The difference between my brain and my heart….

<rant>

*** Nut allergy WARNING: This post was produced in an area where nut(cases) have been handled***

This is how the second half of my day went – I’ll set the scenario…

Billy Crystal is my heart…

De Niro (Vitti) is my brain and mouth…

Primo is the team from whom I am getting no support for the last 3 weeks, hence making my life miserable in my projects…

*Play the tape* (you may want headphones for the language)

3 weeks ago when we began doing fixes for a client (who by the way are coughing up big bucks for the changes that we are making), I requested our support team to look at 3 issues, and progress them to development if they required fixes. The reason why I asked them was because I was not going to be around, and since they knew the priority of the issues, it was a fair assumption to make that they would deal with them in due course, so that we make this Friday’s delivery deadline.

So when I found out last Monday, that they haven’t yet been shifted, I had a quiet word in the ear of their team leader, so that we got the ball rolling. The last thing that I wanted was us fixing potential bugs at the last moment and as a result not catching any new bugs in the testing process.

Then came last Wednesday…. and the issue still hadn’t moved. So this time I sent an email, and copied in people further up the chain. Sometimes, you have to apply a little bit of pressure to get things going, I thought.

So, when on Friday when I followed up and saw that someone had finally taken ownership of the issues, but hadn’t quite looked at them as yet because they didn’t know what priority they were…. it got me ticking a little; but again I kept shtum – we had issues on Thursday in the company – i’m sure he will get down to it, I said to myself.

Roll in today, Tuesday; we are looking to deliver the software this Friday. We hold potential bugs on our side, which we haven’t yet analysed, and the client is expecting an answer or a fix by the end of the week. It upsets me to see people spend an afternoon chatting away (and I know this because I can hear them loud and clear, and have to block my ears away), and then take a easy attitude towards crucial deliveries. Mentally – I am trying to stay calm like De Niro, but by this stage I am fuming like a furnace!

I don’t like to question the effort which anyone puts in their work – it isn’t something which can be measured or weighed, so there is no justification in questioning if they are putting in 100%. My perception and your perception of 100% are two separate quantities. It still however, leaves the huge question of getting the job done. Ever since I knew the area that I wanted to earn my living in, I set myself a target… and aim, that I want to work for a small to medium sized organization. The reason why I did this was that I could be involved in the “processes”. There would be very low level of bureaucracy to get something simple done, and I would learn and grow better in this type of organization.

And that is what we are. We are a company of 50 people. We are tiny; it comes down to every individual to support their peer in any way possible to keep the individual parts moving, and the company moving. This isnt business logic, it is common sense!

When I left work, I was fuming; fuming at the fact that we are 3 days from delivery and are still working on analysis of issues. I was fuming at the attitudes of some people, and their outlook at how things should be done. I was fuming at the lack of communication from and between this team, and the fact that their “Social” environment is at times of greater importance than the task at hand. I was Vitti cutting off Primo’s unmentionables and stuffing it you know where. That was my brain working overtime.

Then I stepped out into the sun, and stepped onto Tower Bridge…. and I saw the beauty of my city this fine evening. At this point, my mind began listening to my heart, and recognised how it had been trying to pull the reigns in for a fair while this afternoon. London, your beauty was my distraction to listen to my heart. It was me hitting the pillow, and feeling normality coming back to me as I took in the warm rays of the sun.

Sometimes I wonder why my reactions are so different. I feel at times my mind is reckless in forming decisions, but I know it works closely with my heart and sometimes it takes a moment to step away and reflect before they are back in sync again.

Tomorrow I renegotiate delivery; only this time mind and heart will work as a team… the bigger picture is to manage the reputation of the organization and not to worry about the fragments in the middle. Lesson learnt…..

Eventually!

</rant>

Tagged as: Billy Crystal, Blog, blogging, Brain, Business, Education, family, Google, google reader, Health, Home, Kids and Teens, London, Me, On the Web, Online Communities, People, Psychology, Recreation, School Time, Searching, Social network, Social Sciences, Society and Culture, Tower Bridge, Twitter, UK, United States, weekend, wordpress, Work