Feeling Good

I smiled when I saw the following post the other day:

People Will Not Forget How You Made Them Feel

“There would be a few people who would smile at it.” I thought to myself.

We all live in an inter-connected world. We provide services to others and receive services from others as well. We feel happy or sad when triggered by outside stimulus. Meanwhile, we bring good and bad feelings to others through our interactions with them. Sometimes we are the pigeon and other times we are the statue.

Deep in our hearts, we want to create happy feelings for ourselves and others through products, services or attitudes. The interesting thing is that when we make others happy, we unintendedly make ourselves happy.

Two decades ago, when I was newly graduated from university, I came to Houston to work for Maurer Engineering, Inc. Being a newcomer in an engineering consulting firm, I was overwhelmed by the whole new world of drilling industry and software development. My initial struggles soon became enjoyment as I dived into the pool of computer programming. Dr. Maurer gave me enough encouragement and trust, which made me feel real confident. That was also my first time to see my work being used by drilling engineers in the field. “Not many things are cooler than this.” I thought at that moment and over time all the good feedback fueled my enthusiasm to pursue it further.

We will keep having joy as we develop more sophisticated models. Creating something from nothing can bring tremendous joy and this feeling is amplified when this “something” is appreciated by other people.

The Enthusiasm is Compelling

Recreational activities are an essential element to have in the workplace. They give employees the ability to perform tasks or to solve problems in various ways that can be more beneficial to the business as a whole. Recreation helps to bring a fresh change to a work atmosphere that can inspire employees to be more productive, find joy in doing their work and to feel determined to succeed. Through a mixture of activities focused on balancing work, life and creative thinking, they may become more creative and enthusiastic at work. PVI has implemented activities where the employees can participate and connect with each other to help increase workplace creativity, performance and innovation.

The first ever PVI Foosball Tournament is a good example of this and it was a blast! The formula was simple: the names of everybody in the company were drawn from a jar and each employee had to pick a piece of paper with a name on it, whoever’s name was on that paper would be their partner for the game. Each team consisted of 2 members and everybody had to come up with a name for their team, (the originality of some of the names was unparalleled). There were third, second and first place prizes, and for those who did not win, the fun and excitement was a good reward.

Foosball Tournament

Each team laughed, yelled, and fought valiantly. All teams were very competitive, but not without integrity and great spirit. As teams waited, they had time to get to know one another better, which made it a fun event. The tournament lasted 2 weeks and the finals were intense, but at the end of the game a few positive things were learned from it.

Being involved in activities such as this can help employees to engage in their productive side while also learning beneficial team building skills, which lead to job satisfaction, service quality and customer satisfaction. Physical activities have also been shown to help increase brain sharpness and even strengthen the immune system, which help employees to relax and de-stress. You may be surprised by the results of having such activities in the workplace.

Ever since the tournament, Foosball has become part of our company’s daily routine. The amazing thing is that most of the employees had never even seen a Foosball table before, and now they are pros. Due to the positive results and popular demand, we are sure there will be more Foosball tournaments to come. The enthusiasm is compelling and it results in happy employees that use their critical thinking skills to come up with new ideas that can transform our business and our software.

Buried Jewelry: Casing Centralizers

People in ancient time had different burial customs that they believed were necessary to ensure their immortality after death. For example, the ancient Egyptians followed some rituals and protocols which included mummification, casting of magic spells and burial with specific grave goods thought to be needed in the Egyptian afterlife.

The ancient Chinese believed that the afterlife was a continuation of life on earth. Therefore, it was very important that all things they needed were buried with them in their tomb, including their jewelry.

Incidentally, in the oil well cementing business, people sometimes refer to the centralizers as “the cementing jewelry”, probably because they are installed on a casing string in a way similar to a bracelet on the wrist.

Centralizer On Casing

Centralizer On Casing

Casing centralizer is a mechanical device secured around the casing at various locations to keep the casing from making contact with the wall. As a result of casing centralization, a continuous annular clearance around the casing allows cement to completely seal around the casing to the borehole wall.

Because of the cementation of casing with centralizers underground, casing centralizers are literally buried jewelry.

Unlike those real jewelry buried in tombs, these centralizers provide a vital function in zonal isolation. Without centralizers, the casing touches the wellbore. In this case, cement slurry will have difficulty displacing mud in the narrow side of an eccentric annulus during a cementing job. This will lead to incomplete displacement of mud or mud channel as shown in the following picture.

Mud ChannelMud channel weakens the cement bond between the casing and the formation. The good news is that with a computer software like CentraDesign, it is easier than ever to choose the right centralizer type with certain properties and place them strategically along the casing for a particular well path.

Each well is different and centralizer types and properties vary. It is best to perform a standoff analysis for each casing before a cementing job. Note that the total number of centralizers required and their placement on the casing are equally important.

Attributes of Drilling Software

Socrates once said: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates believed that the whole purpose of human life was about personal and spiritual growth. We are unable to grow toward greater understanding of our true nature unless we take the time to examine and reflect upon our life.

A company is like a living human being, who goes through various growing stages, from infant, childhood, adolescence to adulthood. Last week, 4 of our marketing people sat down and had a discussion on the core values that a drilling software company like us should have.

We agreed not to copy any of the phrases from the internet on company values. Many of these are well written, but they may not suit our particular needs. We want to look inward to see what we are cherishing and to identify the attributes that are missing in order to become a top provider of drilling software.

Each one of us listed 6 values and then we combined those 24 values until we narrowed it down to the final 6 core values for our company. Here is our thought process.

Core Values Thought Process

Core Values Thought Process

The selection process was simple and fun. As soon as we wrote down the final 6, we all agreed that these values should be the ones posted on our break room wall.

We did not use big words like “excellence”, because for instance, if our team members are honest, have great attitudes and take responsibilities, we will have excellent products and services. If we are passionate by default, we are diligent.

Our drilling software is “us” in digital formats. We put our knowledge into the software’s DNA. The more professional we become, the better product we produce. In other words, these 6 values are the attributes of our software in the eyes of our users.

As a team, we strive to be balanced between work and life. Our products are the results of the balance between technical brilliance and aesthetic designs.

Our graphic guru is designing the poster now. Once it is done and hung on the wall, I will post it on the blog. You will see it as soon as we see it.