Rick Rogers (L) Presents Retired Scouting Leader with Mementos Box

Rick Rogers, the recently appointed District Chair for the Appalachian Trail District of Boy Scouts of America, recently presented Robert “Hutch” Hutcheson with a box for his Scouting mementos.  Hutch retired earlier this year from his position as District Commissioner with the Appalachian Trail.  He served in numerous leadership positions in Scouting during the past 20 years, and  recentlyretired to the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee.

Chris Bohanan has replaced Hutch as District Commissioner.  Both Rick and Chris have spent a combined 43 years in Scouting. As Cub Scouts, they earned the Arrow of the Light Award, and later attained the rank of Eagle Scout. Now, as the two leaders of the Appalachian Trail District, Bohanan and Rogers plan to carry on the proud tradition of Scouting excellence.

John finished his BS in Organizational Leadership at the Colorado State University -Global Campus in September 2012 with a 3.98 GPA.  He was accepted into the university’s graduate in November of 2012 and is currently earning a MS in Organizational Development (MSOL).  The invitation, which John accepted, noted that “This invitation comes with great distinction as joining Golden Key at this time makes you a charter member of the chapter at Colorado State University-Global Campus…. You will create a lasting legacy for others to follow by accepting this invitation.”

As budgets get tighter and concerns about the impact from sequestration — both real and political –  begin to dominate the thoughts of leaders in the government contracting field, we can be certain morale will be negatively impacted, and that these impacts will affect far more than we think.

I am one of those rare technology people who also has had a long term fascination with positive psychology. With sequestration looming, over the past few months I’ve thought about how we can prevent the growth of irrational fear from destabilizing project teams. The answers are relatively straight forward, but I am concerned they will be ignored in the wake of focus on costs.

While researching a paper for one of my graduate classes, I happened upon a startling revelation from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The statement surrounded the OPM’s decision to halt a pilot project concerning the Results-only Work Environment (ROWE). The comment hits home at the current weaknesses which can and must be addressed to ensure a smooth process moving forward.

[OPM Director] Berry said that employees’ goals — which were a crucial element for ROWE to succeed — weren’t set clearly enough, and the metrics used to hold employees accountable for getting their work done were also lacking. Communication between employees and managers also was not clear, he said, and OPM didn’t do enough training during the beginning of the program.

This liturgy of systemic failings points to key areas of concern for government and contractors over the coming decade. Three of the issues are clearly essential management skills and the fourth is a “smoking gun” as to why the first three were so disappointing in results; all the more so as the OPM, by its very mission, should be the best prepared of government agencies to handle these basic responsibilities.

The primary areas highlighted by Berry’s comments can be addressed with the following key strategies:

1. Make training a vital part of operations. The government and contractors can take a page from the United States Military — the more you sweat in training the less you bleed on the field.
2. Ensure that goals are set correctly and clearly. Many options are available for setting solid goals with clear metrics. Most government agencies have internal coaches who are quite capable of assisting in those areas.
3. Make goal setting and proper metric design training an ongoing part of manager’s continuing education. Developmental coaching can be a vital tool in ensuring that even the best managers improve their skills in this critical area.
4. Ensure that all managers and employees receive ongoing training in communications. Among other alternatives, Toastmasters International offers an incredible amount of skill development for a very small cost.  As a bonus, many agencies already have existing clubs. (disclaimer: I am a long time member of Toastmasters).

When budgets tighten, training is most likely the first candidate for being cut in many organizations. However, when one is trying to do “more with less” one can no longer afford the luxury of strict tactical thinking. Instead, they must measure the impact of squeezing budgets by “trying to get by” rather than reducing real costs by ensuring that all those involved are working to their highest potential.

John Elrick is currently earning a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Colorado State University, Global Campus. He has a BS in Organizational Leadership and is in the process of completing his DTM from Toastmasters International.

“We frequently work on complex projects where we need to inspire diverse stakeholders to do their best work,” explained Rick Roger’s, Fenestra’s founder and president.  “This training will be valuable to John in working with both internal and external teams, and help everyone achieve a higher level of performance,” added Mr. Rogers.

ASTD is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to the training and development field. It was founded in 1944 and is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia.

Fenestra Technologies celebrated their new office space right along Carroll Creek in downtown Frederick with a ribbon cutting hosted by the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce. Left to right are:  Nan Sheridan- Mann, Membership, Frederick County Chamber of Commerce; Susan Warrenfeltz, wife of Fenestra’s President; Rick Rogers, President, Fenestra Technologies; Paul Frey, Vice President, Frederick County Chamber of Commerce; Frederick Alderman Shelley Alloi ; Donna Goff, City of Frederick, Economic Development; Frederick Alderman  Karen Young, and Frederick Mayor Randy McClement.

Fenestra ran headlong into these issues with an inability to access both AWS and Heroku sites via the console Application Program Interfaces (APIs). Fortunately, the servers themselves continued functioning during this outage. However, the impact of operating with hands tied serves as a reminder that every step forward involves a trade-off. While having redundant servers in the cloud simplifies many concerns, there is something comforting about having a server a few steps away, with equipment that can be replaced — albeit imperfectly — with a trip to Staples.

The failure brought up the uncomfortable reality that Amazon has suffered from several outages over the past few years which have seriously impacted the business functionality of high profile organizations. As a result, it is past time for IT buyers to consider carefully strategies which can mitigate the impact of outages and for IT Advisers to prepare solid recommendations to their clients.

Among the strategies Fenestra Technologies are reviewing were those adopted by Netflix in the wake of a large outage in April of 2011. Additionally is the sometimes complex and costly course of utilizing redundant cloud vendors to ensure failover. One of the key areas which still remains problematic is the difficulty of coordinating moves through the various APIs. While automated solutions are in development, it can be difficult to anticipate all of the permutations making a “one click” move hard to implement, regardless of how desirable it would be.

As government continues to examine ways to leverage cloud based resources for its ever growing big data needs, the potential impact of outages must be factored into those plans — not as a reason to avoid the move, but as a clear and transparent risk mitigation strategy. These strategies will come at a cost and federal buyers must be prepared to understand the trade-offs between costs and benefits before deciding upon how to best allocate resources between internal and external data storage. It will be the responsibility of Federal Information Technology Advisers, such as Fenestra, to ensure that their key personnel are well versed in understanding these key areas of risk.

Rick Rogers Is Selected for the Frederick County Chamber

of Commerce’s Leadership Frederick County Program

Rick Rogers, President of Fenestra Technologies, was selected to participate in the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Frederick County program.  With him at the opening reception is Diane DeMarco, President of Marketing @ Work, Fenestra’s marketing firm, and Richard Griffin, Director of Economic Development at the City of Frederick. 

Formed in 2009, Tech Frederick is a joint venture of the Frederick City Department of Economic Development, the Frederick County Business Development and Retention Division (BDRD), the Frederick Innovative Technology Center, and the local tech community.

“We see Rick as a key thought leader and influencer in both industry and the community. He brings a strong understanding of the IT world, the needs of the business community, and the impact a vibrant and dynamic community can have in supporting the IT industry,” said Heather Gramm, CEcD and Business Development Specialist for the Frederick Coty Dept of Economic Development.

“The mission of Tech Frederick is to promote collaboration, innovation and growth in the Frederick technology community through advocacy, communication and partnerships.

Rick’s enthusiasm and ideas are a great asset to the Advisory Team,” added Gramm.

Fenestra has been a prime contractor to the United States Census Bureau, and a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin and IBM on programs for the Census Bureau and the National Archives and Records Administration. Fenestra is currently working on a large scale video collection project, providing system design support to Westat on a project for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  This project is an extension of the Foundation’s work on “Measures of Effective Teaching.”

Fenestra Technologies Corporation was one of three finalists in the one – 10 employees category for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce’s 2012 Small Business of the Year Awards.  These awards  honor businesses for their innovations, growth and contributions to their communities.

The Awards Lunch was held on Thursday, June 7, 2012 at the Hotel at Arundel Preserve.  Fenestra’s nomination was supported by the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce.  Ric Adam, Chamber President, attended the event as well. “Being recognized within the State of Maryland for all of your accomplishments is truly an honor on its own,”  noted Adams.

The Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes” star Duff Goldman ws the keynote speaker.  Goldman is also the founder of Charm City Cakes.

Left to right are John Elrick, Rick Rogers, Fenestra Founder, Ric Adams, President of the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce, Lida Blake, Lisa Arant and Carolyn Salamon.

“Danny [Boyle] created a room where no one was afraid to speak, no one had to stick to their own specialism, no one was afraid of sounding stupid or talking out of turn. He restored us to the people we were before we made career choices – to when we were just wondering.”

I’d like to think that in our own small way, we’re promoting the same atmosphere here at Fenestra Technologies. To my mind, the key is treating business colleagues with respect and being both open and supportive of new ideas. This is not easy, especially for managers, because managers tend to have a pathological need to always be right and appear to be the smartest guys in the room. Most managers have serious trouble putting into practice the quote from Ronald Reagan:

“You can accomplish much if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

I imagine that Mr. Boyle generously gave credit to his creative collaborators. As the opening ceremony drew closer, Mr. Boyce does state that people reverted “back in our original disciplines”. This makes sense, there is a time for creativity and blue sky thinking and then a time to buckle under and make things real. I have had the pleasure of working here at Fenestra Technologies with incredible collaborators who have invented some seemingly crazy things and then made them real. A big part of this is creating a room where no one is afraid to speak.

Postscript: I see that Fast Company also published an article with additional insights from the opening ceremony regarding the eternal tradeoff between risk and reward. Small companies like Fenestra Technologies can benefit larger companies because we can afford to take on more risk (and sometimes get outsized rewards).

–Rick Rogers, President and Founder