Hi folks!
This is an e-mail that I sent today to my team in the IT&T department after a very interesting day and the cummulative experience I get here this 9 months in Tirana, Albania. I thought to share it with you just for the fun of it.
"My dear team mates!
Please spend 5 minutes of your time to read this through.
As you know we are something less than a week from the
going-live of NAV. Based on what I’ve experienced so far in my time being here
I came up with an idea to “arm” ourselves with something coming from the
American army, which is very trendy at all times, even in Hollywood!
I decided to base our operations on a DEFCON level! J
Let me explain some things about DEFCON and its meaning:
DEFCON stands for DEFense Readiness CONdition, and it has the following levels:
(Source: Wikipedia)
Normally and depending on the DEFCON level, soldiers (that’s our role) have different weapons to tackle each one.
“Our weapons”, you might ask? Not many but are enough most of the times to get through the difficulties:
1) Us – Team spirit: we should be focused and work closely with the same target: “win the battle; defeat the ‘enemy’” You know that a war has many battles, some you win some you lose, if we are to lose any, we need to lose the ones that are of small significance.
2) Patience: Patience is a virtue and way of living. I’m not telling you to let the others step over you, but learn to listen, assess and then proceed with caution.
3) Knowledge: knowledge is a key that unlocks many “doors” but sometimes you have to constrain yourself from your reactions and what is hidden behind each door. Remember, knowledge you gain over year of experience and experience is based on mistakes of the past. Learn from your mistakes and get wiser. Don’t pick on the ones that have lack of it.
4) Time, is a two face monster! Sometimes it runs on our side and sometimes it seems there is no time to do anything in the IT world. Like a time-warp of Star Trek, everything happens so fast that you don’t see it coming. This brings me to the next weapon in our “arsenal”…
5) Always anticipate the worst! If all goes well no one will say how good you did. If all goes wrong, everyone has an opinion on how this “disaster” could be avoided. Before-hand the silence of the lambs is the law.
6) Vitamins, you’ll need them because exhaustion comes in due time.
7) I, whenever you feel threatened by something or someone do not hesitate to point to my direction. I’ll thing of something to by-pass it for the moment and then work on it for a solution always with you on my side.
This mail was a spontaneous thing that came to me a couple of hours ago and I wanted to share with you. You might read it, keep it, delete it, forward it, laugh with/on it but I like it and I think it’s good to share among us peers.
I would really enjoy any comments you have of any type as this is an off-the-record communication and you can feel free to cast a stone...So, without further delay we put our team in DEFCON 3!
Be prepared!
Your Captain,
VI
"Hope you enjoyed the post.