunities primarily because I want to have a bit more control and land in a spot (or spots) that fosters good innovative accomplishments and which is an environment of creativity, investment (and profit), progressive professionals and of caring people, with a sense of humor, humility and compassion. 

For the time being I'm working on creating the next opportunity, actually opportunities.  I'm interested in a lot of areas and simply need to narrow the focus a bit.  I'll keep you informed periodically.

As a closing note:

• change is good
• each day a clean palette; one can never regret that
• when you are not going to a "job" you don't have to set an alarm
• when you are not going to a "job" you can stay up as late as you did in college..one of these nights I'm going to stay up all night
• Starbucks, Caribou and Dunn Brothers are really a bore when you don't have to be somewhere; I don't think any real work is done there
  
• there is no commuting "hassle factor" when you work at home
• every day is "casual day"
• lunches are a lot cheaper
• Facebook is more lame than you thought, but you do use it
• Google apps, the Chromebook and anything Bluetooth is good
• you don't have to use headphones to listen to good music
• your neighbor's dog(s) barks a lot more than you remembered
• change is good
  

Regards

1986-2013 Wrap-up

Ryan Companies

My last official day with Ryan Companies will be SEP 30.

There are many people across the company that contributed to growth and success in the IT space, and many others outside the IT Department with whom I’ve enjoyed wonderful, supportive and professional relationships.   I’d like to thank by name the employees and contract staff, past and present, of the IT Department who have been there, 24x7, providing reliable, cost-effective and innovative solutions and technology support for my 27-year career  and with whom it has been a pleasure to work.  Regardless of tenure they have all contributed uniquely and I’ve learned from each and every one of them.

Current:  Brian Engdahl, Brian Walsh, Chris Ostman, Dan MacKinnon, Graham Belmont, Greg Dosser, Jeff Bender, Michael Jones, Mike Kohorst, Nick Rodriguez, Penny Gall, Ryan McAnnany, Tim Wattenhofer

Past:   Adam White, Adam Whitten, Brad Richter, Bridget McDonald, Chris Hammer, Chris Mendoza, Dan Cook, Dave Hake, Eric Queetinin, Jacci Umphress, Jael Sande, Janet Smith, Jarod Werbick, Jeff Wiegand, Jessica Harrison, Jim Biesmeier, John Nahrgang, Jon Engle, Josh Fredrichs, Londa Allen, Marilyn Zumach, Matt Renz, Michelle McCarrell, Mike Doyle, Nate Brandt, Nick Speiker, Paul Purington, Shelley Kleberg, Stacey Smith, Steve Huseby, Terry Eggert, Valerie Eggert, Tom Myler

I’d also like to thank two former champions of change in the numbers world, Don Feiro and Jeff Hansen, who, at separate times, helped initiate watershed changes in our core business accounting systems.  Wayne Goldade also had a strong influence during his brief tenure as Controller, and had the best laugh of any bean counter I’ve ever known.   Cliff Waletzko and Steve Kingery did early work on estimating and cost accounting that moved us into the modern era of IT.  Troy Corrigan and Neil Johnson deserve mention for their testing, commentary, patience and UI (User Interface) work on our early One-Click Reporting solution, which set a national standard for technology and process innovation.  Scott Kinkade and Dan Levitt also provided valuable and critical thought at key forks in the technology road.  The regional office Presidents, Construction VPs and Office Managers (past and present) contributed greatly to the growth and sophistication of our infrastructure and application deliverables. 

It goes without saying that my wife, Linda Grohoski, put up with endless years of schedule interruptions and strategy discussions, providing an invaluable perspective on organizational structure and development, management, business outcomes and performance measurement.  Upgrades and conversions always seem to occur on weekends and in the wee hours of the night.  More than once while we were waiting for some never-ending process, we'd pass the time with TV trivia questions, and at three AM I'd call Linda, wake her up and ask "Who co-starred with Barbara Stanwyck on the 1960's 'The Big Valley?'"  I’m most appreciative that she did not discharge me long ago; there were certainly enough work-related reasons.

Finally, I appreciate the opportunity to have worked with the 2nd and 3rd generation owners, Russell, Fran, Pat, Tim and Jim, to sit at the same table, to work on a first name basis, to acknowledge and work through our differences, collaborate honestly and factually, develop strategy, forge agreements,  and to set a meaningful, respectful, supportive and profitable course.  It was a great partnership.