I often go into retrospect about my days at a major wealth management and financial planning company, working in the front line and interacting directly with the full gamut of professionals that entertain the use of ‘The Software’ to define, extrapolate and present goals for the mass population. I learnt a lot here, as there was NO induction program (apart from getting hands on dirty with a multitude of test environments, email systems, lackluster help documentation and the odd escalation to what was then a tiered buddy model). Most of my analytical prowess was nurtured here because I would have to essentially replicate simple to complex issues and relate them with regulation and academic concepts in an attempt to explain to the herd of developers on how to essentially resolve it (or change it as they used to say its behaviour and anything to be changed is a feature request – please go via your rep at the company)! From what I have heard a lot has changed at “The Software Company” and there is actual induction, training, systematic coaching and progressive development plans to nurture talent and deploy it within ‘The Company’. Its about time, but let me now introduce a launch of #thealphaswarmer throwback series – creatives, insights and delineations of my endeavors in The Corporate World!
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”
Martin Luther King Jr
It was 8:15am and here I was, gazing out through the darkness of the stormy sky. The musty smell in the air reminded me of how the Earth seems to sigh in the early hours of the morning, just before it is awoken again by the sun creeping over the horizon! There is so much on my mind, so many ideas; thoughts and processes that aggregate in a unique tapestry of front line intelligence!…….
It was the beginning of another day here at The Company – in the front line Tech Support division; a spontaneous, esoteric, agile and highly specialised environment! Deciding that I needed to defrag my mind; I embraced the current solitude and signed onto my various applications. Reading the sudden bombardment of incoming IM chats, I was a bit taken aback when a window popped up on the screen – informing me of a system error as I was logging into what you would say is a production server. I paused and begin making sense of the error, almost instinctively!It seemed like no more than one minute had passed before at an instant I realised that I had to re-configure my user dashboard (some javascript or console stuff was conflicting with rendering on the browser I told myself silently); whether this was lingering insight or intuition I don’t know!
The emancipation that ensued was a sudden reminder of our very own ambition to take charge of our learning. The desire to be continually challenged was almost like an echo – reverberating back and forth like swings of a pendulum – reminding me to honour the very process that got me here in the first place! I heard something in the distance. My echolocation senses were not yet optimal and my coffee cup was three quarter full but I was able to make out the word ‘Morphues’ amongst the silence. It was time to get the day started and this was a call for the commencement of the banter and frivolities associated with the intricacies that we face daily as ‘The Support Analysts’.
At the time, being granted the name Morpheus in the team was a privilege as he was responsible in The Matrix triology for nurturing Neo’s capabilities and employing participative intervention to nullify various roadblocks that prevented the rise of ‘The Division’. I held myself in an esteemed place; providing strategic, tactical and operational guidance in our world of incidents, problems and Knowledge Management imperatives. Our team was closely knit here – reminding me of the type of cohesion that fuels the Fantastic Four except us here do not have time for of the tantrums that The Thing can come up with! In fact, ‘The Division’ could be described as one that is a bit like the Fantastic Four meets Power Rangers meets The Matrix crew!! At times, unity is what lead to our success but solitude ensured our emancipation! Aplenty were poached and promised ‘greener lands’ but that was just the start of their emotional journey into professionalism!
At the division, we were exhibiting traits similar to a swarm of bees at times – bees at times – going about our usual business, scouring the very edges of the universe to resolve incidents. When any one of us were in need for help; a sonar signal – a call for help – or the waggle dance – prompted us (as bees do) to tackle the very core of the beast– our hive and sanctified secret! We buzzed around each other, sparking random iterations of ideas and thoughts. As a unit, we delivered – and did it in such a way that we maintained our status as the most cutting edge ‘Support Analyst’ team. Swarm Intelligence, as they call it, was rife there. Our collective input and troubleshooting lead to an emergent form of banter – the type that fuelled our passion but yet reminded us of our purpose – our dedication to ensuring we deliver results on the back of the customer incident! We were a centre of excellence that probed for customer insights and deployed this rapidly within the organisation. We actually employed, instinctively, the perfect response mechanism that is ensconced in Nature’s teams.
We exhibited pride in our association at ‘The Company’, ensuring that anyone who decided to take on a sabbatical and go on a holiday returned to a flamboyant setup at their desk and workstation. The team invested in in Nerf and dart guns to ensure that we hold our respective territories. A move to a new level (which was exclusively ours at the time) was met with open arms as this enhanced our fortification as the division with the most direct interaction with end users of ‘The Software’. We yearned for the precious nectar being the high priority clients and employed a sense of collective autotomy with the comaraderie and ‘team swarming’ mechanics that was so omnipresent. Every one of us, were soldiers; unique and complementary with a sole purpose and vision! A contingent working cohesively or like a wasp or like a wasp – the very environment we inhibited and the culture we defined from the bottom up was a pre-cursor to what was to come – the future at – “The Company”. Always plant seeds everywhere you go, for that takes time to nurture and blossom like a rose garden and when it does, people will remember you for your intrinsic and altruistic nature.