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I live and work with two phrases in my head that are important to me:

“It’s the system, not the people” – Deming

 And, paradoxically:

“It’s all about the people” – a statement heard often at Protegra that we try to use to guide how we work together.

An event this weekend helped me to understand these seemingly contradictory ideas. My brother (as coach) and nephew (as player) are participating in the junior varsity (gr. 9/10) provincial basketball championships. Last night I was able to watch them play in the semi-finals and could see both of the quotes above at work.

“It’s the system, not the people”

After an exciting victory by my nephew’s team, I overheard a conversation between two neutral parties as they did a postmortem on the game. In their assessment they agreed that both teams were skilled, gave it everything that they had, and played with passion. The main difference between the two teams was that the winning team had a better defensive system – not better players, but a better system. While the opposing coach did his best to exhort his players to play smarter, take better shots, make better passes, avoid the red beads, and play harder defense, ultimately they were defeated by a better system. They didn’t lose this game because of “resources” (coaches, players and refs), they lost to a better system.

“It’s all about the people”

Let’s look at the game from another angle. It was my brother the coach (a person) who researched, introduced, and taught the system to the team. It was the players (people) who bought into and committed to playing within the system. Both the offensive and defensive systems used by the team are well chosen and effective because they depend on teamwork and collaboration. Their systems require all of them to act together – if one person steps outside of the system it breaks down. The systems do not rely on one or two heroes but on the team as a whole. The systems require people to learn together, improve together, and be engaged together. The systems are all about the people. A pretty neat life lesson for a group of gr. 10 boys.

So, yes “It’s the system, not the people”, and yes, “It’s all about the people.”

“We believe it’s all about people. We believe by systematically focusing on people, treating them as the heart of organizational systems, that success will follow for all.” – Protegra.

Review:
Need for Speed Underground borrows, instead of simulating, from the increasingly popular custom kit and import car scene. The days when Dodge Neons, VW Golfs, Subaru Imprezas and Mazda Miatas were just reminders you couldnt have a flashy sports car are gone; in the ever-growing circle of elite street racers, dedicated auto fanatics are turning the mid-range class of almost-sports-cars into decked out, eye-catching street rockets. The underground scene of backstreet, nighttime racers has evolved into a whole new industry. Companies like AEM, Enkei, Jackson Racing, HKS, and StreetGlow provide lines of custom upgrades for otherwise everyday cars -- like the Impreza -- so you can deck them out and turn them into your personalized street machine.


Black Box and EA have gone to great measures to capture this gritty, sometimes seedy underworld, partnering with the biggest product lines and major car manufacturers. It seems its goal was to create a racer that provided more vehicle customization than anything ever seen before, and to this extent it succeeded brilliantly. The flexible car customization mode offers up 20 different vehicles, not a huge number, but with all the different options the variety of personalized cars you can create is in the billions, according to EA. These "Customize Your Ride" options take center stage of the gameplay. Undergrounds single-player mode is intimately tied into unlocking new parts for your car -- both of the performance increasing and aesthetic variety.

The total gameplay experience is tuned into the 111-objective "Underground" mode. Like a story, it unfolds as your challengers message you via your in-car video display. There are a few FMV sequences now and then, but mostly it is just audio clips and animated heads that deliver your objectives. It works perfectly, however, and is presented seamlessly. To diversify gameplay from just being regular racing as weve seen it before, Black Box crafted a number of different race types -- essentially you have Race, Drift, and Drag. Race is actually broken up into a number of styles, including point-to-point (one long stretch of a track), circuit (multi-lap), and knockout (cars in last place are booted each lap; last car across the line wins). So, theres a respectable variety to mix up Undergrounds story mode. Read more

System requirements:
MINIMUM PC REQUIREMENTS
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
Pentium III or AMD Athlon 700MHz Processor
128MB RAM (256MB for 2000/XP)
8X CD-ROM/DVD-ROM Drive
2.0GB Hard Disk Space
32MB Direct3D compatible Video Card
DirectX 9.0
Keyboard
Mouse
MULTIPLAYER SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Broadband Internet Connection
256MB RAM

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Review:
The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time trilogy has always been known for its tight controls and satisfying environmental puzzles set in beautiful levels. The series control scheme has served as a model for countless other games that also feature an acrobatic protagonist like the prince. The same great interface remains in the third game of the series, The Two Thrones. Like the other two games, youll find yourself wall running, jumping, flipping, and vaulting your way up fiendishly designed environmental puzzles, as well as fighting vicious enemies with the improved combat system introduced in the last game, Warrior Within. The prince has a few new tricks up his sleeve as well, but longtime fans of the series should still feel right at home.
The story of the Sands of Time trilogy began with the princes army attacking and conquering the capital of the Indian empire. In the midst of the battle, however, an evil vizier caused the release of the sands of time, wreaking havoc over the city and the surrounding countryside. The prince and an Indian princess named Farah battled together to defeat the vizier, bottled up the sands, and restored the world to a normal state. The story continued in Warrior Within, where an embittered prince set sail for the Island of Time, seeking sanctuary from an unstoppable time creature called the Dahaka, who pursued him endlessly because of his part in unleashing the sands of time. There, the prince battled not only the Dahaka, but also Kaileena, the Empress of Time. Fans of the first game felt the series lost a lot of its soul in Warrior Within, as the suddenly cynical prince was much more arrogant and less likable.

The Two Thrones begins with the prince returning to Babylon from the Island of Time with the mortal Kaileena as his new lover (this part of the plot may be confusing to those who didnt see the alternate ending of Warrior Within). As they pull in to the harbor at Babylon, the duo finds the city under siege. Their ship is wrecked by the invaders, and Kaileena is captured by the enemies. You quickly find that the vizier is back and responsible for the uprising. He murders Kaileena and unleashes the sands of time upon Babylon, and the prince must battle to regain his kingdom and avenge Kaileenas death.

But its not just sand creatures and other bad guys from the viziers army that the prince must fight. With the sands of time infecting his soul, the prince must also battle the whims of his darker, more arrogant side. Throughout the games long, 12- to 15-hour campaign, the prince will morph back and forth between his normal self and the dark prince. Hell also have internal dialogues between his split personalities, with the original actor from Sands of Time voicing the normal prince, and a new voice actor representing the sneering, more sarcastic dark prince. Here, the game almost becomes self-referential in addressing the popular criticism levied against the arrogant prince from Warrior Within. The internal strife in the schizophrenic princes mind forms a compelling part of the storyline in The Two Thrones, especially because both the writing and voice acting are pretty good.

System requirements:
Windows XP/2000
AMD Athlon or Pentium III 1GHz Processor
256MB RAM
16X CD-ROM Drive
1.5GB Hard Disk Space
DirectX 9.0c Compatible Video Card
DirectX 9.0c Compatible Dolby Digital Live Sound Card

DirectX 9.0c

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