Can We Balance Process?

February 20, 2012 at 3:44 PM (Leadership, Management)
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As we troll through history, technical or otherwise, we can clearly see that individual brilliance has dominated the field of development.  It is these individuals who have looked at the world differently, challenged the accepted and made a difference for posterity.  Does this also happen on a smaller scale?   I am personally witness to situations where individual brilliance has made a significant difference in day to day professional life.  Given that my day to day professional life has revolved around internal enterprise software, the examples emanate from the same arena.

However, despite the above observations, we are moving towards a more standardized and process-oriented world.  Will this trend allow for individual brilliance?  Does this framework allow for the flexibility needed to attain the quantum leaps we have seen earlier?  Let us analyze the two extremes here.

What is process and why is it needed?  Process is a defined way to do something.  It preaches a tried and tested way to do things which will lead to the successful execution of what we are trying to do.  In preaching, it provides no flexibility on part of any stakeholder to take a shortcut or do things differently.  It is needed so that all stakeholders only need be aware of their own actions; that they understand the timeline and effort involved to succeed; that they can depend on unknown people to deliver on their needs without having to take any specific action beyond.

Where is individual brilliance needed and when does it produce best results?  When the individual is very much in line with the organizational objectives; when they have the knowledge of what is to be achieved and the expertise on the tools needed to achieve it; when there is complete trust between the individual, organization and the client for whom the problem is being solved.

The above two elements, are fairly opposite in nature.  Process helps with standardization and adoption of best practices.  This reduces waste and results in optimization and increased efficiency.  The quantum leaps achieved  provide the competitive advantage on which company growth is based.  Both of these can be extremely beneficial.  But, how do we use them, individually and in concert?  Some factors to look at:

  • Value of the task: Is the task part of the core competency and gives the organization a competitive advantage?  Or, is it  part of the day to day functioning of an organization and represents friction.  A shade of gray in the middle?
  • Trust in the individuals: What is the quality of the individuals?  Can they provide the brilliance we are looking for?  Are they in line with the organizational aims?  Do they understand the tools being used well enough?  Do they understand the clients and the problem well enough to deliver?
  • Culture of the organization: Does the history of the organization favor process or individuality?  Would it be tough for managers to accept the preaching or would individual freedom be seen as cowboyism?

As the value that can be derived from the task increases, flexibility can be increased given the possible reward.  However, we should ensure that our best, most trusted, most creative people are in position to take advantage of this flexibility.  These people must also be close to the heart of the organization.  The farther they are (eg. outsourced), the less the alignment due to gaps in communication and differences in objectives.  Flexibility must be muted here, until enough investment in reducing these gaps is desirable and possible.  Also, the existing culture of the organization will provide the starting point for the whole exercise of moving to the correct balance.

A few pitfalls and lessons we need to be aware of:

  • Creating a process is not simple.  Not only should the process be efficient, it also needs to provide a value to every stakeholder (not just one or a few).  There is a need to ensure that the process does not become bureaucracy.  The process should also be revisited on regular intervals as well as on receiving feedback.
  • Ensure that the best and most capable individuals are put in position to take advantage of the flexibility.  This will be good for the organization as well as the individuals.  Different individuals flourish differently under process and flexibility.
  • Spend the investment $ on training and engagement differently based on the extent of process or flexibility.  Since the people are different and the objectives are different, the methods cannot be the same by default.
  • Do not go towards any one end too much.  An organization which becomes over-processed will lack the innovation to keep up with the competition.  An organization with too much flexibility is likely to become inefficient without sufficient accountability or governance.

I am sure that there are several gray areas that deserve much greater scrutiny and study.  Leadership here will involve determining the correct ending point for your organization.  Good management will then result in getting the right framework, people, processes and flexibility in place.

So, what do the 9-to-whatevers have to say on this topic?

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Bluntness & Motivation

December 8, 2011 at 8:48 PM (Customer Service, Leadership, Motivation, Social Behaviour)

I have been going through a confidence crisis recently (not what you think though).  I have been trying to think why people are not confident in doing what they need to do.  The thought had reached a crisis level.

Yesterday, I came across a simple and direct article (completely unrelated to the topic) on bluntness (by Kate Nasser) which got me thinking tangentially yet again.  The article included a point on bluntness being different from diplomatic honesty.

Bluntness is considered a bad thing due to the connotation of the message not being given in the right spirit.  The basic assumption, though, is that the message being given is a negative message.  My thought raced to what if the message is positive?  Will being blunt become a pleasant experience then?

The mind then reverted to the confidence issue.  One of the elements of confidence is positive feedback for your actions.  Negative feedback is useful for correcting incorrect actions, but re-enforcing and motivating positive actions is critical to the act of confidence building – ask (almost) any parent.

We are often “blunt” or “diplomatically honest” when the results are not upto our expectations (what we perceive as incorrect actions).  We are quick to remind people about appropriate customer service (as customers), appropriate performance (as managers), appropriate xyz (as abc), etc.  We love it and feel like we are contributing to society as a whole.

What do we do when things happen correctly?  When we get a coffee at the right temperature?  When the travel department books the right flight?  When the resource at our disposal writes the correct piece of code?  Well that is just as expected!  The lack of negative feedback should clearly indicate our satisfaction?  Introspection time!  We all typically feel the need for a little bit more than that.

I am not suggesting that we lower our standards; that we should start giving people accolades for showing up to work.  Going beyond expectations should stay exactly where it is and the rewards should remain tough to get.  However, we should adjust our attitude to the “met expectation” rating.  There should be something in it for people who are able to achieve that.  A “thank you”, “that is exactly what I was looking for”, “this is appropriate” and myriad such examples could go a long way…

A long way to what?  To building the confidence of the person this was said to.  Of ensuring that they understand that they met your expectations and relieving them of the need to be body language readers to do so.  I am proposing that we stop making the lack of negativity represent positivity.

Thinking about my own behavior, do I do this?  Yes!  Consistently?  No!  Often enough? Not sure, but no harm in trying!  From today, I pledge to be more complimentary and verbal than I have been before.  I pledge to be more “blunt”.  9-to-whatevers: your views?

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Manager “Attitude”

November 8, 2011 at 9:57 PM (Leadership, Management)
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What makes a good manager?  What makes a good leader?  These are questions that we often think about as we grow in our professional careers.  How do we find the answers to our quest?

In recent times, this has become big business.  Help,  in the form of self-help books/Gurus and (auto)biographies of those having tasted success have emerged.  These have become mandatory for all professionals.

So what do they show us?  They take snippets out of successful endeavors and provide them to us as life lessons.  We listen/read, imbibe, internalize and then execute; the quick-fix of all quick-fixes; management by blueprint; success at your doorstep.  All we need to do is develop 7 habits, or follow the patterns of Akio Morita, Lee Iacocca, Jack Welch or Steve Jobs.

Does it really help in our daily lives?  I think these resources are extremely useful, both in the content and their variety.  What really decides the answer to the question is what we expect from them and how we handle the life lessons.

There seems to be an extreme confidence crisis, bordering on an inferiority complex in our world today.  People seem to think that everybody else is better at doing what they should, than themselves.  This is what makes us treat the above resources as quick-fixes and a color-by-number guide.  We forget that what got us till that point is who we are.  Actors are really well paid because it is really difficult to be somebody else, somebody other than who we really are, for any length of time.  We all want to be an Akio or anybody else – we are looking do duplicate success, not create it.

What we need to observe is the behavior of people we respect around us.  The most common thread is a comfortable and confident demeanor, at least in my experience.  What this indicates to me is that they are comfortable in what they are.  Trying to be somebody else and achieving the same level of comfort would be something really worth commending for the effort it would take.

By all means, we should study what success looks like.  We should take direction on what has worked historically.  We should listen, read and imbibe.  What I want to say is that before we execute, we should select and adapt.  We should select what works for who we are as a person; we should adapt the lessons to our way of working.  ”Be Yourself” should be a starting point to the image we want to project.  Injecting flexibility, enhancing skills, adding to the repertoire, etc is great, but only if we select the right starting point.

So, 9-to-whatevers, please let us pledge to ensure that Steve Jobs’ legacy is about excellence and not his behavior…

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The Laws of Accountability

August 19, 2011 at 11:23 PM (Leadership, Management, Motivation, Team Management)
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Accountability is a word that is thrown out very frequently these days and, maybe, correctly so.  However, I find that every persons version, or understanding of accountability is different.

Wikipedia compares it to responsiblity and lists several different types of accountability – talk about confusing.

Oxford Dictionary defines it as “the fact or condition of being accountable; responsibility”

A Project Manager I know defines it as “I will try my best”

Take your pick or make one up of your own, but what is clear is that when two people are talking on this topic, they are probably talking about different things and different standards.  The best colloquial definition that I have heard is “having my neck on the line…”.  Even that is open to interpretation.  Aaaarrrggghhh!!!!!

In my opinion, accountability, in professional terms, is not a deliverable.  It is an approach, an attitude, a culture; which is imbued into individuals and organizations that deliver.  It is very difficult to create a “law” around this; but, I decided to give it a shot anyways.  Without further ado, and with due apologies to the Late Sir Isaac Asimov, here goes.

  1. An accountable person may not harm the objective, or through inaction, allow the objective to come to harm
  2. An accountable person must drive the solution, including tracking and resolution of all dependencies that exist in achieving the objective
  3. An accountable person must escalate issues out of their control before they impact the achievability of the objective

These laws can’t create culture by themselves, but they can definitely stop answers that we are all too familiar with.  Also, these laws will not make the person aware of their accountability, or bring them in alignment with the objectives – those are external actions that must happen before these laws become applicable.

But, these laws (or something along these lines), can clear the communication, set the expectation, create a benchmark, etc - something that we try to do for all important things in our professional lives.  And accountability is something I consider really important.

From the 9-to-whatevers, looking for comments on the laws – critiques, suggestions, improvements, etc.  Maybe we can all get on the same page – does anybody want to take the accountability for that?

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Software Quality Improvement: Is Something Afoot?

August 9, 2011 at 11:41 AM (Leadership, Quality, Software)
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When I started my career, the attention was still on hardware quality.  Machines with redundant hardware were the rage and VERY expensive.  However, realization soon dawned.  Analysis from the researchers pointed out that the incidents and costs from software failure were higher – turning the paradigm on it’s head.

Little has changed since then – software continues to have quality issues with resulting impacts on productivity, accuracy and even reputation.  What has changed are the issues.

Historically, issues were with stability; software would crash or freeze at the most inopportune times.  Today, thankfully, this is not the case.  Even a version 1.0 software rarely shows this kind of behaviour [barring cases where the client or end-user is being used as a beta tester!]  This is true of consumer, third party and internal software.

Issues today are different.  They tend to do with functionality, usability, resource usage [specially on mobile platforms] and, IMHO, the biggest humbug today – security. 

Functionality and usability are two issues which can be solved by getting closer to the end-client.  What do they really want, and how do they use the software?  However, this is not something that seems to be coming easy to our teams; specially for internal software though commercial software is not averse to showing this trend.  In addition, reliability in the functionality is also suspect.  These issues are, often, caused by bad coding, which is avoidable.  The vision of IV&V [Independant Validation & Verification] has not really achieved everything it set out to do – practitioners still need to work out the chinks. 

The security issue seems to be a whole different ballgame.  While this may also be caused by bad coding, work done at design time does not seem to be enough to ensure security.  Given enough time, it seems, hackers can figure out a way to identify and exploit weaknesses given the multiple tools at their disposal.  The only way to stop this from happening seems to be at run-time.

This is not a new solution.  Academia has been conducting research in the fields of self-healing and self-defending software for some time.  However, there has been no framework or usable toolset coming out of this research which seems to have been running for longer than a decade.  In trying to find data among recent articles, I was only able to find two.  A partial implementation by IBM Israel and an April fool’s joke.

To me, this is a sad state of affairs given the potentially beneficial implications.  This is not an easy problem to solve, but neither were the problems this industry has solved over the past decade.  With the resources available and the potential for this market, the lack of visible effort in this area is surprising.  The question I want to ask is “whereforth art thou open source…”

If there is work that is ongoing that I have not been able to find, please do enlighten me!

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Working With Internal Clients

August 2, 2011 at 12:58 PM (Customer Service, Leadership, Management, Motivation)
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We all work with clients in our professional life. There is a large number of us who work with external clients – the kind we generate our revenue from; for a large number of us, however, the clients are internal to our organization. These internal clients may then work with the external client directly or the chain may be longer.

Is there a difference in dealing with the two? To begin with, let us talk about the similarities – in both cases, we need to address product quality, service quality, engagement levels, ROI for the client, and the ilk. I cannot think of many significant parameters that would not apply to the internal client.

However, there are significant parameters that need to be considered in addition when dealing with internal clients:

  • Captive Relationship  With internal clients, the relationship is in captive mode.  The client is forced to accept the service from you.  This breeds complacency.  As Google also says, complacency leads to a reduction in the motivation to improve – something we need to be very careful of.
  • Benchmarking  As the relationship is captive, there is no competition to benchmark onself against.  You need to develop a very clear structure of KPIs and SLAs along with your client which will allow you to measure and track you performance and it’s progress.  Without these objective measurements, ROI calculations and other benefit statements will be difficult to determine.  This will replace the pricing and product feature/range efforts that determine success in a competitive environment.
  • Strategy  As part of the same organization, both you and your internal client will be part of the same strategy framework.  In your day to day offerings, you need to defend the principles of this strategy.  This means standing up and saying no when the client requests go in a different direction.  This is tougher with internal clients since you can’t just “walk away”.

In essence, working with internal clients can be more challenging in certain areas, demanding external clients notwithstanding.  Well, are we 9-to-whatevers up for it?

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Teaching Creativity…

July 20, 2011 at 12:48 PM (Leadership, Management, Motivation)
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Oxymoron, right?  Well, let’s see.

Today, creativity, innovation and the ilk are corporate buzzwords.  Every manager is looking to increase these to improve product appeal and to reduce costs.  The debate is over how.

Can we increase these competencies in our teams today or do we need structural changes to happen.  The answer may depend upon what the organization’s views on these skills are.

One point which elicits agreement is that there are already instances of creativity and innovation in most teams.  The incentive structures and organization around these efforts, in most cases, is not sufficient to tap into these instances and derive the desired benefit or sustainability.  Further, some of the organizational frameworks actively discourage out-of-the-box thinking which is a severe limitation towards these competencies.  Tapping into the existing instances is necessary, but probably not sufficient for the needs of the organization.

Solution?  A culture change is necessary.  The people need to believe that the creative and innovative competency is something that is not only rewarded, but is expected.  However, the larger question is can they deliver?  Is this competency static or is something that can be built up in the individual and the team?  That is where I see disagreement.

One argument is that you cannot teach people to be creative.  That is an inherent part of ones nature and cannot be infused.  To really be able to create these competencies in an organization, you need to acquire it externally.  Evidence the increase in evaluation of creativity and innovation ability during the interview process!

My view is different.  I believe that these competencies can be encouraged, nurtured and taught.  These competencies revolve around a state of mind where people think outside of the standard script.  This can be encouraged if there is sufficient latitude for bringing up new ideas and sufficient allowances for failure.  The expectations also have to be realistic.  We probably will not get a Mona Lisa, but we can definitely do better than draw stick figures.

There are also some reasons that internal growth of these competencies is preferred over external infusion.  The subject matter experts of the organization, especially a knowledge organization, are the key drivers.  Without this expertise, creativity and innovation will mean little.  You cannot create a masterpiece painting without knowing how to paint.  Similarly, you cannot create a concept car without understanding cars.  If you know the current product range inside out, the concept product will be much closer to your organizations ability to deliver – faster time to market and better quality!

Fact of the matter is that these competencies cannot be “taught” in the sense that there is no roadmap or textbook which can be followed blindly.  The acquiring of these competencies is riddled with experimentation and hitting brick walls.  But, if teaching is limited to imparting skills which can be learnt only with a roadmap, our whole education system is in trouble!

Wait a minute!  Isn’t that what is already happening???  Aaagghh…

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Reactions To The Mumbai Blasts…

July 14, 2011 at 1:21 PM (Leadership, Social Behaviour, Social Responsibility, Social Sense)
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Like a lot of people, I was a helpless observer of the events unfolding in Mumbai last night.  There was a drive to contribute accompanied by a distinct inability to do so.  In the end, I became part of the masses watching this unfold on media and trying to ensure that friends and family were OK.

Friends and family…  Would first like to pass on my condolences to all who were directly impacted by this.  Loss of life or health is not replaceable with any post-facto actions.

I would also like to pass on some of my observations.  What surprised me was that these observations have large support from the sources that I was able to observe – comments on TV, digital media or print media – the general public comments.

Panic

A lot of panic was generated yesterday.  Panic was related to a general feeling of deja vu, and the experiences of the city and country from the pre-decessors.  The panic was exacerbated by the actions of the media.  What did impress me though was the calm and methodical approach taken by the people in charge.  Regular, clear, concise communication with no pre-analysis announcements – the biggest difference that I was able to note.

Police

Seemed to do a better job than I remember ever before.  They were much better at communication, but in the scenes that I could see, the hawaldar on the ground was still confused.  Preparedness, organization and ability to respond quickly seems to still need work. Inability to clear and secure the sites quickly also bothered me.

Media

The behaviour of the media did not surprise me.  That to me was strange given that what I saw I categorized as deplorable. There has been a lot of criticism of this in previous incidents; likewise in this one, but not sure what would motivate our dear TV news channels to change.

  • The TV news channels were running in a loop – showing the same things with an amazing frequency.
  • They kept people extremely up to date on any official announcements regarding casualty numbers and the ilk
  • They were relentless in pursuing eyewitnesses; 1 channel even interviewed a person who had run away from the scene without seeing anything
  • The images were graphic, in a lot of cases not even blurred. People were being encouraged to send more images in
  • In getting this information, neither the TV crews or the other people at the sites worried about trampling all over the evidence
  • There was no information on the state of traffic, trains, buses, etc so that people could find their way home
  • There was no information on blood donation that I noticed – either encouraging or directing donors
  • There was no direction on what people were supposed to do

There seemed to be a focus on satisfying the voyeuristic desires of people sitting at home (like me); not to pass on helpful information to people caught-up in the mess and needing help

 Digital Media

 I have not been a user of twitter until recently. What I have heard about it’s past contributions is one of the reasons I am there now.  The tweeps were what really made the day here. What I saw:

  • People publishing phone numbers in public advertising assistance [food/shelter/medical help/etc]
  • People publishing routes that they are taking so that stranded people could get assistance
  • People responding to cries for help appropriately and providing solutions
  • People willing to give blood and other people directing them where to go
  • Somebody got the bright idea of consolidating the information so that it would be easily trackable and usable
  • Latest information on traffic, trains, buses, taxis and what not – actually useful to people
  • Other kinds of information was available – who to attack, how other countries would respond, etc.  However, there were an equal number of people asking them to hold-off until the emergency had been dealt with.

The brilliant behaviour of the people and the usefulness of the adopted platform to the cause is something that should be remembered in this hour of pain.  To whatever degree, these actions did alleviate some of the pain that would have been present otherwise.

 What I observed was interviewees on the TV, people on twitter and people I have had conversations with having similar sentiments. I am sure with a little bit of change we can do better next time.  For there to be no next time is the best, but that would require a lot of change.

What I learnt and what the 9-to-whatevers can take away is that resources available are not the only thing that drive results.  TV channels and the like have many more resources and better organization than any loosely built collection of individuals.  Yet, this collection provided a significantly higher benefit last night using the meagre resources.  Differences in motivation? drive? desire? leadership? ? ? You tell me…

Update:

A link detailing some of the activities that helped.

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What is Customer Service?

July 4, 2011 at 8:32 AM (Customer Service, Leadership, Motivation, Social Behaviour)
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There are multiple aspects of customer service; and they are not necessarily aligned.

So, here goes a recent conversation I had…

Ring, ring…
Me: Hello!
Oper: I am calling from xyz mobile company. Can I speak to Axxxx
Me: Nobody by that name here
Oper: Is this 9xxxxxxxxx?
Me: Yes, but the name is Aviral
Oper: Please go to the store at location x and submit your documents
Me: I did that 2 days ago. Can you please get this fixed?
Oper: Sir! This is a welcome call. I cannot do that. Please take your documents to location x
Me: (in my mind) What are you welcoming me to – bad customer service?

Unfortunately, experiences such as this are not limited to Telecom companies. In the city that I call home, customer service often takes a back seat. This is true in stores, restaurants, and even in the professional organizations.

This led me to question why we put up with it. I did an (extremely) unscientific survey and came up with the following observations:

  1. People tend to pay more attention to what they receive than how they receive it
  2. People tend to avoid thinking about what they will do when/if something goes wrong

This led me to thinking about the various facets of customer service. My thoughts, incomplete on hindsight, identified customer service as what I got from people – sales, queries, complaints and the ilk. I was completely ignoring the initial quality of the product as an element of customer service.

I now agree that the best customer service is one where one never needs after sales support. However, this is not realistic and companies need to cater for the other parts also. This is especially true for places with forced interaction such as restaurants – food quality is necessary but not sufficient.

So, the unanswered questions in my mind:

  1. What is the right balance as far as the definition of customer service goes?
  2. What are the drivers for organizations to achieve this balance?
  3. As consumers, how much and how can we impact these drivers to get the right balance necessary for us?

For us 9-to-whatevers, the question translates into how much we think about the customer vs. the product as we perform our duties…

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Emerging Young Leadership…

June 10, 2011 at 9:29 PM (Leadership, Social Behaviour)

As you can probably see from my posts, watching emerging young leadership is something I tend to do.  A friend of mine recently sent me a welcome speech from freshmen coming into a high-school given by his son.  This is a kid that I have known since 10 years ago, but have not met in the last 5 years.  This window into his outlook in life and his ability to express it are something that drove me to publish this.  Please enjoy this considering that this is from a precocious 17-year old.

Good evening and welcome to the families and students of the Class of 2015. Let me first start by personally congratulating you on being accepted into the Bergen County Academies; you should all be very proud of what you have accomplished. My name is Michael Macalintal, and I am a senior in the Academy for Medical Science Technology and the President of the Senior Class.

Now, my job here tonight is to preach some words of wisdom, tips on how to “survive” the next four years of your life. Don’t get me wrong, at any high school you’re going to need to know some survival tips. But remember, you’re at BCA, and we’re not like any other high school.

See, the thing you have to know about this school is that it’s a place of opportunity, where you have the chance to discover yourself, and pave your own road for others to follow. It’s a school where you will find students preparing a scene for their theatre class, finishing projects two minutes before class starts, burying their heads in SAT books, experimenting on stem cells, and singing songs with guitars by their lockers. BCA is a place where respect isn’t born from being the most popular, or having a face like Brad Pitt; it comes from having the drive and motivation to be the very best that you can be. It is not the buildings or the classes that make our school special; it is students. The students are the ones that breathe life into this school; they are the artists.

From the moment I first entered school as a freshman, a blank canvas fell in front of my feet and a paintbrush with bottles of paint were thrust into my hands. I realized then that I had to paint. Throughout each year, I worked tirelessly, combining different brushstrokes with obscene colors and figures, giving it my all to portray the perfect picture of what high school was for me. Every experience that I went through—whether it was playing and singing in a band, or running for student council, or studying late at night for a huge test—each one was painted on that canvas. Look at me now; I am an artist putting the final details on his masterpiece, ready to frame it for the world to see, and to pass that blank canvas along to the next generation of artists to come. I could have chosen to be an imitation and go the same way that every other student has before me. I could’ve chosen to be like DaVinci, and paint a portrait of a beautiful woman and go on to impact the world in all its art forms, from science and engineering, to music and innovation. Yet, I chose to make my own creation, and produce my own painting. That’s what BCA has allowed me to do. In the past four years, I have grown into a person that sees the world as a place with no limitations, only possibilities for a better tomorrow.

This, my dear friends, is the challenge that I bring to you. For the next four years, you are the new artists that have been chosen to make an impact on this world. You will be the ones to forge your own piece of art. As I said before, you can choose to be Van Gogh, and paint a starry night. You can be Picasso, and paint a boy with a pipe. Or, you can be bold, and mix yellow and brown or black with green to create odd colors that suit your taste. You can choose to not be delicate with your paintbrush and instead use your hands to create your work. At this place of wonder and awe, you can create whatever piece of art you want, you just have to be willing to do so. So I say to you, Class of 2015, paint. Paint your dreams and ambitions onto that canvas and take advantage of anything and everything that piques your interest. Take a class on Middle Eastern Policy or learn how to act; learn the laws of business or use stem cells to find a correlation between hard-boiled eggs and the common cold.  Just be sure that whatever you choose to accomplish in high school, you put your full effort into it, and know that at the end of it all, you made the most of your four years here and are ready to show off your work of genius for all to see. Because if you want to make it here, you really do need to know only three things: Keep an open mind, an open heart, and always, expect the unexpected; because sometimes, life has a funny way of pointing us in the right direction. Watch as your own little canvas transforms itself into something more beautiful and original than anything you ever would’ve conceived. For even if blue and red make purple, who’s to say that the colors stop there? The colors never end, and neither do the opportunities.  Thank you very much, congratulations, and good luck to you, the Bergen County Academies Class of 2015.

I am quite proud of him!

So, for the 9-to-whatevers, have the courage to express what is in your heart…

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