Consulting Under 24/7 Government Watch

It was my third visit to Katowice, Poland in 2 years.

This is one of the most culturally innovative cities in Upper Salesia. A mix of German, Polish, and Russian architecture. A place where some of the most hardworking people I’ve ever met joined together to build creative revitalization of their city and region.

Everything is farm to table. The pierogis are to die for. But beyond my selfish indulgence in amazing Eastern European food — this city is where some of the greatest composers are currently living behind closed doors. Sometimes they are out and about as artists, presenting their music in private parties in coal mines, embracing being unfound and unknown, enjoying the inner dilemmas and perhaps even blind rage of being incredible, classically trained, but often unnoticed and under appreciated by a creative network that spins around the thumb of American pop. These are the artists that cuddle their cats and girlfriends during the winter, warming up with a cigarette to the bitter cold, but embroiled again in the Summer with a righteous passion for more opportunities to create, more strategies for exporting their value, a thrown to the wind care in the dwindling belief that the world will soon discover their mastered grasp of the creative art forms — and, as they push their intelligence and fervor towards a stronger economy with a fuel that no American will ever quite understand, I arrive in the Krakow airport and look for my driver.

He tells me he doesn’t speak any English, but asks me if I’m hungry after the 28 hour flight. I ask him if we can stop for tacos. He looks confused and replies, “What are tacos?”

I ask him if we can stop for tacos. He looks confused and replies, “What are tacos?”

I arrive to Katowice, and the host, Janek, one of the most knowledgable consultants I’ve ever met, a witty, creative entrepreneur — who greets me with a quote from an American movie that makes me laugh. His mind, like a database of epic lyrics, famous lines from famous films, is constantly weaving cinematic elements into his personality. He’s the type of person who brings ease and fun into every social environment he’s in.

As he directs me up the stairs of the former Polish Symphony Orchestra building, recently converted into the Maistro Ogradow, otherwise the ‘Polish Cultural Institute’, we pass by the cafe at the top of the stairs that now feels like home.

This building itself is a magical place, fully of history of once being used for communist presentations, in another era it was used as a headquarters for the government-backed symphony. Today, it has become a cultural hub with programming directly funded by the city for the incubation of new artists, innovative technology, and community programming that can create pulse in Katowice, the city that has been appointed the UNESCO creative city of Poland — and with enough resources and passionate teams working together — so it will become.

“Mate, it is my duty to inform you that this room is being recorded; you’ll being monitored. Basically, what I’m saying is, we’re watching you.”

Jan leads me through a door that requires card access, unlocks the door to a quant apartment room with a twin bed, shower, wooden walls, and he knocks on the walls — “Mate, it is my duty to inform you that this room is being recorded; you’ll being monitored. Basically, what I’m saying is, we’re watching you.”

I look up at him with a smile, like ‘you’ve gotta be kidding me.’ He checkmates my curious look, “This is standard protocol for all of our professionals to ensure your safety. Forgive me; it’s just my role to explain this to you prior to your work and stay here.”

For 2 months, I would live under Polish government monitoring. All those years of positive habits — finally put to the test. For a few weeks, I embraced it. Then, I started to get curious.

After work, I might return to my room, throw something in the trash, and take the trash bag with me, and drop it off at a different ‘dust bin’ in the public square. Sure enough, the next day, my host Janek would pleasantly report to me that, “Joey, we found nothing unusual in the trash I dropped off down the street, but please do use the trash bin in your room.” But how far does this go?

One night, as I was sleeping, I woke up to the sound of two gun shots right outside my window. I heard the sound of foot steps on the pavement outside, scattering. I immediately picked up the phone and called Jan to see what was up. It was about 230am. He picked up the phone and says, “Mate, don’t worry. We saw everything. We already got the guy.” I think he could have felt my eyes wide and stared on the other line. Seriously?

As I laid in bed, I thought about how the government military took care of crime, punishing offenders severely. I debated the concept of 1% crime rate vs. reduced freedoms. If the government exhibits total control, is that such a bad thing?

How often does this happen in The United States without us being aware of it? Would I know when it was happening anyway? Should I? As a first ‘lived’ awareness of the varied intensity role of security, cyber security, personal data security, and the controversies of potential data breach, this fascination of ‘how far is too far’ stuck with me. Years later, I learned a lot more from my friend Bryan Kissel, a leading cyber security subject matter expert who I later worked closely with on a surgical robotics project. Recently, when exploring the capabilities of LPR and the role of automation with public data, even on a consumer level, this stuff gets wild.

Considering that monitoring was active all around the streets of Katowice, I had to explore further.

“Hey! It’s okay! I’m from The United States!”

During my free hours, I began walking around the city. Walking back from the mall one day, I spotted a group spray painting graffiti on a wall a bit off the main road. As I got closer to the mural, I smelled marijuana smoke, nothing unusual to The United States, and walked closer to them, then near to them, and said, “That’s cool. What are you guys painting?”

Immediately, the group of scattered! They ran in all different directions and took off like a beaten yoke on a skillet. As they split, I called out to them, “Hey! It’s okay! I’m from The United States!”

One of them turned his head back towards me, called to the others, and they walked back slowly, cautiously. “You’re from The United States! Really? We’ve never met anyone from the USA before… What are you doing here? Why are you in Katowice?”

I began learning everything I could from them. Compared to the viewpoints I had learned, they had many competing perspectives about the state and culture of region. They were young artists. They believed that their murals, illegal as they may be, were helping society wake up to realities and become more “free.” Their graffiti crew was one of many. They led me to a rail yard where all crews gathered through underground messages, shared in a similar mission and passion for creating images and messages that echoed similar sentiments. Their goal: Reduce regulation. Int his way, each of the crews respected the works of the other crews. They pointed out to me the themes and styles that were uniquely identifiable, often directed at the government.

Funny, thinking back, I did eventually tell them that I was there consulting the Polish government. They didn’t view me as a threat.

During our walk, they even pulled out a joint. I smiled and politely declined, “Even though it’s health benefits are becoming legalized’… and they looked at one another. “Here in Poland, you can go to jail for 2 years if you’re caught smoking marijuana.”

These conversations impacted my viewpoints on the transformation that was happening socially and culturally in Poland. In my role, I knew that customer-centric design thinking and the agile mindset would be important to instill in the processes of government that were driving our initiatives, but I contemplated my position in affecting change management. How I could be most effective to create an environment that was disruptive enough for creative-economic, technological growth, and innovation to happen? Can the benefits of cultural transformation happen under tight authority, command, and control? Short answer, yes. But without agile mindset and values in place, the process can way more expensive and excruciating.

Finding my role to support the environment of these native teams and professionals was going to require a lot of letting go of my own customs. I wasn’t there to change an entire government, but planting seeds could create a lot of value. I walked back to the building, passed security, entered my room, and fell fast asleep. The next day I woke up to a hard knock on my door.

“JOEY! What were you thinking last night? You’re about to get me fired! I’ve been in Katowice all my life and you’ve been to places I’ve never even been to!”

With a smile on my face, I started to recount the crew I had stumbled upon. He smiled back at me and said, “Joey, as a friend, I know what you saw. I know everything you saw.”

”As I said, we’re watching you.”