Geoff Schoenberg

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Thanks everyone who continues to support my blog and my adventure. The emails/facebooks/tweets/comments are all appreciated.

For the next 17 days I will be traveling around New Zealand and will probably not be making any postings (although, you never know…..)

Be prepared for some awesome posts when I’m back though!

Geoff

From March to September last year, I was working on WorldSkills Calgary 2009. As the Volunteer Operations Manager I worked with a team of six others to try and coordinate over 70,000 volunteer hours spread over 3000+ volunteers. Leading our team was Maureen, the Volunteer Director. I firmly believe (and am sure others would agree) that without Maureen, WorldSkills Calgary 2009 would not have been nearly the success it was. So, I present for you, eleven things I learned about events from Mo…

(For more about WorldSkills Calgary 2009, click here or use google).

1. It doesn’t matter who does it or who should be doing it or who is responsible for doing it, it matters that it gets done. Sort it out later. If someone dropped the ball, you shouldn’t let their mistake sacrifice the event for the participants.

2. Plan for the majority. No matter what you do, there will always be people who will take advantage of the system. Accept that will happen. Make sure you don’t let that minority force you into actions that will be a detriment to the experience of the rest.

3. People power is strongest. Invest in staff and they will reward you. Empower them, support them and guide them. Know when to hold a hand and direct and know when to let them walk their own path.

4. Adapt, adapt, adapt. Develop a robust plan. If it fails, change what you are doing. Don’t worry about why it failed until until after the event. People will understand if you tell them why things are different than they expected.

5. Food and drink make people happy. No matter how miserable a day may have been, if you give someone some food and a beer, they are likely to forgive and understand. People are far less likely to complain if they know you are looking out for them.

6. Talk to everyone you can, even if it’s for a brief moment. Show you care. People will remember. You never know which people might turn out to be amazing and help in ways you couldn’t possible imagine.

7. Work the hardest. Get there early. Stay late.

8. An interview is about the candidate. Make them want the job. Pay attention to the person, not the qualifications, especially in young people, just cause they haven’t done it, doesn’t mean they can’t.

9. Have parties! Celebrate the start, the middle and the end. Celebrate meeting new people and saying goodbye to new friends. Parties create friendships and friendships lead to better teams.

10. Don’t focus on what has happened. Focus on what can be.

11. Stay hydrated. (Those of you who worked with Mo knows what this means…. Those of you who know me, can probably guess… For the rest of you, always remember your water bottle!)

My WorldSkills Calgary 2009 experience was memorable. Thank you to all the volunteers who gave so much and put up with so much. Thanks to the WorldSkills staff, especially to the V-team (Laura Lee, Rachael, Kevin, Chantel, Jason and Emily). And, obviously, thanks to Maureen. Thanks to her, I met some amazing people, learned some valuable lessons and created fantastic memories. (I guess this post is in direct violation of rule 10… but I think it’s alright to look back once in a while…)

Addendum Jan 22: As noted by Laura Lee, I missed perhaps the most crucial one of all…

12. Other Duties as Assigned are the most crucial words on a job description and should be included whenever possible. You simply never know when you may be called on to do something unexpected or need to call on someone else.

I screamed “Fuck You” about as loud as I could. I felt I had been wronged, hurt, insulted. This object of my anger had personally offended me. I didn’t care who I was with, where I was or what I was doing. I only knew that my feelings had to be made clear.

Who was I screaming at? An ice hockey official who was refereeing a junior (Under 20’s) game that was being played 14,419 km away. Where was I? I was stone cold sober, alone in my house early on a Wednesday afternoon. The referee in question had made a call I disagreed with. It was probably the right call, but all I know is it went against my team. I was cheering on Team Canada in the World Junior Hockey Championships. They were playing against the United States in the Gold Medal game. The game in question was as back and forth as you can possibly get with both teams overcoming deficits and huge momentum shifts. I spent this game jumping up off the couch, swearing, cheering, clapping, bouncing nervously and generally going through the complete realm of emotions. Canada ended up losing and the rest of my Wednesday was rather unproductive.

It was Friday afternoon, the first week back at university after the Christmas break. I certainly wasn’t setting any records for work rate and efficiency (again, it was the first Friday back after vacation, gimmie a break!). Around 2:30pm I decided it was time to go home. I got home two and a half hours later at 5pm. The weird thing is, it only took me 27 minutes to get home. So, you might be wondering what held me up between 2:30pm and 4:33pm. I spent two hours and three minutes playing online backgammon and, more importantly, listening to the College Football National Championship game between Texas and Alabama. The game was one-sided for a long time, but as soon as Texas started to make a comeback, I simply couldn’t leave. I sat, listening to a football game on the radio for a couple of hours instead of going home at the end of a tough week. I simply had to listen and see if the Disney story of the rookie QB who comes in after the veteran gets injured was going to play out…

These two experiences were great reminders of why I care about sport. It reminded me of the passion I have for sport and the length to which sport matters in my life. I’ve been fortunate to been involved with many different sports (soccer, lacrosse, speed skating, ski jumping, football and many more) in many different ways (participant, administrator, coach, referee, etc) and the thrill that happens when you “nail it” is amazing.

So despite the many random, difficult moments that come with any sporting pursuit, with any academic work and with living internationally, it’s always nice to be reminded why I’m doing what I’m doing. I want to help others have the opportunity to love sport as much as I do. I want my life to be surrounded by sport and I want to see people accomplish their dreams in sport. My journey continues….

But, most importantly, How Bout Them Cowboys????

As promised, here is an update on my topic and what I am actually researching. It’s still way too broad, and the next month will be focused on narrowing the focus.

When applying for admission to Deakin, I had initially written a one page proposed research topic entitled “Executive Directors: what does it take to become one?” (Ugh, I hated that title…). As detailed in a recent post, the readings I’ve been doing over the last few months have transitioned the topic somewhat. In my readings, the sport governance literature has been particularly appealing and insightful. Although my original proposal was very much slanted to the executive director side of the equation, I knew that there was going to be a link between the staff side and the governing body side. Combining the ideas of a strategic board with the opportunity that a change in executive staff brings has led me to the following research topic, “Executive Transition as a Strategic Opportunity”.

Now, if you are a normal person (not the masochistic type of person who seems to think a thesis is a good idea AKA an academic) you probably read that title and thought “Geoff, I’m sure you could have squeezed a few more buzzwords into that? You haven’t even mentioned synergy”. I, on the other hand, could not be more thrilled with the title. You would at least have to agree that it sounds much better than “Executive Directors, what does it take to become one”. But, as we’ve all been told and we’ve all ignored, don’t judge the book by the cover. So although I have this delicious title, what does it mean?

There are many paths this research could take. I could examine how much boards are using a change in executive as a strategy decision. If a planned strategy is being executed, how does it take place? Are organisations evaluating themselves before developing a strategy? How does the hiring process account for a developed strategy? Are organisations with different strategic goals hiring similar executives with similar background, qualifications and experiences, or do the differences in vision result in a wide variety of executive types.

This next month is dedicated to narrowing this topic. Finding a very specific problem and developing a rudimentary plan for researching it. In order to do this, I first need to establish some rules for my research. I need to define strategy. Is strategy a plan? An intended outcome? How does a board of directors define and impact strategy. The concept of transition needs to be explored. When does an “Executive Transition” begin and when does it end? What are the key phases or steps?

My goal is to have a draft of the introductory chapter written by the end of January. This will be approximately 7500 words or so exploring the need for this research, laying out some of the parameters, narrowing in on a specific topic and providing an overview of the likely method to be utilised.

Well, I’ve got some work to do….

What does your Christmas dinner usually look like? Traditionally I have had a turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, carrots, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce (which usually is forgotten until 10 minutes into the meal).

Well, this year was different. Very different. My good friend Kerren brought me along to David and Doreen’s place where another David joined us and the five of us engaged in a dining experience. Instead of a traditional “put a whole bunch of dishes on the table and load your plate obscenely” meal, this was done in a restaurant style six course meal.

Early in the day (you can tell because I’m still upright) we begin our great meal prepared by David (head of table) with help from Doreen (front right of photo)

Course 1 – Asparagus wrapped in Leeks

A nice and light way to start the meal. The toasted sesame seeds on top provided the extra little bit to make this dish special.

Course 2 – Pan Fried Scallops

Everyone here could attest that I was salivating as this dish was being prepared.  Scallops are always a favourite of mine and the little touch of crispy fried leeks provided the texture in this well prepared dish

Course 3 – Gnocchi with Mushrooms

Mushrooms and I do not have a particularly fond history. However, I have recently decided to give them another go and dishes like this reinforce that notion. This was probably my favourite course of the night featuring Ricotta and Feta gnocchi with sauteed mushrooms in a porcini broth. It was unbelievably good. Truly a tremendous dish.

Course 4 – Crayfish

A simple piece of fish is always nice and this was a nice way to end off the pre-dessert courses. The wine had kicked in by this stage so I have forgotten what the sauce was, but I remember the shallots were delicious!

Course #5 – Dessert!!

With raspberries and pistachios playing off each other, this frozen desert was really delicate  and tasty!

Course 6 – Cheese!!!

What better way to finish off a meal than with some amazing cheeses and bread and port that is older  than I am?

We decided early in the day to make an effort to drink 100 years worth of wine… This is a photo of the damage we did…

Well, how did we do with our mission? Very accomplished. We stepped it up and ended up at 125 years between five of us. Three bottles of bubbly, three bottles of white, four bottles of red and a 26 year old bottle of port! Good job team! (On the list, the final bottle of bubbly didn’t make it)

To sign off, me holding 50 years of wine!!!

One challenge of studying and living abroad comes during the time around the holidays. This is the second time I have spent Christmas away from home. The first time was Christmas 2007 when I was doing the backpacker thing. Asides from being in Australia, the two experiences have been incredibly different. In 2007, six of us lost souls cooped up in a one bedroom apartment and shared our overseas Christmas together. We shared our Christmas traditions and with each other. We made some fantastic meals topped off by a very traditional Christmas dinner. I can’t speak for everyone (although I’ve been known to try) but it felt like Christmas was as good as it could be away from home. When I think of the important parts of Christmas to me (family, friends, church, good food, the sharing of gifts and other traditions) many of those were met that year.

Christmas 2009 has been a much different experience. In 2007 there were many of us away from home. This year, I’ve been on my own in my “awayness”. My Australian friends and classmates are either at home or went home for Christmas. This has meant I’ve spent a lot more time on my own. Because of this I’ve had time to reflect and realize what makes Christmas special for me. I went to church on Christmas Eve and sang Silent Night in a darkened church with candles. I shared a delicious meal and drank some fantastic wine (a whole other blog post to come on this). I spent time with people I care about. I spoke with family and basked in beautiful sunlight (okay, that’s a new tradition, but one I enjoyed!). Obviously there are plenty of Christmas traditions that I wasn’t able to do this year, but I’ve learned not to focus on the missed activities. Plus, I know they will be even more meaningful next year.

I have to say thank you to everyone who helped me feel welcome in Australia. Thank you for sharing worship with me. Thanks to those who opened their homes to me. Thanks for sharing your food and drink with me. I probably received at least ten different invitations to Christmas dinner/lunch and wish I could have attended all. I feel I could have knocked on any door and asked to join the meal and I would have been welcome.

Also, thank you to those who made me miss home. Your messages and well wishings have meant a lot. It’s weird to feel sad and loved at the same time. I love hearing the stories of your lives and the fun you are having and it’s nice to know that I am missed as well.

I was extremely nervous about this Christmas. In the end, tears were shed, friendships were created, traditions skipped a year, worship was shared and Christmas was celebrated in a slightly different way.

Blessings to all.

So, as I come up on three months of being in Australia and a little over two months of active study, many people are probably wondering, what exactly do you do at the start of a thesis writing process?

Answer: Spend a lot of time being overwhelmed.

Having never done any major research project (I didn’t do a Honours Thesis), this whole process is new to me. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out why I’m doing what I’m doing while also figuring out what I’m actually doing.

When I applied to Deakin University, I submitted a research proposal titled “Executive Directors: What does it take to become one?”. So far, my work has consisted of reading anything that might relate to this topic. Prior research in hiring processes, definitions of the roles of the CEO, trends in sport, sport governance, impact of CEOs, board performance, board-CEO relations, opinions on the importance of education, experience, qualifications and anything else you might think of. For every article I read, I wrote something about it. Sometimes it was two or three sentences (even a “This is irrelevant” sentence or two). Sometimes it was a couple of pages of writing. Often times, the best and most important part of an article was the reference list. Finding a good article would often lead to several great articles and provide a more thorough understanding of a topic from several areas.

The more that I read, the more I understood what the purpose was. By no means am I now an expert in the literature search, but I have a basic understanding of the importance. You need to read anything and everything in order to figure out a way to put two topics together for comparison. Plus, you learn more about what interests you and what piques your interest.

From a more practical standpoint, scholarly journal databases and I have become quite close. Ebsco, Emerald, ProQuest, I have spent a lot of time in each, although I have typically search for articles through the Deakin library search. (Sidenote: Some articles still are not online. Honestly, I have had to go to the library and actually find the journal. They have apps that can read an MRI on your iPhone, but not all articles are electronic, that’s mindblowing.) Also, another program I have found is EndNote and I think it’s awesome so far. Basically, it’s a super easy way to keep track of all your references. Most databases let you export the bibliographic information directly into EndNote so you don’t have to do any typing or anything. Then, EndNote can link with Word and insert the reference in where you need it and add the full citation to a list at the bottom. You can choose whatever format you want as well. Within the program, you can organise the references into different groups. I’ve been using two groups, “Unread” and “Read”. Can you guess how I sort them? It makes it easy to go and search and highlight a whole bunch of useful programs in a database, export them to EndNote and then track which ones you have read. All in all, a very cool program.

So what has this all led to? Well, last Thursday I went and met with my supervisor to discuss where I am at and what the next steps are. In preparation for this meeting I had to condense my 10,000+ words of notes into a relevant one page summary along with a list of the most important information. Going back and looking at everything I’ve read, I started to realise how much of it is no longer relevant with the direction of my topic. I also found that trying to link all the aspects of the research into one page was very complicated. It took lots of scribbling, flow charts, web drawings, random lists of ideas and several attempts to try and write something that made sense to me and summed up the basic research topic. So, after a very productive conversation with my supervisor I now have a title for my research………which I will reveal in the next blog. (Yes! TV style “To Be Continued”!!!)

Keep smiling people!

Maybe you’ve noticed, maybe you haven’t, but I’ve been trying to “tweet” (@GeoffSchoenberg) an interesting story at 3pm every day. If you have, then this post will not interest you much…

If you haven’t, then here is a recap of the posts from the last week…

Dec 12 – Another good reason to become an Olympic athlete… Free Protection! http://tinyurl.com/y9br3fx

Dec 13 – Nobody won a gold medal? The fallout of doping issues…. http://tinyurl.com/yagpv3c

Dec 14 – Is Canada the MOST underachieving nation in soccer? Apparently so… http://tinyurl.com/ycqw98a (A valid point I neglected to mention from @anthonyalsop/www.sportspiel.com.au – Australia is an emerging power)

Dec 15 – How much can you control employee behaviour on social media outside of the workplace? http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/135125

Dec 16 – Are you a close friend of any of these people? If not, maybe you should try to be…. http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/64387

Dec 17 – Good things to remember. 13 reasons to put your kid in hockey http://tinyurl.com/ybyknpy

Dec 18 – When did the voting take place? How much would the last month change the votes? http://tinyurl.com/yjhhj9w

Today I had one of those moments that helped remind my that I made the right decision to come to Australia to study. I was down in St. Kilda in the evening and went for a walk on the beach. It was the first time I’d been to the beach since I got here (unacceptable, I know). Just walking along the beach, hearing the water, smelling the sea air, feeling the sand between my fingers and watching the reflection of the sun was a reminder of why I wanted to come back here. Then, to top it off, I ended up in a nice beer garden at a chill pub with a heavily dreadlocked dude playing Dave Matthews Band, Ben Harper and other fantastic acoustic music while I watched the sun set.

I am in the right place.

Beginning a thesis is a trying task, especially when you have little to no research background. Sure, I wrote a few papers in my undergrad, but these were mostly done in a short period of time with fairly clear guidelines and expectations. There was usually a pretty specific topic and an argument or point of view was not hard to develop. I quickly learned how to find quotes that served my purpose, but didn’t take the time to read/understand the full context of the ideas presented by the author. I simply came up with my ideas and then looked for research that supported them.

A masters thesis is different. I need to have a complete understanding of the area of study before forming the research question and argument.  While, I have an overall concept of where the research will go, there needs to be justification for undertaking that research. This means actually reading the articles, understanding what what is being said, and trying to determine what the implications are for my own research. It means making sure that the research hasn’t already been done, that a fresh perspective can be obtained.

The first stage is to paint a picture of the current knowledge landscape using other people’s work. This picture (why not carry the metaphor further?) needs to accurately depict the ENTIRE landscape and, at the same time, reflect the details of each individual leaf and grass.

Part of the struggle so far was coming to understand the point of the literature review. Being new to research, I was confused by what the point of it was and is. The more I’ve read, the more I’ve seen how authors use a literature review to frame their topic and setup the purpose of their research. A well done literature review clearly makes the reader bob their head in agreement. The reader finds themselves intrigued as to the research done to help answer a clearly defined problem. The lit review is the setup, it frames the rest of the paper and is a crucial part of any good research. It is also a tool for the author. An excellent literature review will build itself from general knowledge to shared knowledge and will culminate in presenting the lack of knowledge in a specific area.

My next post will talk about what sort of strategies and methods I’m using during this intial phase…