Ecetera employeehandbook: The Flat Planet

The Ecetera Employee Handbook
How to survive when you don’t have a boss but have a big
brain instead
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v1.0a 1 of 25 (c)2013 Ecetera

Dedication
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___ >___ >___ >__ | ___ >__| (____ /
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Table of Contents
1. Welcome to Planet Ecetera
2. Our Vision
3. Your first days...
4. Your Future
5. Your Performance
6. It’s About Respect
7. Your Safety & Security
8. What else?
The Gift of Code
Navigation
This handbook is your navigation tool for your first steps on Planet Ecetera.
It’s intended to help you find the right information, meet the inhabitants,
smell the vision and taste the values. We hope this will get you excited about
your future on this planet.
Along the way, we’ll point you to the special sauce that makes us, well, special
and some of the less exciting but equally important stuff in the Ecetera
Employee Technical Guidelines.
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A word from the CEO
In 2004 we realised how exciting it was solving the big hairy problems that
companies were experiencing developing and deploying web applications.
We then had the awesome idea to combine the latest and greatest software from
around the world with the smartest people we could find.
Finding the technology was easy.
Finding great people was always going to be a bit trickier.
We needed to create an environment that would foster the specialist skills
required to solve specific problems, empower people to do good work, encourage
them to be brave and honest with customers...and protect them from the
consequences.
Then we needed to bring people into this environment who were smart enough and
curious enough to master the skills, proactive enough to make stuff happen and
willing to back themselves in the pursuit of outstanding customer value.
Ecetera is a privately held company with over one hundred employees
headquartered in Sydney with offices in Melbourne and Brisbane.
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1. Welcome to Planet Ecetera
Congratulations on making the decision to join our world.
We hope you like the idea of having the freedom to work on projects you are
really passionate about - we have a unique approach to the way we work to help
our customers sleep at night.
As you already know, you’ll be working with a lot of smart people. You’re also
aware that you’ll be working with some incredibly interesting technology. You
will be making a big difference to the performance of our clients’ mission
critical web and enterprise applications.
We want to give you a smart tool to guide you around our wonderful world...
because you’re worth it...remember everything about your brain is sexy :o)
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2. Our Vision
We view our world in a very different way. We’re on a mission to affect positive
change in our corner of the universe.
We have the power to analyse old problems with innovative thinking and that’s
why you’re here.
So what does this mean?
Ecetera assists companies with technology performance by focusing on two key
capabilities:
1. measurement of performance in all aspects of technology delivery
2. optimisation and continuous improvement in technology delivery
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Our Purpose
Our purpose is to rid the world of badly behaving business applications.
Our focus is on customer outcomes. We’re helping organisations serve their
customers by improving application performance; enhancing user experience.
Being customer-obsessed gives us the edge on our competitors and helps our
clients sleep well at night, but it also gives us our sense of purpose.
Our philosophy underpins our core values which embodies our culture. This
represents our brand, our people, our approach and our vision of the universe
and how we can make a difference.
We identify and fix application performance issues from code to customer by:
● providing pre-sales consulting to define problem sources
● demonstrating proof of concept solutions
● providing application performance education and training
● defining application performance issues through systems analysis
● designing solutions with our clients
● supporting application performance optimisation solutions
Doing this makes our customers better, stronger and faster. And don’t forget The
Robots quote:
“Work It Harder Make It Better, Do It Faster, Makes Us stronger, More Than Ever
Hour After, Our Work Is Never Over”.
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Our Uniqueness
We are determined to make a real difference to the way enterprise applications
provide benefits to businesses and customers.
It’s here where our true points of difference lie. It’s where our (cape) crusading
spirit comes alive and where our passion for innovation and partnership
inspires change. We work together to deliver scalable business applications for
a new generation.
Along the way, we’ve come across like-minded people who understand the
importance of this goal...You.
That’s why the second part of our crusade is focused on attracting and retaining
the right talent and developing their full potential.
On our planet, we’ve thrown out conventional structures, frameworks and
hierarchies. We discovered early on that the world is flat and everyone can be
the master of their own destiny.
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Freedomville
The capital city of Planet Ecetera is Freedomville. It’s like Farmville but
without all the clicking and in-app purchasing.
+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +
“Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without
prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their
own customs, privileges or beliefs. This state of mind is not common but it
is essential for right thinking; where it is absent, discussion is apt to
become worse than useless.”
Leo Tolstoy
+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +
Freedomville is a city that harnesses talent, encourages creativity and
promotes professionalism. All doors are open, all ideas are welcome and all
projects are outcome focused.
In Freedomville there are a lot of cool suburbs, Techton, Collaboration Station,
Entrepreneur West, Innovation Town, Motivation South and Autonomy Park East.
In Freedomville, there’s a geeknasium to exercise your mind, a Psych Ward called
Hawk Vs Badger, a coal face to slog away at and an asylum called Ivy or Cookie
where everyone knows your name.
While individuals are great we emphasise accountability and collective
responsibility. There’s no need for a command and control - we like to foster a
common sense approach and we encourage shared responsibility.
If you do get lost here, someone will always be around to help you in the right
direction. Like that time when we went to the wrong bar...another time perhaps.
P.S. the prison in Freedomville is home to badly behaving, unreliable and
difficult to change business applications. Some of these applications are
repeat offenders who need a good talking to.
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Traditional management models are hierarchies that use command and control to
enforce authority; decision-making power is concentrated at the top of the
organisational pyramid. Carrot and stick incentives are used to motivate and
orders are issued to be carried out by subordinates.
Sociopaths and clueless losers drive the company forward...a tempting model
according to the Gervais principle... hmmmm...not really !
*In case you wondered: Sociopaths, in their own best interests, knowingly promote
over-performing losers into middle-management, groom under-performing losers into sociopaths,
and leave the average bare-minimum-effort losers to fend for themselves.
We challenge this traditional approach, welcome to the 21st-century! The
business environment here is characterised by rapid change and flexibility.
The inverted pyramid is a metaphor for a reversal of traditional management
practices. Our employees who are closest to our clients are placed at the top and
our functional heads at the bottom supporting our client facing superheros.
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Our people are empowered with decision-making authority, accountability and
freedom of action. The functional leader becomes a facilitator spearheading a
team effort. Overall organisational performance becomes faster, more adaptable
and more effective. So we think it’s a pretty good environment in which to work
and flourish.
Our Values
1.     Intelligence – we’re all about smart people working with smart technology to
provide smart solutions. We love what we do and that enthusiasm drives us
forward.
2.     Customer Centricity – we focus on the best outcomes for our customers. This
means our customers are ready to buy our expertise and our solutions based on
our reputation.
3.     Accountability – we’re trusted partners and we take real pride in the service we
offer. It’s tailored to suit the specific needs of our customers and we stand
behind the integrity of our solutions.
+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +
“Accountability breeds response-ability” - Mr S. Covey
+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +
4.     Innovation – Eceterians love to innovate and always look to improve and
uncover better, stronger, harder, faster solutions...our partners have the same
philosophy.
5.     Passion – we want to make a difference. This means being excited about sharing,
learning and growing. We’re passionate about technology and problem solving.
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6. Open Minded
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Are we not (wo)men? We are geeks.
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What we love :-)
We love coffee but we love technology more...
   (  )   (   )  )
      ) (   )  (  (
      ( )  (    ) )
      _____________
     <_____________> ___
     |             |/ _
     |               | | |
     |               |_| |
  ___|             |___/
/ Soy ___________/ Cap
_______________________/
What makes us sad :-(
Spam makes us sad but slow applications make us sadder...
=========================================
| ,dP""8a "888888b,  d8b    "888b  ,888" |
| 88b   "  888  d88 dPY8b    88Y8b,8888  |
| `"Y8888a 888ad8P'dPaaY8b   88 Y88P888  |
| a    Y88 888    dP    Y8b  88  YP 888  |
| `"8ad8P'a888a  a88a;*a888aa88a   a888a |
|                ;*;;;;*;;;*;;;*,,       |
|        _,'':::';*;;;*;;;*;;*d;,     |
|     .'      ::::::::::';*;;*;dII;     |
|   .' ,<<<,.  :::::::::::::::ffffff`.   |
|  / ,<<<<<<<<,::::::::::::::::fffffI,  |
| .,<<<<<<<<<<I;:::::::::::::::ffffKIP", |
| |<<<<<<<<<<dP;,?>;,::::::::::fffKKIP | |
| ``<<<<<<<dP;;;;;>>>>>;,::::fffKKIPf ' |
|   `mYMMV?;;;;;;;>>>>>>>>>,YIIPP"` /  |
|   `. "":;;;;;;;;;i>>>>>>>>>>>>>,  ,'   |
|     `._``":;;;sP'`"?>>>>>=========.   |
|           ..._______...|<[Viagra]|   |
|                          `========='   |
=========================================
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Philosophy
We actively encourage collaboration, learning, sharing ideas and solutions.
Our customers trust us because we recommend solutions that are in their best
interest .
That’s also why we leverage innovative technologies to provide “best of breed”
technologies and services.
In our experience, smart people don’t want to be constrained by too many rules
and regulations. They also don’t want to have to navigate any unnecessary
barriers between them and their customers.
We’ve thrown out the rulebook and instead we have guiding principles (inspired
by Mr D. Pink) and a philosophy which empowers our team to partner with
customers and make the universe better.
Autonomy
The desire for self direction that fosters engagement and freedom.
We recognise and acknowledge that you’re already an intelligent,
self-motivated individual. So we want to give you the tools, the support, and
the encouragement to realise your full potential.
We figure you are the closest to the problem you are working on, so you are best
placed to work out how to solve it. If you need help with something you can get
it.
+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +
“Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement”
Mr D. Pink
+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +
We leverage the desire for autonomy with our self-approving vacation system.
We think that you know more about how your absence will affect your
commitments than anyone else so we don’t need to hire a bunch of middle managers
to figure it out.
It’s also why you’re given the freedom to choose projects and solutions that
you’re passionate about and that will make your customers love you forever.
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Mastery
The urge of getting better at what you do. If you have an itch, scratch it. Smart
people are driven and constantly wanting to learn and improve.
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3. Your first days...
Being a new kid can be daunting - you may think nervously about your previous
experiences...you know the one where you felt like you were the bait for the
shark feeding frenzy...please don’t.
To guide and support your first steps with us, we have a 90 Day Integration
Program so you can make friends, understand your role and contribute as
quickly as possible.
Rather than teaching you underwater breathing techniques, the HR Overlords
will spend time with you, walking you through the integration plan as well as
making sure you have shark repellant.
i) Say “Yo” to your Buddy
In your first few days at Ecetera, you’ll meet your buddy, they’ll be the person
who’ll show you around, introduce you to the coffee shop and the rest of the team
and maybe take you to Cookie or the Ivy.
They will also be able to answer most of your questions to provide an insight
into to some of the exciting projects that are in play.
ii) Say “G’day” to the Team
During the first few weeks, you’ll get to meet the rest of the team but with the
majority of our “caped crusaders” out in the field, we’ll do our best to get you
involved in as many catch-up sessions as possible. You can put a face (or voice)
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to a name and start building relationships.
iii) Say “Hi” to our Clients
We work at the enterprise level so our clients are household names. Our website
describes the solutions we have delivered, so check http://ecetera.com.au for
details. We are a critical component of the teams at Target, Telstra, ANZ.
Note: Target may be pronounced Targe-a en Francais - cue Insurance Commercial
here.
iv) Say “Hello” to our Partners
We pursue partnerships with similarly smart companies who have the best of
breed technologies and strive to create strong relationships at the highest
level with leading international vendors like:
● AppDynamics
● Azul Systems
● CA Technologies
● CollabNet
● Compuware have acquired dynaTrace and Gomez
● DynaTrace
● Gomez
● Terracotta
● Strangeloop was recently acquired by Radware
● Splunk
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4. Your Future
Longer term, we’ll look to support you in your career aspirations and help you
with further training and development opportunities to allow you to become
the best you can be. We’ll also try to ensure that you have a lot of fun along the
way.
If technology is what gets you out of bed every morning you have come to the
right place. In addition, you can contribute your expertise across a range of
forums including our blog, case studies, white papers and feature & articles.
If you’re joining us in a non-technical role we still love you and we know you
have the skills that geeks don’t have. We’ll ensure you have the training and
support to develop your skills.
If you’re a geek, a freak or just chic we want to look after you.
Look at you go!
It’s an exciting time in a kid’s life when they are finally able to go it alone. Yet
we all know that it won’t be plain sailing. There will be bumps and bruises,
mishaps and mistakes and lots of lessons learnt (hopefully).
It’s no different here. We’ll look to give you the tools, the support and the
encouragement to be the best you can be. But we recognise that there will be
challenges and mistakes. And we’re fine about that because we expect them. You
probably do too.
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5. Your Performance
Your Career
We begin by working through our super-duper 90 day Integration Program -
(patent pending) so we all understand the how to get the most value from the
process.
Some of this may happen at the office or at the coffee shop while wondering why
the muffins aren’t so good this week. However, trust us, the review will happen.
In the same way we optimise system performance, we want to optimise your
performance. We also encourage continuing education in all forms. Tell us what
you need !
Rewards
We want you with us because you want to be a part of what we are building.
Making sure you have the ability to pay your bills, get a nice haircut, maybe
learn the trombone is all part of the service. Salary and career development
aside, we have some other pretty neat ways to say well done when we really,
really, really like what you are doing.
Kudos to You!
Kudos is our way of recognising achievement that’s awarded through Yammer.
Who decides who to give Kudos ? You do, I do, we all do.
You see someone doing a great job ? Give Kudos !
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6. It’s All About Respect
While genius is often flawed, smart people have certain common attributes that
enable them to work really well as a team, which in turn support the best
customer outcomes. Here at Ecetera, we operate on the principle of respect. We
believe it’s the first and last word in any Code of Conduct worth its salt.
+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +
“Respect is a two-way street; if you want to get it, you’ve got to give it” -
R.G. Risch
+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +
We spend a lot of time working on customer sites as representatives of the
Ecetera team, so obviously it’s incredibly important we operate at all times
with the utmost professionalism. We simply expect that you accord your clients
and colleagues every respect and courtesy that you would hope to receive
yourself. That’s it. The rest we think you’re smart enough to work out yourself.
7. Your Safety & Security
In our experience, smart people are also responsible people. So just like you
wear a seatbelt on your bike or a helmet when driving your car, so you’ll also
need to be vigilant when at work and identify any health and safety hazards.
Unfortunately, Dad jokes are an occupational hazard not covered by Workers
Comp.
In the Melbourne Office, we also have a bike storage area with lockers on the
ground floor and showers also located on the ground floor and on level two.
8. What else? Being an Ambassador
If you’ve reached this far in the document you may have realised that we have a
(bad) sense of humour as well as a philosophy of employing smart people with a
penchant for using quotes to illustrate our ethos.
Predictable cliché:
+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +
“An organisation’s most important assets are its people”
+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +
....The Right People
In order to sustain our success, our culture, our sense of fun and our passion;
it’s imperative that we continue to hire the smartest people who view the world
in a similar way.
That we continue to hire people like you. This is where you come in.
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You are Ecetera’s best ambassador. You are the best person to carry our brand
into the market and speak of our unique approach and joie de vivre. Who better
to introduce other clever souls to Ecetera who have similar values to us? Who
else truly understands the kind of smart people we look for than our current
valued team members?
So we encourage you to stay alert to potential tech savvy “caped crusaders” out
there who are looking to join an organisation which values innovation,
entrepreneurialism, autonomy and a focus on customer outcomes; an
organisation like Ecetera.
Conclusion
The important thing is that we continue to learn and develop so that we don’t
repeat the same mistakes but move on to new and bigger projects and challenges.
Our success to date is peppered with mistakes and lessons learnt. Our culture
continues to evolve as we grow, new clients are discovered and partnerships
change.
We also recognise that there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure we stay an
employer of choice for smart people. There will always be frustrations about
certain processes and our commitment is to resolve them collaboratively.
We’re not perfect but change starts with a conversation, engagement and
dedication.
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Acknowledgment
A big thank you to Mr D. Pink who helped us gather our thoughts in a structured
way.
Particular thumb up to Zenco Effiong who kick started the imagination of this
new world and adventure.
Another big thank you to Elise Andrew (IFL Science) who inspires us daily.
Thanks to Shahed Syed for the Batman physics lesson and Hugh MacLeod for the
Sociopathic advice.
Many thanks to Ricky Gervais for steering us clear of the pyramid.
Reading List
We’d like to encourage you to e-read some ebooks or, if you insist, some actual
books that are thought provoking, inspiring and bloody interesting:
● Drive, Dan Pink
● From Good to Great, Jim Collins
● The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
● A Hacker Manifesto, McKenzie Wark
● The Cuckoos Egg, Clifford Stoll
● The Inmates Are Running The Asylum, Alan Cooper
● First, Break All The Rules, Marcus Buckingham
● The Hacker Crackdown, Bruce Sterling
● Getting Naked, Patrick Lencioni
● To Sell is Human, Daniel Pink
● Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being,
Martin E. P. Seligman
● The Future of Management, Gary Hamel
We’d also strongly encourage you not to read the following:
● Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, George Lucas
● Elvis Favourite Recipes, Elvis
● The Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien
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Appendix: The Gift of Code
//
import java.io.*;
public class WordCount
//
// ************************************************
//
// Author Unknown or Anon or someone else
//
// Handy: Counts number of words in a text file
//
// Which everyone needs for reading and stuff
//
// Not stoeln from teh intawebs at all
//
// ************************************************
//
{
// code in java.lang or glass houses shouldnt throw exceptions
public static void main (String[] args) throws IOException
{
// badly described int vars for char index and Number of Words found
int i, NumOfWords = 0;
// string vars for Scanned Line, file name and stream fluffers
String ScanLine, inputStr = "";
BufferedReader inputFile, br;
// char var for the next character in the Scanned Line which rhymes
char NextChar;
// bool vars for whether Start of Line or Looking for Next Word
// both initialized to true at beginning of each scanned line
// because its true because I said so
boolean StartOfLine, LookingForNextWord;
// display intro message and prompt for file name
System.out.println("This program was definitely not stolen and it counts the
number of words in a text file");
////////////////////////////// really well commented line
System.out.println("Enter File Name:");
// get the string file name from user and hope they dont use a rude word
br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader (System.in));
inputStr = br.readLine();
// when I wrote this, only God and I understood what I was doing
// now, God only knows
System.out.println("Reading file named " + inputStr);
inputFile = new BufferedReader(new FileReader (inputStr));
// get first line of file to start, where else would you start
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ScanLine = inputFile.readLine();
// if we do not have a NULL, we can continue reading
// if we do have a NULL you are looking in the wrong place
// now I’m not sure if we need this, but too scared to delete
// why does NULL always shout?
while(ScanLine != null)
{
// initialize bools to true
// we ARE looking for next word, and we ARE at start of line
// drunk, fix later
LookingForNextWord = true;
StartOfLine = true;
// evaluate each character in the line looking for spaces
// thats called a delimiter on planet ecetera
for (i=0; i <= (ScanLine.length() - 1); i++)
{
NextChar = ScanLine.charAt(i);
// if we found something other than space
// and we are looking for the next word
// then we found a new word
//
// increment counter for number of words
// set looking for next word and start of line to false
// if you find a dirty word dont add code here
if (NextChar != ' ' && LookingForNextWord)
{
NumOfWords++;
LookingForNextWord = false;
StartOfLine = false;
}
// if we found a space and we are not at start of line
// then set looking for next word to true again
// could also be a dirty word, look out
if (NextChar == ' ' && !StartOfLine)
{
LookingForNextWord = true;
}
} // END OF FOR LOOP
// no comment
ScanLine = inputFile.readLine();
} // END OF WHILE LOOP
inputFile.close();
// all your base are belong to us
System.out.println("Kind of done reading file now, was named " + inputStr);
System.out.println("I think the number of words was " + NumOfWords);
} // END OF MAIN
} // END OF PROGRAM AND MY CAREER
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