Like many companies with a dispersed campus, Juniper provide shuttle services that transport employees from building to building. Hey, losing that hard fought parking space in the early morning is not cool.
This shuttle service also make it possible for me to attend meetings on those days I took the bus to work. I wouldn’t need to beg for rides, just hop onto the shuttle.
So I did. Surprise! A bumper sticker right there. Make my day.
Juniper reminds of China all the time: energetic, optimistic, impatient, and creative: precious like a talented young adult ready to change the world. All what’s needed is a good tool chest and some practicing.
The timing is everything. Choose a good direction and the world changes according to the plan. A bad habit may hinder competitiveness beyond remedy. I am very fortunate to join the company at this time. The opportunity to participate an era does not come frequently. This, again, reminds me of China too.
I met many people and made friends. Breaking-in is always scary; Juniper made it easy. Several senior executives went to length to introduce me to other leaders. I became part of a company-wide tiger team. What followed was 6 weeks of whirl-wind accelerated assimilation.
In the midst of those, I was still moving back from Beijing to my west San Jose old home. I stole a trip back to Beijing to wrap up 3 years of life there. On my way back, I took a detour, too short, to visit Juniper’s Bangalore site. There I got a renewed appreciation of my 3 years as the remote guy. I came back mentally excited, physically tired, and over-whelmed by a garage full of moving boxes.
Juniper soon entered its annual planning cycle. Every companies does this. Juniper’s process is a familiar ones: messages exchanges at various levels until they are reasonably consistent. This is just like routing: adjacent nodes exchange information until their view of the world become consistent. Only the physical layer here is the budget.
I felt sure-footed enough to start trying out some change ideas. They coincided well with the second phase of the tiger-team project earlier. These new activities kept my daily calendar booked wall-to-wall almost everyday. The bus rides, 40 minutes one-way, gave me precious time to collect thoughts and calm-down from the adrenaline-filled days. I am not sure what will I do when winter comes.
100-day is just a calendrical event. Today will roll like yesterday or tomorrow. In my heart, this marks a milestone of becoming a part of this company. Many more friends to come, I am sure.
I have lived and worked in silicon valley for decades. Except for a few train rides to Palo Alto, I have never taken public transportation to work. Unlike Tokyo, New York, or even Beijing, there is no good network of mass transporation here. There has never options other than driving. Then I started working for Juniper Networks.
My work location is right next to a bus hub. Route 26! Isn’t that the one that run through the street 10 minutes from home?
A simple Google later, I am ready. On a nice day, I left the house with my computer backpack and walked toward the bus stop. Walk! 10 minutes later, I stood waiting at the bus stop with exact change in my pocket. I felt nervous: would the bus show up, have I missed it already, what kind of people would I found onboard, could I deal with the bus?
I went onboard, paid the fare, and faced a sparsely occupied bus. I sat down at the back corner and surveyed. My fellow passengers are all minding their own business, catching Zs, absorbed into the MP3 player, or busy studying the air. They are all clean commuters. Just like myself.
Juniper is the last stop. So I leisurely disembark. For the journey, it covered about 10 miles, costed $1.75, I left home at 7:45, arrived the stop at 7:55, the bus came at 8:05, I walked into the office at 8:50. I enjoyed Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section all the way. iPod is a wonderful thing.
Later, I found the company will give out EcoPass: a sticker for free VTA buses and light-rail. Sweet.
“Oberoi hotel walls separated the city into two worlds: meticulous on one side and a bit ruinous outside. Bangalore has many walled islands of niceties. The trick is to hop from one to the other without stopping.”
When I was mid-air between Bangalore and San Francisco, the mover called. “Your household passed the US custom. When do you wish to take delivery?” What!? I tried to remember what’s in the container and begged for the weekend to clear out the space. Monday, September 15th, a big truck pulled into our drive way and started the last part of my relocation.
Last I saw these boxes was July 11th in Beijing.
Start unpacking.
Leaving a place is a process of being stripped. Piece by piece, something that used to attached to you was forcibly removed. I experienced this process for the past several months. This trip, I can feel it, removed the last part. Beijing is no longer my home.
What are the names of those emotions when you come back home? Six weeks separated me from Beijing, now I am visiting, instead of returning, according to China custom. The taxi did not stop at my apartment and took me to the hotel instead. Felt so weird.
People asked me to compare and contrast. My readily made answer is, “Beijing is stressful socially and easy at work. The US is the other way around.” Much of what one need to accomplish requires extensive personal network, so called GuangXi, or special assesses to information not widely available. Living in Beijing is hardwork, at least for those who want to make things happen. Work, on the other hand, is relatively straight-forward. I was blessed with staff and employees that are diligent, detail-attentive, smart, and motivated. They usually carry out my decisions smoothly without much over-sight. They exchanged my trust with effectiveness and efficiency.
In the US, or silicon valley, work decisions and their implementations are more complicated. The data collection and interpretation take longer time. The conclusions are usually not obvious and decisions, therefore, harder to make. This translates to longer planning cycle and working hours. Socially activities, though, are simple. Crack open several cold beers, fire up the BBQ, turn on the TV, bring out the food. Everyone just have a good time.
Beijing’s bright blue sky shocked me. I don’t remember seeing white clouds in the entire 3 years. The traffic is eerily light. The always brisk hotel lobby is quiet and subdued. What did they do to Beijing? Oh yes, Olympics.
Many told me stories: she got married, so did she. She is pregnant and he divorced (and married again). He left the company and he got a new boss. And, the usual, so-and-so bumped into so-and-so while interviewing at that company. It feels like watching your family through a one-way mirror. I care so much yet can do so little.
Maybe it is enough that I listened. I hope.
Few years ago, I read this book by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. Like most management books, they distilled common senses into operational principles and thought guidelines. This book has profound influence on my managerial style and even career choices. It is one of the books I kept on my shelf. (My standard practice is to donate them to friends or library.)
Over the years, I gradually developed my own execution skills, much of them based on Larry Bossidy’s book. I wrote two blog entries on this topic: Management 101 and Management 102.
Most worthy changes involve many people. As a general rule, people do not want to change themselves, they just want others to change. Almost all people will flatly deny their resistance to change, yet their behaviors betray them. The best, and sometime the only, way to change people is to convince them to change by themselves. Once people understand the needs and benefits, and they have accepted the stress, they change willingly.
The tricks are simple: after designing the change, allocate sufficient time to socialize and communicate. When doing so, put yourself in their positions. Focus on explanation. If things make sense, people embrace the change. Otherwise, they stonewall.
Socialization and communication is more effectively done in person. There are many modern ways of communication. Almost all of them remove personal contacts to certain degree. Supplement your socialization and communication with those tools. Avoid using them as primary channels.
What if you are in a hurry and there are too many people to visit? You will be surprised how much difference a voicemail would make. Rehearse and practice your voicemail. Keep it short, keep it personal, stay on point.
Give people time to internalize and express their thoughts. There are two benefits: being heard speeds up the acceptance, you may also learn something valuable.
Next topic? Managing time. (Not time management)
Last year, I reminisced on a summer BBQ, an impossibility in a highrise Beijing apartment. After moving back, among the first things we went shopping for is a grill. What we ended up is a free one donated by a close friend. Their Weber Round Grill is pristinely unused — cheap price for an invitation to the World-famous Wang family BBQ Ribs.
The secret ingredient, like many good things in life, is preparation and patience. It begins with a bag of Swift ribs from Costco. Rinse them clean, pat them dry, salt and pepper, soy-sauce lightly, and refrigerate over-night. Sides usually include a seafood item (Salmon for this weekend), sweet corns, yams, and some veggie. Soak a big handful of wood chips overnight.
The secret to good BBQ, like many good things in life, is preparation and meticulous process. BBQ refers to cooking meats slowly with indirect heat and the lid closed. The smoke is a critical part to the flavor. Smoke comes from heated moisture. The simplest source of smoke is the meat itself. The 2nd one is what people add to the heat, soaked wood chips are the cheapest and easiest way. The charcoals themselves provide mostly just heat.
The whole process takes about 90 minutes. Apply the sauce, if any, about 10 minutes before done. Splatter them on nice and thick, also quickly. Close the lid for about 10 minutes. Remove ribs into a serving pan. Cover with Aluminum sheet for about 10 minutes. Now devour. It is not cool to use utensil to eat ribs.
The smoky aroma rushes into your nostrils. The meat falls off the bones. Fingers are tasty. Cold beer goes down so cool. Everyone is in good mood.
Man! I am glad to be back.
It seems such a waste to run on treadmill today. After all, I don’t come all the way from Beijing to enjoy silicon valley’s indoor life. If you’ve been to Beijing, or read about the concerns for medal aspiring athletes, you know what I meant.
N. Mathilda, W. Java Drive, N. Borregas Ave., and W. Moffet Park Dr. form an almost 2-mile trail. Perfect for an office slacker like myself.