Dave Kean

A year ago I seriously I seriously started to put finger to keyboard writing a book about my journey since Mum died and my divorce being final. I’ve learned a lot about the process of writing and telling a story, but that’s only been a small part of the journey. It really has been fun, and that’s been the biggest discovery for me.

1. Find a time that works for you.

Someone told me when I started this that I would need one of the following: insomnia, proper coffee maker or a case or two of Red Bull. I know that every conversation I have with Sharon the editor she keeps pausing to take continual sips of coffee, but I never developed a taste for the stuff. I’m not in a rally car sponsored by Red Bull any more, and that stuff is spendy when purchased by the case. Ignoring the amphetamines option just leaves insomnia. After everything that went on last summer I still struggle to keep my energy level up all day, it is often lowest in the evening after work. So I adapted and discovered that by getting up at four I get a couple of hours in with good energy before I’ve got to go to work.

2. Prioritizing my writing

You don’t get to be a proper storyteller by putting it so far down “the list” that it’s sitting between “Ride a Motorbike around Alaska” and “Climb El-Cap”. I have discovered I enjoy writing (editing less so), more than I expected and while I don’t spend two hours every day writing it is something I make sure to carve a little time out for. I am a writer because it’s not just what you do, but rather, it’s part of who I am. And something that important to me becomes a priority.

3. It’s not supposed to be easy

What’s more, for me it’s probably not going to get much easier. Dad once said that stuff really worth doing (I think he was trying to talk me into paint the front of his house at the time) requires a lot of work and skill. I’m starting this as someone who got “could try harder” in English Lit at school, so I’m less prepared than most. This writing thing is hard work, but that’s fine, it’s going to be worth it in the end.

4. Dealing with fear

One of the themes through my writing is how I deal with change and fear. That could be fear of the unknown, failure, what I will become if I don’t change or fear of what people will think. A little preparation, being pragmatic about it and fear is diminished. I have found that if I face my fear head on and it’s gone. I was told at a conference last year that people who fail at writing typically do so for one of two reasons. First they were lazy, or two because they were afraid. I’m not lazy, so if I failed it would be because of the second. What’s the worst that can happen?

Is writing a book is going to see me fed to the tigers in the coliseum?  Nope.

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It’s been a big week at work, the first 787 was delivered. There are a lot of milestones between the launch of a program and delivery, some artificial (“roll-out”) and some very important (certification) . Delivery may be about the most important, it shows not only can we build an aircraft that meets all the regulatory requirements, but we built one that meets the customer’s requirement.

And we are in business because of the customer.

I’ve been on and off this program a number of times. It started seven years ago talking about AGUs, DCUs, ACPs, AMUs and a whole alphabet soup of acronyms. A couple of years later I was pulled back to work some avionics issues and my most recent stint has been working as a manufacturing engineer. It’a all been challenging, it’s all been difficult, but it’s also been a rewarding experience, working with some great people.

It’s nice to sit back and look at what’s been achieved since we sat in a room talking architecture. There is so much more to do, but for a few hours it was fun to sit back and think about the thousands of people all over the world working together every day to do incredible things.

There are lots of pictures around the web of the ceremony Monday, it is a great looking airplane. Randy Tinseths Blog gives a good idea of what it was like to be there.

On the back of my business cards it says “What Others Dream. We Do.” Monday showed what we meant by that.

…Since I was in Toronto.

A day with long and very detailed meetings at the vendor, it feels like I may actually be starting to get some of this process stuff. This is as much of a surprise to me as it probably is to my boss. It does seem like a long way to come for a one day of meetings and I’m going to be very happy to get home, even briefly, but the effort was worth it.

Additionally to shake hands with people who up to now have just been voices on phone conferences is always time well spent.

After work and a nap the three of us on the trip took off for an evening out in Toronto. A couple of people recommended a restaurant in the Distillery Historic District, a few streets of some rather nicely preserved buildings. Clearly this is a very trendy part of town, certainly rather busy for a Tuesday night with lots of good people watching. It was not a bad way to blow a couple of hours sitting outside on a warm evening with a few laughs to round off the trip.

It’s been almost 20 years since I’ve been to Toronto. For the other two this was their first time here, so after dinner we did what tourists do. In Seattle you go up the Space Needle, in Toronto you go up it’s big brother, the CN Tower.

One of the things I’ve found over the last few days is how much my joints ache, the anti inflammatory I took today helped a little, but it’s took something a little stronger to help me sleep last night, despite feeling dead tired.

One of the issues I’ve had in my life is creativity, I was looking at this and my hobbies pretty much all revolve around rather structured activities. Racing, football and so all have very comprehensive rulebooks. I’ve said before,  F1 being an engineering/money exercise, there is some allowance for creativity, but that’s done with in the frame of a very comprehensive rule set.

Professionally it’s a similar story. Less so than in past positions perhaps, but none the less it’s all very structured.

One thing I do see is that the more successful project teams and project managers have some level of creativity when it comes to examining and solving problem. True creative thinking isn’t always a straightforward thing to achieve. There are some interesting tools available, I spent an hour this afternoon listening to a pitch on “Idea Mapping” that was given by Jamie Nast and it is a very interesting approach and gave me a lot to think about. Followed by a quick order for Jamie Nast’s book from Amazon. If you want to learn a little more about the Idea Mapping the author has a rather good site at “ideamappingsuccess.com” it’s worth a visit if have even the slightest interest.

However I find flowing ideas and thinking outside the box is not always easy and I’ve been thinking about this a little tonight.

Preliminary

Before we get stuck into the cool free-thinking stuff, we need to understand the boundaries of the project. As Formula-1 has a very comprehensive rule book, every project I’ve worked on or led has some constraints around it so while we are trying to add a little creativity,

Thinking

Take time, but be quick. I get that does not make sense, but… Give yourself a chance to really think in-depth about the problem, but don’t be too deliberate. The creative juices have to flow. I have found carrying a notebook around with me and have started using it to jot down little things through the day. They may not make much sense and occasionally look suspiciously like a shopping list, but I do think little things like this are making a difference.

One thing I do know is not to be slow in asking peers or mentors for their though and ideas. I do have a great mentor who is decently far enough up the food chain that he has a very different view of any particular problem. There have been a number of times that a thought or insight that directed me in a new direction.

One thing that’s been working well in the office is questioning the assumptions. A lot of the process work on my program was done years ago in something of a vacuum. A lot of assumptions were made that are not necessarily correct today. We can change processes, and as time goes on processes may need to change, they should certainly be challenged occasionally. I really don’t think you can come up with a good solutions if you have are starting with incorrect assumptions, so examine your situation and the problem, then have someone else from a different office look at it. Peer review can only make it stronger.

Somewhat related to the peer review is looking at the problem with a slightly different set of ground rules. How would a smaller company handle it? What is we had fewer resources and had to innovate a little, How would we do it? It may throw up innovative solutions that a conventional mindset may not have yielded.

First contact with reality

Yes despite all these ideas (and thousands more) the solutions need to stay within some boundaries, in aero regulatory and certification requirements impose quite a ridged box around how we do things. At some point you have to stack these constraints up against the solutions. I hope you have as much luck with that as I do.

I spoke a month or two ago about burnout and what I was going through. I said my friends called it and they were right,

I’ve been successful at cutting the traveling down a little, delegating some work and enjoying weekends off. I still find the motivation a little difficult to come by at times, but I do have some great people around me.

As far as the traveling goes. I was supposed to be in Wichita next week, but there is way too much to be done in Everett this week. The return trip to Japan has been postponed, obviously.

The work is split into three areas, my leaders, the other leads and my group. All three are very supportive of what needs to be done and being there when I need help.

The leadership understand what is going on, they understand the pressure that is on all of us on the program and have done an excellent job in supporting the leads and engineers. There is understanding that there is more work to be done than we can realistically do. Priorities are set, communicated and then we are left to get it done. If help is requested or a roadblock needs moved we get the support we need.

One of the tasks on my plate is a capacity planning exercise. It’s been an interesting exercise, we have far more “non-scheduled” work than anyone imagined. Work that as a group we don’t get hours for. IT’s the first time I’ve done one of these for a few years and it’s been illuminating to share the results.

My peers form a very supportive group and I think we’ve been doing do a great job at pick up the slack for each other and together understand where we are going. The work is hard, never ending and there will not be time to get all that needs to be done, but we come close.

As for my group, a couple of those working for me have stepped up and give me the space to take care of the process, travel and org wide stuff which is important to tomorrow, yet rather time consuming today.

The last few months have been some of the most professionally rewarding of my career. I feel part of a great team that are making it happen and believe we will deliver the best airplane possible when this is over.

There is no secret to this stuff, it’s about communication and keeping each other informed. This has been particularly important among the lead engineers, and extra meetings suck time, but the results show their value.

A second part was getting more and better sleep, I said that for me a large part of this resolution was taking a conscious decision to spend 10 minutes relaxing before heading to bed.

Reading something that does not involve engineers usually works. I’m not one for “self help” books that are piled on bedside cabinets all over the country, but I have enjoyed the Hugh MacLeod book “Ignore Everybody”, It is about infusing your day with a little creativity. Something I’ve been striving to do for a while. It’s very good and I’ve got his next book “Evil Plans” sitting in the stack to be read.

I’m working on reducing my stress and working less, and I think it’s a made a difference to how I feel. Friends have said I’m doing better, and that’s a way better barometer than anything else. Thanks guys.

It’s not easy and these changes take practice to get right. I’ve felt a difference, it’s worth it.

I got a lot done outside the house, not everything I wanted too, but the weather was beautiful and it seemed a shame to be inside. It’s been an emotional couple of days, in part it’s that time of year, and in part there are more discoveries about that house and what someone thinks is acceptable. At least I know the court stuff is going my way.

One of the things I did get round to doing was taking care of the trash that seems to have been thrown off the deck at some point. I spoke to one of the nehbours while I was out there and learned some of what went on in my house while I was not here last August and September. There were maybe two dozen beer cans and bottles either thrown off the deck and 12 bottles of wine, including one that had smashed on a rock when it was thrown off the deck. Out of everything that I pulled out of the greenbelt the mot disturbing was a couple of used diapers. Only a couple of people in my ex’s circle have babies, and I believe one is better than that.

This is fucking disgusting, really who throws used beer cans, let alone diapers off the deck? Or perhaps more to the point, who allows their friends to do that? The second part is easier to answer than the first.

Here is one of the loads I found, this was maybe half of what I pulled out and put in the recycling. It turns out my ex and her “boyfriend” (some one elses words, not mine) spent a few summer evenings sitting on the deck getting trashed. So once again I get to deal with more hypocrisy. I know I’ve never drunk bud-light, so it makes sense. I think I’ve shown rather comprehensively already that some people are trash, and here is more proof.

Thank you all for your support, email and messages. This is  tough week and I appreciate it.

There are a few things that have become clear from watching England in the Cricket World Cup.

First, there is still some life left in the 50-Over format of the game. As much fun as the Twenty-20 slugfest can be to watch, the longer one-day game can produce drama and intrigue not present in the shortest version. Also looking at the runs being scored in this world cup, the shorter games influence is clear to see.

Secondly, the most interesting team in this tournament is England. They are not playing the best cricket and seem to be missing some flair and depth. This was especially evident in the very poor showings against Holland and Ireland (still possibly the biggest shock in the history of this tournament). But England provides drama and compelling cricket by the bucket load.

Following the tradition of England teams in big tournaments the game against South Africa was a “must win”.

Coming off the loss to Ireland (there is no excuse, England were just woeful) they had to win against about a very good South Africa, nothing less would keep them in the tournament and get them out of the group stage into the knock out.

In the game against India on Wednesday we saw a couple of truly great individual performances. The story against South Africa was that of a team effort.

England batted first and after a run of 300+ scores in this tournament the England score of 171 all out (45.4 overs) looked very beatable, but the deteriorating wicket was making it difficult for the batsmen.

Strauss, Bell, KP and Michael Yardy were all out for single figures. The captain Strauss described some of the English batting as “criminal”, he was not wrong. But somehow this was enough. Ravi Bopara was in for he slightly out of form Paul Collingwood, had the best performance, hit a very controlled 60 and won the man of the match award.

There were times that the game seemed to be all but over for England, after 32 overs South Africa seems to be cruising along nicely at 124 for 3, then the tide turned and they fell to 127 for 7 and England saw the chance to take this one. The English bowlers found something else in the pitch and took the games to South Africa, Stuart Broad had a devastating spell and ended up with a very impressive 4 wickets for only 15 runs in 6.4 overs.

South Africa made 165 all out and handed England an unlikely victory. The next game is against Bangladesh in Chittagong on Friday, a win there guarantees a place in the last 8.

There is nothing better for morale than snatching an unlikely victory, especially coming off the humiliation against Ireland mid week. England did enough and there were times their bowling was really good, but I think they know that 171 should not have been enough to win this.

On the bright side, Strauss and his team have shown they can raise their game to the level of the good teams after a victory over South Africa and the thrilling draw with India. They needed a little luck and found it this morning. I’m not sure they deserve to be, but they are still in this thing.

There is something surreal about watching cricket being played 14 time zones away from Seattle, but it’s been drama filled, and that is one of things I want from my sport.

My group bailed from work a little early today to celebrate a couple of milestones being hit. Any excuse for a little happy hour.

I’ve been travelling a lot for work in the last few months, and there will be more plenty more in the immediate future. There have been times when inspiration has been difficult to come by and motivation may not be totally there.

One of my friends called it before I recognized it, I’m approaching burnout.

I’ve been here before, taking a few moments to look I recognize the symptoms and about the only surprise is that it’s taken this long to get here. So what do I do about it? How do I handle it?

First, work less. Doing what I do it’s way easier to say “work less” than actually do it. I’ll start small, lets say no weekend overtime for the next month or two.

Then reduce what I work on from home by leaving my laptop at work and only take reading and editing stuff home. From experience, working less does not always mean getting less done; it means being more focused on what I do work on and delegating to my group more.

Hand in hand with not working, as much is a little redefining of what a good or successful day looks like. Progress on the program can be somewhat stop-start. The goals can be huge and occasionally unrealistic. I think I deal with it better than most, but the frustration of a perceived lack of progress is obviously felt by many around me. Maybe it’s time to step back and examine the goals. Are they achievable and is the time line realistic? If not they need to be changed.

I see progress, positive progress towards the ultimate goal (proven processes in place and metrics showing cost saving), but I’m also too close to appreciate what we’ve achieved as a group in the last few months. First glance I see what’s left to be done, rather then what we’ve done. The overarching plan that I first saw six months ago is “chunked” into very large blocks. Stepping down a level and examining the project work breakdown got us to somewhere with a little more granularity. These steps are way more achievable and make recognizing the progress we’ve made easier and more fulfilling.

That’s work dealt with, what about real life? It’s that delegating thing again and looking after myself. My lawyer is very good, we had a discussion last week and I trust her to take care of what needs to be done. She is the professional and looks after my corner. So far I’m very happy with that.

There is one last part of this, if after taking it easy for a month, getting more sleep, more exercise, reducing stress and so on and I feel the same way, then perhaps it’s just time to apply myself and get on with it. Not use burnout as an excuse, manage my stress and health and ignore the fact that I feel burned out, and just work through it until I can take a couple of weeks off in the spring.

It’s missing a few flex-ducts, but I still think the inside of LAX would feel at home in a dystopian Terry Gilliam  movie.