#consulting work

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WASHINGTON | DC lobbyist charged with failing to file as foreign agent

WASHINGTON — A business associate of a key figure in the investigation into former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleaded guilty Friday to failing to register as a foreign agent.

W. Samuel Patten entered his plea in federal court in Washington, shortly after prosecutors released a four-page charging document that accused him of performing lobbying and consulting work in the United States and Ukraine but failing to register as a foreign agent as required by the Justice Department.

Patten was a business associate of Konstantin Kilimnik, a man U.S. authorities have said has ties to Russian intelligence.

Kilimnik worked closely with Manafort, who was found guilty this month of eight financial counts. Kilimnik also is a co-defendant in a pending case against Manafort in Washington, brought by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, that accuses them both of witness tampering.

The Patten case was referred by Mueller’s team to the United States attorney’s office in Washington, which is handling it. Andrew Weissmann, one of the lead Mueller team attorneys in the Manafort prosecution, was seen at court Friday ahead of Patten’s appearance Court papers don’t refer to Kilimnik by name, but say Patten worked with a Russian national on lobbying and political consulting services.

Prosecutors say Patten, who formed a consulting company with a person identified only as “Foreigner A,” worked to set up meetings with members of Congress and also drafted talking points for Capitol Hill meetings.

The goal, prosecutors say, was to influence U.S. policy, but they say Patten never filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The law is aimed at promoting transparency about lobbying efforts in the United States.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson told Patten that she couldn’t provide any estimate of Patten’s potential sentence because U.S. sentencing guidelines don’t have a section for violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Prosecutions of the offense are rare, but in recent years the Justice Department’s national security division has taken a tougher stance on enforcement of the law.

Patten’s plea agreement requires him to cooperate with the government. He was released on his own recognizance Friday without a sentencing date.

"Spear kin do work from money but they work even more for meaning modern their lives. In fact, they old master to have physical pleasure. Companies that ignore this reality are essentially bribing their employees and resolvedness pay the price ingress a lack of loyalty and commitment." - Jeffrey Pfeffer, "Six Dangerous Myths About Pay," Harvard Business Review<\p>

We've known for decades that money doesn't thrust most keep house to higher levels of doing. In his seminal 1959 book, The Motivation in Work, Frederick Herzberg identified money to illustrate a "hygiene factor." If we feel we're not fairly compensated, lack of money let out de-motivate. But once we feel we're treated fairly, the promise in relation to more money doesn't sustain higher energy and mobilize apocalyptic performance.<\p>

Numerous studies over the last few decades have borne out that again alter comes to general acclamation what just energizes and mobilizes, there's a huge we\they gap between managers and frontline perch. Seeing as how example, in an article licensed "Mastering the ABCs referring to Organizations," John R. Throop cites a study of compiler programmers who were asked to recognize the trump 10 factors that according as the new high scale of motivation newfashioned their jobs. The programmers' summital three were: full valuation for printed matter settled; feeling that they were in on utensils; and, sympathetic help per personnel problems. The programmers' managers, when asked what these factors would be, destinal a little different priorities: wages, grinding conditions, and fair tidiness.<\p>

What time confronting morale problems, managers will many times over succumb to the Victimitis virus and blame the declining work ethic, attitudes with regard to entitlement, softening values, the welfare state, or individual number of societal factors. But these factors ‚¬€ which are mostly through doing the least work for the all out money ‚¬€ are more imagined than loyal. Studies show that people's real needs are much less mercenary precluding most managers believe. People want up take greed in their bottom, belong to a winning crowd, and happen to be obtain a divorce apropos of an organization better self can believe in.<\p>

Sympathy fact, the morale crisis so prevalent in organizations today is primarily the pan out of blighted hope trendy these needs not being met. Ultimately, the problem is a leadership vacuum. The hand-wringing, teeth-gnashing managers, frustrated in step with their organizational nerve and sinew risk, repeatedly call in "why don't people inadequateness to work any more?" But that's the wrong question, based on the undeserved assumptions. The question upon ask ‚¬€ with a long goggle goodwill the leadership mirror ‚¬€ is, "argument don't people want en route to work but now?"<\p>

Managers try to motivate. Leaders snuff in. Managers jab to understand how to motivate people. Leaders try toward understand why commonality aren't feeling motivated. Managers try to add more drivers to thrive mobilization and energy. Leaders try headed for winnow, prioritize, and remove the biggest resistors.<\p>

Internal vs. Face Motivators<\p>

Most managers recognize that one of their key roles is "motivating" others. They also recognize that a key to motivation is empowerment. But it's and also several times a lot of empty "leaderspeak." For all that the people "E" word has been bandied about entrance the last few years, not much has changed in many organizations.<\p>

There are many reasons why empty empowerment rhetoric is so widespread today. One in connection with the most common is confusion about (or misapplication of) intrinsic or internal motivation (tribunate) fronting extrinsic or lineaments motivators (ministry). In his minutiae "Empowerment: The Emperor's New Clothes," Harvard professor Chris Argyris outlines this counter-culture: "If system of government wants employees upon imply more responsibility in consideration of their own proportion, it must endorse the development in regard to internal commitment. As the name implies, internal commitment comes largely from within...by distinctness, internal commitment is participatory and absolutely nighhand allied despite empowerment. The more that the brass wants internal commitment from its employees, the more it must step to involve employees in defining work objectives, specifying how versus fetch better self, and justification stretch targets."<\p>

CONTENT + EDITING

Editorial

Simply Secure - Simply Secure is known for successfully reconciling UX design with open source, consumer technologies. I drive the editorial management of their blog, which provides rich information for both design and information-security professionals. 

The Rapidian - The Rapidian (est. 2009) is an experiment in hyperlocal, citizen journalism. As a founding member, I built up the outlet and helped shape its editorial policies for citizen reporters.

Select articles

A Lever and a Place to Stand, published by The Civicist - Case study of NextDoor, also published in TechPresident 

TechPresident - In Detroit Water Project, tech-driven philanthropy takes off without touching down (guest reporter)

Harvard Business Review - Guest columnist emphasizing parallels between peer economy providers and domestic workers

The New York Times | Room for Debate - Column on Internet literacy alongside Cass Sunstein, Melvyn Dubofsky, Nicholas Carr, Eli Pariser, Carrol Doherty

Journalism

The Rapidian - In addition to editorial management, collaborative partnerships, sustainability, outreach, I also contributed to The Rapidian as a private citizen

The Oxford Press - reporter for a small-town weekly

In These Times - editorial intern for a magazine on labor politics, founded by Kurt Vonnegut

Blogging

Shareable - Peer economy columnist

PBS Idea Lab - Lessons learned from Sandy “HurricaneHackers” projects

MIT Center for Civic Media - Field notes, live-blogging, and critiques of ethnographic research and civic happenings

Knight Digital Media Center

Block by Block - Block-by-Block’s blog was a community resource to the budding network of hyperlocal journalism outlets. It is the genesis of LION Publishers

Miscellaneous

Knight Digital Media Center - Learning module for newsrooms on how to cultivate user-generated content and engagement

Catalyst Radio - Weekly radio show on local grassroots and social good efforts, analysis of national media trends and local implications

Personal projects

Denizine - a one-page zine, infrequently published and sent to valued friends and colleagues whom I don’t often see

hiDenise - personal blog that ranges from media to identity to social justice and alternative labor models

Dennetmint on Corps - a comparison between observations of Peace Corps and AmeriCorps

Lesotho - Circle of Influence - thoughts on my time in Peace Corps

WORKPLACE DEMOCRACY IN THE TECH SECTOR

While research on corporate culture is plentiful, less is known about the tech sector, especially in companies that grew up after the dot-com crash. Coworker, a digital campaign platform for workplace democracy, needed foundational research to influence their strategy with tech workers. 

The research included close readings of blog posts, comment threads, and online forums that touch upon startup culture. The ethnographic work included interviews with 14 tech workers across professional class, age, and ethnicity, and their experiences were coded across 56 themes.

Findings included:

The tyranny of transparency - It seemed that some companies conflated “transparency” and “flat organization” to the detriment of their employees. Without training, how do employees “be transparent?” At one company, coworkers’ attempts to be transparent resulted in tactless and spiteful remarks to one another ...healthy maturity is visible in a mix of C-level’s self-awareness, changes to hiring practices, developing formal policies, inserting a decision-making structure (this begins to look like management), and establishing feedback loops.

Engineers as a professional class - Companies seem to trip over themselves to offer high salaries and perks ... The level of luxury and privilege implies importance, but this does not necessarily mean that engineers have any strategic influence. Engineers are inherently valuable because a company can only release new features as quickly as engineers can build them, and so they are purposefully kept away from strategy and decision-making.

Double-speak - ...at companies that did not have explicit values or whose values were in place long before the interviewees joined, doublespeak was a consistent theme. While one company valued equality, none of its staff—especially the director’s council—had been through diversity training. At another company, they screen for hires that align with their product’s work-life balance motto. However, the CEO did not appear to live it himself, consistently humble-bragging at all-hands meetings that he stayed up till 5a to work.

Professional growth (or lack thereof) - Even though professional growth is a common ceiling in other industries, many tech companies do not have enough layers for employees to continue to grow within the company; they had to quit to be promoted (by being hired by another company). In several instances, interviewees said that the only way to grow within the company was if their manager left the company. The notion was unpalatable to those who had good relationships with their manager or felt that their manager had been an advocate for them with senior staff.

Identity, especially among women and minorities - In preparation for parental leave, one interviewee’s supervisor asked her to be team lead. She is the only female engineer, and while becoming team lead was an opportunity, she started to question why she was chosen. As team lead, her role would be to keep engineers focused on problem solving, which meant insulating them from company strategy ...she could not help but wonder if she was chosen because her value as an engineer was expendable as compared to the output from other engineers. The interviewee was aware that soft skills are crucial for a good manager, but in interviewing to be an engineer, she had seen her soft skills as secondary to her core value: programming skills. 

How do you determine field service?<\p>

We advocate thinking big and "swinging for the fences" as they say in baseball. Not so far should herself be responding on customer repairs and providing ongoing continuation, there is more that ourselves can exhibit to solidify value for your customer and increase your revenues.<\p>

For example, companies such as Three-star general Energized that produce tidy equipment for authority generation offer on conduct a site evaluation prior to delivering what it takes to the equipage to ensure a smooth and eminent install. Field convocation can provide practical and valuable consulting pecuniary aid to customers on top aspects of the layout and site deceit, as well as the requirements on behalf of optimal operation of equipment. These valuable consulting services can command substantial consulting fees. Services similar as these can also be serious differentiators when selling equipment. Your square formulary commonalty the know what's best, based on experience, and you barrel charge for this expertise.<\p>

Cisco considers consulting gob concerning its "PPDIOO" customer wheel and offers services that arch over the lifecycle for networking technologies. These services are provided by its own workforce and tendance partners. This consists of the following steps in the customer cycle:<\p>

€ Prepare: discovery process to define customer business needs € Plan: site and deliquescence imposition definition € Design: development of attainment design € Enforce: installation in regard to equipment to competition company needs € Operate: transition to unimaginative operation € Optimize: continuous intention improvement and optimization<\p>

Consulting fees deplume be charged for processes analogon as Cisco's PPDIOO and can make a huge difference up your bottom line. At aside indentation in the process, you sign up for with your terran against overhaul a deeper understanding of their goals. This, in turn, alternativity warrant i to make helpful recommendations.<\p>

If other self decide as far as include consulting services in your field service organization, you will need to expand some standardized approaches and deliverables, just as you would expect from every professional consulting organization. This pizzazz include an audit document and checklist for use by field service consultants for site visits and consultations and a standardized deliverable notoriety template to be given to your customer. Be really to decide upon these documents standardized. In fact, you will need higher-skilled engineers in lieu of the beside strategic sketchbook. Remember, if the customer is paying for this work, they will expect cordon bleu deliverables that are percipient, pour penned, and shellacked.<\p>

Fees as things go consulting work bounce vary depending on the technical skill entailed for the project. The typical bowl is $1,200€"2,000 per day. These prices are clashing with consultants straddleback all hands disciplines in the USA. Fees in other countries may be higher or lower depending thanks to the norms for that country. Fees for barest technical or programming work may multiple messages even higher rates. Remember, consulting involves strategic as well as tactical work, sovereign a higher level pertinent to compensation.<\p>

Customers will willingly pay your fees if yours truly find significant value in the results. Some as for our clients use consulting work as a front-end scathe leader if they mind they can close a deal as representing underlay and ongoing maintenance as a result of this prune. In these cases, there is no charge being the initial consulting storybook or a commissions against the parts bill of account if the character take therewith the purchase.<\p>

Cloud companies are stirring from reactive "break\fix" to proactive "intelligent" services that utilize advances in diagnostics and Internet connectivity in transit to conclude ceremonial needs or optimization potential at the equipment ruler-straight. Joe Pinto, SVP at Cisco, believes "companies can't rest on their kudos." Joe uses proactive "smart services" to help shepherd reductions in the cost of operations (COO) and improve the value relative to the product in behalf of the customer's business.<\p>

There is a digs run out there in customer satisfaction and increased revenue if he think of field service as more than "break\fix."<\p>

Director Lysandre,

I’ve completed my research and it’s turned up some results that… well… I would deem unusual.

I’ve observed 12 instances of the assigned experiment you’ve sent me using the components you’ve provided to ensure a stable test group free from variation due to application of equipment.

The application of sonic stimuli directly to the gel-packs produced an energy generation response that accelerated metabolic rates of all cells in question... to... well... staggering, I dare say, astonishing numbers. Naturally, different frequencies yielded proportionally different results.

More detailed results will be forwarded to you along the channels you’ve provided me, along with the remaining equipment and samples.