The Merchant Stand a blog by Bob Williams

For those left behind (part 2)

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Bob Williams Posted in Ideas, Technology Leave a comment

Last week I wrote about using a Google service to notify family and friends how to get access to your Google account information if you stop accessing your account. In most cases, this is a service that would be used should you pass away from life. It’s one thing to setup a service like this or to setup your own communication method, but it’s another matter if they will actually use the information or pass it along to other generations. I don’t expect that my family will care much about most of the things in my digital life. My twitter and Google+ updates tend to be random stuff or link sharing. My Facebook posts are usually about family or some life event. Would that be interesting to my grandchildren? What about my blog posts? I spend a fair amount of time recording my thoughts on various topics each week. Will

For those left behind (part 1)

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Bob Williams Posted in Ideas, Technology 1 Comment

There is a saying that there are only two things certain in life: death and taxes. I have plenty of taxes in my life. But I have not yet experienced physical death. I think about death, but I don’t talk about it much with others. It’s not the most exciting topic and some people just don’t like to discuss it. Maybe that will change with age. I know the older I get the more often I think about it. Back in MBA school, one of my professors made death planning a class project. Talk about weird! We were required to investigate options for funerals, burials, and ceremonies and then create a death plan to make decisions easier for those who we leave behind. The project gave us good opportunity to match study business and planning concepts while at the same time creating a document that would provide value to our

Get Uncomfortable

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Bob Williams Posted in Career Leave a comment

While planning to lead a steering committee meeting this week, I realized I was little uncomfortable with what the meeting content could create. With multiple stakeholders in the room, there is always a potential for conflicting opinions. Who likes conflict? I’m not afraid to admit that some, if not all, conflict can make me uncomfortable. Yet, it’s these kind of conversations that you know you have to have to make progress. It’s these kind of conversations that you need to have to consider a variety of opinions and ideas. I would say that you need tough conversations to spawn innovation and progress. The experience was a good reminder that I need to get uncomfortable so that I don’t get complacent. When I’m uncomfortable I concentrate more and I work harder. Being uncomfortable keeps from me settling with what is easy and makes me work to find what might be better.

What about traditions?

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Bob Williams Posted in Career, Ideas Leave a comment

People love traditions. Traditions are those behaviors with a special significance or meaning that provide a common linkage or bond to bring people together. A tradition provides a human connection that spans race, gender, nationality, and even time. Traditions connect people. Last week we toured college campuses with my daughter. What an exciting time and an important choice in the life of a teenager. They carefully examine, weigh choices, and explore options for where they will spend the next four to five years in their life. Each school has a set of traditions that have been formed and transformed over time. Some traditions die-out. Some survive. Some stay within the boundaries of active students while other persist into the ranks of the alumni. During the campus tour it became apparent to me that the traditions of the school were also part of the campus culture. Some of the traditions I

Cast the bully out

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Bob Williams Posted in Business and IT Alignment, Business Process Management Leave a comment

We have a love-hate relationship with steering committees. Do committees provide value that pays for the amount of overhead they create in workflows? If you are a committee member with voting privileges then the tendency is to support and agree with the both the decisions and procedural steps the committee follows. If you are a project requestor then your attitude about a steering committee is influenced by the amount of steps involved to get decisions as well as the amount of time it takes to reach a decision. I have experience as both a committee member and a work requestor. I’ve observed both the value of a committee and the hindrance a committee can insert into workflow. A steering committee creates value when it buffers the amount of work that is given to a technology team to implement. The result of buffering work is protecting the downstream resources from becoming