Usually at this time of year, I get a big surge of energy in my life: physically, mentally, psychologically – the works. I think it has something to do with the lengthening of days, the increase in sunshine, and the melting of winter into spring. This year, my energy surge is not as big as it has been in previous years. That usually means I’m incubating something. While my conscious mind is busy with everyday things like work, attending meetings, writing, responding to email, etc., my unconscious mind is working on something else altogether. And it’s drawing a lot of energy.
I wonder what this incubation is all about. Maybe it has to do with the development of our new strategic plan or the ramping up of our new functional committees. Maybe it’s about IBTTA’s business model and the adaptations we’ll need to make over the coming years. Maybe it’s related to my three children leaving the nest one by one and going on to other adventures. Or it could be something else.
So, our question for this week: What are YOU incubating? What earth-shattering new development is emerging from behind the shadows of your mind? What is keeping you up at night, perhaps even in a good way? What profound thoughts are poking their way out from your unconscious mind and spurring you on to something new? What are you incubating?
Sunday, April 4, 2010
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I can relate. I'll have weeks where it seems like I accomplished nothing, followed by weeks where it seems like I did a month's worth of work. It makes sense that I might be incubating something subconsciously.
ReplyDeleteIt might have to do with the book Maddie Grant and I are writing, or the online training we're designing, or the next blog post that's percolating. In our field, it's almost more important to know and understand the questions than it is to know the answers. If I had to pick one thing that I'm incubating, that would be it--the questions that are going to drive our business over the next year.
I'm incubating an initiative where my friends at IBTTA and perhaps several of its members would join together and create an outreach to the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) to support the recent United Nation's Resolution to embark upon a Decade for Road Safety in the world. After over 25 years of being on the receiving end of transportation funding, I feel a nagging sense of obligation forming to give something back, perhaps to the people who use roads, and perhaps in the form of life saving policies, strategies and technologies. Possibly taking some action to better understand the scope and causes of the problem. Possibly finding a road in an underprivileged country where people have lost and are losing their lives at an excessive rate, and developing and implementing a low cost solution set using the knowledge of road safety that toll authorities and their consultants have collectively gained over the years. Bring the best minds we have (we have some smart people) to focus on the problem. Incubation is no fun; it always involves discomfort to the host. I feel I am way too busy to undertake something not mission critical in my professional role. On the other hand, is there any good reason to sit on the sidelines while the rest of the world undertakes getting a handle on the rise in road carnage that plagues the planet? If you would be interested e-mail me at Dan.Baxter@Stantec.com and I’ll send you some information from some basic research I’ve started. I’ll bet what is now a world-wide initiative universally supported was an idea hatched from incubation in a person not unlike ourselves. Dan Baxter.
ReplyDeletePosted by Tim McGuckin, OmniAir Consortium
ReplyDeleteI am incubating a new organization called OmniAir Certification Services, Inc. (OCS). Or more accurately, OmniAir’s Board is incubating it. To give some background, OmniAir members develop transportation-related standards (such at the EPSNIS) and certification test tools to advance interoperability. The Consortium was not formed to actually issue certificates or to do certification testing. It can’t for legal and perception reasons:
Say Supplier A, an OmniAir member, has a DSRC product or service for which they want an “OmniAir-Certified” mark. Now, it also happens that Suppliers B and C are members of the Consortium. Even as professionals who are committed to interoperability, the fact remains that these members would technically be involved in issuing certifications for products they developed, or for products and/or services their competitors developed. Legally, this is a conflict of interest and potentially an antitrust issue. Further, from the public perception standpoint, this mingling of organizations undermines the perceived independence of the “OmniAir Compliant” certificate. Independence and trust are the bedrocks of a certification entity.
In response to this, the OmniAir Consortium Board created this second entity, the OCS, whose only member is the OmniAir Consortium. So there is control, but also the required legal firewall between the entity developing the test tools and the one doing the testing and issuing the certificate of compliance. This separation also defends against claims that members can impact or influence the certification. The ‘incubation’ part right now is that we are working on all the policies and procedures that support and enable a valid and industry-accepted certification organization. It is more work than you might think, but very important to get it right from the beginning.
Tim McGuckin
www.omniair.org