Now this is the real deal, I guess.
So I took the travel arrangement I told you about at length… in Frankfurt I got a cute car, a Seat, which does sound like a tractor, but it goes quite well. It even has a little Aux-in plug for the iPod, definitely a plus. The hotel is bad. Not really bad, but I got something ten times better for almost the same money in Berlin. The bathroom is not really clean. The curtains are dirty. The floors are dirty. The WiFi does not work. Oh well, I was spoiled in Berlin. Next week: Different hotel.
Workshop with the customer was great fun. It was like in real life! Really, it felt very different from what I experienced with only internal staff. Different topics (obviously), different meeting behaviour. I could not add much value today, as I got to know the topic on the fly, but I learnt a lot. Tomorrow, I hope, I will get some work assigned - not knowing what I will spend my time with over the next month really makes me anxious. Until then, I try to figure out what to do with my free time - come on, it is not 8pm and my colleagues are already in the hotel. Well, they are still working there. And well, it is a great hotel…. you feel my envy? I’ll search for an Aldi now and get stocked on diet coke.
Now that is a plan!
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Published on January 25, 2008
in general.
As a consultant, I signed up for the lifestyle of constant change, with the variables all packed up in a little suitcase and the methodology and approach of our work. I do like that, but I also feel that it is not completely natural for me.
Today is my last day in the Institute, with the folks I have been working with for just two months - and still it feels like leaving. I think I will remember this time as a great start, many many experiences, tough work, great people.
Time for another round of statistics:
Diet Coke consumption January: 1,25 liters/day
Assignments finished in the Institute: 5
Days I left the office before 10pm: Few
Days I left the ofice after 2pm: 5
Great time with colleagues: Every day
Even greater time with colleagues: Every day after 10pm when the rest of the office is gone
Missed deadlines: ZERO
Bad evaluations: ZERO
Loving the work you do: PRICELESS.
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Things have moved faster than I anticipated them:
I will be leaving the Institute one week earlier than planned, as the opportunity arose to join a project in its beginning. So from next week on, I won’t be working in Berlin anymore, rather in the greater Frankfurt (Main) area. Greater does mean that I do not simply hop on an airplane and go to Frankfurt, but I then have a one hour trip to the hotel in a rental car…. finishing with another thirty minute commute to the client site from the hotel. In other words: Logistics have just become more challenging.
To start it off, I’ll be attending a client workshop (my first client workshop! Yippieh!) on Monday. Monday morning 8:30. Which means taking the flight on Sunday evening. Which sucks. Fortunately, this is not a regular timeslot for workshops, so that I should be able to leave Monday morning most of the time.
So I will leave the Institute, which makes me a bit sad, I have to admit - because the people here are great, and the general mood is so upbeat, although everybody is working their a** off - I mean, come on, it is past 3am and I am still in the office). Before that, of course, the current assignment has to be completed (this is why I am still awake). Back to work.
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Wow, this week I’ll be burning. Instead of the usual two week assignment I now got a job for just five days, and it is a presentation that a VP will give to the CEO of a big company. I better not screw this up.
Have you read some of the free stuff from Tom Peters yet? Did you look into Lawrence Lessig’s book? Boy, it is almost Tuesday. Time to get moving!
Seriously. Look at Fran - she is going for it. There’s energy in the air. TIME TO GET MOVING!
People, once it gets going…
so figures that Lawrence Lessig did license his book “the future of ideas” under Creative Commons. You can download it here. Lawrence has been one of the key persons in the Creative Commons movement, he is a great speaker and his writing does set important landmarks in the understanding (and realization) of what is happening to information, creativity and innovation in these oh-so-modern days. I suggest you put this on your laptop, take it into the week and read it.