Augmentis

Augmentis AUGMENTIS was founded with the intention of assisting clients with any built-environment related issues. Founded in 1995 The same applies for business systems.

Augmentis sees achieving quality (fitness for use or purpose) in design and construction/manufacture, as well as the development of systems (both operational and other), as being non-negotiable in the delivery of its services. We make a special effort to "step into the shoes" as it were, of the client and its stakeholders in order to develop an in-depth appreciation of their business and general n

eeds. In so doing, we formulate a “best-fit” solution to our clients’ needs, whether they are accommodation requirements, a property investment product or a human resource development, or other business need. Well-designed, functional property developments play a critical role in the development of economies. Conformance to quality designs in the process of delivery is deemed to be equally as important. Without conformance, problems throughout the life of a development are unavoidable. Our services also include consulting in and the development of facilities management systems. We are commercially driven and seek to create 'simple' but effective solutions to complex criteria. We thrive on analysis and lateral thinking in the process of finding the right solutions and ingredients for client success and stakeholder satisfaction. We enjoy working closely with the client, but are equally happy to take a brief and 'run' with it, delivering the end product in a turnkey style. We are also happy to respond to a prescriptive process during all phases of a project. We nevertheless strive to understand and acknowledge the issues underlying the brief and why and how these inform the brief. In so doing, we are able to deliver a better service or product. We pride ourselves in our professionalism, our service excellence, our meticulous attention to detail and our impeccable track record in project management.

06/09/2019

Augmentis condemns violence against women. We at Augmentis speak out about violence against and exploitation of women in the workplace, in public and at home. We call upon all men to check themselves and their values and align their thoughts and actions with Christian principles and to not abuse their position to physically or emotionally harm, upset of interfere with women - that includes emotional, physical and /or financial abuse via the superiority or strength that a man may possess

10/07/2019

LAND INVASIONS – A CATCH 22 IN A WIDER NET
I felt the need to jot down a few thoughts relating the above trend here in South Africa, as, over the past two years Augmentis has experienced three such invasions of properties that its clients have secured for development. Some of these thoughts have led to other thoughts, so, here we go!
After the first invasion, the property owner secured a court order preventing any such further invasions. Whether there was blatant disregard for the court order, or total lack of understanding of the impact of such a court order, or incitement to invade and disregard the court order or a combination of these, invasions continued; invaders were evicted; tyres and vehicles were burnt; people were injured; court cases were held and the plight of the invaders is worsening. The invaders are patently “organized” by someone, as they actually took the land-owner to court! They lost the case, with costs. Costs still haven’t been paid!
This is a huge socio-economic problem. Notwithstanding our current President’s statement that there will be no land-grabs, it is strongly believed that certain opposition political parties are secretly encouraging it. The socio-economic problem, however, is not restricted to South Africa.
The World is currently experiencing an unprecedented 70 million migrants on the move at any one time. A very large percentage of these migrants are as a result of socio-economic problems in the states from which they are migrating. Reasons range amongst starvation and hunger; persecutions based on religion, race, s*xual orientation, conflicts such as wars and skirmishes; xenophobia; overpopulation, collapsed economies and more. It is ironic, that some West African migrants have, in recent times and indeed, currently are, abandoning their countries by stowing away on ships bound for Europe and the Americas. The transatlantic slave trade commenced in the 15th Century and in Britain, was only abolished in 1807. Slave trading was an entrenched feature of colonisation. Slavery has been alive since the beginning of time and still exists in a few places around the World today. But now, it appears as if a replay of willing migrants is taking place on the modern equivalent of ‘slave’ ships. Even in the under-carriage of passenger aircraft! Heathrow airport recently reported an incident of a stow-away falling from the undercarriage bay of an aircraft as it was on its approach to land. It was not the first – there have been others before now. The stow-away did not plunge to his death, but had died of hypothermia long before he fell to earth and may have even been crushed to death shortly after the aircraft took off, since there is very little free space in the undercarriage-bay once the gear has been retracted. Such is the desperation of some migrants.
Migration, nationally and internationally, will continue to happen as long as there are forces of propulsion in a region that “push” people away from it and forces of attraction in other regions that ”pull” people toward it. In Economics 1 at the University of Cape Town in 1971, I was introduced to Dr. Francis Wilson’s “push-pull” model that aptly describes the forces at play during the early development of South Africa’s economy, involving the rural Nguni and the mines and industry in South Africa’s main economic centres. This is indeed, a World-wide phenomenon.
The quality of leadership within sovereign states, globally, is also a problem! Where there is unchecked power, political leaders tend to run ahead of themselves and forget entirely about the community they are meant to be serving. This is not only an “African” problem, but happens elsewhere around the globe. Venezuela is a case that comes to mind. Why do such states get into the dire straits in which they currently find themselves? In most cases and in my opinion, it’s the lack of maturity of the electorate combined with the abuse of power by leadership. These two ingredients make for the sort of human calamity we see unfolding World-wide, today.
Among the victims of this calamity are many who do not comprehend the complexities, the context within which their plight exists, nor any easy way to overcome the forces that push them out of their home countries. Neither do they fully understand the gap between the reality of the situation versus the “dream” that they are pursuing in the countries to which they are migrating or fleeing. If such migrants are successful in entering a country of destination, then many of them are shunned and treated as second-class citizens. Whatever the reception in their new country may be, the social support system is bound to be several times better than the (non-existent, in most cases) support systems in their countries of origin. But that remains merely a treatment of a symptom and not of the cause.
When it comes to property development, antagonists are eager to cite such concepts as the Gini coefficient and gentrification. I can’t help thinking that there is a direct correlation between the Gini coefficient and general IQ levels. I am not an “egalitarian” but I do believe in equal opportunity. If two people of low and high IQ levels respectively, are faced with the same choices to make, it is probable that the one with the higher IQ would make a “better” choice. This is generally borne out by the results in economies where there is, on average a higher average IQ level among its communities. A case in hand being Singapore, which started, in August 1963 after seceding from Britain, off a very low economic base. “In the 1960s, the city-state of Singapore was an undeveloped country with a GDP per capita of less than U.S. $320. Today, it is one of the world's fastest-growing economies” (Ping Zhou of ThoughtCo., updated July 04, 2019). Singapore currently has one of the highest real-estate prices in the World. Sub-Saharan Africa is reported as having an average IQ level of around 72. Singapore is listed by both World Data and Brain Stats as having a national average of 108. South Africa is listed by Brain Stats as having a national average IQ of 77, whilst World Data reflects this as 70. What is alarming is that whilst the global average IQ is reflected as being 100; any IQ level below 70 is considered “mental retardation”. Mental retardation is, today, considered a pejorative term and should be replaced with “Intellectual and Developmental Disability”! This means, by logical deduction, that the percentage of such people in Sub-Sharan Africa is uncomfortably close to, but below 50% and that of South Africa is at 50% (according to World Data).
A post by a random black South African on facebook today makes interesting reading:

“SA is probably the only place on earth where people get angry with demarcation board…. burn the school! (That has nothing to do with who must belong to which province or Municipality). Get angry about high university fees, burn down the same university! (They are pretending to want to study at for free). Get angry about government service delivery - burn the high schools! Then the government finally does something, give us free houses - we sell them to foreigners and move back to a squatter camp..... 2 months later beat up foreigners and say they take our things!
Biggest problem we have in SA is us! - not the government, not white people or monopoly, not foreigners! We are a problem! We are lazy to think. And we love easy free life!
That's why it's easy for a broke crooked Malawian to wake up one day, come to SA and tell people he will make them rich overnight - they must pay him everything they have - he has connections with God .... South Africans believe that, and pay (making him super rich).
A dumb illiterate fool in SA can start a political party, promise highly educated, highly sophisticated South Africans free everything including free s*x! They believe without questioning and vote for him!
Then we keep bitching about almost everything. Complaining has become our new hobby.
Everyone except ourselves contribute to our problems. We are no part of problem or solution (as far as we see it! Qhubani!” Probably posted by a “woke” guy! The post, in my opinion, aptly illustrates the outcomes to be expected from those to the left of the mean in the IQ distribution curve of South Africans.

Getting back to property development and the projects in which I am currently involved, I am faced with a great degree of irrational thought, comment and intervention (land invasions aside). A local authority councillor (a political appointee) pushes social housing of a nature that is guaranteed to result in a slum, whilst not embracing inclusive housing that would result in a general uplifting of living standards; a local authority allows the invasion of properties zoned for industrial use and a slum develops in the heart of a once vibrant industrial area - causing collapsed values of surrounding properties and the death of an industrial node that would otherwise have provided employment for many; public order policing is becoming ineffective due to it sympathising with the plight of the poor and the poor’s complete exasperation with the State’s inability to deliver basic services and housing – this all exists whilst the State sits on vast tracts of vacant land or underutilised land in prime positions that could go a long way towards accommodating this demand.
Then, we just have to look at the country’s treasury. Looted to the point of virtual bankruptcy. The State-owned enterprises leeching billions of Rands of tax-payers money, yet they are not closed down and continue to seek bailouts – and that very government is voted back into power along with many of the crooks that caused the bankruptcy! What level of intelligence is displayed in that theatre?
Senior researcher for Equality at SAHRC, Shanelle van der Berg, said last year that with a Gini coefficient where zero represents a perfectly equal society, and one represents an unequal society in terms of wealth, South Africa’s Gini coefficient is 0.95 - just 0.5 short of being perfectly unequal. No prizes for those that can guess the reason for this! It’s hardly rocket science to figure that one out.
The poor will get poorer; the Gini coefficient will get worse; the value of the Rand will continue to weaken in the medium to long term; skills loss due to emigration will continue to worsen (both blacks and whites are leaving in droves); the crime rate and overall anarchy will increase; hospitals will continue to “kill” instead of heal people and the graduates of our education system will continue to under-perform because, according to the United Nations, our education system is the worst in the World. The World Happiness Report is an annual publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. It contains articles, and rankings of national happiness based on respondent ratings of their own lives, which the report also correlates with various life factors. Just watch South Africa’s rating plummet towards the bottom of this chart! In my considered opinion, all of this is happening at an alarming rate, accelerating imperceptibly, as a sole result of the lack of leadership quality in this country and by this, I mean that we are largely in the hands of mental retards.
This brings me to the question of whether democracy is a panacea to every country’s ills. Well, clearly, when a population’s intelligence is skewed towards the 70’s, it definitely is not. When a country’s population “matures” and is capable of rational thought and proper decision-making, then democracy, in my opinion, stands a good chance. Benevolent dictatorship or “enlightened despotism” (where the dictator is gifted and intelligent) has worked in “immature” countries in the past and states like Rwanda, under Paul Kagame, seem to be prospering under circumstances that can hardly be called democratic. Even mature countries sometimes get it wrong – look at Britain and the Brexiteers! They’re all having second thoughts now, not having realized the complexities of an exit from the EU! They got there through a referendum where the “not-so-enlightened” determined a course of action. At the end of the day, it boils down to the quality of leadership and without that key ingredient, everyone in the country will suffer, especially the intellectually challenged (the poor).
About two years ago, Helen Zille visited Singapore to find out exactly how they managed to get themselves out of poverty to where they are now. I assume that she refrained from raising the topic of intellectual superiority, as it as politically incorrect to do so. Recently, on BBC, a senior government official from Singapore attributed Singapore’s stellar performance, over 40 years, to the pursuit of three critical success determinants: M, P & H, which stand for: MERITOCRACY, PRAGMATISM and HONESTY. These are three ingredients that are patently absent in the current government of South Africa! Under quality leadership, Singapore became one of the World’s top economies in a period of forty years. Surely, other countries would love to achieve the same result? But without that quality leadership, it will not happen. Should the leaders of collapsed states happen to have a “Singapore epiphany”, then they might be bold enough to adopt something entirely new, albeit controversial. I call it “reverse colonialization”. This is where the leaders of a collapsed economy would “invite” a country like Singapore, to invest in their countries, build houses, hospitals and schools, assist in developing manufacturing and service industries, develop agriculture and infrastructure and create employment. By doing so and religiously implementing the MPH philosophy, more and more first-world investors would be attracted and eventually the failed state would mature into a first world economy and the “reverse colonialist country” would then withdraw. There would be no need for land grabs, xenophobia, crime would be almost eradicated, disposable incomes would be very high, health and happiness would also be high and the currency would be strong. It’s not a pipe-dream! If Singapore can do it, so can every other country….if they want to!

05/12/2018

Unshakable Fact
(No! Not the name of a new music group!)
At one point in my career, the term “unshakable fact” found its way into many a conversation, briefing, or report-back. I was obsessed with the quality of the information with which I was being provided as well as the quality of information I provided to others. I was probably leaning heavily toward my left-brain in the thought processes that my job-function at the time demanded of me. Managing projects means managing a team of people and very often, when people report to you, they communicate what they want you to hear. This is very often not accurate, or the truth, or a verity. Sometimes, it’s an inadvertent and very slight distortion of the truth. At other times, it’s an innocent relay of corrupted information, or even a genuine mistake, or misunderstanding, where the communicator is entirely oblivious of his or her error. Worst of all, it could be pre-meditated misinformation, such as the current trend of fake news peddled by “bots” that is plying social and other media.
That reminds me of the story I told my kids when they were very young. It’s a story that explains that spaghetti grows on a spaghetti tree, particularly the flowers of the tree. When the tree flowers, it produces long strands from the centre of the flower that hang down and these strands are harvested when they are ripe and sold as spaghetti! I structured that myth for a number of reasons: to see the reaction, fascination and unqualified belief (gullibility) of my kids; to see the reaction and disdain of my wife, listening to me corrupting her children; and to teach my knowledge-hungry kids about unshakable fact. With regard to the latter and any other fake story I would spin, I would always promptly correct the story (align it with the truth, or unshakable fact) and explain to them that they should never believe everything anybody tells them but always check if the so-called fact or facts being dished out to them, are unshakable.
Fact is fact. It is reality and it is a truth. This is something that does not alter as it alteration finds (as unshakable Shakespeare advises us). It is an actuality. Take for example the measure of mass, which in our metric World, is the Kilogram. When I was about 5 or 6 years old, we bought vegetables from the farm stall a kilometre away from our house. Potatoes would be weighed on a scale and we would be charged a rate per kilogram (actually, it was pounds and ounces in those days, but the principle is the same). How was the mass of the potatoes measured? The scale was calibrated in such a way that a 1 kg. cast-iron “weight” would cause the scale with the product dish containing the potatoes, to balance. The “weight” used, would previously have been assayed against a standard kilogram so that it was accurate, or a truthful representation of an exact kilogram. All measuring and testing equipment nowadays requires regular calibration to ensure that the result that it reflects is unshakable fact.
Decision-making is a process that assimilates information and a rational response or action is then made based on the outcome of the assimilation. We’ve all heard that phrase: “garbage in – garbage out”. So, unless the information digested is factual, the outcome is unlikely to be factual. As kids, we played that party game where a queue or circle is formed and one child is given a sentence which he or she must whisper into the next child’s ear. The sentence is passed on to the last child in the queue or circle who then loudly relays the sentence which is compared to the sentence given to the first child. Always and without fail, the last and the first sentences are completely different. The “corruption” of the sentence on its journey along the queue or around the circle, is as a result of many things, such as noise, accent differences, wilful alteration, misinterpretation, haste, and much more. So, it is extremely important when communicating that one accurately communicates unshakable fact, which is understood and that one makes sure that one’s actions are based on unshakable fact.
Effective communication involves a two-way process of verification. The transmitter sends a message to the receiver. There is a reason for the communication. It may be an instruction, or a question or some important information, or just a casual fact. Whatever it is, there is a reason for the communication and in order for the communication, initiated by the transmitter, to be effective, the transmitter must ensure that the receiver has not only received the communication, but also understands it. That is the responsibility of the transmitter! How does the transmitter determine whether his communication was effective? He requests confirmation from the receiver that the message has not only been received, but understood. This requires the receiver to relay the message to the transmitter, so that the transmitter can confirm in his or her mind, that the message was effectively communicated - that the receiver understands EXACTLY what was transmitted. Too much and too often, we assume that the receiver has correctly received and understood the message, but in fact, they haven’t. Have you ever listened to the conversations of a pilot and the air-traffic controller when an aeroplane is approaching an airport to land? Well, their conversation is a very good example of how the process of effective communication works. If their communication is not effective, then the results could be disastrous and cost many lives, as has been sadly demonstrated in many an aircraft accident. Without effective communication, there will be no unshakable fact!
So, the consequences of not ensuring that one is dealing with unshakable fact can be quite disastrous. If it is not unshakable fact that you accept and rely upon, it is either assumption, a guess (speculation), or conjecture or supposition. These may be close to the truth or far from it, but seldom ever THE absolute truth, or -unshakable fact.
There was a time in my life, when, if my feet could not get off the ground for a sustained period of time, my life would not be worth living. I had become an ardent aviator and was flying hang-gliders, hot-air balloons and light aircraft. I was, in effect, an adrenalin ju**ie. Yes, these are high risk sports and many people have died (a good handful of my friends included) because of accidents in each of these forms of flight. When getting into a light aircraft after someone else has flown it and has told you that everything about the aircraft is fine, you do not, under any circumstances, take that as being unshakable fact. You do your own pre-flight checks as thoroughly as you can, because your life and the lives of those who will be accompanying you are at risk and your passengers are relying upon your ability to seek and recognise unshakable fact regarding the airworthiness of the aircraft. This is also true for hot-air balloons, which may take two or three or even more passengers, depending on their size. For a hang-glider, tandems were very rare, and you generally had yourself to blame if any accident occurred.
In managing projects, one generally relies upon ones professional team for input on many aspects. If the information is not fit for use or purpose, it is not quality information. When preparing a feasibility for a project, one needs to base the information upon which financial and time and other resource projections are made, on unshakeable fact. If not, the result of the exercise will be fictitious and misleading and a project manager’s demise. Now, we are seldom afforded the luxury of having every single fact unshakable and certain assumptions do have to be made. Such assumptions need to be dealt with and converted into unshakable fact as soon as possible. This is where risk management and contingencies come into the picture. The more we make assumptions, the greater the contingency has to be in order to cover the risk. No feasibility containing an unrealistically high level of contingencies will ever be passed by a competent board of directors. Worst of all, with such a high level of contingencies, the project would not be viable at all.
I had the fortune/or misfortune, depending upon the way you look at it, of being drafted into a three month stint on the Angolan border, by the SANDF in 1977. The experience was valuable. It was rich and broad and helped me to put into perspective the political game at the time. My heart was never in the service and as it turned out, the objective of that service was not, in my opinion, noble at all. There were fun-times, there were educational and inspirational times. There were times of community service. All fortunate, to say the least. And, there were times of action in consequence of a command. The vehicle in which I was traveling whilst on patrol along with my platoon, triggered a land-mine explosion, which destroyed it. The casualties were light be cause the vehicle was armoured. I shed the most blood as a piece of shrapnel lacerated a vein in my elbow, which bled profusely! Everyone else was unscathed, excepting the driver who had a suspected fracture of the femur. All a bit unfortunate! As a result of that incident, a battalion was engaged, in an act of retaliation, to invade a town just inside Angola, not far from the Angolan/South-West African border. The town selected to be invaded, was said to have been the base of a band of terrorists that had a week to ten days earlier, kidnapped a significant number of school-children and their Roman Catholic care-givers (nuns) and “marched them to Luanda”. This information had been provided by the SANDF Intelligence division. It was supposedly “hot-off-the-press”! Well, when the battalion arrived at that town, it was a found to be a ghost town, devoid of any human life and any fresh evidence of there ever having been recent human life there at all! The entire offensive was NOT based on unshakable fact! What a waste of resources that was!
So, the above are a few simple instances where unshakable fact was important. What I am trying to illustrate is that with a little effort, verification of whatever information or status one has been given can save one an awful lot of hassle down the line. What is at risk when not verifying unshakable fact could be and often is very costly in terms of the use of costly resources that could otherwise have been avoided and worse yet, leaning to an extreme, perhaps even grievous bodily harm or death. So, when you next make a decision based on information you have been provided by another, stop for a moment and evaluate the likelihood of the information being factually unshakable; think of the consequences if it turn out to be “shakable” (or shaky, or false) and then proceed with caution. Better still, verify the information as being factual. Do not be influenced by the reaction of the person providing you with the information; the “oh ye of little faith”-sayers and those who think that you are questioning their professionalism. At the end of the day, the buck stops with you! You will be respected if you trade in unshakable fact – that’s a given!

22/10/2018

One of the reasons (and it's not an excuse) for me not having written any posts lately, is that TIME hasn't been managed effectively by me.

One of the knowledge areas in the Project Management Body of Knowledge, is the management of TIME. There's a suite of management tools and techniques such as GANTT charts and CPM etc. to assist the project manager, however, there are some basic approaches to time management that apply to us all and are probably better than the aforementioned tools and techniques.

The effluxion of time is an unchangeable rate of flow. It is a constant rate (at least, on this Earth of ours). It, itself, cannot be managed or altered...it is what you do within segments of that time, that is the important issue. What I am saying, is that time for you and time for me and time for everyone else, is the same and there's nothing we can do about it (excepting, to jump off the face of the Earth and try and stop the Earth from rotating! Even that won't change time - it'll just interfere with the diurnal cycle!)

Planning what you do with TIME is the all-important thing. Firstly, planning what YOU do with time is important and secondly, planning what other people who report to you, do with their time, is equally important.

The constant is that there are 24 hours in a day. Generally, it is divided into three segments: 8 hours for sleeping; 8 hours for working and 8 hours for everything else in between - excepting, in most instances, weekends.

So, as far as our working lives are concerned, we only have eight hours. We also have the benefit of using the "in-between" hours as a buffer, if we don't get everything at work completed within the eight hours allocated to work.

From a physiological point of view, the eight hours set aside for sleep, should never be interfered with. Cutting down the hours of sleep always has negative consequences. It is during this period of rest that one's body heals itself, restores balances, repairs cells, provides the rest that organs and muscles etc. require to remain healthy and functional. Lack of sleep causes premature aging in the long term and in the short term, causes stress, which is not good for anything. The nice thing about that 8 hours of sleep, is you don't have to plan what happens during that period...it is all pre-wired into your DNA, or somewhere inside of you!

So, the other two segments require your conscious effort in order to get the maximum productivity, or return in general, from those time slots.

So, let's look at time generally. There is TIME THAT HAS ELAPSED and TIME IN THE FUTURE. Both have relevance. It is, in most cases, important to account for what has happened in the past. Records are generally kept, so that lessons can be learnt from what happened in the past; what worked and what didn't work and why, how long things took to get done, what sped things up and what interfered with things happening, etc. These records are invaluable when it comes to planning one's TIME IN THE FUTURE.
TIME IN THE FUTURE can be broken down, simplistically, into SHORT TERM; MEDIUM TERM and LONG TERM.

Whilst it is important to have a long-term plan, there are too many variables that occur during the short and medium term to spend too much time in the detail of long-term planning. However, the events and occurrences that take place in the short and medium terms should always be factored into updates of one's long term planning.
The MEDIUM term planning should be regularly updated to inform long-term planning. The SHORT TERM requires the most accurate and comprehensive planning of them all, because it is here where the effectiveness of one's medium and long-term plans is determined. So, the devil is in the detail of the short term plan! Get that right and one is better equipped to gain maximum productivity per unit of time in the short term.

All the knowledge areas of the PMBOK will need to be addressed in the short term planning process. Above all, however, priorities and their sequences and their dependencies have to be identified. Thereafter, focus, focus and more focus, on these and their time consequences must be applied. An analogy is a day-dreaming scholar with a homework assignment. The homework ain't gonna get done with all that day-dreaming! Quit the low-priority day-dreaming and get on with the high-priority task at hand. Focus is essential and when applied correctly, will result in the accomplishment of tasks much quicker than without it. TIME WAITS FOR NO MAN!.

One of the common fundamentals of successful businessmen, is that they all write things down (usually in a plan) and refer to them constantly as a reminder of the priority items that must be accomplished. Setting completion events and sticking to them requires massive sustainable effort, but without that effort, the "to-do" list gets longer, not shorter.

So, those are a few common-sense comments about time I hope you will find useful and helpful in the future. Remember, productivity is a ratio of the units of output (usually expressed in monetary terms such as revenue, or turnover) divided by the units of input (usually expressed in monetary terms, such as cost) PER UNIT OF TIME! Productivity generally equates to profitability.

May you pack as much value into your future time as is possible!

Godspeed.

😃

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