Last we spoke I was packing my bags for a trip to the land of the rising sun. Thanks to Jackie and Cristin this blog has remained ripe with juicy information to quench your consulting appetite. No, I haven’t been on vacation in Japan for two months. I’ve been back in Sacramento staffed on a new project for a large government client. I’ll err on the side of caution on the details of the project for now. However, I’ll gladly share some thoughts on my role and the people I work with.

We’re in general design phase here, capturing all the inner workings of the client's as-is system and creating to-be deliverables. A deliverable, of course, is defined as “the final product of a document to be delivered to a client…” according to the Cristin Online Dictionary. Deliverable creation means many a meeting with subject matter experts on the client side. We formalize what we hear into use cases, business process flow diagrams, user interfaces, and other deliverable types that I’ll spare you of for now. The documents we create go through a rigorous peer review process before being formally delivered to the client.

I remember sunny days at the park with my little brother, and my cousin, and my mom. I remember playing on the seesaw, my brother and I on one end, and my cousin on the other. My little brother, the daredevil that he is, would constantly try to climb from our teetering end, into the middle as my cousin and I continued to rock back and forth. He always wanted to make it to the center… that place where perfect balance was achieved. My mother would fearfully call this point, “an accident waiting to happen,” in high school we would learn to call this point, “fulcrum,” in college, “the break even,” at Accenture we call this “balance.

Finding “balance” at Accenture has, in all honesty, been quite a struggle for me personally. As the new performance period starts in September, it became obvious to me, that there was no better time then the present to work on adding more balance to my life. I have received my performance review from the prior period, and I know precisely where I need to target in order to achieve both personal, and career growth and development.

As I read today’s deep thought of the day: “One thing a computer can do that most humans can’t, is be sealed up in a box and sit in a warehouse,” I can’t help but laugh to myself, ok, and maybe out loud a little too. I know we have ALL had those “Office Space” moments, fantasizing over the things we would like to do to our fax machines, or in this case, computers, when they constantly fail us. Unfortunately, most of us never quite reach that point as our work force is highly-dependent on this technology.

Currently, I am working on a business transformation project. We are in the process of documenting advanced portfolio strategy capabilities best practices, learnings, resource requirements, and estimated benefits for the client; which will then be implemented in the new up-coming fiscal year.

Well everyone, I am writing to you today from sunny (and extremely warm) Atlanta, Georgia. I have been staffed on a short (6-8 weeks) business transformation project. I never cease to be amazed at the fact that in a moment’s notice, I am flying across the country to begin a new project. As of last Thursday, I was scheduled to finish working on the RFP with a team in Chicago this week. However, plans change, and here I am on the East Coast.

There are already quite a few differences between this project and my previous two. For starters, for the first time in my Accenture career, I will be working on a team consisting almost entirely of people from my group (Strategy, Products C&I). Also, the team is quite a bit larger then the typical team of two or three people that I had been working on in the past. Accompanying me on this project will be our North America Strategy Products leader, a senior executive, a senior manager, a consultant, and two other business analysts. (It sounds pretty glamorous until you realize that we are all working out of one medium-sized conference room with about five other individuals until we are assigned cubes.) Needless to say, I’m sure by the end of the eight weeks, we will all have gotten to know each other very well.

I must admit, my day today began a little fearful. I have been commuting into our new office every morning now via Muni. Today however, was a little different. My particular train decided that while it was stopping at each station, it was not going to open the doors. A little scary. Everyone in my car looked like deer trapped in headlights. Panic registered across the faces of all the passengers around me. “Is he going to let us off?” we wondered. The conductor announced, “Uh, I’m sorry the train didn’t stop.” And that was about the only explanation we received, as to why the doors were not opening, and the train continued onward to its final destination. As the Montgomery station rapidly approached, I tucked away my book (Middlesex, by: Jeffrey Eugenides) and secretly prayed that Muni would let me off. It had not let off passengers at the previous two stops, Civic Center, and Powell Street. I could see the platform at the end of the dark tunnel. This was it… the moment of truth. Would I make it to the office today, or would I be stuck on this Muni train for the remainder of time?

Clearly, I made it to the office. I sit here in our tiny little office, typing away, and gazing out the window where I can see a very small portion of the Bay Bridge, and the intersection of Mission and First Street. I have checked my e-mail, replied to urgent requests, and now it is time to begin my day.