It's been a bit quiet around these parts for a little while, there are a variety of reasons for that but the most significant one was the topic of my last post - in the last six weeks I've taken on a new opportunity with my employer where I've found myself busier and more challenged (in the best of ways) than I can recall in some time - consider this post more of an update than a knowledge bomb. One major piece of my current workload is closing out a three-plus year project centered around overhauling the organization's compensation system (ranges, titles, job descriptions, etc.) and the close out process has involved squeezing in roughly six to twelve months worth of work into three (or at least that's how it feels).

There have been moments where I wasn't sure if I was coming or going, where I had to stop and take a breath to get my barings, and ones where I was just hoping to keep my head above water - that is to say, it's been pretty freaking awesome!

Now as we near the end of the end, finding the project back on track to have something resembling closure by the end of the calendar year, we're tackling one of the largest pieces of the puzzle - reason enough to go out and find a handful of ninjas...

One of the major luxuries of working with a top-tier research university (or as my circumstances are currently, working for the university system) is the ability to tap into the wealth of knowledge, skills, and abilities within the student body; which is exactly what I did recently when I brought on four upperclassman in the fields of strategic communications and creative writing to help us work our way through the drafting and crafting of 400+ new job descriptions - they're eager for the opportunity and today I got a clear snapshot of their potential when we had our first weekly debrief. They blew my expectations out of the water!

They approached the process strategically, methodically, and with an eye on the bigger picture of how the entire process fit together. Put simply, I was impressed and I'm excited about the next ten or so weeks as we bulldoze through a ridiculous amount of work and words. And after six or so weeks without ninjas, this is a welcome moment at this point in my new role and just one more bit of awesome to add to my ever growing pile - I'm like Scrooge McDuck, only instead of a vault of coins, I've got one made of epic high-fives, mind-bogglingly amazing colleagues, and a new crew of ninjas bringing it like Tyler Durden roughing himself up in a parking lot.  


Header Photo Credit: mr_la_rue via Compfight cc