Thanksgiving - 2009

This is the thanksgiving weekend in the USA. Today, we will enjoy dinner with good friends, and take time out to recover from the flu that visited our household this week.

We give thanks for being in the USA, being employed, and being together as a family. What are you thankful for today?

During the weekend, I am setting goals and planning 2010 activities. What are your plans for 2010? Now is a great time to think about your professional development goals for 2010, and put your training workshops and courses onto your calendar. How will you improve your skills in 2010, so that you have more to be thankful for next year at Thanksgiving?

Camping trip with Boy Scouts

The leaves have fallen in Connecticut, as you can see from this photo. I just invested the weekend in camping with the boy scout troop, in Ashford CT. We had a great, great time in the crisp air. Thank goodness for Kelty tents and sleeping bags - I slept snugly and cozy.

It was fun and the weekend was very well planned and executed. I can't take credit for much of it, sans the relatively digestable breakfast pancakes.

Do the math

We left Johannesburg last night, about 9:20 PM. We flew for 16 hours, and covered 8,700 turbulent miles before touching down in Atlanta this morning at 6 AM. So let's see - that is 9 PM, plus 16 hours of flying during the night, means that it is 3 PM, yet we were on the ground at 6 AM?

With body clocks stuck somewhere over the Atlantic, we are once again safe and sound in South Windsor. Kudos to Delta for excellent service and on flight arrivals. I notice that the International leg of our journey attracts the granny brigade of cabin crew. No matter, with creaks and groans they catered to our needs and we arrived well-fed and watered.

It was a very successful and fun trip, and I can't wait to visit South Africa again.

Swapping stories

Presentation at PMSA in Johannesburg went extremely well last night. Great audience. I enjoyed swapping stories with like-minded project managers and learning about PMSA.

Project managers in South Africa face many of the same challenges that project managers in the USA face, including non-standard operating procedures across departments and cross-cultural challenges.

Project managers in South Africa face a challenge that we don't even consider in the USA - the horrendous cost of Internet access. In South Africa, users pay by the kilobyte of data download for Internet access, which makes it very expensive to work remotely. In the USA, Internet access costs are non-material and thus we have more opportunity to work from remote locations, increasing our flexibility. There is seldom a reason to go to the office in the USA, as Project Managers can work from any location that provides good Internet access.

Project managers are in demand in South Africa, and there are many positions open, unlike the current employment situation in the Hartford area.

We are heading back to Connecticut on Thursday after a productive and pleasurable three-week trip. Looking forward to sleeping on our own beds again the conveniences in the USA, including a Caramel Latte.

Homecoming - PMSA style

This afternoon, I have the pleasure and honor of speaking at the Project Management South Africa meeting in Johannesburg.

The meeting venue in Selby, is a few minutes away from where my office was when I worked at the Standard Bank, in 2000.

Looking forward to sharing firsthand experiences of project management in USA, and in turn, learning firsthand experiences of project management in South Africa today.

Oh! If the Botha Family Bible could talk - what stories it would tell

Today, I inherited our family bible. We believe it has been in the Botha family for at least 150 years, handed down to the eldest son of each generation.

The title page begins with "BIBLIA, dat is De gantsche H. Schrifture, vervattende alle de Cononijcke Boeken des Ouden en des Nieuwen Testaments."

Published in 1690 by Hendrick end Jacob Keur in Dordreght and Marcus Doornick in Amsterdam.

The family legend is that this Bible accompanied an immigrant fleeing from Holland to start a new life in South Africa. Later, it was a daily companion as a family endured the trials of the Groot Trek in search of a better future before settling in the Bloemfontein area of Orange Free State.

My grandfather's father read the bible to his family ever evening after dinner and the Dominee always read a piece from this bible when he visited his gemeente. During the Great Depression, Oupa Botha brought the bible to Springs, when he left the family farm and moved to the Witwatersrand to find work.

An unusual twist to the story is that my grandfather (Oom Bill Botha) was not the oldest son in the family. However, the oldest son went off the fight in the 2nd World War and left the bible with my grandfather for safe keeping, should he not return. For whatever reason, the bible was never returned to it's traditional custodian after the oldest son returned from the war.

Fast forward to 1966 when the bible passed to my uncle for safe keeping, who since passed it on to his daughter. Today, I am honored to receive the bible, and will take care of it until my son is ready to care for it.

The five inch thick bible will travel with us, back to Connecticut for the next period in it's life. It is in printed in Dutch, and reading this bible requires a lot of mental effort.

Oh! If only the Botha family bible could talk - what stories it would tell of it's journeys and owners over the past 320 years? It provided companionship, faith, hope during long nights at firesides on the Groot Trek, consolation during Boer wars and celebratory scriptures for new births and weddings.

What are you doing to make legends for your family? What will your great grandchildren talk about in 2174? Will they have a family bible to pass on down the generations? Will it be worth travelling 8,400 miles to accept into their care when it is your time to pass on a legend to the next generation?

The business and practice of coaching

I just finished reading "The business and practice of coaching" by Lynn Grodzki and Wendy Allen. This is the very best book I have encountered so far to study if you are at all interested in starting or growing your professional coaching practice.

The authors are both experienced coaches, and intimately familiar with the challenges of building a coaching business. "The business and practice of coaching" is different from the other books on how to build a coaching practice, because the authors incorporate information from the ICF survey on incomes, as well as consolidate thoughts and information from many other authors. The Appendix of Helpful Information at the end of the book is a treasure trove for every professional coach.

"The business and practise of coaching" is surprisingly well-researched. If find the book to be very informative. It is jam-packed with strategies and tactics from a variety of coaching disciplines. The authors openly address the concerns of most new coaches - how to weather the ups and downs of the business. Even when things go badly, remember these words: "AFGO - Another Freakin Growth Opportunity".

I recommend that you purchase "The business and practice of coaching" for your professional coaching bookshelf - it will save you a lot of time, pain and significantly increase your coaching income.