Arkham Asylum
Growth Through Adversarial Relationships… Part 2
In my last article, I advised you to find an arch-enemy or at least learn from those you accidentally acquire along the way. I ended that tale with my departure from the Dotcom world and my return to financial services.
The period from late 90’s into the new millennium, was a great time to be in the banking industry. It was not the Wall Street of the movies, but the financial centers around Delaware were booming. People were bouncing from one bank to the next, raking in nice pay increases, and the culture was wild.
It was within this environment that I returned to banking. Although this time, I was going to do it a little differently. Arkham was a very small banking operation built on the remains of a once great empire. It was not a bad situation, they had seen greatness and then sold it to the highest bidder. Now they were reconnecting with their small business roots in more ways than one.
A New Beginning
Unlike my short stint in software development, I went into Arkham with eyes wide-open. I had little choice, the interview team themselves were a rogue gallery of characters!
“Let me tell you how it is. If I do not want to come, in morning, I pickup the phone and say boss, I have hangnail. I will see you tomorrow. And that is how it is. You will work here, yes? We are treated so well. We are Gods!” — opening remarks of my initial interview with The Greek, who was dressed in a white t-shirt and black leather…
I was also clear on my role. The analytics team believed they were under served by their IT department and I was there to ‘shake things up”. It was a role I have had too often.
The Leprechaun
I mentioned one-sided rivalries in my last installment, but The Leprechaun would teach me a new lesson. It would only be much later in my tenure that I realized that I was his rival. In fairness, he wasn’t hiding it. I just had yet to see myself in that light and I was about to pay.
The Leprechaun took the opportunity of my arrival to immediately (I never got my coat off) take me across town and present me to the IT leadership. The very people I was there to “shake up”. He walked me to the first office, announced who I was, and promptly snuck off to the cafeteria for the next few hours.
The Don
There is no better nickname for the man and situation I was confronted with. Of course, one does not simply walk into meet The Don. First you must meet his family.
“You should be working for me. I don’t even know why you are here?!” were the first two sentences of The Don’s right-hand. Lets call him Sonny.
This was adversarial before it was even a relationship. I have heard stories of people who walked out when confronted by much less, but I had just finished my battle with The Madman and this just didn’t compare… yet.
For his part, The Don, played his role to a tee. The next meeting was cordial, professional. It should be noted that both Sonny and The Don had a very different presence than I had dealt with earlier in my career — they were both tall, athletic, and intimidating figures. This, combined with Sonny’s intro, made me very aware of the gravity in the Don’s words.
The Early Days
I survived that first day. Working in a separate building allowed me to put some distance between myself and Sonny. I had been directed by my boss to go into stealth mode for a while and concentrate on building out an awesome analytic tool set and reporting suite. So a few weeks passed uneventfully…
It should be noted that Arkham was undergoing great change in those days. They were still rolling off their mortgage division and completing a full database replatforming, which went a long way to explaining both the lack of attention on the small business team and why it was so easy to stay under the radar. Unfortunately, easy has never been my style…
I had been hard at work on ways to speed data delivery and my time in software development had sent me down the path of parallel processing. Basically, I built an interface to break up large jobs into dozens of smaller ones and run them all at once. Bad idea…
I tested one. I tested three and six. I might have even tried twelve… I should never have tested thirty-six. I swear the lights in the building flickered. There might have been some sparks. The chorus of groans that erupted from my colleagues’ desks was definitely real. And somewhere in the darkness… a database crashed.
Return of the Leprechaun
In fairness, one might reasonably expect that thirty-six parallel processes would not be a problem for the IT resources of a major company. In retrospect, I instantly doubled peak load on boxes that were overdue for migration… my bad.
The Leprechaun found the whole event to be hysterical. But what he did next has to go down as one of the biggest d!*k moves I have ever witnessed. He sat in my chair, picked up my phone, and called The Don.
Leprechaun — So I hear the databases went down?
The Don — Wow, yeah! Don’t worry Sonny just spun them back up. I don’t think we even lost a half hour.
Leprechaun- I think I know what caused it.
The Don — Really, there is a lot going on right now and…
Leprechaun- Remember George? He built this tool.
The Don- A tool? No that shouldn’t…
Leprechaun clicks the launch button again. Followed by collective groans (and maybe a ceiling light or two started to shake… just guessing)
Leprechaun -I think that proves it!
The Don — Geez! Please don’t do that again!
This was a turning point event. First, I never trusted The Leprechaun again. But more importantly, I realized that I was the enemy. I was the villain. That perspective would guide my relationship with The Don from that point forward.
It was a long road…
For three long years, Sonny and I battled. I was accused of sabotaging the company, breaking the charter of the bank, and numerous other mostly bombastic things.
But while Sonny remained defensive for a good long while, The Don began to understand where I was coming from. I refrained from attacking his team’s work-there was no justification anyway- and focused on explaining my process and how I saw it as supporting their efforts.
Eventually fences were mended. On the opposite side of what had been a very poor beginning, a great relationship was born. Not long after, I took a new role working for The Don.
This would lead to a reconciliation with Sonny as well — in the two places it was most likely to happen — over beers at numerous IT events and on a dodgeball court, in a game I swore was going to see someone in a hospital.
Unlike my rivalries and adversarial relationships of the past — this one delivered more than lessons. I now count both gentlemen as trusted and respected former colleagues and would never hesitate to work with them in the future.
But Arkham’s inmates still had more to offer…
