An Earth Day Goal

It is Earth Day — and like Arbor Day and the essentially unknown "United Nations World Soil Day," — Earth Day exists to increase awareness of the very real environmental problems around our planet.  That list of problems is long (poor urban air quality, water shortages, crop fertilizer and livestock manure runoff, greenhouse gas levels, and deforestation are just a handful) and the solutions to these problems are typically costly and require considerable changes to infrastructure, laws, and human behavior. 

There is a massive concentration of plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean. You have likely heard of this “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” covering a sizable area of the Pacific and visible via satellite imagery.  Much of that trash ended up there not by accident but rather by willful dumping of materials into and near the ocean.  I will be honest that when I first saw pictures of this floating island of trash, I incredulously muttered “it cannot possibly be that large.”  Of course, it is that large and cleanup is expensive both in terms of money and time.

The Pacific is not alone when it comes to being a dumping ground for trash; I have found all sorts of garbage floating in the water while out paddling in my kayak.  Nearly every beach I’ve walked on had some trash in the sand or floating in the water.  This past weekend alone I filled a 5 gallon bucket with bottles, cups, cigarette butts, plastic grocery bags, wrappers and an assortment of odds and ends that found their way into the ditch at the front of my property.  No doubt all year long I will encounter more of this - trash in the water where I paddle, trash in the ditch near my home.  The highways and byways of this country are littered with waste either intentionally or unintentionally discarded by people.

As a computer scientist I seem to be wired to try to solve problems and throughout my career I have crafted many technical solutions to problems.  Automating repetitive tasks, eliminating tedium or reducing error due to human inattention to detail, these software and hardware solutions employ specific technologies to solve the problem.  I can certainly envision all sorts of specialized  trash collecting machines -  autonomous robots sweeping up the public spaces, devices employing all manner of pattern matching and image analysis and machine learning techniques.  I have often wondered why Virginia doesn’t have a high speed road debris removal vehicle that could sweep up all the junk that litters the roadway, the shoulder and against jersey walls without causing a traffic jam in the process - that seems like an excellent solution to a persistent problem on I-95.

As interesting as all those high tech and mechanized ideas are to me, the truth is that the root cause of most, if not all, of the trash problems that we have in this country is human behavior.  Simply put, most of the time trash ends up in the wrong place because we just do not take the time to do the right thing.  Beer bottles don’t end up in a ditch because they accidentally fell from a vehicle transporting recyclables - they end up there because people threw them there.  Cigarette butts litter medians and intersections because people throw them there.  Trash blows out of the back of a truck because people failed to secure the garbage properly.

Some percentage of the population simply isn’t going to ever care about any of this and unfortunately many other people take the position that litter is someone else’s problem.  What I know for sure is that trash does not pick itself up.  In Virginia we have the “Adopt a Highway” program, providing volunteers bags and vests to clean up sections of the over 57,000 miles of public highways in the state.  In an ideal world such a program would not be necessary and the truth is that only a small fraction of the roads in the Commonwealth have been adopted.  Maybe your family, friend group, community or club should consider adopting a highway where you live. 

A good question to ask yourself is “If not me, then who?”  I’m likely never going to find myself in the middle of the Pacific as part of that floating garbage cleanup crew, but I can get involved where I live.  This Earth Day, and every day, you and I can make a difference.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matt Cuba is a Senior Software Developer at Full Visibility. In his spare time, he enjoys kayaking, photography, beekeeping, and a good cup of tea.

How to Deal with Failure as a High Achiever

It’s time to talk about the elephant in the room. As high achievers, none of us wants to talk about failure. But how we handle failure is just as important to our careers as how we handle success. It reveals our character – our ability to adapt to the inevitable ebb and flow of life. Failure, handled well, holds invaluable lessons in resilience, empathy, and creativity, and can actually improve our trustworthiness and competence in the eyes of our customers and teammates.

Here are three healthy ways to reframe a current failure into a future success:

1) Realize Failing Does Not Make You a Failure

As high-achievers, failure is seemingly the worst label we can be tainted with. But failure is an unavoidable part of life. As a ‘doer’, and more so a ‘high achiever’, we will be met with failures (yes more than one) in any vocational path we venture down.

My middle school basketball coach taught us, “If you’re not drawing at least three fouls a game, you’re not playing aggressive enough.” You don’t want to foul-out, but you need to play aggressively if you’re going to win a basketball game.

Where we live, on the bleeding edge of technology, if we’re not failing some, we’re not trying enough new things.

Treat everything like an experiment.

So try new stuff. Treat everything like an experiment. It’s ok if it fails. It’s no reflection on you.

2) Own It Quickly

Even so, it still hurts to fail, especially coming to the realization that what you worked so hard at just isn’t going to work.

Be honest with yourself and others. Admit failures quickly when you make them. You want others, especially customers, to hear it from you first. Since this is hard to do for many (than say – blaming, deflecting or some other inappropriate response to failure), it will typically increase the level of respect others have for you. Most importantly, your integrity and inner peace will remain intact.

Allow yourself to grieve the loss of that idea. Grieving gives you healthy closure, and opens the door for the next thing. You don’t want the next idea to be saddled with baggage from the previous one.

So own it quickly, lick your wounds, and admit it hurts. Then pick yourself up, dust yourself off, re-calibrate, and move forward.

3) Learn Something

Do a “lessons learned” session. The US Army has a great template for this in their after-action reports. They ask these questions:

• What went right?

• What do we want to keep doing?

• What went wrong?

• What do we want to modify doing?

• What do we want to stop doing?

• What do we want to add?

The seeds of your future success are your failures today.

So try stuff. You can’t move on to what works until you’ve discovered what doesn’t. And you only discover what doesn’t work by trying stuff.

What About You?

What have you failed at, where you realized you had to cut your losses? How did you do that? Your story will help others; please tell us in the comments.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dave is a software engineer specializing in software design, architecture, and protocol reverse engineering. Outside of work, he is a Christian non-fiction author at www.IdentityInWholeness.com.

International Women's Day: An Interview with Director of Operations Natalie Francis

In honor of International Women’s Day, we interviewed our Director of Operations, Natalie Francis. Get to know Natalie as we discuss small business life and diversity and inclusion. 

What is your role at Full Visibility?

As our Director of Operations, I oversee day-to-day activities including monitoring and maintaining organizational systems, processes, and policies to maintain efficiency and support growth. In particular, I focus on objectives and programs that build a supportive infrastructure that fully engages and develops our employees – while further strengthening and building mission-support capabilities with our industry partners.       

What were some of the challenges you faced while FV navigated the pandemic as a small business and federal contractor?

We’re a company that prides itself on establishing a positive and welcoming work environment and are always actively looking for ways to maintain that. So the inability to connect with our team for our regular social and team-building events was a serious challenge. We also had to navigate additional requirements from our clients and contract partners as we sought to provide them with critical mission support - while remaining vigilant and responsive to our employees’ needs in the midst of rapidly changing info on safety protocols and guidelines from the leading health organizations. 

I must say that we were able to leverage great partnerships built through years of business, mutual esteem and trust – from our vendor to industry partners – we were able to creatively respond to our employees and their families’ unique needs while staying true to the mission.    

What is your favorite part about working for a small business?

It’s definitely the transparency and agility in being able to respond to our team and clients. We have a solid foundation but are not so complex or inflexible that we can’t adapt to the emerging needs of our employees and customers we serve. It’s extremely rewarding when you see the transformative power of a solution on what was previously a challenge or seemingly impossible situation.    

What vision or goals do you have for continuing to improve diversity and inclusion in the company? 

I think it’s an important goal that’s much more than checking boxes and tracking headcounts. Besides, this is an era where people are increasingly socially-aware and able to discern surface-level change…as opposed to more meaningful, impactful change - however imperfect. Championing diversity, inclusion and equity is literally the key to a more innovative, diverse, and future-ready organization that accurately represents and can therefore respond to the challenges of tomorrow. 

We are always looking at ways to increase and diversify our talent pool, and have more recently integrated new analytical tools and procedures to audit our recruiting and onboarding practices to support that goal. We’ve also committed to additional leadership training intended to increase awareness and develop strategies to support DEI initiatives. Part of the entrepreneurial story is embracing change, even when we don't hold all the answers; accepting it may be less than perfect, but remaining committed nonetheless.

If you’d like to learn more about our company, please email info@fullvisibility.com for more information.

Tips for Working from Home

Working from home is considered by many to be a highly-coveted work structure that most would welcome; others are terrified at the thought of being home to work without in-person interactions or access to outside resources and engagement. The global crisis of COVID-19 has forced many to begin working from home in an effort to follow CDC and world health recommendations to practice social distancing. 

Although this is a unique time to begin a new work structure - especially considering many of us are now homeschool teachers and are literally confined to our homes - working from home requires discipline in order to maintain productivity and some sense of normalcy. My colleague Matt highlighted the hurdles of teleworking and some of his tips for combatting those hurdles, so I would like to share a few of my own. 

Here are some tips for making the most of working from home that I have gathered from around the Internet and from my own experience teleworking the past year. 

Always get ready for the day.

It is incredibly easy to fall into the trap of waking up and getting to work while still in your pajamas. But I promise, getting up and getting ready for the day will make you so much more productive. I was lucky to be one of the graduating Longhorns, when Admiral McRaven famously recommended during his commencement speech in 2014, “if you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished your first task of the day.” Following a morning routine will help jumpstart your day and build some form of normalcy during this chaotic time. 

Set boundaries.

It is important to set clear boundaries for your work hours - whether that be with your boss and team or with your new “coworkers” - kids, roommates, significant other, pets. Keeping to a work schedule and routine will help manage expectations and maintain some normalcy for everyone. This may get tricky if you have multiple people trying to get on Zoom calls all at the same time, or you have that one “coworker” who is happy that everyone is now home all the time and wants to play, so try to set some guidelines and a schedule for the day. Your new work-from-home work structure shouldn’t enable any late work calls or projects that otherwise wouldn’t be an option, so avoid falling for that trap in order to avoid diminishing your work-life balance.

Make goals + use a planner.

I am a passion-user of paper and digital planners. I love using lists and calendars as tools for staying organized and productive. While we all adjust to our new normal, I encourage you to use a planner, agenda, or notebook to develop a list or schedule of weekly and daily tasks and goals. Many may find their new work structure intimidating or liberating, but both could benefit from having some structure. Write down your conference call schedule, map out time for screen breaks and lunch, dedicate time for connecting with your coworkers, and try to set reasonable guidelines for work hours. There’s also nothing better than checking things off your always growing to-do list. Project management and communication tools like Trello and Slack can also help you keep your team productive and organized by staying on top of tasks. 

I used The Happy Planner hourly planner to map out my work week and I keep a separate planner for my personal life - staying organized works for me.

Find what works for you.

Although not always possible, it is extremely beneficial to select a work area that can be your designated productive spot. A home office, a kitchen table, or other desk is a great option for bunkering down for the work day. However, it is okay to switch things up, especially during this time of “coronachaos”. If the weather is nice, sit on your balcony and soak up some vitamin D while working - while properly social distancing of course. 

As you adapt to your new workplace, don’t underestimate the importance of background noise. Some people need to work in absolute silence to be productive, others are more efficient when The Office is playing in the background - find what works for you. I default to playing movie scores on Spotify when I really need to focus and occasionally will work with the news on in the background. 

Hopefully these tips will help you navigate working from home and bring some comfort during this time of much uncertainty. Let me know what other tips you have for working from home or navigating the new normal during this global pandemic. 

Samantha’s “coworker” Boots, sleeping on the job.

Samantha is the Talent Acquisition and Brand Manager for Full Visibility and really does use paper planners to plan her days with her boyfriend, bonus kids, “coworkers” Boots and Abbey, and baby on the way. 

Other Resources on Working-From-Home:

NPR: Tips to Make Working From Home Work For You

Trello: Work-From-Home Guides

ClearanceJobs: Tips for Cleared Workers Navigating Working From Home

Nextiva: Working From Home Tips 

Teleworking Hurdles

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced social distancing measures to help “flatten the curve,” placing many companies in the strange new world of telework. While there are some technical hurdles to overcome, the bigger challenges are the human ones.  The good news is that the two challenges discussed below are not unlike the ones we face in a normal workday, which means we can certainly overcome them.

While workplace interruptions are the big productivity killer at the office, for the teleworker, the biggest hurdle to being productive is managing distractions.  We humans are easily distracted – I can go into “Magpie Mode” without too much effort on my part, becoming sidetracked by the Internet and other people.  It’s really no different than when I’m in the office.  People are, generally speaking, social creatures and so it is quite easy to fall down the time-sink rabbit hole with discussions about sports, current events, and the newest must-see show on Netflix.

The second hurdle is time management.  Time management is a discipline, and I have found that it is much easier for me to be undisciplined when at home.  While I do not have any personal experience from the Army, that old US Army TV commercial claiming, "In the Army, we do more before 9am than most people do all day” is probably incredibly accurate.  I think they accomplish this through structure and routine.  When my workday has the bookends of a long commute each way, it’s easier to have the mindset that I’m at work.  This does not naturally happen if I am working from home, and so I have to counteract the tendency towards mixing work and home time.

So how do we clear these hurdles?  First we need to recognize that jumping hurdles, whether actual or metaphorical, is a skill and requires some practice (and patience).  I doubt there is a “right way” for everyone, but I do believe there are some common practices that will help.

For the challenge of distractions, it is critical that everyone in the house is on the same page.  Context switching is hard, and if your kids or spouse view your telecommuting day as free time to interrupt you, then you are not going to be very focused.  Similarly, you might need to turn off social media.  I find that I simply cannot focus on work while I have people and things vying for my attention. 

Create a “space” where you can be “at work” and do “work things” there. If that space is in the family room and others are playing games or watching TV then you’re likely to be distracted and not particularly productive.  Setting up a “home office” is a good step in the right direction as it helps both you and those under the same roof clearly recognize “work time” and treat it as such.  A room with a door that can be closed is great, but simply having a place where distractions can be minimized is bound to improve your focus and productivity.

Time management is a matter of discipline.  Treat your day as if you were going to the job.  There needs to be a normal work routine – mine involves showering, dressing, and going to my “home office” to start the day.  I generally keep regular work hours and doing so while teleworking ensures that I don’t end up frittering away the day on non-work activities.  Like the US Army commercial, I’m most productive in the 0600-1000 window. This also happens to be the quietest time of day at work and at home.  I time box my day so that those distractions don’t creep in and derail me.  I also think it’s valuable to build in some “get up and stretch” time – both for my back and my eyes.  After twenty to forty minutes of being fully focused on a task I often take a few minutes to get up and move around.  I don’t create a strict 25-minute/5-minute system – as done with the “Pomodoro Method” – as I find it a bit unnatural to force myself to take breaks because a timer went off.  Instead, I let the context of the work I’m doing create more natural pausing points – context switching is hard enough and I’m certain it is better for me to break away along natural boundaries than because some tomato timer went off.

Certainly there are other challenges to teleworking, but distractions and time management are the top two on my list.  I suspect I am not alone.  What are your experiences with teleworking?  I’d love to hear them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matt Cuba is a Senior Software Developer at Full Visibility. In his spare time, he enjoys kayaking, photography, beekeeping, and a good cup of tea.

Help Desk vs. Service Desk

The page won’t load, the app keeps quitting and the login just doesn’t seem to work – in our fast-paced multimedia world, technical difficulties are inescapable. While it is nearly impossible to prevent potential issues with our technology tools and systems, it is possible to design the right IT support solution based on your organization’s needs. Well-functioning Help Desks and Service Desks both play a role in solving these technical challenges. While there’s a lot of discussion on what makes each one distinct or separate, and when or how to deploy the right one -  it’s becoming increasingly clear that as technology continues to evolve and our challenges all the more complex, the more helpful discussion might be how the two intersect for a more optimal solution.

Help Desks

The help desk, quite simply, is the department you call when unexpected issues within the IT infrastructure need to be fixed as soon as possible. If a problem occurs, staff members search, identify and resolve. To do so, the help desk distinguishes itself with its close connection to the end-user, who is dependent on its reachability and reactivity. Therefore, the help desk facilitates the daily functionality for staff and end-users, often with short-term solutions - its core characteristic being prompt efficiency.

Service Desks

The service desk, focuses on the big picture with longer-term solutions, new developments and provides a coordinated strategic approach to IT Service Management. While it can fulfill all tasks a help desk can, it works on delivering a wide variety of IT services, formalizing daily processes and new elements with service catalogs as well as operating as a single Point of Contact for external and internal communication. The service desk works across the entire organization - its overall goal being to optimize all IT and business processes, including the help desk.

Functional  Differences

The help desk typically uses a ticket escalation process to solve issues. That is – if a request comes in, and the initial support staff cannot properly address a trouble ticket, they generally escalate that trouble ticket to the next tier of support, who then works with the user directly.

The service desk works a bit differently. For end users, they are the go-between, the advocate, the watchdogs. It serves as a unified voice for all users, with an understanding of the overall information technology infrastructure of the organization. Think of them as a team of super-users.

This happens not just through mere organization, but smart business process. The service desk methodically tracks problems and the work done by other teams. They follow up appropriately to be sure that the end user is taken care of.

An Integrated Solution

Our IT support solution does everything a traditional help desk does. We train users. We reset passwords. We offer guidance and assistance on using applications. We assist with data imports and exports. We are the triage unit of the IT organization.

Quite often, we go beyond the once-considered “typical help desk” functions described above. When users report problems; we test them out. We come up with solutions to improve applications in response to end-users needs. We interface with the developers as experts on behalf of users. We image hard drives, configure switches and similar equipment. We stand at the crossroads of technology and users - helping everyone navigate through as efficiently as possible.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Keiter is an ITIL® certified Tech Support Specialist within the FBI's Operational Technology Division (OTD) in Quantico, VA.  In his role, James works closely with end-users to resolve technical issues and ensure continuity of IT service operations. As a former US Army service member, he moved through the ranks while managing various IT support roles.

“I’ve always found myself doing something to assist in protecting our country and love doing it!”