Here is a camera-phone picture of my new cubicle as I’ve re-joined the cubicle nation as a Sr Manager of Cisco Systems. I’m a habitual start-up person with a wide range of skills (if I do say so myself) but navigating a huge company is a skill unto itself. To ease that transition I am using my DeLong’s Wine Grape Varietal table. As you can see its prominently displayed on my pod’s wall (Cisco is very egalitarian when it comes to offices I must commend them for that). This is a must have when you work in an environment where interaction with others is necessary (often in startups you’re doing less coordination and politic’ing and more content generation). Why is it a must have? Wine is a common thread among a wide variety of people. I’ve learned that through this blog over the last couple of years. With this setup in my cube, I have a constant source of conversation starters. In the three weeks that I’ve been here I’ve had casual conversations with multiple people of varying wine levels and have concluded a few with “we should go for a glass of wine one night…”. Connecting on a personal level through a common interest is not the easiest thing in huge companies like this so I have to send some thanks to DeLong for creating this excellent conversation starter! Enjoy the Wine Life