I finally finished up the magazine rack I wrote about earlier. Here it is in production …

I’m quite happy with the end result. It’s a simple, clean design with a few nice elements. I’m also very happy with the way my first dovetails turned out. This is in fact a “sliding dovetail” (I think). You can see them in action in the feet of the stand.

To finish the piece, I began by sanding it with my beautiful Festool RO 150. <gush>There’s something to be said for great tools. Whether hand tools of electric, a well machined tool is a truly a pleasure to use. This sander is smooth and comfortable and does an incredible job at any speed and grit.</gush>

Now that I have that out of my system … I sanded to 320 grit. I have been using a bit of Shellac lately so I thought I’d apply it to this job as well. In the past I’ve found that it can give too orangy a finish for my likening so I thinned it out making a 50/50 mix of Methylated Spirits and my Shellac mixture. Applying three coats of this gave me a really nice solid finish which still showed off the wood grain.

The finish touch was a very thin coating of wax. I haven’t worked with this before but after my initial experience, I really like the end result. Reading all the tips on it’s application, I took care to only apply a very thin layer of it. Now, the piece is nice and smooth, not sticky in any way and the wood grain shines beautifully as it sits on our loungeroom floor.

Another project done!

… Primarily because of articles like this one by CIO Magazine. I found this article through Ameel’s website, so hat tip to Ameel for that one.

Every once in a while someone publishes a “nn reasons why your IT project fails” article. Every time it leaves me with some longing for something insightful. In this CIO Magazine article, every one of the 14 tips provided are logical and rational. Each one of them is actionable. Each one of them is also useless.

The only tip which comes close to dealing with the true underlying problem is tip no. 14 on communicating with project sponsors and stakeholders. Even this only addresses it in a very rudimentary way.

What’s wrong with this?

Firstly, the points made in these articles are practical and useful. I believe they have some value. The problem is that they simply don’t go far enough.

As IT people and project managers, we are trained to be operational, logical, planned, rational and ultimately to solve problems. We read material which reinforces this world view of ourselves. In this instance, the article hands us a platter full of 14 problems to solve and some very palatable solutions. In fails in addressing the real hard questions we need to deal with in order to be effective leaders of IT projects.

This article, and others like it, provide us with a convenient scape goat. As long as we do these things (e.g. select the right project team, use repeatable processes, track changes), then we can avoid the real issues.

What about agile?

Agile deals with this partly by making it easier to “go with the flow” and safely absorb the changing nature of projects. Most of the documentation I have read on the subject focuses on creating processes to control and manage. Don’t get me wrong, these are really really important processes to put in place.

Where I fear we trip up is when we implement the processes expecting them to solve or at least help with our people issues. Again, there isn’t much focus on engaging with real people. How do we better relate to them? How do we learn to understand them and their own pressures and needs? How do we “do communication better?”

What should we be addressing instead?

In my mind, the real issue is a lack of dialogue. Not talking. Not listening. Not communicating. But real dialogue. The ability to put your own needs aside and engage on a deeper level with those you are working for. Only when we get to this space will we begin to see significant gains in IT project successes and real positive outcomes.

Often we need to hear things that we don’t want to hear. Often we need to say things others may not want to hear. As leaders of projects, we need to create a space where this can occur. An open, respectful and reflective space.

This is an area that I am only just begining to explore for myself. Because of this, I still find it difficult to explain in words. The area is one studied by Ronald Heifetz and is known as Adaptive Leadership or Adaptive Change. As I find the words and have the experiences, I hope to write and share more about this.

Until then, some of the following articles might help provide some insights for you:

• When Leadership Spells Danger
• Adaptive Change: What’s essential and what’s expendable?
• Adaptive Leadership
• Adaptive vs Technical challenges
• A conversation with Ronal Heifetz – Leadership without easy answers

After a few weeks getting our house in order, I’ve finally been able to spend some quality time with my tools.

I’m making a very simple magazine rack. My hope is that it will hold my New Scientist and American Mind magazines, but I fear it will end up stuffed with Marie Claire and New Idea instead.

After planning the project and measurements, I began by cutting the pieces that will form the “walls” of the rack. The Festool power tool system came into great effect and use here. In the picture below I have a piece of Tasmanian Oak ready to be cut to length. The Festool TS-55 saw, guide rail and the combination angle make this really easy. The thing I love about it is that you don’t need to worry about drawing your cut line perfectly square. The combination angle attaches to the guide rail. One arm of it sits along the length of the timber keeping it at the your desired angle. Then the saw glides along the rail ensuring your cut is at the perfect angle.

Next came the tricky bit, dovetails. I’m using a dovetail joint to attach the bottom rails to the walls. I haven’t done work like this before so I put my trust again into the Festool system. I also built a little jig to help me keep the joints uniform and repeatable.

Unfortunately, my first results were terrible. I might as well have bashed the hole out with a hammer it was that bad. Perhaps it was my lack of skill, or the fact that I was going about it all wrong. I know you can produce excellent dovetails with the Festool system and a dovetail jig, but I didn’t have the jig and was also a little impatient.

The main issue was the huge tearout the router caused on the right end of the dovetail. I thought about it and realised that as the router bit reached the right hand side, the clockwise rotation of the bit pushed out the wood fibres and caused them to split.

My solution was go back to hand tools. Something I’m not very practiced with yet but am looking to do more of. With a tenon saw, I cut the ends of the dovetail first at exactly the right angle. I then placed the piece into the jig and used the router to clear out the hole. This had significantly better results and gave me a really nice clean edge and flat bottom. It became very clear to me that power tools, although faster, are certainly not always the best tool for the job.