Useful information for life

The healing power of baking soda

2009-12-16T23:42:00.001+01:00

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/12/15/Baking-Soda-Used-to-Treat-Swine-Flu-85-Years-Ago.aspx

Overlooked 150 Year Old Household Cleaner a Remedy for Swine Flu?

Posted by: Dr. Mercola
December 15 2009 | 37,354 views

In today's modern world of medicine the FDA just will not let companies that sell products make medical claims about them unless they have been tested at great expense, and approved as a drug. But this was not always the case.

In a 1924 booklet published by the Arm & Hammer Soda Company, the company starts off saying, "The proven value of Arm & Hammer Bicarbonate of Soda as a therapeutic agent is further evinced by the following evidence of a prominent physician named Dr. Volney S. Cheney, in a letter to the Church & Dwight Company:

"In 1918 and 1919 while fighting the 'Flu' with the U. S. Public Health Service it was brought to my attention that rarely any one who had been thoroughly alkalinized with bicarbonate of soda contracted the disease, and those who did contract it, if alkalinized early, would invariably have mild attacks."

Recommended dosages from the Arm and Hammer Company for colds and influenza back in 1925 were:

During the first day take six doses of half teaspoonful of Bicarbonate of Soda in glass of cool water, at about two hour intervals
During the second day take four doses of half teaspoonful of Bicarbonate of Soda in glass of cool water, at the same intervals
During the third day take two doses of half teaspoonful of Bicarbonate of Soda in glass of cool water morning and evening, and thereafter half teaspoonful in glass of cool water each morning until cold is cured

Sources:

Sodium Bicarbonate November 30, 2009

Dr. Mercola's Comments

Baking soda (also known as sodium bicarbonate), popularized by Arm & Hammer some 155 years ago, is derived from a natural occurring mineral, and is one of the safest and most versatile substances around. In fact, if you search for "baking soda" on my site, you'll find a number of articles detailing its potential uses, including using it as a:

Household cleaner
Sunburn remedy
Alternative to toxic antiperspirants
Sports performance enhancer

Few people realize, however, that baking soda also has potent medicinal properties. Taken internally, it helps maintain the pH balance in your bloodstream. This is likely the basic premise behind its recommended uses against both colds and influenza symptoms, and even cancer.

Baking Soda as an All-Natural Cold Remedy

In their booklet "Arm & Hammer Baking Soda Medical Uses," published in 1924, Dr. Volney S. Cheney recounts his clinical successes with sodium bicarbonate in treating cold and flu:

"In 1918 and 1919 while fighting the 'flu' with the U. S. Public Health Service it was brought to my attention that rarely anyone who had been thoroughly alkalinized with bicarbonate of soda contracted the disease, and those who did contract it, if alkalinized early, would invariably have mild attacks.

I have since that time treated all cases of 'cold,' influenza and LaGripe by first giving generous doses of bicarbonate of soda, and in many, many instances within 36 hours the symptoms would have entirely abated.

Further, within my own household, before Woman's Clubs and Parent-Teachers' Associations, I have advocated the use of bicarbonate of soda as a preventive for "colds," with the result that now many reports are coming in stating that those who took "soda" were not affected, while nearly everyone around them had the "flu."

According to the Materia Medica by Walter Bastedo, sodium bicarbonate taken internally can soothe your mucous membranes and dissolve thick mucus.

It's worth noting that I have personally never tried this cold remedy, but I wouldn't be surprised if it worked, as maintaining proper acid-alkalinity balance in your body will have a beneficial impact on your natural immune system function.

If any of you have experience using baking soda as a cold remedy, I'd love to hear about it.

The administration is easy enough, and is harmless even if you should not experience relief from your cold symptoms. Simply dissolve the recommended amount of baking soda in a glass of cold water and drink it.

Recommended dosages from the Arm & Hammer Company for colds and influenza back in 1925 were:

Day 1 -- Take six doses of ½ teaspoon of baking soda in glass of cool water, at about two hour intervals
Day 2 -- Take four doses of ½ teaspoon of baking soda in glass of cool water, at the same intervals
Day 3 -- Take two doses of ½ teaspoon of baking soda in glass of cool water morning and evening, and thereafter ½ teaspoon in glass of cool water each morning until cold symptoms are gone

Further dosing recommendations and instructions for taking sodium bicarbonate can be found in Mark Sircus' book Sodium Bicarbonate – Rich Mans Poor Mans Cancer Treatment, which is also available in Kindle edition.

According to Arm & Hammer's dosing instructions, do not exceed seven doses of ½ teaspoon per day, or three doses of ½ teaspoon daily if you're over the age of 60. In addition, do not use the maximum dosage for more than two weeks.

The Potent Healing Power of Baking Soda

Dr. Tullio Simonici and Mark Sircus, Ac, OMD both advocate using baking soda for even the most serious of diseases – cancer!

Unfortunately, despite all the evidence showing that baking soda indeed has enormous potential as an effective and non-toxic cancer treatment, conventional medicine is refusing to take notice, as baking soda will never be a huge profit center for any drug company.

Even worse, the industry tries to discredit or downright destroy those who dare bring inexpensive treatment options like baking soda to the forefront. Make no mistake about it, cancer treatment is big business, and for all the promises to find a cure, there seems to be an unwritten law somewhere stating it will only be studied and accepted if there's big profits to be had.

Dr. Simoncini, who is an oncologist (cancer specialist), was ousted from the medical community when he refused to use conventional cancer treatment methods and elected instead to administer sodium bicarbonate.

This despite the fact that he's been able to show that 99 percent of breast- and bladder cancer can heal in just six days, entirely without the use of surgery, chemo or radiation, using just a local infiltration device (such as a catheter) to deliver the sodium bicarbonate directly to the infected site in your breast tissue or bladder!

You can watch actual before and after footage of the treatment working in this video.

In his book Winning the War on Cancer, Dr. Sircus writes:

"Sodium bicarbonate is the time honored method to 'speed up' the return of the body's bicarbonate levels to normal. Bicarbonate is inorganic, very alkaline and like other mineral type substances, supports an extensive list of biological functions.

Sodium bicarbonate happens to be one of our most useful medicines because bicarbonate physiology is fundamental to life and health."

Many chemotherapy treatments actually include sodium bicarbonate to help protect the patient's kidneys, heart and nervous system. It's been said that administering chemotherapy without bicarbonate could possibly kill you on the spot.

Could it be that while mixing chemo poisons with baking soda, any improvements seen are the result of the baking soda, and not the toxic poisons? Dr. Sircus believes that may be the case.

"There are no studies separating the effects of bicarbonate from the toxic chemotherapy agents, nor will there ever be," he says.

Final Thoughts

If you keep an open mind, you will quickly learn that there are numerous ways to support your body in healing that have nothing to do with toxic drugs, vaccines, or surgery, even when it comes to a serious condition like cancer.

For my Top 12 all-natural cancer prevention strategies, please review my previous article, Winning the War on Cancer.

As for preventive measures against cold and flu, please read through the three articles listed below. They're all chockfull of helpful tips and guidelines to make cold and flu symptoms a thing of the past.

Rules of honest journalism: Jim Lehrer [INTEGRITY], [TRUTHFULNESS], [HONOR], [JUSTICE]

2009-12-08T01:20:00.001+01:00

Jim Lehrer's Rules of Journalism

Posted: 05 Dec 2009

The NewsHour's "retired" logo

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS Television – one of the most respected daily news programs in television history – will have a high tech facelift this coming Monday. Everything I've seen that they are doing is spectacular. The updates will make the best even better, in my opinion.

Not only will NewsHour continue its legacy and reputation for superb coverage of major stories, everything on the air will be mirrored and expanded online in ways the other TV news programs never dreamed of.

In announcing the changes, the program's host, Jim Lehrer, took a moment to underscore his rules of journalist that act as a beacon for excellence at his program. I'm very proud to share his remarks here:

I practice journalism in accordance with the following guidelines:

Do nothing I cannot defend.
Do not distort, lie, slant or hype.
Do not falsify facts or make up quotes.
Cover, write and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.
Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.
Assume the viewer is as smart and caring and good a person as I am.
Assume the same about all people on whom I report.
Assume everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
Assume personal lives are a private matter until a legitimate turn in the story mandates otherwise.
Jim Lehrer
Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories and clearly label it as such.
Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes except on rare and monumental occasions. No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously.
Do not broadcast profanity or the end result of violence unless it is an integral and necessary part of the story and/or crucial to its understanding.
Acknowledge that objectivity may be impossible but fairness never is.
Journalists who are reckless with facts and reputations should be disciplined by their employers.
My viewers have a right to know what principles guide my work and the process I use in their practice.
I am not in the entertainment business.

~ Jim Lehrer

Source: David Henderson - consultant, author, journalist

"The 100% commitment experiment" in marriage [LOYALTY], [TRUST], [TRUTHFULNESS]

2009-11-20T14:57:00.001+01:00

The Secret to a successful marriage is...

If you're married, your primary relationship in life is with your spouse. And of course, the strength of that relationship will go a long way to determine your happiness in life.

Vic Conant, the president of Nightingale Conant, has been a good friend for over twenty years. Not long ago he wrote an article called, The Keys to Successful Living that focused on things we can do to improve our marriages. It was terrific!

Vic acknowledged that a few years ago, he had some problems with his marriage to the point where he was considering other alternatives. But he wanted it to work and decided to try what he called "the 100% commitment experiment," (not 99%, but 100%). He said in doing so, something magical happened. He began to look for the positives and began to enjoy his wife more each day. She naturally responded by being much nicer to him. He said it began an amazing transformation; and today, after 36 years of marriage, they've never been happier.

As Vic discovered, there is a remarkable difference between a commitment of 99% and 100%. At 100%, you are seeing your problems all the way through to their solutions. At 99% we can still find a way to take the path of least resistance...and usually do.

And guess what? "The 100% commitment experiment" not only works for marriage...it also works for life.

This is one of 50 ideas to motivate yourself in my book Charging the Human Battery. So many times, it's not what you say, but how you say it that turns the switch from "off" to "on." And that's what happened to me when I first read Vic Conant's story about the remarkable difference between a commitment of 99% versus 100%. The light bulb went on!

Idea incubation comes in seemingly unproductive times [CREATIVITY], [DETACHMENT], [PATIENCE], [CONFIDENCE]

2009-09-18T12:25:00.000+02:00

Break Through by Taking Breaks

Posted: 17 Sep 2009

From Matthew E. May, In Pursuit of Elegance:

Ever wonder why our best ideas come when we're in the shower, driving, daydreaming, or sleeping? Most people know the story of Archimedes' shouting "Eureka!" upon suddenly discovering volume displacement while taking a bath and of Einstein's theory of special relativity coming to him in a daydream. But there are many others:

Friedrich von Stradonitz's discovered the round shape of the benzene ring after dreaming about a snake biting its tail.
Philo Farnsworth was plowing a field gazing at the even rows when the idea for projecting moving images line by line came to him, leading him to invent the first electronic television.
Richard Feynman was watching someone throw a plate in the air in Cornell University's cafeteria when the wobbling plate with its red school medallion spinning sparked the Nobel Prize-winning idea for quantum electrodynamics.
Kary Mullis, another Nobel winner, was driving along a California highway when the chemistry behind the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) came to him, stopping him in the middle of the road.
Car designer Irwin Liu sketched the innovative new lines of what became the shape of the first Toyota Prius after helping his child with an elementary school science project involving the manipulation of hard-boiled eggs.
Author J. K. Rowling was traveling on a train between Manchester and London, thinking about the plot of an adult novel, when the character of child wizard Harry Potter flashed in her mind.
Shell Oil engineer Jaap Van Ballegooijen's idea for a snake oil drill came as he watched his son turn his bendy straw upside down to better sip around the sides and bottom of his malt glass.

When you look deeper into these ingeniously elegant solutions and brilliant flashes of insight you can see that they came at strange times and in random locations. They didn't occur while actually working on the problem but after an intense, prolonged struggle with it followed by a break. A change of scene and time away seems to have played a part.

Most "creatives"—artists, musicians, writers, etc.—instinctively know that idea incubation involves seemingly unproductive times, but that those downtimes and timeouts are important ingredients of immensely productive and creative periods. But until fairly recently the how, when, and why of being kissed by the muse was something of a myth and mystery, explained only by serendipity.

But now there's some hard science that shows it's not just coincidence.

Neuroscientists examining how the human brain solves problems can confirm that experiencing a creative insight—that sudden aha!—hinges on the ability to synthesize connections between seemingly disparate things. And a key factor in achieving that is time away from the problem. New studies show that creative revelations tend to come when the mind is engaged in an activity unrelated to the issue at hand; pressure is not conducive to recombining knowledge in new and different ways, the defining mark of creativity.

Neuroendocrinologist Ullrich Wagner has demonstrated that the ultimate break—sleep—actually promotes the likelihood of eureka! moments. He gave volunteers a Mensa-style logic problem to solve, one containing a hidden rule enabling the solution. The subjects were allowed to work on it for a while, then told to take a break. Some took naps, some didn't. Upon returning to the experiment to continue working on the problem, those who had taken a nap found the hidden rule quicker and much more often than those who hadn't.

Wagner believes that information is consolidated by a process taking place in the hippocampus during sleep, enabling the brain to clear itself and, in effect, reboot, all the while forming new connections and associations. It is this process that is the foundation for creativity. The result is new insight and the aha! feeling of the eureka! moment.

While no one yet knows the exact process, there's an important implication for all of us: putting pressure on ourselves to try and make our brains work harder, more intensely, or more quickly, may only slow down our ability to arrive at new insights. In other words, if you're looking to engineer a breakthrough, it may only come through a break. Your brain needs the calm before its storm.

Matthew E. May is the author of In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing, and blogs here. You can follow him on Twitter here.

From OPEN Forum Articles

The Ability to Prioritize - Making room for what really matters [DETACHMENT], [EXCELLENCE], [WISDOM]

2009-09-17T16:31:00.001+02:00

The Stop-Doing Strategy

Posted: 16 Sep 2009

From Matthew E. May, In Pursuit of Elegance:

In this recent interview, Campbell Soup CEO Douglas Conant defined his mission in taking the helm eight years ago as being, "to take a bad company and lift its performance to extraordinary by 2011." His strategy was simple enough: developing or keeping only products that ranked first or second in three major categories. That meant, among other things, selling the Godiva chocolate brand in 2008.

Jim Collins, best-selling author of Good to Great, commented on Conant's sale of Godiva by saying, "That gets my attention, when someone has the discipline to let go of what doesn't fit."

Collins firmly believes in the power of a "stop-doing" discipline, a practice that began taking shape during his early post-Stanford Business School career at Hewlett-Packard. On a return visit to the school early in his career, Jim's favorite former professor, Rochelle Myers, reproached him for his lack of discipline. An expert in creativity and innovation, she told him his unbridled energy was riding herd over his mental clarity, enabling a busy yet unfocused life.

Her words rang true: At the time, Jim's life was crowded with the commotion of a fast-tracking career. Her comment made him pull up short and re-examine what he was doing. To help, she did what great teachers do, constructing a lesson in the form of an assignment she called "20-10": Imagine that you've just inherited $20 million free and clear, but you only have ten years to live. What would you do differently—and specifically, what would you stop doing?

The exercise did precisely what it was intended to do: make Jim stop and think about what mattered most to him. It was a turning point for three reasons.

First, he realized he'd been racing down the wrong track, spending enormous energy on the wrong things. In fact, he woke up to the fact that he hated his job. He promptly quit and headed back to Stanford to launch a new career of research, teaching, and writing.

Second, the assignment became a constant reminder of just how important his time is. He now starts each year by choosing what not to do, and each of his to-do lists always includes "stop-doing" items. Collins preaches his practice, impressing upon his audiences that they must have a "stop-doing" list to accompany their to-do lists. As a practical matter, he advises eliminating the bottom twenty percent of your goals... forever.

Third, the strategy helped him identify what factors led the companies he was studying to become "great" while others remained merely "good." The great companies routinely eliminated activities and pursuits that did not significantly contribute to the following criteria: profit, passion, and perfection. All three criteria had to be met in order for any activity to remain in these great companies' repertoires.

In this editorial piece Collins said, "A great piece of art is composed not just of what is in the final piece, but equally what is not. It is the discipline to discard what does not fit—to cut out what might have already cost days or even years of effort—that distinguishes the truly exceptional artist and marks the ideal piece of work, be it a symphony, a novel, a painting, a company, or most important of all, a life."

In an economic environment where time, money and attention are fixed or decreasing, where we must achieve maximum effect with minimum means, having a good stop-doing strategy may hold the key. At the very least, it will allow us to make more room for what really matters by eliminating what doesn't.

Matthew E. May is the author of In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing and blogs here. You can follow him on Twitter here

From OPEN Forum Articles

TIps for College/University students

2009-09-14T00:29:00.001+02:00

Starting College? Words of Wisdom

Published: September 12, 2009

To the Editor:

Ted McGrath

Re "College Advice, From People Who Have Been There Awhile," a collection of nine Op-Ed essays on Sept. 6:

Create opportunities for yourself — this is my advice to college students. Be proactive and seek mentorship from professors whose research interests are closely aligned to your own.

Immerse yourself fully in this field of study and find ways of making your research relevant to society at large. In this era of globalization, it is vital to keep asking the question: how is my work relevant on the international stage?

Do not be afraid to take risks by stepping outside your personal and academic comfort zones. Apply for competitive international scholarship programs. The application process, while long and arduous, is a valuable learning experience that will help to clarify your goals.

College is a rigorous, exhilarating process. As you set off to forge your own path, make it your mission to seek out research and fellowship opportunities along the way. The rewards are tremendously fulfilling, and in the end you will become a more adaptable and globally minded citizen of the world.

Lindsay Chura
Cambridge, England, Sept. 6, 2009

The writer, a Mount Holyoke graduate, is a Gates Scholar at Cambridge University and was a Fulbright Scholar in Australia in 2006-7.

•

To the Editor:

I was disappointed that not one member of your panel of sages advised incoming freshmen to take a course in art, music or both.

While no one would dispute that all college students should absorb and understand works by Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton and other members of the "indispensable canon," the understanding and appreciation of the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Brueghel, Rembrandt, Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven (among others) are no less important.

The American scholar and author Thomas Merton got it exactly right when he wrote, "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time."

Richard Kavesh
Nyack, N.Y., Sept. 7, 2009

The writer teaches social studies at the Bronx School of Law and Finance.

•

To the Editor:

I enjoyed the sage advice for first-year students offered by my esteemed colleagues from many of our nation's premier four-year colleges and universities. Yet I can't help but juxtapose it to the message given upon admission to community college students: do something practical; declare a career major right away; the liberal arts won't prepare you for a job.

Reading the classics, becoming politically engaged and casting a broad intellectual net by learning to think critically are essential messages that are just as important to present to the poor, working-class and students of color enrolled in community colleges.

Lisa Hale Rose
Brooklyn, Sept. 6, 2009

The writer is an associate professor in the department of social science and human services at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY.

•

To the Editor:

I taught biology for about 55 years and was interested to read the good advice that was offered by college faculty.

One piece of advice that I didn't see was that students should take a course and gain as much experience as possible in public speaking. No matter what career students pursue, they will have to stand up and speak to a group of people sometime, and they are usually not well prepared to do so.

Also, I would emphasize the importance of experiences. We learn from everything that we do, and everything that we do becomes part of who we are.

Each student is unique. I have always emphasized that someone can be taller, smarter or richer, but nobody is better than someone else. A college education should help students identify and nurture his or her special talents.

The broad mission of teachers is to provide meaningful, motivational experiences that enrich the lives of students and help them identify their unique traits and where they fit in life. To me, that's what a college education should be all about.

Marvin Druger
Syracuse, Sept. 6, 2009

The writer is professor emeritus in biology and science education at Syracuse University.

•

To the Editor:

The advice from Stanley Fish about composition courses ("The Hunt for a Good Teacher") is right on the mark for incoming college students.

Forty-nine years ago this month, I enrolled in a required first-year composition course. My instructor, a senior member of the English department, conveyed a sense of deeply investing himself in teaching composition.

Inspired by this experience, I made my way in the next semester into an optional course best described as intermediate English composition. I found it rewarding and fulfilling.

What I learned in my English composition courses I have distilled into advice that I subsequently imparted, over and over again, to my own first-year students during nearly 40 years as a professor of American history: if you will not devote yourself to learning to write, you will discover yourself hampered and frustrated by your inability to think effectively.

Writing and thinking stand among the keys to learning.

Michael H. Ebner
Lake Forest, Ill., Sept. 8, 2009

The writer is professor emeritus of American history at Lake Forest College.

•

To the Editor:

Re "Get Lost. In Books.": However much I appreciated Harold Bloom's advice to college freshmen (read Homer, Plato, the Bible and so on), I was disappointed at how few female authors he had included in his indispensable canon.

In addition to Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson and George Eliot, I'd suggest that Virginia Woolf, Daphne du Maurier, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Iris Murdoch, Harper Lee, Toni Morrison, the great biographer Nancy Milford and Margaret Atwood, among others, have more than earned places on a 21st-century reading list.

Alison Corbett
Boulder, Colo., Sept. 6, 2009

The writer is pursuing a master's degree in English at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

To network: Connect in a respectful and personal way with those in your same situation

2009-09-03T16:20:00.001+02:00

The Truth About Networking (Do you Build or do you Bet?)

Posted: 02 Sep 2009

Editor's Note: I rarely accept guest posts on my blog. But Carlos Miceli from OwlSparks is an exception because his writing is elegant and poignant. So I actually reached out to him for this guest post, and he was happy to oblige. Enjoy!

Image from marcandrelariviere via Flickr

Networking is a common goal for most people involved in social media. We know it takes time and effort, but the payoffs can be quite gratifying.

The thing about networking is that value is king. You show your value and connect with those that you think will be valuable to you. It's logical then that valuable people get targeted more than others. It's Pareto all over again.

Considering this, I see two ways for successful online networking:

#1 – Building.

This is the hard one, statistically speaking.

If you do something remarkable, they will come. Not because they are suddenly nicer, but because it's good for them too. Spreading your story enhances their reputation as well. Value goes both ways.

There are two problems with this approach:

First, building something remarkable enough to get their attention is not easy at all. Odds are against you.

The other problem is that they are all set. They don't need you. The irony is that if you build something truly remarkable maybe you won't need them either…

#2 – Betting.

(I love this approach, it has given me fantastic results).

Catch the next wave.

Don't play the safe path, reach out to other beginners.

All winners were rookies at some point, connect with them in that stage.

Everyone begins with 50 subscribers and 100 followers.

Go after them before it's too late.

And believe me, the worthy ones leave the first stage very quickly.

So, there you go. Don't waste your efforts talking to those that are just too busy to listen. As appealing as reaching out to the Chris Brogan's and Gary Vaynerchuk's may sound, you're investing a lot of effort for very little return.

Instead, take risks; you have almost nothing to lose when you are starting. Connect in a respectful and personal way with those in your same situation.

I would take connecting with the future Seth Godin over being just another follower of today's one any day.

Editor's note: I reached out to Carlos when he was in his beginning stages because I do think he's the next Seth Godin. I highly recommend his blog, OwlSparks. Subscribe here for daily insights.

From Twenty Set

Structuring one's day

2009-09-03T16:14:00.001+02:00

The Answer to Less Stress? More Structure.

Posted: 01 Sep 2009

From Tony Bacigalupo: As small business owners, we all know the feeling of being 5 hours into the day and not having accomplished anything on our to-do list. Or looking up at the clock and realizing that you've just worked for 15 hours straight without a bite to eat.

The fact is, by being your own boss, you take on full responsibility for your time. Without someone to tell you when or where to work, it's up to you to discipline yourself.

The problem? Most people are lousy at holding themselves accountable – at work and at home. And particularly when it comes to balancing the two. For instance: How long is your list of really important personal things that you haven't done in weeks?

It's all about structuring your day and creating accountability. And there are ways to do this both big and small:

Structuring Small: Personal Reminder Services
There's no shortage of productivity-focused services. Tools like Remember The Milk can help you stick to a schedule and not forget the important things on your list, while the well-titled HassleMe simply nags you about anything you like, at any interval, over email. The more sophisticated iPing will actually call you.

If these, or similar services, sound like something that can help you, Mashable has a rundown of 30 different reminder services here.

Of course, while reminder services are a useful supplement, really building the discipline needed to structure your day productively might take a more concerted effort.

Structuring Big: Group Co-working
A few years ago, Brad Neuberg, a freelance developer in San Francisco, found himself working around the clock with too little time for personal maintenance. He consulted a life coach, and they together came up with the idea of "coworking"—which, in its original incarnation, was a special event where participants would share a structured workday.

In his words: "Unlike a traditional office, in the Spiral Muse Coworking Group we begin the day with a short meditation and circle to set our personal and work intentions, and check in physically and emotionally with where we are. Then, we work in the amazing Spiral Muse house, sitting at tables or relaxing on couches as we do our work. Even though each of us is doing separate work, perhaps programming or writing a novel, we can feel each others presence, run ideas by the community, or take breaks together at the "watercooler." We take lunch as a group, and then later in the day have a 45-minute break where we do a different healthy activity every day, such as guided yoga, meditation, a nice walk, or perhaps a bike ride in the sun. We end the day at 5:45 PM sharp, supporting each other in both starting a good work day at 9 AM and ending our work in a healthy, balanced way at the end of the day."

While the structure Neuberg set up might not work for your particular needs, it's an interesting model to draw inspiration from. What could you do within your business to lend better, healthier structure to your day? If you adopted a version of Neuberg's example above into your company's culture, what would it look like?

From OPEN Forum Articles

Blogging: 5 Tips For How to Start and Grow a Successful Blog

2009-09-03T16:10:00.000+02:00

5 Tips For How to Start and Grow a Successful Blog

Posted: 02 Sep 2009

From Jill Fehrenbacher, Inhabitat: Blogs are becoming the ubiquitous calling cards of cyberspace, and it seems like everyone is starting one: from your sister, to the mom next door, to corporate marketing professionals trying to carefully cultivate their brand's public image. I've been blogging for the past five years, and my green design sites Inhabitat and Inhabitots rank in the Technorati top 100 - and I'd like to pass on some of the tricks of the trade I've learned through relentless trial and error. Hopefully my tips will allow you to skip some of the trial and error part and get started in the right direction. In order to be successful at blogging, one must follow certain criteria, while also blazing a unique trail. Here are five surefire tips to help you pave a successful path to growing a relevant and profitable blog.

1. Choose your niche wisely Decide on a topic for your blog and then deliver your news and information in a fashion that will entice and engage readers. Select your theme well, and make sure it's something you're passionate about, as you'll be married to it day in and day out, constantly sourcing information for content. Also, consider the competition in your genre. The more unique your chosen topic is, the more chance of success you will have. If your topic is well-covered on the Internet, find a way to set your blog apart with unprecedented delivery or a larger than life personal perspective.

2. Find a unique perspective Set your blog apart by making it a first hit, go-to resource for people interested in its subject. Conformists needn't apply to the blogging realm. The most successful blogs are the ones that offer a highly unique, specialized perspective that can't be found anywhere else on the Web. Be the first to break stories, publish noteworthy posts frequently, say something original, and provide unique, compelling content.

3. The medium is the message Blog visitors are a new breed of readers who value their time and are looking for instantaneous access to information. They want information to be chopped into bite-sized, palatable pieces that are interwoven with eye-candy imagery. Pictures really are worth a thousand words in the blogging world, and punchy, well-written, concise text will always be preferred over long, explanatory prose.

4. Network, Network, Network The backbone of a blog's success is that people know about it. Get the word out about your blog by establishing meaningful, reciprocal connections with other bloggers in your field. Feature link roundups on your blog to showcase the efforts of other bloggers, putting you on their radar. Build a community among the readers of your blog by asking questions in your posts, soliciting feedback, holding contests and giveaways, and encouraging involvement.

5. Become a student of other successful blogs Check out Technorati's list of the Top 100 Blogs, and study them to learn what makes a successful blog tick. Blogging is a relentless state of trying to outperform not only your competitors, but yourself. The more you know what works and why, the more you can tweak your blog and shape it into an ultimate success story.

From OPEN Forum Articles

More diverse habitat creates more ways for the many forms of life to survive and evolve

2009-08-29T12:42:00.001+02:00

Diversity: A Lesson from Mother Nature

Posted: 25 Aug 2009

From Haily Zaki, Inhabitat: Diversity is a pretty simple concept. In nature, biodiversity is the standard measure for a healthy habitat. The more diverse the habitat, the more ways there are for the many forms of life to both survive, and more importantly, evolve. The same can be applied to your life and work.

For small business owners whose businesses are naturally more nimble and agile, the changing landscape of the economy – while challenging - can also offer up different opportunities to expand, collaborate, and innovate if you can cultivate and encourage diversity in both life and work.

In work, some businesses are turning to their competitors to band together to go after bigger projects. Competitors can also make great collaborators, as it turns out. Others may rely on creative business incubators, like BAKERY, that bring together a collection of complementary 'ingredients' to help each other bake up more business. Maybe it also means you start sharing your insight and experience in other ways. As the Wall Street Journal reports, there are more Americans making their living today as bloggers than there are lawyers. This doesn't necessarily mean you should trade in your day job, but exploring different venues of increasing visibility and communicating with others in your industry and beyond can never hurt.

In life, staying diverse can mean any number of things. If you've got a few extra days a week on your hands with reduced work weeks, then now might be the time to go back to school to take a refresher course, or learn that second language once and for all, or rekindle a passion for a long lost hobby. There are innumerable cases of pink-slip survivors who have turned personal ventures into new and successful businesses.

We're all part of an economic eco-system of sorts, if you think about it. And the more creative and proactive we all are in our individual ways, the stronger our collective chances are for continued evolution. (If diversity is the spice of life, then undying optimism is the sugar!)

From OPEN Forum Articles

Skills involved in setting priorities

2009-08-13T16:25:00.001+02:00

How To Set Priorities

Posted: 10 Aug 2009

From Henry Blodget, The Business Insider: In a recent post, I argued that the key to success in a small business is to focus on doing one thing extremely well. A small company simply doesn't have the resources to compete with bigger, richer companies if it's trying to be all things to all people.

While trying to do one thing extremely well, however, you still need to figure out how to set priorities and allocate your company's limited resources.

If you're like most entrepreneurs, you'll have a dozen things you could be doing at any one time, as will everyone who works for you. If you and your employees all behave like billiard balls, bouncing in a hundred different directions, you'll be toast.

So here's how to set priorities:

Figure out the one product or service that is working the best (customers like it).
Put 90 percent of the company's energy and resources into expanding that product or service and making it better.
Tell every employee to prioritize their time by doing only the things that are most likely grow that product and make it better.
Outsource or ignore everything else.

Everyone in the company should know that everything they do should be focused on making that one key product or service a success.

In many cases, this will mean letting go of minor details and focusing on what really matters. And ultimately, in a small business, only three things really matter:

producing a good product,
selling the product,
not running out of money

Salespeople should not call "everyone." They should only call their most promising prospects. Engineers should not try to make the product "perfect." They should focus on making it GOOD. And so on.

If you can get everyone in the company focused on producing and selling one good product and not getting distracted by a thousand opportunities and details, you'll give yourself the best chance of success.

And do you do with the remaining 10 percent of your time?

Think about what to do next.

Source: OPEN Forum Articles

How to design - gain clear, thorough understanding of the user, collaborate multi-disciplinary, experiment rapidly via prototyping

2009-08-07T12:26:00.001+02:00

Design Thinking 101

Posted: 03 Aug 2009

From Matthew E. May, How to Change the World: "Design Thinking" has rapidly moved to the forefront of the current management zeitgeist as a fresh take not just on how to rethink key products and services, but also how to reframe everyday processes and projects. In an effort to create a cross-company culture of innovation and collaboration, businesses all over the world are taking a page from design firms, and realizing the rewards.

Graduate schools including Stanford's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (aka d. school) and the Rotman School of Management are helping to lead the way, taking the broad view that the designer's approach to solving problems goes far beyond the traditional role of design in "making pretty." Rather, they believe the designer's blend of creativity and logic is applicable to all aspects of business, and that irrespective of job title, everyone can be a designer of sorts.

What's driving the move is the very real pressure to innovate in a fiercely competitive marketplace, fueled by a down economy. That pressure falls on the individual, who is asked for higher commitment, more adaptability, quicker progress, better execution, stronger decision-making, and freer thinking. At the same time, they're told to manage risk, meet short-term objectives, and only bet on sure things. All within the confines of environments that are often anything but free: powerful systems, rigid structures, conflicting agendas, privileged information, political posturing, and limiting rules. The truth is that uncertainty, risk and failure are all part of innovation, and the ability to meet business objectives doesn't always square with the personal capabilities needed to innovate as required.

The solution? Think like a designer, work like a designer.

Great design is a result of a clear and thorough understanding of the user, creative resolution of competing tensions, multi-discipline collaboration, rapid experimentation via prototyping, with continuous modification and enhancement of ideas and solutions. The best designers leverage their expertise, pursue possibility, reject the status quo as a matter of course, view opposition to their ideas as an inventive challenge, refuse to let bureaucracy and hierarchy stifle their creativity, and use cutbacks and resource constraints drive new ideas and methods.

So what is "Design Thinking"?

Citing a 1969 book by Herbert Simon called The Sciences of the Artificial, Wikipedia defines it this way:

Design thinking is a process for practical, creative resolution of problems or issues that looks for an improved future result. It is the essential ability to combine empathy, creativity and rationality to meet user needs and drive business success. Unlike analytical thinking, design thinking is a creative process based around the "building up" of ideas.

This raises the question of just what that process looks like. When design firm IDEO agreed in early 2005 to help Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City make their chemotherapy process more patient-friendly, the first thing the IDEO design team did was to take Sloan-Kettering staffers along with them as they followed patients throughout the entire treatment process, including the round trip from home to clinic. That allowed the discovery of a patient stress point: anxiety over treatment, the cause of which was the fact that patients didn't know what to ask, and the huge information binder was far too daunting.

Understanding the situation allowed designers to ofer up a number of possible solutions, some of which were then carried out in much the same fashion as a scientific experiment. In design lingo, that meant "rapid prototyping." One pilot entailed simply handing out index cards with "frequently asked questions," such as "Where can I fill my prescription?" A few trial runs indicated that reviewing the cards during a quick guided tour of the clinic eased patient anxiety tremendously. The experiment quicly became standard operating procedure.

That's a pretty clear strategy: Investigate, Design, Experiment, Adjust. What a great I.D.E.A.

For more insights from Matthew E. May, visit his past blog posts at here and follow him on Twitter here.

From OPEN Forum Articles

Efficient innovators plan less, act more; do research before design

2009-08-01T11:08:00.001+02:00

New Managing Article: Plan Less, Act More

Posted: 26 Jul 2009

From J.K. Glei, Behance: Conventional wisdom privileges the notion of coming up with a well-thought-out plan over taking incremental action and learning as we go along. Of course, the real truth – and the best method – falls somewhere along the "shades of gray" spectrum between the two approaches. Dwight D. Eisenhower may have stated the challenge and the solution most succinctly when he said: "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."

In countless conversations with business people and creatives, Behance has found that the most efficient innovators balance planning and research with a healthy appetite for taking action early and often. London-based industrial designer Philippe Malouin, who was recently featured in the New York Times Magazine, is a good case in point. "A good way to get an idea off the ground is to try it," says Malouin. "As simplistic as it sounds, many people don't bother to explore and experiment as much as they should; too much time is spent on the computer; model-making is a great problem solver."

He goes on, "I believe that the best way to stay organized is to start working on the first conceivable aspect of any project as soon as they occur, even if that particular aspect isn't the most fun to start working on. I think the bits of work that are the least fun to work on should always be thoroughly finished and out of the way before you start working on the creative side of things. In other words, research before design."

With so much information available to us these days, it's easy to lose momentum by spending an excessive amount of time planning. As Malouin points out, the best balance is a healthy dose of research followed swiftly by lots of trial-and-error testing.

Not surprisingly, our ideas (and our plans) don't usually spring from our heads perfectly formed. By taking action sooner rather than later, we can quickly bring our ideas down to earth, and have hard data to measure the distance between our original plan and a real-world execution. As productivity guru Merlin Mann, the blogger behind 43folders.com, said in a recent interview: "My wife reminds me sometimes: 'You have all the information you need to do something right now.'"

***The Behance team researches productivity and leadership in the creative world. These entries are adapted and edited by Jocelyn K. Glei from the Behance team's past articles and research. Behance runs the Behance Creative Network, the Action Method project management application, the Creative Jobs List, and develops knowledge, products, and services that help creative professionals make ideas happen.

From OPEN Forum Articles

Ingredients for a successful advertising recipe

2009-07-25T10:33:00.001+02:00

New Marketing Article: The Never-Fail Recipe for Ads That Work Like Crazy

Posted: 23 Jul 2009

From Elizabeth Walker, Duct Tape Marketing: It's always surprising to us to see so many pieces of advertising, especially in print, that don't work. They simply don't contain the ingredients needed to successfully communicate with customers.

If you make a cake, you don't leave out any ingredients, right? Then why leave out an important part of your advertising message?

With a small budget and not a lot of space, many people run so called "business card" ads. The ad consists of the same elements that are on a typical business card: business name (usually a logo), your name, telephone numbers, and address, email address and website. Sometimes a catchy slogan too!

But where's the offer? Where's the call-to-action? Business card ads simply don't do anything but take up space.

Think of your ad as a "salesperson in print." What would happen if your salesperson dropped by a prospect and said, "Hi, I'm Ned from the ABC Company. Here's my phone number and address. Hope you call sometime. Bye!"

Would that work? Nope, and it's the same with ads.

If you want your ad to get results it must contain some key elements. Here's the recipe:

First, make it crystal clear who you are talking to, e.g. "Small Business Owners" or "Sports Enthusiasts" or "Golfers" or whoever your prime target group is - get their attention by putting this at the top of the ad.

Second, use emotionally strong words to outline a concern, need or frustration this group has that your product or service satisfies, e.g. "Tired of staying up late doing your bookkeeping?" or "Are you worried about data loss, security, viruses, and keeping your network safe from hackers?"

Third, offer a solution: "Our easy-to-use bookkeeping system lets you keep track of your business without losing sleep." Or "We can analyze your computer network, diagnose any problems you are currently having, and look for hidden problems."

Fourth, offer something they can get free or an action they can take immediately with no risk attached â€" go to the web site for a downloadable sample, a report, tips and tricks, or drop by the store for our free checklist.

Fifth, end the message with your contact info: name, phone, fax, email and web address, and, of course, your logo and tagline.

Sixth, have you got a good picture of the product, or something showing the service, or conversely, the situation prospects are facing because they do not have your product or service? Here's a secret: often the most powerful picture is one of you! Now readers can put a face on your company.

There, that was easy wasn't it?

Next time you are putting an ad together for your business, follow the six steps in this order. If you do this, and if your ad appears where your Ideal Clients can find it, you will be communicating your product or service far more effectively than you've ever done, and yes, the phone will ring.

From OPEN Forum Articles

The motivational aspect of small, tangible achievements

2009-07-25T10:29:00.001+02:00

New Managing Article: Tangible Microcosms of Achievement

Posted: 24 Jul 2009

From Scott Belsky, Behance:

There is something deeply gratifying (and motivational) about small, tangible achievements during long-term projects. Whether you are in a client service-based industry like consulting or advertising or if you are involved in a long-term pursuit to develop a new product, we can all benefit from internal short-term projects designed to produce something tangible. These microcosms of achievement provide us with interim rewards that help us maintain focus and momentum for the long term.

One firm that harnesses the rewarding power of tangible achievements is New York agency Brooklyn Brothers. At the same time as they act as a creative agency serving clients, they also produce Fat Pig Chocolate, PMS vitamins, and a series of children's books. The team at Brooklyn Brothers believes that making a product lends invaluable insights into the life cycle of pushing a product to market. From these internal projects, the agency gains an understanding of the logistics behind developing, executing, and distributing a product, and that knowledge, in turn, gives them an edge on the client side.

And perhaps, in a world stuffed to the gills with digital and virtual products, there is a benefit to creating something tangible that can be held and felt - something entirely physical. At Behance, we were surprised by how much we learned through the process of creating our own line of paper products based on our organizational methodology, the Action Method. The product line forced us to simplify what we do with technology and knowledge. And it has served as a tangible, completed outcome that we can hold in our hands and consider as we undertake massive new projects with no end in sight.

Every team should venture to create something for themselves. If only as a refreshing team development exercise to experience what goes into the pursuit of making ideas happen with full control. The completion of smaller projects provides a sense of reward and confidence that can help you push larger projects through the sometimes demoralizing project plateau. And you also never know if your internal project may shed light on a larger opportunity that you hadn't anticipated. Many successful products such as Twitter and Gmail started out as unofficial side projects.

***This article is adapted from the research and writing of Scott Belsky and the Behance team. Behance runs the Behance Creative Network, the Action Method project management application, the Creative Jobs List, and develops knowledge, products, and services that help creative professionals make ideas happen.

From OPEN Forum Articles

Being systematic in 5 steps

2009-06-24T14:26:00.003+02:00

Social Media Business Plan in 5 Easy Pieces

Posted: 23 Jun 2009

So social media (Facebook, Twitter, and blogging, for example) is fun; but is it business? If you're wondering, then it's about time to take a step back, breathe deeply, and revisit the fundamentals. Ask yourself some basic questions, like:

Does this this fit into your business? Where is it in the business plan? Does it stand alone, or as part of strategy? Is it good in and of itself, or in business context? How much time (and time is money) and money does it take?

After all, things you do in business have to serve business goals. Right?

Here's how to apply the basic principals of business planning to your social media activities. Start with a plan, then follow it up with plan review, course corrections, and, ultimately, management. Here's how to do that:

1. Set the review schedule

Never do any business planning without a review schedule. What matters is the planning, not just the plan. Your first step should be to set a regular time — the third Thursday of every month, for example — to track your progress towards goals.

Given that we're all just human, we need to have that schedule set up to make this really work for business. Reminders, ticklers, and, if more than just you are involved, commitments from the their people.

2. Set the business objectives

What would social media success look like, for you and your business? Would it be lots of friends, followers, and connections? More web traffic? More blog subscribers? Perhaps you're looking for getting early warning about new trends, or a window into what your customers say about your business?

It's not just social media for its own sake, right? It's a business activity, with a business purpose?

Define the objectives. Don't sweat the writing, the text format, or the tools. It's business, so form follows function. Leave it in draft-easy form as bullet points on your computer, just enough so you can track it later. But get it down so you can review it later.

3. Set specific concrete steps

So how do you achieve those objectives? Think about breaking the longer process down into shorter steps, so you can track those steps and your progress towards goals. Part of the benefit of planning is being able to think through the sequence, and coordinate related tasks.

Setting the steps in order doesn't mean you're necessarily going to follow them, no matter what. The advantage of having a plan, even in the rapidly changing world of social media, is being able to mark how things change as they change, and still keep track of the related steps.

It also helps you pull the plan down into practical reality, avoiding the danger of the blue sky plan with vague good ideas and platitudes, but no real way to track success or failure.

4. Match tasks to owners.

Hint: when you think of what has to be done, do you see the face of the person responsible? Is there a single person responsible? That's what we call ownership, meaning the clear assignment of specific responsibilities to specific people.

Without ownership, the likelihood of implementation goes way down. When it's to be done by a group or a committee, it's just not as likely to be done.

So for twitter, for example, who is responsible for which accounts? Who is doing what searches to find tweets related to those topics? Or in Facebook, who is responsible for page updates, and trolling the web for mentions? Who is doing which blog, and how often?

5. Develop useful metrics.

Planning by itself is not the object, it's the execution that matters; and that means metrics. Measurement. Metrics means specific, concrete numbers so you can track whether you're on plan or not. Avoid generalities, and look to specifics that will speak for themselves. Try to set your objectives in specific numbers.

How to measure results? For social media, it might be followers or connections, but it might also be new clients, presentations, leads, unique visitors to a website, or some other factor you can measure. It will be different for every business, but it will always have a connection to your objectives.

And even if it's just you, the one-person business, you still want metrics. And a dose of realism is a real good idea too. Think about bites you can chew. The good news, though, is that if you follow through with step one above, realism will happen over time.

Ready, set execute!

Having a plan is just the beginning. Review, correct, review, correct: it's called steering. With this social media plan as well as everything in business planning: don't fall into the trap of the mythical business plan document, singular, noun, probably lost and getting dusty somewhere.

All business plans are wrong, but nonetheless vital; because if you didn't have the plan, you wouldn't know how to correct, and how assumptions have changed. The result is steering, and management.

From OPEN Forum by American Express OPEN

Consultation as a Tool for Integrating Personal and Professional Life

2009-06-22T18:11:00.001+02:00

Integrate Your Personal and Professional Life in Three Steps

Posted: 17 Jun 2009

We asked Wharton professor and author Stew Friedman how employers could integrate their personal and work lives to find a productive and comfortable balance. Tough as it is any time, balancing the two can be a huge challenge in a recession when challenges seems to spring from every corner.

After all, work isn't everything. On the other hand, some of us are more attached to our careers than others. And we don't all have the same outside commitments or interests.

So, how can you achieve your own best mix of the personal and professional? Most important, says Friedman, is to articulate your goals, get feedback and clarify what matters most to you. He offers the following tips:

Describe your legacy. "Write a short piece, one page or less," says Friedman. "Fifteen years from now, what legacy do you want? What impact do you want to have on the world?" Take a little time and write down where you want to be in 15 years – professionally, personally, spiritually, financially or in whatever way you see it.
Learn what people expect of you. List the 10 most important people in your life. Note what each one expects of you and how you're doing at meeting their expectations. "Ask yourself how these expectations affect one another, so you begin to see your life as a system," says Friedman. Then, have a conversation with each one. "This is the part of the process that tends to frighten us," he says. "Most people approach these talks with trepidation because they are afraid of what they will hear." But the good news is that most people's understanding of what others expect of them is not quite accurate. "We tend to overestimate," says Friedman. "People don't expect as much from us as we think they do. In my experience eight out of 10 people discover that what others expect from them is a little less than what they had presumed." Armed with a realistic sense of what people expect from you, you're likely to have more time and energy for your own pursuits.
Talk with trusted friends. Discuss what is important to you. "Ask what small changes you can apply that are doable, practical and small," Friedman recommends. For example, walking away from your business to pursue a full-time career as a songwriter might not be a good idea. But devoting one morning a week to your music may enrich your life. "Small is very important, because it is in your control," says Friedman. "This is the best way to build confidence and competence in creating sustainable change."

After taking these steps, you should have a compelling image of an achievable future. Then, translate that future into an action plan that will get you there. "This builds competence and confidence," Friedman says, "to help us overcome the inertia, the inhibitions, the guilt and fear that hold us back from doing what we really want."

From OPEN Forum by American Express OPEN

Being pro-active in down-times [ATTENTIVENESS], [ZEAL], [INTELLIGENCE], [PURPOSEFULNESS]

2009-06-22T17:57:00.001+02:00

How A Business Owner Can Sleep Like a Baby During Tough Times

Posted: 19 Jun 2009

Be scared. You can't help that. But don't be afraid. ~ William Faulkner

One of the classic ways to find out what is really going on with a business owner or top-level executive these days is to ask, "What's keeping you up at night?" Being a small business owner and a formally trained facilitator, I decided to take a different approach and asked 20 presidents of small businesses in marketing, interior design, insurance and a variety of other industries what's allowing them to get a good night's rest. Here are the highlights of what they shared.

1. Put in a good day's work. Jumping out of bed, getting to work early, being productive an extra hour or two at the end of a normal day if needed and staying focused and committed to growing the business — these were, of all the pointers, the ones most commonly shared. No one wanted to be seen as a slacker, indecisive, depressed or out of touch with what's going on in the world. The word "leader" came up in nearly every conversation or email, as did the importance of being looked at as one.

2. Connect with upbeat, enthusiastic, high-energy people who share similar business concerns and offer up a whole host of action-oriented solutions to extraordinary day-to-day problems. One of the things I heard time and time again is that it costs nothing to smile, and oftentimes we forget to do just that (not in a fake way) on a daily basis. When we don't smile, it can bring a whole operation down into the doldrums — even when it needn't be.

3. Communicate with the executive team and employees as often as possible to convey what's going on and the steps that are being taken to keep the company strong. Actively seek input from every paid employee on how to improve the company's performance while maintaining profit margins. These business leaders are involving everyone in everything, something they said they had not done up until now because they didn't think the employees needed to know. Well, now they do. Their lifestyle or job is on the line.

4. Obsess over listening to customers, employees, vendors, colleagues and friends, and actually take action on what is said. The presidents even report back to those who shared their thoughts and ideas on exactly what they did differently because of the information. Of all the tools, this one has helped them the most to sleep peacefully at night. It's very empowering to everyone. It shows they really care. It humanizes them. And that's a good thing during a downturn.

5. Emphasize a back-to-basics approach on everything, from how they buy office products to choosing cleaning services (do-it-yourself mentality) to who gets wooed over lunch or dinner for new business initiatives. The key question to ask before spending money is: Do we really, truly need this?

6. Enhance everything they do, from response time to continuous improvement (quality) to total flexibility in how they manage projects. If they did something in fourteen days, they do it now in four days, with half the number of people. If a client says, "We're not sure if this will be a marketing, advertising or PR push," they say, "We can be flexible until you decide because we have the expertise to handle all or any one of those areas."

7. Eliminate unnecessary expenses, from telephone bills (e.g., call waiting, call forwarding) to credit card balances to daily doughnut runs. They are squeezing out every last little penny to keep their organizations as lean as possible. An employee at one of their companies said, "We've put the business on a treadmill to trim waste." No fat, no worries.

8. Learn to not just live with but love uncertainty, the unpredictability of what's yet to come. There's a certain strength (oftentimes you don't even know you have it until in a crisis mode) that comes over you when you acknowledge that this might not pass and could be forever. The business leaders said they look at it this way: It's not your last dance; it's your first, so get in step.

9. Reconfigure how to become a more nimble, value-added, innovative product, service or market creator. You can't get ahead in an environment like this unless you disrupt industries, trends or markets. Their intent is to get out there and fire away with untried and untested ideas. If they don't work, so what? They said they'd fail fast and move on. The goal is to generate revenue with a profit wherever and whenever possible.

Don't think of surviving. Think of thriving. Action, not words, says it all. Imagine yourself five years from now and where you will be. If you can envision it, you can do it.

As Faulkner says, you can be scared, you can't help that, but don't be so afraid that you cannot take appropriate action to move your organization forward. Sleep well, dear reader.

This article is a preview to what's to come in the new OPEN Forum, you can see this article on the new Open Forum here. To see more new content and features – including the Connectodex^SM tool for business connections – go to beta.openforum.com. Just use your Americanexpress.com User ID and Password to log in. If not a Cardmember, you can still have access to all of the great content once the new site launches.

From OPEN Forum by American Express OPEN

Motivating one's team members

2009-06-18T14:01:00.001+02:00

Re-Engaging Team Members
Turning Negative Back to Positive


	Engaged team members make a valuable contribution.
	©iStockphoto/dgilder

"Excuse me, I'm the new program office administrator, and I need to book a hotel for a meeting. Could you help me with that?" you ask another administrator.

"Uh, just go on the intranet," replies your colleague, who then turns back to the person sitting next to her and resumes her conversation about her weekend plans.

"Okay..." you might reply uncomfortably, even though you've already spent half an hour trying to find the right web page.

Sound familiar? You've just encountered a "disengaged" employee. If you had a workforce full of disengaged employees, how devastating would that be to your business?

Disengaged people exist in all types of businesses, across all industries. You can spot them by their indifferent, blasé attitudes. They don't care about the company, they probably don't like their jobs, and they send negative signals everywhere they go.

Disengaged people are like poison - they don't perform their own jobs well, they drive customers away, and they have a bad influence on your other staff. Yet few people start off disengaged. It's typically a process that happens over time, as employee and employer expectations grow further and further apart.

What Is an Engaged Team Member?

Fortunately, you can re-engage members of your team and build back their pride and commitment. But you'll need to make a continuous effort and a strong investment in positive human capital management techniques.

The first step is to understand what an engaged team member looks like: Engaged people go above and beyond their job descriptions to get things done. They're committed to the organization's success, and they're willing to do what's necessary to reach goals.

It's important to understand that while many "average" employees are not quite fully engaged, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're completely disengaged. However, these average employees need re-engagement as well.

To reach a level of full engagement, you must build a people-focused workplace - one that recognizes that your people genuinely are your most important resource.

Re-engaging People

To achieve this, you need to meet people's expectations and provide a great work environment. There are several key management practices that are fundamental to this process. By providing these workplace conditions and continuously reinforcing their practice throughout the company, you can re-engage people who have fallen out of step with your purpose and vision.

We can divide re-engagement approaches into four areas:

Fact-Finding - Activities that help you (a) understand disengagement and your current situation and (b) monitor your situation on an ongoing basis.
Establishing an Environment for Engagement - Activities that help engagement flourish.
Hygiene Factors - Activities that help avoid de-motivation by managing people's stress, putting people in the right jobs, and providing feedback.
Motivators - Practices that help increase motivation and engagement.

Not all ideas will apply to all situations however, as a whole, these are the conditions and practices that will help you build people's engagement. We'll now look at each of these in detail.

1. Fact-finding

Ask yourself when you ever felt unenthused and unengaged. This is a good place to start your re-engagement process. When you understand the sorts of things that caused you to disconnect with your company in the past, you may gain some insight into what members of your team are feeling right now.
Talk to your people about their expectations and issues. Having clear expectations is a fundamental factor in re-engaging people. If people feel that they've been treated unfairly or have not been provided with the employment conditions they expected, you need to know. Once discrepancies are found, work toward a resolution as soon as possible. This lets people know that you care and you take their needs seriously.

And ask them about the situations and issues that may be upsetting them. Push beyond the issues that are immediately obvious - the problem may lie with issues that are entrenched and systematic, and that the person thinks are just part of the way things are.

This step is particularly important when you become the new manager of a group of people who are already disengaged. Resist the temptation to blame the former manager – instead, focus on moving forward from where you are now, based on what you find out from talking to your new people.
Schedule regular "one-on-ones" with members of your team. Talk with individual team members about what they believe is expected of them, and then clarify and make modifications as necessary. When you keep communication open, you can often avoid potential conflicts and misunderstandings that can grow worse and lead to major problems.
Survey employee engagement on a regular basis. With any kind of change process, it's usually a good idea to regularly ask your people questions related to their dedication and commitment to the company. Use the issues you've identified as a starting point, and construct a questionnaire to discover what you're doing well and where there's room for improvement. Use the results to begin a re-engagement plan that will help you build a stronger and more devoted workforce.

2. Establishing an Environment for Engagement

Be honest and forthright about your own role in people's disengagement. A little humility goes a long way toward re-engaging someone. What if your management practices have contradicted any of the above points? What if you've been weaker in your commitment recently, and you've contributed to the current situation? Admit it, apologize for your actions, and construct a solid plan to move forward. This is a great way to start rebuilding your team's trust and show how supporting one another can make huge differences for everyone. By demonstrating your commitment to your people, they will likely respond with a renewed commitment to you and the business.
Practice participative management. People usually want to participate and be involved. They want and need to feel that they matter and that their contributions are valued. To engage them, provide lots of opportunities for them to be involved with decisions. It's also important that people feel able to voice their ideas and raise issues - without judgment or fear of punishment. To re-engage people, help them feel confident that you'll welcome their contributions and that you'll really listen to what they say.
Be a model for commitment to the organization. When employees believe their boss and senior management are committed to the company, that can provide proof that the company is indeed worth committing to. If you have doubts or express negativity toward the business, you can't expect members of your team to be totally dedicated and engaged. They take their cues from you, and they'll react to your opinions and actions.

3. Hygiene Factors

Identify and manage stress and burnout. Overworked employees can have a difficult time engaging. They simply have too many competing needs, the greatest of which is their own survival. If you want engaged people, develop a genuine concern for their health and welfare. By using regular one-on-ones and staying connected to members of your team, you should be able to keep on top of their workload and stress factors. Do what you can to alleviate their stress by using the tools on our Stress Management pages, and refer your people for assistance as necessary.
Put people in the right jobs. As you get to know members of your team through regular contact and feedback, think about ways to capitalize on their unique strengths and talents. Rather than focusing on a specific smaller problem or disciplining someone, look at the bigger picture: Does the person fit the job? You may need to regroup which tasks go with which jobs, or allow people to rotate jobs in order to enrich their learning opportunities. Work with members of your team to meet your company's needs. When people know you're dedicated to their success, they will, in turn, dedicate themselves to your success.
Provide fair and regular feedback. Most people respond incredibly well to praise and recognition. For effective employee engagement, this can be difficult if you restrict yourself to a formal program or yearly performance appraisals. Make a conscious effort to observe when people are doing things right, and show them every day that they're appreciated. When you need to provide corrective feedback, make sure it's timely, and centered on a specific task.

For more on hygiene factors and motivators, see our article on Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory.

4. Motivators

Provide growth opportunities. A big factor in employee engagement is building long-term commitment. This is important because it retains knowledge within the company and reduces turnover. Provide incentive for people to stay long term by discovering their talents and figuring out ways to use those talents within the organization.

This can be a powerful method of re-engagement. However, be careful that you don't try to re-engage someone by promising too much. Be genuine in your offers - otherwise, you can do much more damage to your reputation and to the person's welfare in the long run.

Help people understand the big picture. Too often, people don't understand what's going on in the organization outside of the small world around their own jobs. When that happens, it's easy for them to become disconnected and disillusioned. Make sure that members of your team know the company's vision and strategy. They need to recognize the roles they play in the organization's success. To do this, keep people well informed, and make sure they stay focused on the big picture.
Align personal and organizational goals. Make sure that people's goals are tied to departmental and company goals (this is related to understanding the big picture). A key part of engaging people is ensuring that the company's success matters to them. If you can link personal success and accomplishment to overall company goals, then you provide the basis for an engaged workplace.

Tip:
If you've done all you can to engage someone, and they are still not engaged, you may need to take disciplinary action, either to emphasize the need for change or to remove someone who is blocking the team's progress. If you don't, you risk jeopardizing your whole team's progress. This is not an option to take lightly, so talk to your HR department as a first step.

Key Points

Employee engagement is a critical factor in a company's success. When you have people who are committed to your business, they'll stay with you long term and they'll work very hard to make the organization a success. It's extremely important, therefore, that you actively re-engage people who are disconnected with the company and that you work to build and maintain an engaged team. The keys to employee engagement are great management practices, including strong teams and a firm sense that what your people do on a daily basis matters to their boss and to the business as a whole.

The bottom line is that people need to feel wanted. Show them how much they're needed and why. Be honest and trustworthy - and acknowledge, with everything you do, that your people truly are the company's most valuable resource.

From Mind Tools mindtools.com

Say it now: "Thank you." Turn to the person beside and you say it to them. "Thank you." [THANKFULNESS], [UNITY], [GENEROSITY]

2009-06-18T13:27:00.001+02:00

The Right Investment in the Right Bank

Posted: 16 Jun 2009

What investment is this?

It's inexpensive by most definitions.
No taxpayer money is needed.
No regulations need exist much less even be enforced.
It takes only a moment of time.
And its ROI is truly priceless.

What is it? Two words, one phrase: Thank you or thank-you. The recipient doesn't care how you use it. They just care that you did.

It takes only a moment of your time. And no money from your wallet is needed for it.

Say it now: Thank you. Turn to the person beside and you say it to them. Thank you.

Find a colleague in the hallway. Say it to them Thank you.

Maybe the first few times you do this, you're both surprised: you who said it and they who heard it said. They may look around, puzzled, not sure if they heard it right. If they do, say it again.

They will ask For what?

Be ready with an answer. That means you need to have looked and studied this person. Appreciated them.

There's plenty of reason to make this investment. Too often, we just haven't done the research.

Why is this important?

All of us face serious challenges right now. Some of it's tangible, from external sources like losing a job. Some of it's internal like the fear of losing a job. We all face more demands for more change for more solutions for more creativity in the coming months.

Our personal, emotional, banks may be running low. OK. They are running low. And the least expensive means to insure we have sufficient emotional capital to keep our personal banks open…is this two-word, one-phrase: Thank you. Saying it or hearing it. The first always leads to the other.

Eventually, you will want to expand your investment in the emotional banks of those around you. Here are some other investment vehicles using this two-word, one-phrase: Thank you. (Disclaimer: Past returns are not indicators of future performance. But…the compound interest on this investment is the highest, most consistent, of any investments when judged over time and in different markets, economies, companies, relationships.)

Be specific. Thank them for a specific result.
Share its meaning - I: Share with them how it helped you.
Share its meaning - II: Share with them how it will help them.
Memorialize it: Thank them again later, say at a review if you're a manager or leader.
Go public: Rock their world and thank them publicly.
Rock the joint: Do the above…for everyone in the room.
House party: Goin' old school now, make it a house party. Make saying "thank-you" standard for your company meetings. Open the doors for everyone to invest. Allow time for everyone to say "thank you" to their colleague.

Each time you say this two-word, one-phrase: Thank you, you make a risk-free, no strings attached, investment in that person's emotional bank. At work, the returns from that continue long after those words have stopped echoing in your ears and theirs.

That's the right investment in the right bank.

Now's the right time to do it.

This article is a preview to what's to come in the new OPEN Forum, you can see this article on the new Open Forum here. To see more new content and features – including the ConnectodexSM tool for business connections – go to beta.openforum.com. Just use your Americanexpress.com User ID and Password to log in. If not a Cardmember, you can still have access to all of the great content once the new site launches.

From OPEN Forum by American Express OPEN

Tracking progress and instituting accountability creates the discipline needed to effect change [INTEGRITY], [TRUSTWORTHINESS], [RESPONSIBILITY], [UNITY]

2009-06-18T13:18:00.001+02:00

How to Get Your Back Covered

Guy Kawasaki of How to Change the World | June 16th, 2009

Keith Ferrazzi is the CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight. Since his breakout first book, Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time, he has counseled the world's top enterprises on how to dramatically accelerate the development of business relationships to drive sales, spark innovation, and create team cohesion. His latest book is Who's Got Your Back: The Breakthrough Program to Build Deep, Trusting Relationships That Create Success—and Won't Let You Fail. In this interview, he explains how to ensure that your back is covered.

Question: Why do people fail to perceive how badly they are performing?
Answer: People tend to fall victim of what scientists call "self-serving" bias. This means that when we succeed, we congratulate ourselves. When we fail, we blame someone else. Therefore, we learn less from our failures than we could or should, and that's why we need people to help us complete the feedback loop.
Question: You don¹t really think CXOs can let down their shields, accept feedback, and change, do you?
Answer: I sure do—I've worked with many execs who've done that, and it's served them well. This is the kind of leader who will thrive in today's economy and serve as the model for a new generation of CXOs. We need leadership focused on collaboration, cooperation, and candor, not isolationism and ego.

Jamie Dimon, the president and COO of JP Morgan, turned the company on a dime in the financial crisis. He knows the value of relationships and of candor. He lets his employees tell him straight out when he has a dumb idea, and they respect him all the more for it. Candor and accountability are absolutely essential if we're to rebuild this economy and this country. And you can't be truly candid without being willing to "let down your shield" and be vulnerable.
Question: What are the signs that they need others to "watch their back"?
Answer: There's lack of transparency; unwillingness to admit—and often to recognize flaws; unwillingness to ask for help; scarcity mindset resulting in knowledge and resource hoarding; and failure to act and/or take responsibility for actions. There are also a number of behavioral bad-habits that people develop. One of my favorites is what I call "The Shamer;" this is a person who tends to shame, embarrass, or humiliate others to cover up for his own fear of failure.
Question: Can we receive feedback in a purely digital way via email, tweets, Skype, video-conferencing, etc?
Answer: Sometimes it surprises me, but I've seen people on my Greenlight Community become incredible lifelines for each other via digital channels. Lifeline relationships involve people who have your back by being generous, vulnerable, and candid with you and hold you accountable to change. That said, I'm a big believer in making that deep connection in person during a time dedicated to relationship-building—like a date, but not a romantic one. I call that a "long slow dinner." After that, technology is a great way to keep the relationship going.
Question: What¹s the first step to getting help?
Answer: Oprah, the queen of respected vulnerability, once said that opening up to others started with one admission to one person. And that's exactly right—you've just got to take one risk and build out from there. But my recommended best practice is to start by adopting generosity as a core relationship-building trait. Unexpected generosity shakes people from their prejudices and established norms of behavior and affords you the permission to start interacting on a deeper level. Putting generosity first is what saves you from the overshare.
Question: What are the qualities of a good "buddy"?
Answer: A great lifeline relationship embraces The Four Mindsets: generosity, vulnerability, candor, and accountability. Generosity means they're supportive, encouraging, and committed to your success. Vulnerability means they're able to listen and share on a deep level; this also means they trust you, and you them. Candor means they'll tell you when you have your head up your butt. Accountability means that they make sure you pull your head out.
Question: What is the process of building a team of buddies?
Answer: I recommend people start with one, and build to a group of three or four. How formal or informal your team works together is up to you, but the more formal, the greater the likelihood of sustainability.
Question: Why do people fail to change?
Answer: The fail to track progress and don't institute accountability. Discipline isn't easy, when we have so many demands on our time and attention. Having committed partners in that process is what can make the difference.
Question: Who would you hold up as great examples of leaders?
Answer: I already mentioned Jamie Dimon. Another great leader is Harvard professor and former CEO Bill George; he is a huge advocate of peer support and authenticity in leadership. And of course President Obama radiates authenticity and has been able to establish an unprecedented level of connection with voters, even those outside of his base.
Question: Who would you hold up as the worst examples of leaders?
Answer: Darth Vader comes to mind— but terms like "best" and "worst" is overly simplistic. We have a pantheon of American leaders heroized for their self-reliance—the John-Wayne type—but that's a model for leadership we need to move away from. We need a new class of heroes whose leadership springs from their courage to engage and connect with others, both to end a growing American epidemic of isolation and to help foster better decision making, stronger ethics, and more positive outcomes.

From OPEN Forum by American Express OPEN

Email-tiquette Guide

2009-06-13T16:27:00.001+02:00

The Yahoo! Email-tiquette Guide in association with Jean Broke-Smith

Posted: 23 Apr 2009 01:07 PM PDT

After tabulating the results of the survey about email pet peeves that we ran last month on this blog, it turns out that your biggest email bugbear is the use of text speak in the body of an email. In fact, more than 1 in 5 of you think so. Here's a list of the top five email pet peeves as voted by you our loyal blog readers:

Use of text speak such as LOL and BTW (22%)
Mass distribution emails to 5 or more recipients (16%)
Use of 'shouting' CAPITAL letters (15%)
No entry in subject line (12%)
Read receipts (10%)

With those results in mind, we've teamed up with leading etiquette expert Jean Broke-Smith to put together the rules of email engagement. This guide should help you use email more effectively, and show you how you can get the most out of email.

Here it is the definitive guide to email etiquette and don't forget to share it with your m8s ;-)

Do….create the right impression and banish the BTWs. People react to email within seconds of receiving it. As the Yahoo! research shows, text speak can be very annoying and shows a lack of correct spelling ability and laziness. It won't impress!

Don't… offend. Using capitals is the email equivalent of SHOUTING and is perceived as being extremely rude, so make sure your caps lock is switched off.

Do…. include a subject line. You've got three seconds to grab attention when an email appears and by not including a subject in the email, the chances of it being read are greatly reduced. Use the subject line for the purpose it was made and tell people what the email is about.

Don't… use read receipts. Read receipts demonstrate a distinct lack of trust, so avoid where possible. Follow up with a phone call if you want to ensure your message has reached the right person.

Do… remember the recipient. The failsafe method for emailing is to imagine you are writing a succinct letter. Address the recipient in the correct manner and title. You can be light hearted and humorous as in any written communication, it is a just a matter of judgment. But if you don't know the recipient, don't be over familiar and sign off with the right degree of formality.

Don't…. use CC and BCC unnecessarily. The no. 2 email bug bear is mass distribution of emails, so exercise constraint when it comes to copying people in. If the email is important to other people, simply forward to them at the end, rather than them being caught up in a never-ending email trail. Likewise use the BCC button wisely, again forward emails separately rather than 'hiding' other recipients.

Do… take your time. Because of the instant nature of emails it is tempting to deal with them immediately, but rushing an email can lead to errors. Deal with them promptly but don't panic and reply in haste and always check what you have written before you hit send.

Don't… over use 'importance'. Before you even consider using a red exclamation mark, ask yourself is this really important? Only use when it is vital that the email is read, otherwise you are drawing unnecessary attention to yourself and it is a quick way of irritating recipients.

Do…save the kisses. Over familiarity towards your boss or work colleagues is bad etiquette, keep the love and kisses for very good friends.

Don't… email when angry. If you receive a 'harsh' email, read it through, then close it and walk away. Consider your response and if necessary ask someone else to read your reply before you send it, don't fight fire with fire.

Do… choose a sensible email address. Common sense tells you that you are less likely to land a job if you use a frivolous email address, such as, crazychick@yahoo.co.uk. Think about what your email address says about you as it's an insight into your personality.

Don't… hide behind email. It is often easier to write something in words than it is to say it out loud, but don't say something on email that you wouldn't say in person. Emails have longevity and it can come back to haunt you!

Happy emailing,
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team

From Yahoo! Mail Blog

Six Ways to Improve Employee Morale Without Breaking the Bank [ENCOURAGEMENT], [SINCERITY], [OPENNESS]

2009-06-13T16:23:00.001+02:00

Six Ways to Improve Employee Morale Without Breaking the Bank

Posted: 11 Jun 2009

Happy, engaged employees are the lifeblood of any small business. Sure, there are the folks that always do their job happily and with great quality (keep them at almost all costs!) and the folks that aren't happy no matter what you do (weed them out!), but most of your employees are somewhere in the middle. If they're engaged and happy, they do great work and produce great value for you. If they're unhappy, they don't work nearly as well – and the value produced for you is much less.

Obviously, there are a lot of ways to directly motivate employees: the bottom dollar. A cash bonus for the employee of the month can work, as can nice perks during the work day.

In my experience, though, the best techniques for improving everyone's morale comes from outside the wallet. Try these six techniques and keep your checkbook and charge cards focused on other areas, like building your business infrastructure and promoting it to potential customers.

Eat lunch with your employees. Eat what they eat – if they brown bag it, you brown bag it. Listen to what they have to say and offer up mostly positive comments and humor. If your employees eat in regular groups, rotate from group to group – don't keep a group of "favorites." Lunch is a great time for building camaraderie and trust.

Learn about your employees and follow up. Know about the interests of your employees. Learn about their families and their dreams. More importantly, follow up on the things you learn – ask regularly about their mother's health or their son's soccer team. If you're like me and have trouble remembering such information, especially at first, keep a notebook on it. Keep a list of such information about each employee and refresh yourself regularly if you need it.

Be candid about how things are going. If things are going well, be sure your employees are aware of the success. If things aren't going well, talk about the problems early on and nip any gossip right in the bud. Gossip is the enemy of the happy workplace – and candor is the best way to fight it. Plus, when you're open about problems, happy employees will often go the extra mile to help pull you through. Don't be afraid to tell the truth.

Give plenty of opportunities for their candor as well. On a regular basis (I do it weekly), touch base with every employee or contractor in your small business. Just stop in, ask them how they're doing and if they're having any troubles, and listen to what they have to say, even if you disagree or don't like what they're telling you. Take notes, especially when normally-happy employees observe a problem – there's usually something that needs to be fixed.

Give compliments on good work, both individually and publicly. Make an effort to compliment everyone on their work in individual situations, particularly when you can point out specifics. When someone really does well, point it out to the group – but don't point out the same person every single time. Highlight a variety of people and give them public recognition.

Implement reasonable suggested changes whenever you can. Employees often suggest little things that they'd really like to see in the workplace. If you can implement these things, it goes a huge way towards making that employee feel more empowered, involved, and happy. If an employee suggests starting a community coffee pot, do it. If an employee suggests a better arrangement for the office supplies, try it. If someone suggests a better way to handle meetings, give it a try. Every time you execute a reasonable suggested change, it greatly raises one employee's morale and gives a small lift to everyone.

Good luck at putting all this newfound employee productivity to good use!

From OPEN Forum by American Express OPEN

Management Lessons on an Aircraft Carrier at Sea [EXCELLENCE], [COOPERATION], [COMMITMENT]

2009-06-11T13:50:00.001+02:00

Top Ten Lessons from the US Navy: Management Lessons on an Aircraft Carrier at Sea

Posted: 09 Jun 2009

This is a guest post by Bill Reichert, my colleague at Garage Technology Ventures. He and I recently joined other bloggers for an overnight trip on the USS Nimitz. The USS Nimitz is an aircraft carrier that's named after Chester Nimitz (Nimitz signed the US/Japan surrender terms that at the end of World War II). The Nimitz has a crew of approximately 3,000 men and women. When an air wing is deployed on it, the total number of personnel becomes 5,000. It is part of Carrier Strike Group 11.

Very few people have the opportunity to experience life on a nuclear aircraft carrier up close and personal. Recently, I had the extraordinary experience of spending a day and a night at sea in the Pacific on board the USS Nimitz. I was part of a Navy outreach program to give ordinary landlubbers like me a perspective on the mission and operations of a naval strike group.

I was excited. Who would turn down a chance to get on top of a nuclear power plant driving 100,000 tons of steel through the ocean, with 5,000 men and women handling scores of aircraft, carrying thousands of pounds of bombs and missiles, burning thousands of gallons of jet fuel a day, with margins measured in inches, and tolerances of seconds? What could possibly go wrong?

As a Prius-driving, granola-eating, anti-gun, Left-Coast Californian, I do not fit the stereotype of the typical armed forces booster. I am inclined to favor green technology over weapons of mass destruction. But I discovered during my visit that many of us who are working in non-military organizations, and who may not have given a second thought to the Navy as a model, would do well to understand how a small city floating on the ocean works. From startup entrepreneurs to seasoned executives, we can learn a lot from the U.S. Navy, from the enlisted men and women as well as from the commanding officers.

When we got to the Naval Air Station on Coronado Island in San Diego, we received a quick slide presentation before we flew off to the Nimitz, a hundred miles or so off the coast. Then again, when we met with the admiral on the ship that evening, we got another slide presentation. There were five or six dot points on the powerpoint slides outlining the mission of the Navy, but frankly I can't remember them all. All I can remember is the impression that, fundamentally, the mission of the U.S. Navy is to make the world safe. It's a pretty ambitious objective. You may approve or disapprove of this as the best use of taxpayer money, but if you spend any time on a nuclear aircraft carrier, you have to admit they do a pretty impressive job.

During about thirty hours of immersion with sailors and pilots (and public affairs officers), I realized that were several principles at work that make the Navy so successful—principles that are not at all unique to running an aircraft carrier—representing important lessons for everyone interested in entrepreneurship, innovation, teamwork, and management:

Inspiration: Having a big, meaningful goal is a tremendous force for inspiration, motivation, and cohesion. The Navy's mission is not some vague, abstract, feel-good paragraph in a business plan; it is very concrete, and very easy to understand and internalize. In addition to defending America, fighting terrorists, and rescuing victims of piracy, the Navy takes enormous pride in their role in helping the tsunami victims in 2004, and in helping the Katrina victims in 2005. While everyone I talked with had his or her own particular story, everyone had a distinct and powerful pride in what they had accomplished and in the people around them. It was frankly astounding. Even in the best organizations, in my experience, such a core consistency of pride is extremely rare. Of course, most organizations don't have a mission as inspirational as the U.S. Navy.
Perspiration: If everyone buys into the goal, you can get an amazing amount of work done, including regular sixteen hour days with very low pay. The Nimitz does not offer a 9-to-5 workday. Some days, crews are on the flight deck for fourteen or sixteen hours, into the wee hours of the morning, inhaling noxious fumes and making sure every plane gets back safely. And then after the planes get back at midnight, the maintenance crew is still at work making sure the planes are ready for the next day. A maintenance chief told me that, given the age of the planes and the stress of carrier flying, it is typical that a plane requires twenty-five hours of maintenance for every hour of flight time. That seems inefficient, but the alternative is unacceptable. You don't want to fly a plane that is anything less than 100 percent maintained.
Teamwork: As much as the movie Top Gun created the impression that it's about competing to be Number 1, the ethic in an actual operating situation is intensely about team performance. Watching the crews maintain, fuel, setup, and pilot F-18s for flight, it's clear it's not about who's the hottest dog on the deck. Every single person counts on other members of the team to enable them to get their part of the job done, and no one person can take credit for success, or benefit from another's failure.
Recruiting and training: There is a common misperception that the military attracts the lower performers in our society who have no other choices. The Navy is very fortunate to have more people who want to join than there are available slots. But more important, the men and women who make it through training are astoundingly competent people. The lesson here is that it's not about fancy degrees and prior polish; it's about a commitment to excellence in each individual, and the willingness to work to exhaustion to make sure you live up to your commitment.
Accountability and continuous improvement: There is no contradiction between an intense ethic of teamwork and the need for individual accountability. In the Navy, everything is monitored and measured. Every system has to perform at 100 percent, and for every system there is a person responsible for making sure that happens. Every cycle of take-offs and landings is measured and scored. And every score is assessed to figure out a way to do it better. During launch cycles, the drill is to get a plane catapulted off the deck every sixty seconds. According to our hosts, during the training exercise we watched, the greatest variation off that was fifteen seconds. Wouldn't it be cool if O'Hare could match that?
Respect: In the Navy, if you don't like someone because of their race, or creed, or whatever, you have the opportunity to change your mind, because that person may be living in the bunk fourteen inches away from you. Respect isn't just an altruistic ethic, it's a necessity. More so than any other institution, the U.S. military has been successful at integrating America's young men and women. I'm sure the Navy is not perfect in this regard, but when I looked around the bridge and saw the incredibly diverse team of men and women who were calmly, confidently, and competently running this multi-billion dollar acme of American technological accomplishment, I thought why can't all of America be more like this? Actually, most high tech companies are well integrated when it comes to race and creed (less so gender), but when it comes to respect among individuals, most organizations have a lot to learn.
Overcoming fear: On a busy aircraft carrier, there are a lot of things that happen that are really scary, and people die. Despite the macho prototype of the Navy pilot, in private these pilots admit that landing a jet on a moving carrier at night is a downright terrifying experience. Watching a series of jets land at night, you get the impression that it must be pretty easy, because they do it so well. But it isn't easy, and even with years of practice and experience, it's nerve-wracking. And you do it, because it's your responsibility and that's the only way the mission gets accomplished.
Work/Life balance: It's hard to imagine how people in the military handle being away from their families for months at a time, in environments that are almost entirely work. It's clear that it is not easy for most. My impression is that the Navy tries to ease the strain by creating a work environment that is much looser and more casual than we expected. We thought the crew aboard the ship would be much more heavily starched than they were, and that the interactions between subordinates and superiors would be much stiffer. We were amazed at how relatively easygoing everyone was, considering that they were responsible for one of the most massive concentrations of firepower on the planet. When you are on the line, there is no slack, and there is no room for anything less than 100 percent. But when there is a break in the action, you can relax and be human.
Reverence and irreverence: The week before our visit, the Nimitz lost five crew in a helicopter accident. These were not strangers; these were co-workers and friends. Among the pilots, it seems that everyone has at least one story of a good friend who was lost. For these men and women, death is all too real. There are memorials around the ship to remind everyone of those who have given their lives in the service of their country. At the same time, there is an irreverence that pops up quite frequently, sometimes when you wouldn't expect it. The captain, in welcoming us, referred to the aircraft carrier as being "kind of like a jail, except there's the possibility of drowning." Not exactly what you would expect to hear. And the whole call sign culture—pilots with nicknames like "Freak Show" and "Booger," to make sure no one takes themselves too seriously and everyone appreciates that even the best of the best are human.
One-hundred percent performance: From moment to moment, the operations on board a nuclear aircraft carrier expose the crew to an extraordinary degree of danger. A simple mistake can result in death, and much of what is being done on the ship and in the air is not at all simple. But they make it look simple. We watched scores of planes take off and land on a moving platform without a hitch. The key is training, training, training, and total focus and dedication when you are on the line. The activity on the flight deck looks a little random and pretty informal—no stiff spines or tight formations. But in the end, you realize you've watched an amazingly choreographed ballet, with an underlying intelligence and efficiency that comes from a lot of people working together to optimize the total performance of the organization.

Those are my top ten lessons from the U.S. Navy. Some of my colleagues on the trip have some additional perspectives to add. (You can see links to their travelogues below.) But all of us discovered that we can learn a lot from the U.S. Navy.

Certainly the Navy is not perfect. As in any organization, there are egos and frustrations and resentments. And people make mistakes, and bad things happen. Not everyone agrees with every decision made up the chain of command, or back in Washington, DC. The Navy understands that it is not well-served by squashing free thought, but everyone in the Navy appreciates that there is a time and a place for debate, and the deal is that you are signed up to do what the organization needs you to do once you are on the line.

Not every entrepreneur wants to model his or her organization and culture on the Navy. For many entrepreneurs, indeed, that is a very unappealing concept, but that's because they don't really understand what makes the Navy one of the most effective organizations on the planet. Like any other successful organization, it's about the people, not about the technology. The key is harnessing the incredible potential of every individual through inspiration, training, and teamwork.

Honor. Courage. Commitment. Not bad principles for any company.

Here are links to the blogs of others on the visit:

From OPEN Forum by American Express OPEN

Overcoming objections: provocative, enlightening, and winning questions

2009-06-11T13:41:00.001+02:00

(Excerpt:)

Open-ended probes that earn you the right to probe further

General Probes:

· Run me through your thinking on this

· How did we get to these assumptions?

· Tell me more about how you (moved from these facts to your conclusions)

· When you said… did you mean…?

Curiosity: the most powerful way to overcome objections

Posted: 10 Jun 2009

Successful business owners are addicted to two really powerful hallucinogens: their own stuff, and being right. I've been addicted to both in the past, so I know what I'm talking about.

Here's how it works: we spend hours working up a sales proposal, bolstered by our own expertise, facts, research and opinions from other smart people.

Maybe we spend more hours writing a document or the ubiquitous Death by PowerPoint presentation, with graphs, and exhibits. Perhaps two or three other people in our organization look at our work, give us their received wisdom, and we rewrite it maybe two-three times, more if it's for a big contract.

Then we present it.

So let's suppose someone in the audience at your presentation disagrees with you. Do we engage in a thoughtful exchange of views? Heck no! We argue the point with the customer, in effect telling him or her how wrong they are, and how right we are, because we have so much invested in our proposal we can't give up being right.

When was the last time you spent a lot of money with someone who told you how wrong you were about your own business?

I'm with an old boss of mine who said, "Let's be wrong all the way to the bank." Let's give up being right, and start focusing on winning the order.

Here's how: be curious! Don't tell, ask. People do business with people they know, like and trust – and who better than someone who's so interested in your point of view he or she gets you talking about it?

Here are some questions people have found provocative, enlightening, and winning:

Open-ended probes that earn you the right to probe further

General Probes:

· Run me through your thinking on this

· How did we get to these assumptions?

· Tell me more about how you (moved from these facts to your conclusions)

· When you said… did you mean…?

Issue Probes:

· What's the most significant issue you currently face?

· What would you like to accomplish with this (program, idea, information)?

· To what extent is (growth, budget, deadlines, staffing) important?

· What other challenges do you foresee?

Implication Probes

· How do you calculate (how much money being late is costing you)?

· How does (system downtime) affect (your customers)?

· What would happen if (worst case scenario)?

Closed ended probes that demonstrate your competence

Asking intelligent and relevant questions tells clients you offer a higher level of competence, credibility and value. Prove you are an expert the customer can trust by asking technically demanding questions. As a marketing professional, I might ask:

· If you compare the top 20% of your revenue and profit to the bottom 20%:

o What accounts for the top 20%? Your bottom 20%?

o How do your distribution and associated costs compare?

o How does the buyer for the top 20% differ from the buyer from the bottom 20%?

· Describe your cost structure for each segment

You've find good reading on this subject in Secrets of Question Based Selling by Thomas A. Freese.

From OPEN Forum by American Express OPEN

Ten Tips to Improve Your Brain

2009-06-10T14:10:00.001+02:00

Ten Tips to Improve Your Brain

Posted: 08 Jun 2009

Dr. Richard Restak is a clinical professor of neurology at George Washington Hospital University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He also is also a member of the clinical faculty at St Elizabeth's Hospital Overhoiser Division of Training, Department of Psychiatry, Washington, DC, and maintains a private practice in neurology and neuropsychiatry in Washington, DC. His most recent book is Think Smart: A Neuroscientist's Prescription for Improving Your Brain's Performance.

He provided me with this list of the top ten ways to improve your brain's performance:

Take up video-gaming. Action video games improve eye-hand coordination, improve spatial visualization skills, and increase the number of things that you can visually attend to simultaneously.
Strengthen your memory. Memory is our most vital mental faculty. Strengthening memory is an important component in lessening the odds of developing Alzheimer's disease.
Learn a new word every day. Learning new words not only enriches one's understanding of the world, but also enhances the brain's language centers and the prefrontal lobes where judgement and executive function are mediated. [You can learn a new word every day by subscribing to this feed from Answers.com.]
Engage in spelling exercises. Spelling forces you to mentally "see" the word prior to speaking it or writing it down. This exercises several language-related brain areas and circuits.
Monitor your moods, fantasies, and self-talk. If you find yourself immersed in upsetting or stressful scenarios, change your brain activity by switching to something that doesn't involve just your own concerns.
Work off stress with increased physical activity. A healthy brain requires good general health. You can decrease the harmful effects of stress on general health by exercising daily, but you should choose an exercise that appeals to you and that won't be considered a tiresome chore. Even just walking is fine. Walking four miles per week cuts down on the chances of later developing dementia by fifty percent.
Take a twenty-minute nap every afternoon that you can manage it. A daytime nap will produce nearly as much skill-memory enhancement as a whole night of sleep. So after you have taken a class or engaged in some other learning situation in the morning, consolidate that information by napping for a brief time in the afternoon after lunch when you're most likely to feel tired and fall asleep easier.
Solve puzzles. Different parts of the brain will be exercised depending on what kind of puzzle you choose. Crossword puzzles challenge the language and memory areas while jigsaw puzzles provide exercise for the parietal lobes. When you get proficient do the crossword puzzles in your mind without writing anything down and do the jigsaw puzzles with the picture side turned over so that you're working with shape and form alone.
Work with your hands. Few people other than musicians and surgeons are skilled in fine finger control. Whenever you perform an activity requiring finger dexterity you enhance your brain. Knitting, model-ship or model-train building are fine—taking up a musical instrument is even bettter.
Pay more attention to your sensory experiences. One of the most common causes of forgetting and poor memory relates to failures to register what is going on during the original experience. Practice sharpening your senses by identifying by name all of the herbs and essences you encounter in everything you eat. Challenges are as readily available as the nearest garden, spice-rack, and wine-tasting group.

As a small business owner, you certainly can't let your brain fade, so take Dr. Restak's advice.

From OPEN Forum by American Express OPEN

Five requirements for getting a senior team ready to embrace change leadership and drive better performance

2009-06-08T19:51:00.001+02:00

Center for Creative Leadership

Change Your Mind Before You Change Your Company

John B. McGuire, 05.27.09, 07:00 PM EDT
Organizational change never works on its own.

Your organization has likely been charting a new course to get through today's economic turmoil. But is your new direction getting you there? History shows that change initiatives--realignment, restructuring, re-engineering and the rest--succeed only one time out of every four.

Why so much failure? Because senior leaders blame their organizational problems on faulty structures, systems and processes, and those are the things they try to fix. They are partly right, but there is usually another, more powerful, factor at work too: the company's culture.Change in operations, especially dramatic change, doesn't work without deeper and more subtle change in corporate culture and in how leaders think. The systems, practices and beliefs that drove yesterday's success--in other words, the organization's culture--are always deeply ingrained. And they're usually not what you need to move forward in a radically altered economic and competitive world. Change leadership, far more than skilled management, is what truly transforms organizational culture and drives bottom-line results.

To successfully change a business in the face of the huge complexities of today, senior leaders need to have bigger minds. Not all executives and leadership teams are ready for that, and the intense operational pressures of the moment can make it even more difficult. But some leaders do make bold moves even in the most trying circumstances. At the Center for Creative Leadership, we have identified five requirements for getting a senior team ready to embrace change leadership and drive better performance.

1. The executive team must be engaged--really engaged. How often have you seen executives announce a new initiative, rally everyone to get on board with the change--and then fail to follow through themselves? When executives don't genuinely change, no one will. Why should others take on the risk when senior leaders won't?

It's better not to go through the motions at all if your team has little commitment to making it all happen. Dismal change efforts only breed cynicism, and they make any future attempts less likely to succeed.

2. The team must know and value leadership development. To change a culture, you must believe in the value of developing both individual leader capacity and organizational leadership capability. Key people in the organization have to strongly support learning, and the organization needs to have experience with and show appreciation for leadership development.

One of our clients realized this early in his tenure as chief executive officer of an aerospace company. He knew the organizational culture had to change before the company could become more competitive and responsive. But the gap between his vision and the experience of his longtime employees was too great. So he focused first on individual learning and creating a shared, new view of leadership development. Since then, his managers have been getting more comfortable with learning, with giving and receiving feedback and with questioning assumptions--which are all core elements of change leadership.

3. Senior leaders must understand that leadership at the top is a missing essential. "We have gone as far as we can with change management within operations," a hospital CEO told me. "Now we believe the real change must be in our leadership and the culture, but we just don't know how to do it."

This CEO had a problem. He clearly needed to improve operations, but his change management wasn't doing it thoroughly enough or fast enough. He knew instinctively that he had to improve the human element, building talent and altering the culture--key elements of change leadership.

4. The senior team must be willing to take on new, different work. Changing an organization's culture can never be done by formula or guarantee specific results. The senior team has to develop its ability to tolerate uncertainty and ambiguity, in terms of both business variables and human variables. A critical element of this is the willingness to dedicate time to wholly new challenges.

At a manufacturing company we've worked with, the executives recognized that developing a culture that could welcome change would require considerable learning. But taking time out for it from focusing on manufacturing seemed bizarre and foolish to many. "Stop to do what? To talk? That's nuts!" a few leaders said. Changing that attitude was a very big undertaking. But the senior team was determined to make it happen, and the process took root and led to positive and permanent changes in business performance.

5. The senior team must recognize the need to work across boundaries. Change leadership requires frequent crossing of functions, alliances, suppliers, partners and even whole chains of activity. It is about flexibility, collaboration and having less bureaucratic relationships--and it is at odds with hierarchical command and control. Such boundary-spanning or boundary-busting work is becoming more and more common, but it remains a challenge for many managers and organizations.

You can transform your organization's culture. Businesses can and do evolve to face new challenges. Individuals, teams and entire organizations can change their belief systems and attitudes and learn new behaviors. Minds can grow bigger to solve bigger problems. The first step is to understand where you are as an individual and as part of a leadership team. Are you ready?

John B. McGuire is a senior faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership, a global provider of leadership education and research. He is co-author of Transforming Your Leadership Culture, published in March 2009 by Jossey-Bass. This article is the second in a series from the Center for Creative Leadership; read the first one, "The Three Fundamentals of Effective Leadership," here.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/27/change-management-innovation-leadership-managing-ccl.html

Evernote will index all words it finds in pictures you upload

2009-06-08T19:35:00.001+02:00

Why you should digitize 'everything'
How a lifestyle experiment and a disaster made me realize the value of turning atoms into bits
Mike Elgan

May 9, 2009 (Computerworld) Two events this week, one personal and another that is making international headlines, made me rethink what can, and should, be digitized: Everything. If you're a regular reader of this column, you'll remember my piece "Paperless office? Ha! How about a paperless life?" In that column, I talked about my quest to eliminate paper in favor of electronic alternatives. But this week I realized that some things other than paper documents and media can, and should, be digitized.

The first event that sparked this epiphany was my transition to semi-nomadic living. My idea was to take the monthly expense for a big house and divide it between a small studio in California and hotel rooms, bungalows, huts - whatever -- as my wife and I travel around the world for much of each year.

The challenge: What to do with all our stuff? Our goal: Get rid of half our "stuff" by selling it, donating it or throwing it away; place about one quarter into storage; and move the remaining quarter into the studio.

The second event I mentioned was a disaster in my city. I live in Santa Barbara, Calif., which as I write this is surrounded by raging wildfires. At press time, some 30,000 people have been evacuated. Many had to get out with less than 20 minutes' notice.

Which raises the question: What do you give up when you streamline, downsize and go digital nomad? And what do you lose when your house burns in a fire?

Furniture and buildings can be replaced. But what about old family pictures? Paintings your children made in kindergarten? Trophies? Award plaques? Objects passed down from previous generations?

Like everyone else, I suppose, we've got boxes of ill-defined "stuff" stored away -- papers, clippings, memorabilia.

Because much of our stuff was poorly organized, we slogged through every possession, every box, every drawer and considered what to do with every possession we owned. Besides being extraordinarily time-consuming, the process was also very difficult. When it comes to deciding whether to keep or discard something, where do you draw the line? Old holiday and birthday cards? OK, those can be discarded. Mother's Day cards from kids? Hmmm. Trophies? Yikes! There are a million items that make you feel a loss when you toss, but if you keep them, they'll be buried unseen for decades.

It's these same items that are irreplaceable after an unexpected fire, flood, hurricane or other regional or personal disaster.

The solution is to digitize everything. Here's how.

1. Capture
Set up an old digital camera on a tripod, or a newer one set at a lower megapixel size. (You don't want gigantic images to process; 3 to 5 megapixels is about right.) You might point the camera down at a table, or set up some kind of easel. But make it easy and quick to set something down, snap a picture and move to the next item.

Then, do what we did. One by one, go through every box, drawer and item in your house that could contain something of value, and take a picture of it. Photographs. Awards. Scrapbook items. Clippings. Whatever. Don't agonize, just take a picture of everything that might be of value later on.

Then, grab that camera and walk around the house snapping pictures of everything you own of value -- furniture, jewelry, cars. These pictures could help you with the insurance company if tragedy does strike.

2. Index for search
Now, sign up for an account with Evernote. Download the desktop application, and drop all your pictures into the application. Evernote will upload them all to its servers, and -- here's the best part -- index all words it finds in the pictures, which makes them searchable. Later, you can just search Evernote as if it were Google, and find pictures of just about any item. You can also categorize, tag, sort or file everything in any way you choose.

Evernote allows 40MB of uploads per month for free. If you pay $45 per year, you get 500MB per month.

If you want to stay under the free limit, then pace yourself, uploading 40MB per month until everything is uploaded.

3. Share
Some of your digitized items are boring documents. But others have sentimental family value. You'll want to upload these to Flickr or some other service (I personally prefer SmugMug, but that costs at least $40 per year), and share them with friends and family.

4. Backup
You can probably trust Evernote and your photo-sharing service to not lose your valuable images. But "probably" isn't the same as "definitely." Make sure you've got an off-site backup going.

I prefer Carbonite, but there are many online backup services available. Carbonite costs $55 per year, but you get unlimited storage. And it's brain-dead easy to use. You simply install it, and everything is backed up automatically.

5. Discard
Here's the best part: Shred, recycle, burn or discard most of this stuff you digitized.

Doing this can save you money on storage and later moving costs, and simplify your life. You've already got digital versions of everything captured, uploaded, indexed and backed up. What good is keeping the physical object buried in a box where nobody will ever see it?

Throwing away things of value feels counterintuitive, but let me share with you something pretty extreme that we did.

My son is a martial artist. Years ago, he competed nationally and racked up an enormous number of trophies (many of them six feet high). We moved years ago and packed them all into giant boxes probably numbering in the dozens. They remained in those boxes for several more moves. Nobody ever saw them, but they took up enormous space and made our moves more expensive.

It turns out that my son is an even more extreme digital nomad than I am, so he readily agreed with our project: Photograph all the trophies (at least the ones that weren't damaged in the moves), and then get rid of them all. So we lined them up in the backyard, my son posed for the pictures, and I snapped away. We then donated most of the trophies to a local karate instructor who teaches small children. He removed my son's name and other details on the trophies and gave them to the kids in school tournaments he held.

Take digital photos of all your important possessions. Mike Elgan used this photo to show his son's accomplishments in martial arts, while also clearing his house of all the trophies.
For the first time ever, all my son's friends and family members have now seen his trophies, thanks to Facebook and photo-sharing sites. Which raises a philosophical question: Are the trophies gone now? Or were they "gone" before?

And we no longer have to manage all those boxes. Best of all, neither fire, nor time nor neglect can destroy the photographs we took of them.

We did the same thing with various plaques, awards, certificates of achievement by all members of the family.

Other items, such as old family pictures, we digitized but did not discard.

So now we've downsized. And while we're worried for friends who have evacuated the fire areas, and worry that they will lose everything they own in the fire, we don't have to worry about our own personal stuff we digitized.

So whether you're a digital nomad, want to simplify your life or just want to protect your most valuable possessions in case of disaster, digitize everything. It's cheap, easy and definitely worth the effort.

Mike Elgan writes about technology and global tech culture. He blogs about the technology needs, desires and successes of mobile warriors in his Computerworld blog, The World Is My Office. Contact Mike at mike.elgan@elgan.com, follow him on Twitter or his blog, The Raw Feed.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9132739

What you know – you do. What you don’t know – you get help with: 6 Tips for Running Your Business

2009-06-08T18:49:00.001+02:00

6 Tips for Running Your Business: Lessons From 2 Failed Restaurateurs

Posted: 27 May 2009

Why do restaurants often struggle to succeed? Why are they the first businesses to fold, and often in the shortest amount of time? I believe the answer to these questions goes beyond the adage of "location, location, location".

Too many people open restaurants or eateries on the heels of a great dinner party where somebody said "people would pay money for that". They enter the business with little more than cash and a love of food and drink. And they exit the business with much less than they started with.

Is it possible that one of the reasons the restaurant business is so hard to succeed in, is because some new restaurant owners lack business sense? Possibly. In examining this angle, I learned six very important lessons about how to run a business – any business – by virtue of observing two slack restaurant owners in action.

Here are the six lessons:

1. Don't Stop With What you Know

Simply knowing what makes for good food and good drinks does not guarantee success. Just knowing your trade does not make you a tycoon. Marketing, administration, accounting, and a decent knowledge of the applicable law is crucial.

Our first case study is a local Italian restaurant that I ate at regularly. The food was incredible, the prices were decent, and the owner regularly came out of the kitchen to enjoy a chat with me and my companions towards the end of the evening. He regaled us with passionate stories of learning to cook his Italian menu in Italy, and regularly treated us to beautiful side dishes that reflected his latest culinary creation. He was truly a talented and masterful chef.

You probably know what's coming next. Although he was a passionate and talented chef, that's all he was. He had enough time to chat with us, because we were often his only customers for the night. Within four months of realizing his dream of opening a restaurant, he closed down and declared bankruptcy.

What our chef lacked was the ability to see that simply cooking good food (no matter how good it was) would not get people in the door. People had to know about the place first. If I didn't live down the street, I probably wouldn't have found the place either.

It helps to know enough to understand what you don't know. What you know – you do. What you don't know – you get help with.

2. Delegate to the Experts

Our talented Italian chef – let's call him Mario – refused to get help. He categorically insisted that he couldn't afford a lawyer, accountant, or even a decent server. He literally tried to do everything himself. I'm not even sure he slept.

Once you have figured out what you aren't proficient at (or what you choose not to be proficient at), then it is time to delegate. Hire the right people, to employ their own areas of expertise in your business. It is an investment, and a crucial expenditure.

Think of it this way too – the more people you hire or outsource to, the more people will know about your business. Although it is a very grassroots approach, word of mouth remains one of the best marketing tactics. The more people who have their fingers in the pie, the more buzz your business will create.

But…

3. Don't Hire Your Friends

Hiring friends can be fine – if they are the right candidates for the job. But they can also be the demise of the business if you aren't careful.

Mario had a sister, fresh off the boat from Italy. Although Mario initially tried to handle both cooking and serving, he realized quickly that he had to delegate the front-of-house responsibilities. Unfortunately, between the sister's complete inability to communicate in English, and her less than cordial table-side manner, she was responsible for many a table walking out on the bill.

When this happened, she would disappear into the kitchen, and we would hear her and Mario having an all-out argument at high decibels. Any other tables remaining in the restaurant usually made a speedy exit at this time.

Being family, at least Mario and his sister tried to communicate through their problems. When you hire friends though, lines become more blurred, and constructive communication often goes by the wayside. Mario's sister should never have been waiting tables, and Mario fell down (despite his best intentions) by hiring somebody to help them as opposed to hiring somebody who could help the business.

Sometimes it can't be avoided, if for example your friend really is the best candidate for the job. If you do hire your friends, be sure that other employees don't see evidence of the friendship in the way you treat your friend in comparison to other staff, and be prepared to wear different hats at work and after work.

4. Beware of Promoting from Within

On to the next restaurant in our case study: it is a popular burger joint by day, and a happening bar by night. The location is good, the food is okay, and the customer base is well-established. Our business hero – who we'll call Brad — stepped in as part-owner last year, and the place has struggled ever since.

One of the reasons the place has struggled is because of Brad's strict rules against hiring outside bartenders. In his mind, bartending is an easy "glory" job, and one that all servers aspire to. And so he figured that to improve staff morale and provide incentives to perform, he would only promote servers to bartending positions instead of hiring qualified bartenders from outside.

Although it seemed like a potentially viable way to improve server morale, the business suffered inexplicably for it. The well-performing servers floundered as bartenders. They had very little knowledge of mixology, could not pour drinks fast enough to keep up with the chaotic nighttime demand, and they didn't understand the rhythm required to keep both the servers and the customers sitting around the bar happy. Instead, they were thrown into the fire to learn the ropes, and many ended up quitting and serving somewhere else, rather than ask Brad for their server jobs back and appear ungrateful.

Everybody knows that a busy bar requires a busy (and competent) bartender. The night crowd slowly migrated to another bar down the street that could keep up with the demand.

Beware of the pitfalls of hiring from within:

The promoted employee may not be the best candidate for the job.
If you are promoting employees to management positions, keep an eye out for the potential fall-out that occurs when they are required to delegate to former colleagues who don't yet respect their authority.
What you may see as a glory job and a rewarding promotion may not be viewed as such by your employees.

5. Give It a Week Before You Make a Big Decision

Bartenders aside, Brad had even bigger problems. When all businesses in the area slowed down due to the recession, Brad did his best to take it in stride. But one night, for some reason, everybody decided to eat at his place. The restaurant and bar was packed, with people waiting for tables. Not expecting this busy night, the restaurant was understaffed and struggling to meet the constant stream of orders. Things went from bad to worse when a massive downpour forced all the patio guests inside, with nowhere to sit and meals getting cold. The night was capped off nicely when the head chef walked out.

In the aftermath of this one-night disaster, Brad decided – that night – to double the number of servers on shift at any time. In the ensuing weeks, the restaurant shelled out way more in hourly wages than they had previously, servers were often told to go home half-way through their shift, and each server's share of the pooled tips was considerably diluted. A month later, Brad's three best servers quit.

Brad's snap decisions ended up costing him way more than he paid that one night when everything went wrong.

6. Be Predictable, Even Boring

I initially enjoyed eating at Brad's restaurant. But after ordering the salmon three times, and getting three entirely different dishes, I became frustrated. I loved the salmon the first time I had it – lightly crusted, and served with a curry sauce, green veggies, and mashed potatoes. The next time, the sides were completely different, and the sauce was too spicy. The time after that, the sauce wasn't even curried and the sides were different again.

One of the defining elements of the success of McDonald's (and the whole franchise concept) is in the predictability of their menu. Regardless of whether you are in Los Angeles or New York, you will get the same Quarter Pounder, right down to the size and shape of the patty and the exact order the toppings are applied. People like knowing what to expect, and repeat business comes as a function of the customer wanting the same (or a similar) experience to what they had the first time. If they wanted something different, they would go somewhere else.

It's a Business, Not a Playground

These business principles apply to much more than just restaurants. By being consistent, hiring the right people (and not just the ones you like), being strategic and not reactive, delegating to the right people, promoting the right people, and not trying to be a one-person show, you too can run your business more like a business, and less like a playground.

Source: http://blogs.openforum.com/2009/05/27/6-tips-for-running-your-business-lessons-from-2-failed-restaurateurs/

Leadership Learning from Horses: Life Lessons from the Herd

2009-06-08T18:36:00.001+02:00

Leadership Learning from the Soul

Posted: 01 Jun 2009

I'm led to contemplation of leadership and the qualities needed to be a strong, competent leader, by a book I read, recently. It wasn't a book about leadership, to be honest. At least, not the kind of leadership needed to build a Xerox or an IBM or even a Google.

This book, The Soul of A Horse: Life Lessons from the Herd wasn't even written as a book on leadership. But, the lessons learned are of the highest order of leadership, in my humble opinion. They are powerful lessons, enduring, and infinitely challenging.

This book spun my world around a hundred different ways. It challenged my perceptions of this world I live in, where leaders are made through trial and tribulation, often at the hands of merciless schoolmasters or hardnosed parents. In this book, leaders are made by choice - not force.

Written by Joe Camp, director, writer, and producer of the Benji (dog) movies, popular earlier this century, the book is written for horse lovers. It's written to help human beings understand the leadership and followership mentality of a horse. I submit that it's in understanding why choose to horses lead or follow, that business leaders today could learn a little something.

Joe Camp is a unique individual. He proved that a dog could become the mascot of an entire country, with Benji. In this book, he steps off that familiar path (another lesson for leaders to learn) and painstakingly proves that horses can think. He carefully unveils the reality of horses on the plains, before man took charge of them and turned them into beasts of burden. He teaches the reader why the herd has to follow their leader - why that leader is beholden to the herd, and why humans have misjudged the majestic nature of the horse for so many years.

As I read it, I learned that horses exist to produce progeny; progeny that will continue the bloodline, from now to eternity. There is no other purpose than this. The leader must protect the herd, he must birth the next bloodline, and, with the matriarch, he must continually search out and discover safe, lush feeding areas. In the life of a horse, the herd is everything. Joe became leader of his small band of horses. He became one with the herd - by learning to speak their language.

I was reminded of how humans often congregate in herds, though we don't call it that. We use the same mentality horses' use - we choose leaders on the basis of their ability to take care of business, whether that's protection from the outside or from each other (even horses have their disagreements!). There can be no doubt that leadership in business requires integrity, dedication, assertiveness, and a willingness to sacrifice for the sake of the team. All attributes Joe will tell you that horses have, in spades.

In The Soul of A Horse Joe Camp details the necessity of patience, protection, understanding, and being one with your horse. It's a story of partnership - based on choice. It's a story of how to give up when it's time to give up (as in the story of how he could not keep one particular horse, but had to allow it to go on to a better home). Tough decisions are a part of leadership, and horses make them, too.

Joe Camp may have written a book about horses, about "Life Lessons from the Herd," but I read a book about leadership in a changing world. I read a book about leadership that is created by necessity, adopted by the strong, and accepted by the many. The community of man needs strong leadership, the way the herd needs strong leadership. It doesn't come without strength of character, and it isn't secured without sacrifice.

Like all good books, The Soul of A Horse is a starting point. It has lessons to teach, if you will but open your soul to learning them. Lead with intent, or not at all.

* * * * *

About the Author: Yvonne DiVita is the author of Dick*less Marketing: Smart Marketing to Women Online, a book about getting those baby boomer icons Dick and Jane to buy at your website. Follwing publcation of her book, she founded Windsor Media Enterprises, LLC. all about Books, Blogs and Beyond. Yvonne maintains a blog at LipSticking supporting her work in the women's market online. Yvonne is the VP of Web Communications at the Rochester Chapter of the American Marketing Association. She is quoted throughout the net on marketing to women, blogging for business, and publishing.

"Today, innovation is all about collaboration" [COOPERATION], [HELPFULNESS], [CREATIVITY], [AUDACITY]

2009-06-08T18:09:00.001+02:00

Excerpt:

"...we don't need more ideas. We have enough stuff to go around. What we need is more value in the world. And that's what innovation is."

Business Visionaries

Koulopolous On Innovation

Michael Maiello, 06.02.09, 06:00 PM EDT

A Q&A with Tom Koulopolous, the founder of Delphi Group.

Michael Maiello spoke with economist Tom Koulopolous on Forbes.com's Business Visionaries. (Click here to watch the interview.)

Mike Maiello: All right. Tom, thanks for joining us.

Tom Koulopolous: You're welcome, Mike. Thank you.

So, the topic is innovation. And the thesis is that innovation is not what we tend to think it is.

Right.

I don't just sit around waiting for lightning to strike in my brain and come up with that brilliant product.

It's funny. But, a lot of us, I think, we've been sort of brought up with this notion that innovation is all about the light bulb going off. Which is sort of the prototypical icon you have in mind when you think about innovation. And that's a view we've got from sort of the Edisonian perspective of the world.

Today, innovation is all about collaboration. It's not the lone genius off somewhere in a closet coming up with bright ideas. And frankly, we don't need more ideas. We have enough stuff to go around. What we need is more value in the world. And that's what innovation is.

So, you kind of have to change the way you look at your own relationship to the economy and the workplace. Because we were mostly brought up wanting to be imaginative heroes, right?

That's right. And none of this takes away from our ability to be imaginative or creative. I think we're all imaginative and creative in our own way. Granted, some of that gets driven out of us as we get older through schooling. And we could talk about that because there's some ways that we could perhaps not drive it out of children as readily.

But, look, you're right. The reality is you have to change the way you look at what innovation is. And in many cases, some of the best ideas that have come along recently have not been radical inventions. They've just been tweaking of what already exists. Even the iPod. Sort of the prototypical, the poster child of innovation over the last few decades.

Nothing was invented there. It was a new business model. It was a new market model and the componentry? It was all pretty much in place when Apple ( AAPL - news - people ) came to market with the iPod.

Meaning that there were MP3 players that were readily available and cheap, right?

You bet. And Tony Fidel who was the fellow who went to Apple, and really gave birth to the iPod, he went to a lot of those MP3 players and he said, "Hey, if we bring together this technology that already exists, we could develop a whole new marketplace." And everyone said, "That's crazy, Tony. Go some place else." And he finally ended up at Apple's doorstep, lo and behold.

And what's the role of style and panache in something like the iPhone?

There's always an element of style and panache in design to good innovation. I think you have to map it to the market. Into the psychology of the marketplace. Look at the flip video camera by Pure Digital. I mean, here's a device that was utterly simple and the marketplace embraced it, loved it. Today, you can personalize your flip any which way you want. It goes with colors and styles and patterns.

And they sold the company to Cisco ( CSCO - news - people ) for $560 million just a few months ago: five-year-old company, 100 people. I mean, that's innovation. They didn't build anything new. In fact, what they built was almost retro in many ways, right? Because Sony ( SNE - news - people ) and JVC were all building these complex camcorders and along comes the flip camcorder without even a zoom capability.

So, if I want a shot at being a part of a major success like that? I want to be in on the next flip phone, the next iPod, what kind of structure do I need around me? When I come to work, what has to happen?

Good question. The structure has a lot to do with it. The culture of the organization. The way in which it allows for failure in the organization. A lot of big companies don't like failure. Even short failures, small failures. And people are penalized when they fail. You want to create a company that tolerates a little bit of failure. Experimentation.

And a company that realizes innovation isn't about throwing more money at the problem. It's about taking things that are already there and creating a new business model around those things. And I think that's where the opportunity is today. To create those new business models. And they abound. They're everywhere. Amazon.com ( AMZN - news - people ) is a wonderful example. The Kindle is a great recent example. Change the business model, how you consume the information. I think that's the approach you want to take. Create some tolerance with failure and experimentation.

3M ( MMM - news - people )is a company that's often cited for allowing this failure. And sometimes profiting from outright failures. Can you talk a little about that?

Indeed. Well, I mean, the Post-It note is a classic example. But, 3M and the culture of tolerating failure of 3M goes back almost to the origins of the company. In fact, Dick Drew, who was the fellow who invented masking tape, was a fellow they had hired. He was a correspondence engineer. He didn't even have a degree.

And they hired him in the early days of 3M to go off and figure out how to build better abrasives. And Dick went to the body shops where they were painting cars. And he said, "You know what? What these folks need is not abrasives, but tape." And he went back to 3M and started playing around with tape.

And his boss said, "Dick, we're an abrasives company. We're not a tape company. Get off the adhesives kick." And Dick kept at it. And they couldn't fire him because they couldn't hire people at that point. And they couldn't afford new people. And after three years, Dick came up with masking tape. And at that point, the culture changed at 3M.

And 3M said, "You know what? We're not going to. We're going to tolerate failure. And we're not going to discipline someone for doing the right thing." And to this day, 3M actually allows its engineers to devote 20% of their time to non-project-essential activities. Things that don't have anything to do with their job day to day. What an amazing culture. And that has a lot to do with 3M's success. And they measure that. They measure that ability to innovate by how often their people come up with new ideas that they can repurpose. But, with the Post-It note, they weren't looking for that. They were looking for super glue. They weren't looking for a semi-permanent adhesive.

Here, they wanted an adhesive.

Exactly. They wanted a really fantastic adhesive. And along comes super, this sticky stuff that didn't really work very well. But, they filed it away. They put it in the corporate memory. And years later, they looked in the corporate archives and they found that they did have something that would work to create a semi-permanent Post-It note. And the rest has become history, as they say. So, you have to keep that corporate memory alive.

Now,Google ( GOOG - news - people ) has tried, I think, to take the 3M culture into the Internet age.

They've tried. It's not clear yet. It's early. It's not clear yet how well they will succeed. You certainly have to give them credit because they do experiment a great deal. And Google Labs is a wonderful example of that. If you go the Google site and you look at their Labs page, they're constantly recycling ideas and trying to find the next big thing.

They started a new venture fund now with a $100 million to invest in non-core areas. So, I'll give them credit. They're trying to do the right things. But market pressure is intense. When Microsoft ( MSFT - news - people ) and Intel ( INTC - news - people ) both tried to double down on their R&D investments recently during the economic downturn, they took quite a hit from their stockholders. Stockholders don't like to see that. They're very short-sighted. And it takes a lot of gumption and I think a lot of courage to invest long term in innovation.

Yeah. I wanted to ask you about that in our current environment because it's all good to say, "We tolerate failure." However, shareholders don't.

No.

And when things are really tight, as they are now, failure can be catastrophic.

Absolutely. That's a great question. I'll tell you what happens in that case. Large companies, unfortunately, just don't innovate as much in an economic downturn because stockholders don't tolerate failure. In fact, they barely tolerate maintaining the status quo when it comes to R&D investment. So, where will the innovation come from? It'll come from the small companies that don't have to account to stockholders. It'll come from the second-bedroom operations, the garage operations. And we forget that a lot of these companies--HP, Apple, Microsoft--these were all second-bedroom, garage operations.

In fact, at HP, they still have the HP garage that everything began in. So, these companies don't start big. They start small. And that's what I tell people. This is a great time for small companies to innovate. Because that really is where innovation ultimately is. The back bone of innovation is that small company mentality. That mentality.

And you're talking maybe even pre-venture level?

Absolutely. Small companies that are strapped for cash, don't have outside investors. Maybe have some family and friends. I think that really is ultimately where most of the innovation occurs. And we forget that 50% of all people employed in the U.S. are employed with companies of under 500 people. I mean, those are small, medium-sized businesses. And that's a big chunk of our employment base. So, we need those companies to be innovative, to come up with new ideas, and to capitalize on them.

Do you think the venture capital community is properly encouraging innovation at this point? It seems to me that they're being very hard on entrepreneurs.

Yes, unfortunately, when the economy gets tighter, VC comes with more of a burden. And I think that's what you expect. Look, venture capitalists are going to be more conservative in how they invest their money, and will require terms that perhaps extract a bit more leverage from the deal. What I encourage folks to do, small businesses to do, is to get the idea as far as you possibly can without outside capital.

But keep in mind that at some point scale has to take over. Speed to market is absolutely essential. And at some point, you have to give up a bit of that ownership stake. But hold on to it as long as you possibly can. That's the best way to build the idea. To have the latitude to build it. And then when the time is right, you give up what you have to give up to get to market in the fastest way.

What size are most of your clients? The people who come into your firm?

Most of my clients are actually large companies, Fortune 500 companies. But, what's fascinating to me. I didn't expect this, Mike. Recently, in the last 12 months, I've seen more medium-sized companies come knocking on my door. And I think part of that is because the innovation message really appeals to them. And they want to build a culture of innovation as early as they can.

They don't want to wait to be a big company to tackle that problem. They want to tackle it early. And that's good sign. I like that. I'm encouraged by that trend.

And how do people respond to this message of free to fail?

Surprisingly, small companies respond to it very well. Large companies have a tough time with it. If it's not really part of their culture, it's going to be very difficult to make it part of the culture in this economic climate. But small companies amazingly respond very well to it. And I think in large part because they realize that they have to somehow change the nature of how they operate, how they behave.

And it gives them an advantage to be more innovative. I call it the corporate canopy. It's kind of like a forest fire. The corporate canopy lets some sunshine in. Because the large companies aren't paying as much attention to when the small companies threaten them. That's a good thing for small companies because now they have some latitude. They can do things that otherwise might not last very long in the marketplace because a large company would co-opt their idea. So, I'm encouraged by what I see.

Do you find yourself ever butting up against the advice of other consultants? Particularly those who have that kind of input in/output out kind of equation, all you got to do is control your people.

Absolutely, when you deal with large companies, you absolutely come up against those sort of very operationally focused consultants. And, look, there's a role for healthy operations. The reality is that you have to perform well in the market to have a license to come back the next quarter and the quarter after that.

But, again, with smaller companies, I don't see that being the case. With smaller companies, there is a definite sense right now that there is an opening. That there's a bit of a green field to innovate. And if you can do that in three to four years time when the large corporates come back and start paying attention to innovation again, there will be a lot of value in those small companies. And M&A always follows a recession because those innovative ideas have to scale. And large companies will start buying those innovative ideas.

So, it's not too much to dream, then, for the entrepreneur to position yourself now for consolidation during the recovery?

Absolutely not. I think that is the ideal way to look at the three- to four-year horizon. Maybe five-year horizon. But the economy is turning around, apparently. It seems to be turning around a little bit. There is some light that's peeking through. And what I tell small companies is make that part of your strategy. Position yourself as innovative. That's a value that you have and that you bring to a larger organization. And that might result in an acquisition or a merger at some point.

Have you found that kind of risk aversion on the part of lenders, creditors and investors has translated to the smaller entrepreneur?

It has. And, unfortunately, we're not seeing enough involvement on the part of Washington, I think, to help that. Some of the community banks (I have to give them credit) are certainly trying very hard. Local and community banks are still trying very hard to support the entrepreneur. But, of the $1.4 trillion in stimulus and bailout between top and the Obama stimulus plan, I think less than 1% of it has gone to small business.

Don't tell AIG ( AIG - news - people ) that. They'll go after it.

But, that's incredible. Imagine, you know, you've got 50% of all the people employed in the country are employed by small business. And you've got 1% of stimulus going to small business. There's some things that are being done. The Obama administration is trying to sure up loans to small businesses and to guarantee more loans to small businesses.

But those are mostly for businesses that are already operating. Not those that might be starting up. So, I think we have to do a lot more to really encourage that sector of the economy.

Just because this might be our last chance to do so, I'd love to discuss GM and OnStar. Because that's another kind of amazing accidental story.

It is. And OnStar might be one of the few things, if not the only thing left at the end of the day that really has value from the GM journey, if you will, to be kind. Look, OnStar came out of nowhere. It was a complete accident. And Rick Wagner supported it. I mean, to his credit, one of the things that Rick Wagner did that I think really will be a legacy is the OnStar brand. And it's an incredible brand globally. It's being exported outside of the U.S. right now. We're not exporting much else from the U.S. automobile industry outside of the U.S. right now. So, I think it's an example of how even large companies can innovate if they try hard and if they put good intentions behind it. Unfortunately, one of the few examples in the automobile industry of where that happened.

Some of the OnStar origin is a little interesting. They had hired scenario planners from Shell who expected urban blight.

That's right. It's amazing how often we get the future wrong even when we apply very smart minds to it. And if you talk to Chet Huber, who still runs the OnStar division at GM, he'll tell you that when they first started OnStar, they had no idea that things like unlocking doors would have any value. Or that people would actually want to get directions from their OnStar system.

And today, OnStar can actually transmit a digital signature of the crash to the ER room. They're not doing that just yet. But they're experimenting with it. So that when you get to the ER room, the doctor knows what your injuries are before you even get there. And they had never even dreamed of this initially.

So, to do scenario-based planning is wonderful. But, the future's very difficult to predict. And the reality is it's why you have to tolerate failure. Because your journey to the future's always going to be an indirect one. And you have to have a built-in tolerance of taking those detours periodically. And they did for OnStar. And that's why I think it's evolved as a very successful brand.

What do you tell the small business owner or would-be business owner with an idea in terms of how to take care of themselves in the early years?

How to take care of themselves in the early years?

Yeah, financially.

Develop a passion for your idea and not only thick skin, but, I think a thick psychology that will allow you to deal with the turmoil, and the many detours that you will have to take. The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make is that they get so attached to their idea that they simply will not allow the market to shape it.

You have to market shape it. Don't get so attached to it that you're the only one who sees the beauty in the idea. This is like a mother and her baby. Every baby is beautiful to every mother. But some ideas? They have to change. Some quite radically, in fact. And I think entrepreneurs who will let the market take over, take the idea into their own hands and shape it are the ones who will be best off long term.

So, you have to have thick skin or a thick psychology to be able to do that. In terms of financially sustaining yourself, it's going to be a rough road. I have yet to find an entrepreneur who has not had to take longer than they thought it would take. That has not leveraged their home equity, refinanced their home. Done all kinds of things that otherwise rational people would not do. But you have to believe in that idea and believe it enough to let it grow. To let it expand beyond what your initial concept might have been of what it should look like. That's a tough thing. But it's a very important thing to do. And successful entrepreneurs let the market take over.

And who is the Innovation Zone written for?

The Innovation Zone. The book was originally for large corporates. And the intent was to get them to understand how they could create this culture. What I have found is that it's even more appropriate for small and medium-sized businesses who are trying to create this culture from the outset. And it gives you the foundation, the tenets that you need to establish a company where good ideas can thrive. And where people will get a fair shake when they come to you with an idea. And I think that's a good thing. Because our economy is going to grow because small businesses come up with new ideas. That's where the dreams begin.

So, I'm really encouraged to see that that audience, which I hadn't expected at the outset, has really embraced the book. But, look, at any point in time, innovation is a good thing. Whether you're one person in a garage or a 100,000 people in a global 2000 company. You still need to innovate. You have no choice in the matter, right? It's not an optional thing to do. So, I think there's food for thought for everyone there. But, it's encouraging to see small and medium-sized businesses really latch on to these ideas.

And this is book number eight?

This is book number eight, in fact. Yes. I have a passion for writing and my family has sort of followed suit in support of that passion.

You're typing number nine as we speak?

And I'm working on number nine as we speak.

Well, great. Hopefully, you'll come back when that's out. And thanks for joining us.

I look forward to it. Thank you, Mike.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/02/koulopolous-innovation-culture-opinions-business-visionaries-economy.html?partner=alerts

Why “Goofing Off” At Work Boosts Productivity

2009-06-08T17:25:00.001+02:00

Why "Goofing Off" At Work Boosts Productivity

June 6th, 2009

– Mike Elgan, Computerworld

Office "slackers" who sneak in a little Facebook and Twitter time do more work than the all-business, all-the-time folks.

Researchers at the University of Melbourne confirmed this little truism in a new study. Their research found that, on average, employees who use the Internet during work hours for personal reasons are 9% more productive than those who don't.

In my experience as a boss, employee and as a writer who thinks a lot about how technology affects attention and productivity, I think the Aussie researchers are looking at just one tiny piece of the attention-management puzzle.

I believe that not only are office slackers more productive than work-only employees, but that people who work from home are more productive than the office crowd — and for many of the same reasons, which I'll get to in a minute.

The researchers surmised that employees who do what they call "workplace Internet leisure browsing" (and what I call "Internet slacking") concentrate better after taking a mental break from work. But I'm not sure this explanation fully covers it.

Here are eight additional reasons why I think Internet slacking boosts productivity.

1. The subconscious mind keeps working.

Unlike physical labor, which stops when the worker stops, the mind keeps working on mental tasks when you're not thinking about them. This powerful process of problem solving happens when you're surfing the Web for fun, watching TV and especially while you're sleeping (hence the phrase, "Why don't you sleep on it?").

Internet slacking helps this process by getting the conscious mind, which is prone to getting stuck or blocked, out of the way.

2. It gets personal things off your mind.

If you're worried about your kids, or missing your spouse, or preoccupied with some pressing personal matter, you're not going to hit all mental cylinders in your work. Social networking, Twitter and personal e-mail let you quickly get in touch with friends and family, find out what's going on, then get back to work with full attention.

3. It builds work relationships.

Companies spend a fortune on lame team-building exercises and outings, which build work bonds only because everybody is suffering from the same forced interactions.

Social networking, on the other hand, can allow employees to build bonds at no cost to employers. Yes, people interact with family and friends who are not part of the company, but usually people interact with co-workers, too, and this can help build teamwork.

4. It converts real-time interactions into asynchronous ones.

A social interaction controlled by others (also known as an interruption) can devastate attention. I've found that a five-minute office "pop-in" by a co-worker can set me back the equivalent of an hour. This kind of concentration-shattering interaction is allowed — and even encouraged — in the workplace, while social networking interactions are frowned upon or even blocked. Why? Social networking interactions on Facebook and Twitter are, by definition, controlled by the user. They happen between, rather than in the middle of, bursts of focused concentration. They restore productive concentration without interfering with it.

5. It makes work more enjoyable.

People will hate their jobs if they have a strong desire to check in with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube during the day, but are blocked from doing so. If they're allowed to wander online, on the other hand, they'll be happier employees. And happy employees are productive employees.

6. It replaces bad slacking with good slacking.

If you think nobody ever wasted time at work before the Internet came along, well, you may also be interested in a bridge I'm selling on eBay.

People waste enormous amounts of time at work because of messy desks, inefficient processing of tasks, hallway chit-chat, long phone conversations and — the mother of all time wasters — meetings! All these activities look and even feel like work because they exhaust the mind and consume the hours.

Because people still have to meet their work objectives, deadlines and metrics for success, however, Internet slacking is likely to displace not productive work, but other (and lesser) forms of workplace slacking.

7. The Internet is educational.

Scanning blogs, RSS feeds and Twitter will inevitably introduce employees to wonderful time-management techniques, and stimulate the mind in other ways. (For example, this article you're reading now could be professionally valuable to you in some way. But aren't you supposed to be "working" instead?)

8. The mind will not be contained.

You can force an employee's body into a cubicle or office, but you can't force her mind to follow.

The human mind is a curiosity engine. Give it nothing to do but work, no way to satisfy curiosity or desire for social interaction, and it will rebel. More specifically, it will retreat into the daydreaming echo chamber. It will wander. It will seek ways to sabotage other employees (because that, at least, is interesting). It will employ its natural ingenuity to find ways to avoid work.

Turn the mind loose on the Internet, and it will likely go get whatever it needs when it needs it, then return back to focus on productive work stimulated, inspired and educated.

And finally, we come to telecommuters, extreme telecommuters and digital nomads, and why they're the most productive employees of all. I think the main reason is simply that these workers are unsupervised, and can freely surf the Internet for any reason at any time. (Plus, they don't have to sit through so many meetings or waste time commuting.)

As any telecommuter or mobile worker will tell you, they tend to establish a rhythm or process for managing work tasks with personal Web surfing that maximizes the quality of both.

It's time for managers to shed old and false assumptions about the relationship between Internet slacking and productivity, and treat all workers like telecommuters.

Slacking works!

Social Networking at Work: Fear Not Facebook, MySpace?

By David Kelleher

February 17, 2009 (CIO) Millions of people have a personal online profile; they share photos, news and gossip with friends, spend hours updating their details and adding new friends. Welcome to social networking and the world of Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.

What makes social networking on the Internet so popular is the power it gives individuals to create, maintain and expand any number of networks to include family, close friends and people who share a similar interest, profession or hobby.

The growing popularity of Facebook, for example, has encouraged corporate marketing teams to explore the opportunities to be had by having a corporate profile; using their employees contacts for sales and marketing, effectively creating a snowball effect as the corporate message is passed from one network to another. These sites give them a direct route to targeted groups of individuals with similar interests and, most importantly, it's free.

There is no doubt that Facebook and other social networking sites have potential for commercial use but to what extent should organizations or businesses allow social networking at work? What are the concerns? Should employees have access to Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking sites when they are supposed to be working?

The concerns
Social networking sites are the root of four problems.

Loss of productivity: According to a study by information security consultancy Global Secure Systems and the organizers of the Infosecurity Europe trade show, the use of such sites is costing U.K. business an estimated $12.5 billion per year in terms of reduced output. Another study showed that employees spend at least 30 minutes a day visiting these sites with some employees spending up to three hours of their working day taking care of their online profile.

Impact on network resources as bandwidth is consumed: In smaller organizations, unnecessary browsing, uploading to and downloading of files from social networking sites can eat up bandwidth thus affecting network resources.

Social engineering and phishing: This can result in data or identity theft. Most people would not divulge certain details to strangers but it is amazing what data can be gleaned from social networking sites--personal e-mail addresses and even social security numbers!

Sites are attractive to hackers and spammers: Social networking sites are attracting hackers armed with malware of all kinds: spyware, viruses and online scams. Hundreds of applications being developed for these sites are used as launch pads of malware such as Trojans.

What can businesses do?
There are three options.

1. Ban access to social networking sites (in an extreme case--block all Internet connectivity).

2. Allow employees unrestricted access, confident that they will only use it during their lunch break and they will not download material on to the network.

3. Monitor and limit staff access to these types of sites, including general Internet browsing and downloading.

Banning internet access outright is obviously counterproductive while allowing uncontrolled Web browsing is tantamount to leaving the front door to one's house open with the key in the lock.

The middle ground monitors all Web activity and controls it on a per user basis when social networking sites can be accessed at the office. Administrators can use Web monitoring software to block access during most of the day except during the staff lunch break or before and after normal office hours. The same software can be used to ensure that any files downloaded or links accessed online are checked in real time for exploits, malware and viruses.

If a company wants to make use of a social networking profile for marketing purposes, access should be given to those who will be updating the profile and all content should be monitored to ensure it is appropriate. Running third party applications should be discouraged.

Education also is important. If an organization wants its employees to be given restricted access to their social networking profile, it must be made clear to them that they need to be vigilant, avoid clicking on links that are suspicious, refrain from downloading files or applications that may be infected, and limit what details they add to their profile--details that could be used to steal identities and commit fraud.

Hackers are attracted to social networking sites because they see the potential to commit fraud and launch spam and malware attacks. Organizations, on the other hand, need to be made aware of the security risks involved and take the steps necessary to safeguard their systems and data yet allow the company to make the most of what the Internet and social networking have to offer.

David Kelleher is communications and research analyst at GFI.

The theory: The generality of people...live for themselves. The result: High divorce rate

2009-06-08T17:00:00.001+02:00

I've been thinking about divorce.

13 April 2009 by Manesh Nesaratnam

Why are so many of my friends separating, some just a year or two after getting married?!

So I've got this theory.

The generality of people I know live for themselves. Herein lies the tragedy lies.

We want to develop ourselves, educate ourselves, so we can take care of ourselves, pamper ourselves, accumulate for ourselves, ensure security for ourselves… In extreme measures we want to be in the top school, the best company, drive the fastest car, earn the most, be the smartest, most powerful, most famous, most loved, etc.

To varying degrees, these desires drive us.

When we get married we suddenly have to start thinking for the other person, being considerate and making huge sacrifices pertaining to our deepest desires in life. Suddenly, another set of hands are grasping at the steering wheel of our life and tipping it away from some of our goals.

Many of us have no idea how to deal with this.

So much easier it is to decide to part ways. "She's getting in the way of my life."

Surely there is a reason why some of the world's richest and most developed nations (materially) have the highest divorce rates.

Many people rave about how a Scandinavian welfare state is the ideal place to gain citizenship. But Sweden has the highest rate of divorce in the world! Finland, Australia, America and other developed nations also fall into this top tier of sad stats.

Perhaps these are lands of material prosperity, but how about family prosperity? Everyone wants to migrate there, but are we prepared to weather a challenging family life? When we immerse our children in these cultures (and pat our backs for having successfully left Malaysia), are we equipping them with the right attitude to face the world that glorifies self-indulgence?

There is this elderly couple I admire. When lamenting about how 8 in 10 couples these days divorce she shared some of her experience, "we used to scream, cry and fight it out. But not for a second did that thought enter my mind…"

It was a time where wives were less likely to hold jobs and were therefore less inclined towards even considering separation. It just was not an option. Perhaps it was easier then.

But whatever it is, today these guys are the picture of love. Yes, he is largely a gentle man whereas she tends to flash her iron fist every now and then, but at the end of the day, they are indeed signs of harmony and unity. He has learned how to accept her, she has learned how to accept him. Kinda. I think they're still learning. :)

I think my generation is going to have a really hard time with this.

We're so used to 'receiving' (from parents who want the very best for us, from maids) that 'giving' becomes such a difficult act.

But never mind divorce rates – less and less people are also getting married. The compounded conclusion – the world has more lonely people.

The insistent self asserting itself.

Source: http://goodpeoplewemeet.wordpress.com/about/

Movement and cognidtion: Taking four steps back improved a subject’s accuracy...

2009-06-04T00:45:00.001+02:00

June 1, 2009 | 0 comments

Our Bodies, Our Brains

Recent studies have shown that moving our body in certain ways can improve our ability to think. Christie Nicholson reports

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[Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.]

Remember the expression: "Talk to the hand."?

Since it came from: "Talk to the hand, 'cause the face don't give a damn." I'd say it's a negative statement.

Well, regardless of the words, the image of a pushed out arm is often connected to something negative.

And an arm beckoning towards oneself is typically connected to something positive.

In fact, body movement can become so strongly connected to the accompanying thoughts that the mere movement itself can elicit associated feelings, according to studies.

A recent experiment published in Psychological Science shows that approaching or moving away from an object can actually affect our thought processes. And body movements which are connected to negative emotions tend to enhance cognitive ability. The authors say that's probably because adverse situations typically require more cognitive control to deal with potentially bad consequences.

Working with 38 subjects, the scientists confirmed that either a step forward (a typically positive movement) or a step backward (usually negative) significantly changed one's ability to perform a mental task.

Taking four steps back improved a subject's accuracy and timing on the task, whereas taking four steps forward led to longer processing times and more errors.

Gives you a new angle on the line: "Take a step back and think for a second."

—Christie Nicholson

60-Second Psych is a weekly Podcast. Subscribe to this Podcast: RSS | iTunes

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=our-bodies-our-brains-09-06-01&sc=WR_20090602

What Is This Recession Here to Teach You?

2009-06-03T15:43:00.001+02:00

An interesting post from OPEN Forum by American Express OPEN.

What Is This Recession Here to Teach You?

Posted: 01 Jun 2009

The reports of diving revenues and continued economic downturn have many businesses rethinking any visions of growth projections. The hot phrase these days is, "flat is the new up."

And that may indeed be your most prudent short-term strategy – focus on ways that allow you to hang on and retain the business you currently enjoy rather than flitter about looking for new markets to save the day.

There are a handful of tactical moves that you should consider in this vein if you have not already.

Focus on customer service

Sure, you should always do this, but now's the time to revisit this entire category and start looking at everything your business does, with regard to a customer, as customer service.

Map out every current and potential contact with prospects and customers and ask yourself how you could turn each one into a marketing opportunity. Now, I don't mean a sales opportunity so much as I mean an opportunity to enrich the relationship and enhance the experience.

Then, go about putting your energy into building processes that allow you to take full advantage of the touches created by marketing and sales, as well as finance, delivery, support and service functions.

Add price points

There is a natural tendency to want to cut prices to retain business, heck, maybe your customers are even asking you to do so, but resist. In most cases, lowering your prices simply guts profits and devalues your products and services in the future.

Instead, look for new ways to repackage, reformat and reconfigure offerings to add more value and/or create entirely new price points and offerings.

If you sell a $5,000 service for instance, figure out how to build a $79 and $499 product package that would allow someone to become your customer with low risk and still experience your brand and awesome people.

This is a great business strategy in general, but it really shines when budgets get tight and buyers become more deliberate with spending decisions.

Keep long-term objectives

Those growth projections, innovations and market opportunities you identified last year are still valuable drivers for the long-term health and direction of your business – don't abandon them.

Think of the current climate as a bit of a detour on the road to your final destination. Sure, it may seem like a hassle, and maybe you'll arrive a little later at your destination than you planned, but, what if on this new course you also got to glimpse some interesting new scenery, learned much more about how to work together with your trip mates, and came out the other end with a fresh perspective on your industry in general. Maybe this forced side trip is really an unexpected and valuable part of your education.

Don't over correct, just look for what you are meant to learn on this new path and keep the long-tern goals on the white board for all to see.

Image credit: Joshua Davis

Source: OPEN Forum by American Express OPEN

Wifi security: Airport Wi-Fi easily hacked

2009-06-02T11:52:00.001+02:00

Technology
Hacking Airport Wi-Fi
Taylor Buley 12.08.08

Richard Farina booted up his computer on an American Airlines flight in October from New York to San Francisco. It was one of the first commercial flights to offer wireless Internet service. Within a couple minutes of reaching 10,000 feet, Farina was snooping the airwaves with the ability to see what his fellow passengers were doing without having to leave his cramped middle seat.

Farina isn't a bad guy. He was just doing his job as a so-called white-hat hacker for AirTight Networks, a manufacturer of wireless intrusion protection hardware and software. AirTight's chief executive, David King, sends hackers out for unsolicited security assessments. Earlier this year he dispatched Farina and a few other of his 100-plus employees to collect wireless security data at 20 U.S. airports and a few abroad. They found rampant phony Wi-Fi hot spots created by phishers and, at several large airports, plenty of open or insecure networks run by critical operations such as baggage handling and ticketing. Almost all public networks allowed data such as user names and passwords to pass through the air unencrypted. Only 3% of people used something more secure.

Video: Hackers Target Airports

To be sure, King's missions are self-serving; he runs a business that sells the devices that plug security holes. But King says that U.S. airports have a genuine problem. Very few, such as McCarran International in Las Vegas, monitor all wireless traffic for intruders. (The Vegas airport officials are quick to add that they don't censor for content.) Others, like San Francisco International, are laissez-faire. AirTight found that 47 wireless networks used for SFO's airport operations were wide open or poorly secured.

Wireless networks are some of the most easily hacked. Indian terrorists this summer broke into underprotected networks to e-mail a warning prior to bomb blasts in Delhi and Ahmedabad. In August the Justice Department indicted 11 members of a retail hacking ring, accusing them of grabbing millions of credit and debit card numbers off networks inside stores run by TJX Companies, BJ's Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Barnes & Noble and Forever 21, among others.

The most common means of protecting Wi-Fi networks, the Wired Equivalent Privacy encryption standard, or WEP, was broken in 2001. Nowadays a moderately skilled hacker needs only a couple of minutes to crack its key with an off-the-shelf wireless card. In November a pair of German computer science students made a critical first step toward cracking the Wi-Fi Protected Access encryption standard, or WPA, once heralded as the solution to WEP's insecurity.

The market for wireless intrusion prevention systems is still small: $168 million worldwide this year, according to research firm Gartner, but that represents a 40% gain from 2007. King's AirTight competes with other sellers of Wi-Fi security gear such as AirMagnet and AirDefense, which was recently acquired by Motorola for an undisclosed sum. Publicly traded Aruba Networks and Cisco Systems sell wireless security systems that are already built into their networking gear. Four-year-old AirTight has 600 customers paying between $40,000 and $50,000 a year. The private company in Mountain View, Calif. also licenses its products to hardware makers Siemens and 3Com.

King says that most of his clients are retailers, which are compelled by credit card industry audits to protect the financial data that travel on their networks, but airports are high on his prospect list. He and other security vendors say airports have been slow to harden their airwaves because of cost. It might require $200,000 to cover a place as big as San Francisco International, and the airports lack any mandate from the federal government to take control of the networks run by airlines and the companies that service them.

AirTight's system consists of a $5,000 to $10,000 central server that can manage a few hundred sensors at a time. The sensors, which look like a home Wi-Fi access point, cost $500 to $1,200 apiece. AirTight's server sends out what the company calls marker packets that identify radios actively connected to the network. Those packets are bounced back to the sensors from any active connection. All unauthorized connections are cut off. The server continues to monitor the airwaves for unauthorized attempts to connect.

McCarran airport is one of those willing to spend money for wireless security. It runs two wireless networks, one for public use and another for airport operations. "It was our intent to put the passenger in a bubble. He can go out to the Internet, but he can't touch anything on the airport side, and he can't see anyone else who is using the network," says Gerard Hughes, IT service manager at McCarran, which pays Aruba Networks $20,000 a year for software and hardware maintenance.

AirTight's David King will continue to cause headaches for airports with his surreptitious security scans to raise awareness and woo them as customers. "For any security product, there is this learning curve," he says. "We're somewhere in the getting-past-the-awareness stage."

Sidebar:
Is It Safe?

Video: Hackers Target Airports

Source: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/1208/052.html

Using gestures assists in learning mathematics etc.

2009-05-21T00:38:00.001+02:00

Scientific American: Mind Matters - May 19, 2009

With a wave of the hand

How using gestures can make you smarter

By Ellen Campana

Go into any busy coffee shop and you are likely to see people engrossed in conversation, waving their hands around. A man at the counter describes the coffee he wants to buy – in a mug, not a to-go cup – and his hand takes a familiar shape, as if he were already holding the cozy mug. Nearby, two sisters laugh, as one tells a story about a trip to the barrier reef and all of the fish that she saw, her hands wiggling and darting in an invisible sea in front of her. The drive to gesture when speaking is fundamental to human nature.

If you have thought about why we gesture you probably assumed that we gesture to help others understand what we are saying. Pretending to hold a ceramic mug can help the barista understand exactly which mug you want. Showing how the fish darted to and fro can help your sister get a more vivid picture of what the reef looked like to you.

But might gesture also serve another purpose? Many scientists now think that gestures can help the person making them -- that moving your hands can help you think. Researchers have become increasingly interested in the connection between the body and thought – in the ways that our physical body shapes abstract mental processes. Gesture is at the center of this discussion. Now the debate is moving into learning, with new research on how students learn to solve math problems in the classroom.

To understand the research, consider a math problem like 3+2 +8 =___+8. A student might make a "v" shape under the 2 and 3 with their pointer finger and middle finger, as they try to understand the concept of "grouping" – adding adjacent numbers together, a technique that can be used to solve the problem. Previous research has shown that students who are asked to gesture while talking about math problems are better at learning how to do them. This is true whether the students are told what gestures to make, or whether the gestures are spontaneous.

Now researchers are asking how. The new study -- by Dr. Susan Goldin-Meadow and Zachary Mitchell of the University of Chicago, and Dr. Susan Wagner-Cook of the University of Iowa – focused on third and fourth graders solving a problem that required grouping. Students who are coached to make the "v" gesture when solving a math problem like 3+2+8 = ___+8 learn how to solve the problem better. But students also do a better job even if they were coached to make the "v" shape under the wrong pair of numbers. The very act of making the "v" shape introduces the concept of "grouping" to the student, through the body itself.

But what, exactly, was the process that made this possible? During the study, all of the students memorized the sentence "I want to make one side equal to the other side." They were then asked to say the sentence out loud when they were give a problem to solve. The authors suggest that students who also gestured attempted to make sense of both the speech and gesture in a way that brought the two meanings together. This process, they suggest, could crystallize the new concept of "grouping" in the student's mind.

The same process could occur in any situation where the person who is speaking and gesturing is also trying to understand – be it remembering details of a past event, or figuring out how to put together an Ikea shelf.

The study has important implications for the field of cognitive psychology. Historically, the field has viewed concepts, the basic elements of thought, as abstract representations that do not rely on the physicality of the body. This notion, called Cartesian Dualism, is now being challenged by another school of thought, called Embodied Cognition. Embodied Cognition views concepts as bodily representations with bases in perception, action and emotion. There is much evidence supporting the Embodied Cognition view. However, until now there has never been a detailed, experimentally supported account of how embodiment through gesture plays a role in learning new concepts.

The study also has more practical implications for teaching, suggesting that teachers can help students learn new concepts by teaching them gestures.

The results from this study may not generalize directly to the gestures you may see in your neighborhood coffeeshop. But the next time you are in a conversation with a gesturing friend, it may be interesting to ponder how those moving hands are subtly shaping her thoughts, as well as yours.

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=with-a-wave-of-the-hand&sc=WR_20090520

Reflection on the Pursuit of Elegance [GRACE], [SIMPLICITY], [BEAUTY], [INTELLIGENCE]

2009-05-18T23:37:00.000+02:00

In Pursuit of Elegance: 12 Indispensable Tips

Guy Kawasaki of How to Change the World | May 18th, 2009

(85) found this useful. Do you?

Matthew E. May is the author of In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing and the ChangeThis manifesto called Creative Elegance. He spent nearly a decade as a close adviser to Toyota and works with creative teams and senior leaders at a number of top Fortune companies.

Question: How do you define elegance?
Answer: Something is elegant if it is two things at once: unusually simple and surprisingly powerful. One without the other leaves you short of elegant. And sometimes the "unusual simplicity" isn't about what's there, it's about what isn't. At first glance, elegant things seem to be missing something.
Question: Why is it so important?
Answer: Elegance cuts through the noise, captures our attention, and engages us. The point of elegance is to achieve the maximum impact with the minimum input. It's a thoughtful, artful subtractive process focused on doing more and better with less. That's especially important during this economic crisis when everyone is trying to move forward while consuming fewer resources.
Question: What is the essence of elegance?
Answer: Elegant ideas — products, services, performances, strategies, whatever — all have some degree of these four elements: symmetry, seduction, subtraction, and sustainability. A great example is Sudoku. First, Sudoku is symmetrical, with its squares inside of squares and mirrored distribution of clues. Second, it is seductive—to the point of being irresistible and craze-worthy.Third, it's subtractive in design. The Sudoku puzzle designer crafts a complete solution and then symmetrically subtracts filled-in squares to arrive at the starting grid which is predominantly empty. Finally, and as a result of these first three, the game is sustainable in terms of both the infinite number of games that can be constructed, as well as players' interest in the game. And yet it's so simple.Sudoku could not be easier to learn: you do not even need to know how to count, its one rule can be explained in a single sentence, and it takes but a minute to grasp plus it is universal in nature unlike crossword puzzles which are knowledge-based as well as language-specific. And yet, the underlying complexity behind the logic needed to solve a Sudoku puzzle can be incredibly challenging.
Question: Which companies are your favorite examples or elegance?
Answer: Toyota is one. With Scion, they refused to advertise, and they drastically reduced the number of standard features to allow Generation-Y buyers to make a personal statement by customizing their cars. The Scion xB flew off the lot when it came out.Another example is the British bank, First Direct. It is branchless and became the most highly recommended bank in the United Kingdom. Then there's the French manufacturing company FAVI that realized better employee relations when they eliminated their human resources department. W. L. Gore and Associates completely eliminated job titles and typical corporate hierarchy in order to release the creativity of its staff employees. And finally there's always the usual suspects like the Google interface and Apple's clean design.But my all-time favorite is In 'N Out Burger. a freakishly popular hamburger chain that started in Los Angeles a half century ago, that has built its brand on the "less is more" approach with an interesting twist. The menu offers only five items: a hamburger, cheeseburger, double burger, French fries, and a short list of beverages. By keeping things simple, founder Harry Snyder says he is able to provide the highest quality food in a sparkling clean environment.In 'N Out understands that seduction, and that subtraction can simply mean "not adding." By resisting formal menu expansion they've avoided the self-defeating overkill seen in consumer electronics, with its "feature creep," and the resulting "feature fatigue. "Their only rule is "to do whatever the customer wants done to a burger." In fact, Wikipedia shows a photograph of a 20X20, and on a Halloween weekend in October 2004, Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh and blogger What Up Willy ordered and ate—with a team of six others—a 100X100, consuming nearly 20,000 calories in less than two hours.The twist? There is a secret menu at the restaurant that only regulars are privy to – mostly just different combinations of the standard fare like three burger patties and three slices of cheese. But these special combos have never been on the regular menu, and apparently never will, because they offer the customer a certain "mystique."
Question: Which companies are your favorite bad examples?
Answer: There's nothing elegant about excess. Open up Microsoft Word and get all your toolbars out in the open. Stuff you've never seen, don't need, certainly never use, and probably don't even know how to use. Look how much space is left for the primary value-adding function of Word which is writing. And not to beat the downtrodden U.S. automakers, but for all the divisions, brands, and bureacratic layers, you can count on one hand the number of truly compelling models.
Question: Why do companies with unlimited money continue to put out such crap?
Answer: I'm not sure anyone has unlimited money at the moment, but even those less worse off than others probably suffer from a dire lack of two things: discipline and descrimination. The enemies of elegance are (1) adding and (2) acting. The notion of subtraction goes against how we're hardwired which is to push, collect, hoard, store, and consume. We're natural-born adders which is partly why elegance is so elusive. Whether we're talking about a product, a performance, a market, or an organization, our addiction to addition results in inconsistency, overload, or waste—and sometimes all three.And here in the US we have a cowboy instinct, where the bias is for action. In other words, Don't make me think, let me just do. Doing SOMETHING is deemed better than doing nothing. But that's not always true. I spent some time with National Geographic adventure journalist Boyd Matson. He taught me how to stand still when the hippos charge. If you act, and run, you're dead. Stand still, do nothing, they stop charging. But that is fiendishly difficult because it's so unnatural and counterintuitive. But that's what happens in business.
Question: What's the first step a CEO should take to get her company on the right track?
Answer: When Fortune named Apple "America's Most Admired Company" as well as "Most Admired for Innovation," honors owing largely to the success of the iPhone, Steve Jobs revealed that a "stop-doing" strategy figured centrally into Apple's approach. What he said was: "We tend to focus much more. People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of many of the things we haven't done as the things we have done."That's the mindset. And step one? Create a solid stop-doing list. Sounds simple, but few do it. Guru Jim Collins says you absolutely must have a "stop-doing" list to accompany your to-do list. As a practical matter, he advises developing a strong discipline around first giving careful thought to prioritizing goals and objectives, and then eliminating the bottom 20 percent of the list. If as CEO you do that, and demand that everyone do that, including designers and engineers with respect to the stuff they're building, your ugly crap quotient goes way down.
Question: Do you think there's a position for CTOs (chief taste officers) in companies?
Answer: Probably, but then here's the tricky part: who do you appoint to find and hire them? You have to understand elegance first to find it. Ideally you'd like everyone to develop a sense of elegance in whatever they're trying to do. I'm really encouraged that schools like Stanford, with the D School partnering up with the IDEO brothers Kelley, teaching "design thinking" to MBAs, and the Rotman school, lead by Roger Martin and his "Integrative Thinking" discipline, are in the mix.They're teaching people how to balance and master the creative tension between getting it out and getting it right. It takes no discipline or genius to either spend money or to make broad cuts which inevitably tend to put everything on hold and inevitably destroy whatever value might exist.
Question: How should companies make engineering and user-interface design work together?
Answer: Study the best: Google, Apple, Lexus, and Ferrari. They understand that complexity is their best friend, not an enemy. They understand it, so they can exploit it. The Google interface is clean and simple though the algorithm is massively complex. Even Einstein understood this. E=mc2 has an easy and immortal ring to it. Can you imagine if he rolled it out with the 40 page proof behind it?It's about finding the simplicity on the other side of complexity as Oliver Wendell Holmes put it. It's about playing chess, not checkers. Both are played on the same board yet chess demands more strategic thinking and much deeper experience to truly master the goal of immobilizing—checkmating— the opponent's king.Checkers, with its mostly single-step play, is far less demanding, easier to learn, and quicker to play. Chess masters understand the nature of complexity—that it is part of the game, and it's why they play it. The challenge and thrill lies in the endless search for ways to manage and exploit those complexities. Make it SEEM blazingly simple. That's elegance. Complexity isn't the enemy to a chessmaster—without it they'd be playing checkers. But there's times when we look at the stuff we buy or experience and we swear that the design and engineering weren't even playing checkers. They were playing Whack-A-Mole.
Question: Why do you think the Japanese have such a way with elegance?
Answer: From a practical and business point of view, there's a historical event. The first helps you understand the second. Culturally, as the Zen philosophy took hold in Japan during the 12th and 13th centuries, Japanese art and philosophy began to reflect one of the fundamental Zen aesthetic themes, that of emptiness.In other words, less is best. Why? In the Zen view, emptiness is a symbol of inexhaustible spirit. Silent pauses in music and theater, blank spaces in paintings, and even the restrained motion of the seductive geisha in refined tea ceremonies all take on a special significance because it is in states of temporary inactivity or quietude that Zen artists see the very essence of creative energy. The goal is to convey the symmetrical harmony of nature through clearly asymmetrical and incomplete renderings; the effect is that those viewing the art supply the missing symmetry and thus participate in the act of creation.As for the second reason, it's kaizen — continuous improvement. It means "no best, only better." You see the word zen in there right? It's zen for business, and it came about during the US occupation, 1945-1952, under MacArthur. We flattened Japan. We had to build it back up from the ashes. Their economy was in shambles, and they had just begun to industrialize prior to WWII. We taught them continuous improvement, because they had no resources — no land, facilities, or money. They had human capital.To stop improving was to stagnate—which was to die. It was a war on all the things that make for crap: overproduction, overprocessing, defects, conveyance, unneccessary motion, inconsistency, and inventory. In short, Japan HAD to get elegant. They've never forgotten how they did it, and they've institutionalized it.
Question: What websites do you consider elegant?
Answer: I'll make you blush: I love the whole "create your own AllTop page." It's subtractive because I select from the universe of blogs. It's sustainable because the bloggers' continuous ideas that supply the ongoing content. It's symmetrical because something is symmetrical if you can do something to it and yet it looks the same: I select my topics, create my own magazine rack, as it were, yet the AllTop site remains unchanged. It's seductive because you don't get the whole blog, just a snippet, which whets your appetite for the whole sushi roll. [Matt's MyAlltop page is here.]Beyond that…Twitter! I'm relatively new to it, (http://twitter.com/matthewemay) but utterly addicted. Something about those 140 characters mandates creative subtraction. Therefore, a good tweet requires good editing. There's a certain symmetry…everyone is treated the same. There's built-in seduction because you always want to know more about who you're following. Sustainability—they're working on the financial aspect of the sustainability element, but I doubt with the mounting popularity that that will be a problem.
Question: Holy kaw, you are making me blush! Then how do we know features to add to Alltop/MyAlltop and balance elegance against feature requests?

Answer: I spent some time with the late traffic designer Hans Monderman and the UK urban designer Ben Hamilton-Baillie. Together they have designed and redesigned high traffic intersections in the Netherlands and UK to be nearly devoid of traffic controls. I'm talking intersections with over 20,000 vehicles, pedestrians, and bikes daily.Flow and safety have doubled because they create "shared space" with no right of way. You have no choice but to be cautious and alert—and use your noggin. Ben says this: "Research shows that over 70 percent of traffic signs are ignored by motorists. What's wrong with how we engineer things is that most of what we accept as the proper order of things is based on assumptions, not observations. If we observed first, designed second, we wouldn't need most of the things we build." But it is not quite as simple as the trite cliché "look before you leap."What Ben really means is that we should become better detectives. That's how you keep feature creep in check. The one constant source of elegant innovation is observation. The Japanese call it genchi genbutsu which means "go look, go see." That allows you to triangulate around the customer: observe them not just by asking them what they want— they don't always know, can't always articulate it, and they'll change their mind tomorrow—but by becoming one yourself.You have to be a bit of an undercover cop. That way you don't get too clever and add stuff because you think it's cool—which is a design bias. Instead, you add stuff that adds value—which is a customer bias. You've done that with My.AllTop.com. You've added a customer-designed feature without cluttering up your interface. It's what In 'N Out Burger does: let the customer do the adding.

Source: http://blogs.openforum.com/2009/05/18/in-pursuit-of-elegance-12-indispensable-tips/

The virtues of Conviction and Integrity [HONESTY], [THOUGHTFULNESS], [FAITH], [COURAGE]

2009-05-16T23:54:00.001+02:00

An insightful and well written article on an important concern for personal development.

Conviction

by Brian Tome

Do you ever turn on the television at an unusual time for you and see a show that you haven't seen for years and years, something like Happy Days? And the episode that you see that day is an episode that you realize that you still think about? At that moment, aren't you astounded by how much mind space that meaningless show has taken up in your mind?

When Happy Days or Laverne & Shirley takes up mind space, it is wasted. I don't see what value is added to my life in remembering when Fonzie was perplexed dealing with his need to beat up Richie in order to save face. Remember what happened? Richie was in the bathroom with Fonzie, and the Fonze was so excited when someone opened the door and smacked Richie in the face. That way everyone assumed Fonzie punched him. How about when Lenny & Squigy had a towel that stood straight up? These episodes don't provide any motivation for the daily grind.

For me this phenomena takes place with various things I've heard people say. In seminary there was a professor who was asked by a student if there could ever be such a thing as a just war. He said, "Is there anything you would die for?" The student said, "Yes." Then he said, "If it is worth dying for, it is worth killing for." To this day, I'm not sure that I totally follow his logic or reasoning. But those are words that continue to bounce around in my brain. Those words have passed through my mind on the average of once a week over the past nine years or so. Preparing for this message was like revisiting that episode that has been taking up mind space.

Every time I think about that I ask myself what I would die for. Have you ever asked yourself what you would take a bullet for? If there are things you would take bullets for, you have no problem with the first aspect of integrity: Conviction. People who have integrity have a set of values that they are passionate about. Having convictions is the starting point of integrity.

Before we talk about convictions I want to set the stage by defining what integrity is. There is a lot of talk about integrity these days. Everyone thinks they have integrity, at least compared to the next person. At least that's what we'll be hearing in the next presidential elections. In order to really have integrity, not just claim we have integrity, we need to understand what it is.

1) Integrity is Totality

The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and contains the word that we translate as integrity. I couldn't have picked a better word for the word integrity. Whoever invented the Hebrew language was very insightful, because the word for integrity is literally "tome." That shouldn't be surprising to any of you. I always thought my last name meant a collection of books, but this makes much more sense. It is true to life. (As you'll see in a little bit, I wish this statement were more accurate.)

In the Old Testament book of I Kings there are instructions as to how to build the Jewish Temple. The state of completion of that edifice is the word tracing back to "tom." A building that is complete is one of integrity. Our mission in this church is to "walk with the seeker in becoming complete followers of Christ." That doesn't mean that we all want to believe the same things in every detail of life, though belief is a precursor to life change. Thinking right doesn't mean anything if it doesn't lead to living right.

Our church is seeking to work with people at different spiritual developmental stages in order to get us all to a place of completion, wholeness or integrity, where the totality of our lives is the way God wants it to be.

Chronicles 16:9
The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. (NIV)

Though God is willing and able to work with every life, those lives that are moving toward total full-out commitment generally receive the most strength from God. Actually, I wish the epistemology of my last name actually had more in common with my life. The truth is that I like to be liked, and liking to be liked is pressure to bend to what others believe and do, and that isn't always right. You link my like to be liked with the personality of an extrovert, and I have a lot of people that I'm trying to please. The more people you try to please the harder it is to consistently and totally follow through on your convictions.

I'm tempted to act like many politicians. We all know of politicians who flip flop on issues. Conservatives become liberals and vice-versa. These people have every right to change their views. New information can be presented to change our minds; that can be a sign of growth. But we shouldn't change our views just to make them more palatable to other people.

We do this, though, don't we? We teach our kids to do things that we don't do. And we discipline them for things we do. We expect our children to be innocent and well behaved, yet we don't apply the same standards to our own conduct.

We tell them not to lie, yet we fudge figures or "position" the facts.

We reprimand them for using bad language, yet we are pretty uninhibited when we are doing beers.

We tell them to share, but if someone takes that parking space at HQ a split second before we do, we act like an immature kindergartner who has been drinking red juice.

We frequently change sides or at least change our verbiage on issues because we aren't people of integrity. Instead of having a conviction that says, "This is what is right, and this is where I stand," we compartmentalize. We think, "I'll act this way with you and that way with them, and when I'm over there, this will be my modus operandi..."

Maybe I'm a masochist, but the older I get the more things that I add to that list of things I would take a bullet for. That is because the older I get the more I see how all of life is interrelated.

The idea of integrity in the Bible means wholeness. It means that the totality of your life is the same. You are the same when you go to church; you are the same when you are at work; you are the same if you go out for drinks; you are the same when you determine what you are going to be entertained by. You are a whole person, not a bunch of fragmented pieces that behave differently depending on the compartment. Conviction is where we get the energy to connect the dots and become a person of wholeness and integrity. Leadership guru Warren Bennis says,

Effective leaders ... have a strong sense of purpose, a passion, a conviction for wanting to do something important.
Warren Bennis

The best long-term leaders are not those who live a double life. They are those who have an overriding God-honoring set of convictions that guides them every day, regardless of the terrain. You can be a short-term leader without integrity but not an effective leader over the long haul.

2) Integrity is Tenacity

Integrity is like oxygen. The higher you go the less of it there is and the more you need. At the same time, the deeper you go or the lower you go, the more pressure there is to come apart. In the navy, before a submarine submerges, the crew checks to see if the vessel's hatches are battened down. When the first mate receives the confirmation from the rest of the crew that their station is secure, the captain will get the report: "This is a ship of integrity." What that means is that the ship is watertight.

It quickly becomes obvious when a hatch is not shut. It is obvious that the vessel isn't in a state of integrity. But there is far more work involved in ensuring that the ship will remain a vessel of integrity when the pressure is on. From time to time, every seam, every weld, every rivet needs to be inspected. Because if it is not a totally strong ship, one leak can wreak major havoc and cause serious damage.

Some say that there is an apparent honesty void at higher levels of organizational structures, that the higher you go the less oxygen there is. A similar thing can be said when the pressures of life start to push you down. The lower you go the more pressure you feel and the greater the likelihood there is that you will spring a leak.

Best-selling author and activist Rita Mae Brown says,

People are like tea bags; you never know how strong they'll be until they're in hot water. In times of trouble, you not only discover what you truly believe but whether or not you can act on your beliefs.
Rita Mae Brown

We think that people of integrity never do anything really really bad like run away on their wife and kids. In reality the break of integrity doesn't happen then; it happens long before then, when people don't tend to the small cracks and stress fractures. When pressures start to mount, whether they be financial worries, issues with boredom, pressure from peers or something else, they can explode and cause people to do things that aren't right. Even when things seem fine on the surface, there are sometimes problems beneath the waterline that no one else can see.

The person who runs away on their spouse had stuff going on beneath the water line. The paint looked good, but barnacles were eating at the hull.

In the next few days, you'll be doing your taxes, and only you will know what is completely accurate. Are you demanding that your kids be totally honest?

You have been having beneath-the-waterline conversations about someone who isn't present and doesn't know what you are saying. Is it accurate? Does it match what you have told that person? Would you say it if he or she were in the room?

A teacher in grade school once made an offhand comment that said, "You know when you are mature when you act the same no matter who you are with." I think about that a lot. So I combine that statement with the statement from my seminary professor, and I'm looking to kill whomever I'm with. Kidding. Teachers can be powerful change agents. Let's see what some students once said to Jesus, the greatest teacher of all time.

Matthew 22:16
They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. "Teacher," they said, "we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are. (NIV)

I don't think Jesus received nearly enough compliments. Generally people didn't go out of their way to encourage Him. But here is one of the biggest compliments He ever received. At least if someone were to say this to me, I would take it that way. They say, "You aren't swayed by the opinions of others." This doesn't mean that Jesus is a stubborn hardhead. It means that when He knows something is right He executes against it; it doesn't matter who He is with. He was the same person in every situation and eventually even died for the sake of truth. These guys said to Him, "When we go beneath the water, you are the same person. You are a man of integrity who has the totality of your life headed in the same direction - the right direction."

Our church is engineered to provide a place for those of you who aren't Christians to examine the claims of Christianity and to seek whether or not God is worth devoting your life to. We try to speak your language in our weekend services, recommend reading materials, put on seminars, host seeker small groups and provide other learning opportunities. We know that people look for watertight arguments and rationale for why Jesus is the only way to truly experience an eternal relationship with God.

There are some compelling arguments and data within the Bible that need to be examined closely. But the Bible's purpose is not to provide us with watertight arguments and rationale; it was written to give us a watertight person: Jesus Christ. No matter where He was, no matter what He did, He consistently did the right, loving and courageous thing

As much as we don't like some things that the Bible and Jesus teach, you don't hear about people who have disrespect for the person of Jesus. He was historically a watertight person of integrity. When Jesus asked people to come to Him, the other things took care of themselves.

The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

I have three statements I want to make that tie integrity and conviction together. I'm leaving a blank not for you to fill in the one word I'm going to give you but rather as an exercise for you to fulfill. Filling in any God-honoring value and conviction will accurately complete the statement.

I have a conviction that _________ will alter my quality of life

Or as an example, I have a conviction that being selfless with my spouse will alter the quality of my life. I have a conviction that God has established rules in terms of how this life is to be lived; how wholly committed I am to those principles will have a direct reflection on the quality of my life.

Proverbs 11:3
The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity. (NIV)

Many lives are destroyed by duplicity and compartmentalization, lives which don't have lines drawn in the sand along with a sign that says, "I'm not going there!"

I have a Conviction that _________ will dictate the quality of my faith.

If you are a selfish person and your selfishness is coming into your home, I know that it directly affects your ability to connect with God. Show me a person who isn't honoring and serving their spouse and I'll show you a person outside of God's favor.

Psalm 25:21
May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you. (NIV)

Conviction that _________ will set the pace for generations after me.

I was speaking with Cyndi King, our Director of Children's and Family Ministries, recently; she was telling me of breaking research that indicates that the strength or power base of one's parenting begins even before people are married. In those years, their integrity and character are forged; opinions of what is right and wrong are drafted, and parenting is simply the natural expression of that parent's life up to that point.

If your parents drummed into your head that money was supreme, guess how long they have been acting that way? Long before you were born. My parents are here this weekend. They set the pace in some areas that prepared me to set the pace for my kids. I can remember going to functions with my Dad; when a friend at the front of the line waved me up, he wouldn't let me go. Cutting in line wasn't acceptable. I still can't cut in line to this day.

1 Kings 9:4-5
As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever...(NIV)

Whether or not you are a person of integrity right now directly affects the likelihood of your kids becoming people of integrity.

3) Integrity is Tempting

The reason I say that integrity is tempting is because we don't really want it. It is too much work. It is too hard. Following through on convictions takes too much effort. There is a price to pay that is high enough to overcome the temptation. As I shared a couple weeks ago, I've been tempted to buy a new car. The only reason I haven't yet is that I haven't been willing to pay the price.

You aren't a person of integrity and you don't have any guiding principles until they start costing you and you willingly pay. I'm not as together as you may think I am. In fact, I have an outage in my life. I'm not a person of integrity when it comes to... recycling. I don't have a deep enough conviction about recycling to go down the steps to the basement at 11:30 at night. I sometimes put bottles in the garbage under the sink. I'm not wholly committed to it. I'm making light of something that many of you don't think is funny at all. Why? Because you are committed to paying the price. It doesn't matter if you are in Yellowstone National Park, at work, at home or at Mt. Rumpke. That Mt. Dew bottle isn't going to go in the garbage.

We succeed only as we identify in life, or in war, or in anything else, a single overriding objective, and make all other considerations bend to that one objective.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

I've had a relationship with the watertight person of Jesus for almost 18 years. As best as I've been able, I've made Him and His values my single overriding objective. Some friends of mine, who became Christians at the same time I did, don't even think of Jesus any more. Being in full-time ministry for 11 years I've grown accustomed to seeing people fade away. Even in this only 3-year-old church, there are people who have just walked away from God. He doesn't play any role in their lives anymore.

There are a number of different reasons for this. You may be one of those people in the making. Let me give you just one reason why it may happen to you: You never intended to have your whole life come under God's direction. You never had the kind of conviction that said, "All of my life. All of it in totality. I don't know if I fully understand what 'all of it' means, but as I continue to grow in my relationship with Jesus, as I become aware of what He wants me to do, I'm up for it." You are tempted to think like that. You may make comments in public that tempt others to think that you think like that, but deep down under the water you know you don't.

We don't want an integrated life or a life of integrity. We want some perks that come from integrity. The last time I mentioned anything about integrity in a message, a woman came up to me after the service and said, "I want to be a person of integrity." Then she paused and said, "Actually, what I want is for people to think I'm a person of integrity." In that moment she came a step closer to her originally stated goal, because she realized that her statement wasn't whole. There was more to it than met the ear.

We aren't talking about being a moralist in this series. That isn't what God-honoring integrity is about. We are talking about drawing on a relationship with Christ that infiltrates every nook and cranny of your life including that which is beneath the surface. I encourage you to start paying the price that it takes to become a person of integrity. It will be the best investment you'll ever make.

Source: http://realplace.org/notesonline/1999/041199.html

Characteristics of successful leaders

2009-05-16T23:29:00.001+02:00

This survey relates to Church leadership, but contains valuable lessons for any situation!

THE CRITICAL ISSUE IS LEADERSHIP

Warren Bennis, one of the most respected authors on the subject of leadership and founder of The Leadership Institute at USC, wrote this month that the crisis of leadership in our institutions and governments is in many ways the most urgent and dangerous threat facing the world today because "it is insufficiently recognized and little understood."
Writing in the July issue of Executive Excellence and drawing on 40 years of studying leadership, Bennis says that effective leaders share five characteristics.

1. They have a strong sense of purpose, a passion, a conviction, a sense of wanting to do something important to make a difference.

2. They are capable of developing and sustaining deep and trusting relationships. They seem to be constant, caring and authentic with other people.

3. They are purveyors of hope and have positive illusions about reality.

4. They have a balance in their lives between work, power, and family or outside activities. They do not tie up all of their self-esteem in their position.

5. They have a bias toward action and while not reckless, they do not resist taking risks.In speaking to a select group of doctoral students at Asbury Seminary last week, Carol Davis, a staff leader at The Church on Brady, identified critical changes of church leadership development, five of which are summarized in the following chart.

Changing Patterns of Leadership Development

Equipping

Past

Contemporary

Emerging

The What

Knowledge

Methods

Principles

The Why

To Minister...people

To Manage...structures

To Multiply...new units

The When

Weekly

Formal

As Scheduled

Formal & Informal

As Needed

Formal, Informal & Nonformal

The How

Formal

Theory...removed from practice

Case Studies

Projection...simulation

Hands On

Practice...relational

The Focus

Personal Evangelism

Pastoral Care

Discipleship

Use of Gifts

Mobilization of Laity

Reproduction

The value of HUMILITY in Management [HUMILITY], [TACT], [CARING], [CONSIDERATION], [UNDERSTANDING], [WISDOM]

2009-05-13T16:50:00.001+02:00

Humility

The Most Beautiful Word in the English Language
By Bruna Martinuzzi

Many years ago, one of my university professors mentioned that "windowsill" was voted the most beautiful word in the English language. Being an armchair linguist, this factoid naturally stayed with me. Words have enormous power. They can make us erupt into laughter or bring tears to our eyes. They can influence, inspire, manipulate and shock. They can build and destroy. Some words have different effects on different people. One such word is humility. It is one of those words that are seldom in neutral gear. Some, like me, love the word and all it stands for. Some almost fear it and interpret it synonymously with lack of self-confidence or timidity.

The dictionary defines humility as modesty, lacking pretence, not believing that you are superior to others. An ancillary definition includes: "Having a lowly opinion of oneself, meekness". The word "humility" first struck me in the context of leadership when Jim Collins mentioned it in his seminal work Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't. In this book, Collins examined companies that went from good to great by sustaining 15-year cumulative stock returns at or below the general stock market, and after a transition point, cumulative returns at least three times the market over the next 15 years.

Among the many characteristics that distinguished these companies from others is that they all had a Level 5 leader. Level 5 leaders direct their ego away from themselves to the larger goal of leading their company to greatness. These leaders are a complex, paradoxical mix of intense professional will and extreme personal humility. They will create superb results but shun public adulation, and are never boastful. They are described as modest. An example of such a leader who epitomized humility is David Packard, the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, who, in Jim Collins' words, defined himself as a HP man first and a CEO second. He was a man of the people, practicing management by walking around. Shunning all manner of publicity, Packard is quoted as saying: "You shouldn't gloat about anything you've done; you ought to keep going and find something better to do."

Another great leader is Patrick Daniel, CEO of North American energy and pipeline company Enbridge, who espouses two leadership attributes: determination to create results and humility, shifting the focus away from himself and continually recognizing the contributions of others. "I have learned through the lives of great leaders," he said, "that greatness comes from humility and being at times, self-effacing."

Clearly these leaders, and many others like them, don't espouse the meaning of humility as "meek". On the contrary, it is a source of their strength. But the notion of being self-effacing is one that we struggle with in our competitive culture, prescribing that we take every opportunity to toot our own horn, and that we don't dare leave the house without our dynamic elevator speech all rehearsed.

We often confuse humility with timidity. Humility is not clothing ourselves in an attitude of self-abasement or self-denigration. Humility is all about maintaining our pride about who we are, about our achievements, about our worth - but without arrogance - it is the antithesis of hubris, that excessive, arrogant pride which often leads to the derailment of some corporate heroes, as it does with the downfall of the tragic hero in Greek drama. It's about a quiet confidence without the need for a meretricious selling of our wares. It's about being content to let others discover the layers of our talents without having to boast about them. It's a lack of arrogance, not a lack of aggressiveness in the pursuit of achievement.

An interesting dichotomy is that, often, the higher people rise, the more they have accomplished, the higher the humility index. Those who achieve the most brag the least, and the more secure they are in themselves, the more humble they are. "True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes". (Edward Frederick Halifax). We have all come across people like that and feel admiration for them.

There is also an understated humility of every day people we work with who have the ability to get the job done without drawing attention to themselves. Witness the employee who is working at his computer into the late hours, purely motivated by a keen sense of duty, the executive assistant who stays after 5:30pm on a Friday night in an empty office to await a courier, or the manager who quietly cancels an important personal event to fly out of town to attend to the company's business. This is akin to the philanthropist who gives an anonymous donation.

Humility is also a meta-virtue. It crosses into an array of principles. For example, we can safely declare that there cannot be authenticity without humility. Why? Because, there is always a time in a leader's journey when one will be in a situation of not having all the answers. Admitting this and seeking others' input requires some humility.

Another mark of a leader who practices humility is his or her treatment of others. Such leaders treat everyone with respect regardless of position. Years ago, I came across this reference: the sign of a gentleman is how he treats those who can be of absolutely no use to him.

Something interesting happens, too, when we approach situations from a perspective of humility: it opens us up to possibilities, as we choose open-mindedness and curiosity over protecting our point of view. We spend more time in that wonderful space of the beginner's mind, willing to learn from what others have to offer. We move away from pushing into allowing, from insecure to secure, from seeking approval to seeking enlightenment. We forget about being perfect and we enjoy being in the moment.

Here are a few suggestions on practicing humility:

There are times when swallowing one's pride is particularly difficult and any intentions of humility fly out the window, as we get engaged in a contest of perfection, each side seeking to look good. If you find yourself in such no-win situations, consider developing some strategies to ensure that the circumstances don't lead you to lose your grace. Try this sometimes: just stop talking and allow the other person to be in the limelight. There is something very liberating in this strategy.
Here are three magical words that will produce more peace of mind than a week at an expensive retreat: "You are right."
Catch yourself if you benignly slip into over preaching or coaching without permission - is zeal to impose your point of view overtaking discretion? Is your correction of others reflective of your own needs?
Seek others' input on how you are showing up in your leadership path. Ask: "How am I doing?" It takes humility to ask such a question. And even more humility to consider the answer.
Encourage the practice of humility in your company through your own example: every time you share credit for successes with others, you reinforce the ethos for your constituents. Consider mentoring or coaching emerging leaders on this key attribute of leadership.

There are many benefits to practicing humility, to being in a state of non-pretence: it improves relationships across all levels, it reduces anxiety, it encourages more openness and paradoxically, it enhances one's self-confidence. It opens a window to a higher self. For me, it replaces "windowsill" as the most beautiful word in the English language.

Based in British Columbia, Bruna is the President and Founder of Clarion Enterprises Ltd, a company which specializes in emotional intelligence and leadership training. Click here to contact her or visit her website at www.increaseyoureq.com.

Source: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_69.htm

Simplify your life via gadget consolidation

2009-05-13T13:15:00.007+02:00

Elgan: Simplify your life via gadget consolidation

Save time, money and headaches by reducing the number of devices you use

Mike Elgan

May 2, 2009 (Computerworld) Giant corporate IT departments do it. And so can you.

Server consolidation, which is the process of reducing the number of physical servers used at a company without reducing the total number of theoretical servers (through virtualization), can boost efficiency.

Companies do consolidation because new projects tend to get new, dedicated hardware. Only later does the total waste become apparent.

We all do the same thing in our personal lives. Each new "project" -- TV upgrade, new cell phone, new music system -- involves dedicated hardware. Only later do you realize that you've got cables everywhere, five remote controls, too many devices to be charged, and clutter and complexity everywhere.

By consolidating gadgets, you can free up space in your home, save money and make your life easier.

If you read my blog yesterday, you'll know that I've recently become semi-nomadic, living in a smaller house but traveling abroad most of the time. This project got me thinking about all the efficiencies of gadget consolidation.

Here are all the things I consolidated, or plan to consolidate, and how:

PC and laptop: Until recently, I used my three-year-old desktop PC (which had dual 20-inch screens) while at home, and a laptop while traveling. But this week I sold the PC with one of the monitors and now use my laptop full time. This works nicely because my laptop has an 18-inch screen. While at home, I plug into the 20-inch LCD display I didn't sell, which gives me the same two-screen experience I used to enjoy on my desktop.

TV and laptop: OK, the truth is I still have a big flat-screen TV. But because I'll be away from home much of the time, I made sure my laptop has Blu-ray support and even a TV tuner so I can watch high-def movies and local TV wherever I go. I can also watch clips or entire TV shows on Hulu and other Web sites.

Cell phone and remote control: A remote control unit is just a battery-operated device that throws infrared light around the room. Any device designed to work with a remote will be controlled by anything that produces the right series of infrared flashes.

There are a gazillion ways to set this up, depending on what kind of phone and home entertainment system you have. Simply search Google for your brand of phone plus "TV remote," and you'll get links to several options. The goal is to use the gadget you're already carrying, rather than one or more dedicated remotes that clutter the room or get easily lost.

Land-line phone and cell phone: Over the next few days or weeks, Google plans to launch Google Voice, which is a single phone number you can give to people. The trick is that you can choose online which of your phones the call goes to. It can go to your land-line phone at work during the day, then to your cell phone -- or any of your cell phones -- at night and on weekends. The service unifies voice mail and transcribes messages for viewing online or via e-mail. Google Voice will simplify life for you, because it gives you more control over incoming voice calls, but also for anyone who calls.

TiVo and PC: There are lots of ways to use a PC to record TV shows for viewing either on a TV or on the PC itself. The leading DVR company, TiVo, offers several options, for example, on its Web site.

Digital camera and camcorder: The line between digital cameras and camcorders is blurring to the point of nonexistence. Take your pick. My Sony CRX HD camcorder takes better still photographs than most digital cameras. And my $400 Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 digital camera takes breathtaking HD video at 30 fps. (It's waterproof and rugged, too.) There are so many cameras that "go both ways" that there is no longer any reason to have both -- or at least to carry both.

E-book reader and cell phone: I love my Kindle, but I'm stunned at how enjoyable the Kindle application (and other e-book reader applications) on the iPhone is. By using your cell phone as an e-book reader, you can save $400 and reduce the number of gadgets you have to carry around.

PC and sound system: By splurging on a high-end audio card and speaker systems, you can avoid a dedicated stereo altogether and still have great sound.

Cell phone and sound system: My laptop is my sound system when I'm on the road, but when I'm at home, I simply plug my iPhone into a PC sound system, launch Pandora (a kind of custom-radio app) and enjoy great-sounding music.

Satellite radio and cell phone: I've taken a lot of heat for my frequent predictions about the demise of satellite radio. But I still believe that satellite radio is not long for this world. Besides the intractable financial problems of Sirius XM Radio, the experience of listening to streaming audio from a cell phone is just too great for satellite radio to compete with. And it's free.

Cell phone and alarm clock: I got rid of my dedicated alarm clock a year ago and now just use my phone. It's easier, more flexible and more reliable -- and I can make the sound as annoying as I want to.

Cell phone and GPS: I bought a nice GPS about five years ago, and it cost me more than $1,000. Those days are gone. Now, a cell phone can replace most consumer GPS functions, such as turn-by-turn directions and finding businesses.

These are just a few examples of what's possible. If you have one of the leading smartphones, such as an iPhone, BlackBerry or Windows Mobile device, the number of applications that replace random gadgets, tools or other things is truly amazing. The larger point is that gadget consolidation is worth doing and offers a whole lot of benefits.

Big companies consolidate for very good reasons. Maybe you should, too.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9132473

Facing the facts induces humility, brings success [COURAGE], [HUMILITY], [TRUTHFULNESS], [HONESTY]

2009-05-05T11:07:00.001+02:00

An intriguing analysis of the virtue of "effective apology", from the intelligent Personal Branding Blog.

Personal Branding Interview: John Kador

Today, I spoke with John Kador, who is a New York Times bestselling author and author of the new book, Effective Apology. In this interview, John discusses how executives can earn more money by apologizing, the significance of the word "sorry," the power of authenticity, some great examples and more.

Can you explain how executives who apologize earn more than executives that don't?

Here's just one example of how executives who demonstrate the ability to apologize tend to earn more than executives who don't. In my book I describe some research that the Pearl Outlet, an online retailer, conducted. The company noticed that many customers (usually men) often presented pearls as part of an apology (usually to wives and girlfriends). For obvious marketing reasons— "Say you're sorry with pearls!"—the company wanted to know more about this relationship between pearl giving and apology.

The company commissioned a formal study of over 8,000 customers. The survey confirmed that customers who are willing to say "I'm sorry" earned more money—nearly twice as much—as those who rarely or never apologize. Stated another way, customers who earned more than $100,000 a year were twice as likely to apologize after an argument or mistake as those earning $25,000 or less. It turns out that a customer's willingness to apologize is a perfect predictor of their place on the income ladder. In addition, the relationships of those who apologize tend to be better (or at least longer-lasting) than of those who resist apology.

We can interpret these results in many ways. To me, executives who are confident enough to apologize tend to be very good at maintaining relationships. They are also good at accepting responsibility for problems, and, because of that, they are better at fixing them than those who blame others. All of these are the qualities valued and rewarded by any organization.

Do you really think that "sorry" is an important word if there is no meaning behind it?

The meaning of apology is in the action, not the words. You can't talk your way out of a situation you acted your way into. What makes apology so powerful is not what you say, but what you do. Apology must be observable. We should be able to see the action that accompanies the words. For example, saying "I'm sorry" is one thing. What the apologizer does to provide restitution is another.

The other most important action is whether the apologizer changes his or her behavior. If he or she can be seen not to repeat the offending behavior, then the apology is complete. It takes more than words. Every effective apology contains within it the answer to the question, "how is the apologizer to be held accountable for the apology?"

Personal branding is about authenticity. How can leaders harness their true self?

The first thing that authenticity requires—and why the willingness to apologize is such a critical path to harnessing one's true self—is a commitment to face the facts. One of those facts is that we all make mistakes. When we do, we have a choice. We can confront the truth about our imperfection and apologize, or we can deny, defend, and stonewall. When we acknowledge the facts—including those that make us look bad—we are on the road to authenticity.

This is far better than pretending that we are perfect. By acknowledging, naming, and ultimately accepting our mistakes, we embrace our humility and make room for our true selves, imperfect and all too human, just like everyone else. Apology is a way of honoring what we know to be true, while at the same time honoring ourselves and those we care about.

Can you give examples of 2 people and 2 companies that have apologized and earned back their respect?

Within months of each other in 2006, two CEOs came under fire for misstating their academic credentials. One CEO was forced to step down while the other is still at the helm. David Edmondson, CEO of RadioShack Corp., admitted that the company's web site gave him a credential he never actually earned. At yellow pages publisher R.H. Donnelley Corp., chairman and CEO David Swanson admitted that he never actually earned a degree from the university he attended, despite what the company said in news releases and what it posted on the web site. The CEO who chose Plan A (RadioShack's Edmonson) was forced to resign while Swanson who chose Plan B is still R.H. Donnelly's CEO.

Edmonson now acknowledges that a candid and immediate apology might well have saved his job. Currently CEO of Fort Worth based Easysale, Inc., Edmonson admits he made a mistake by not immediately correcting the biography that RadioShack distributed to the news media and posted on its Website. Then when a story appeared on the front page of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in February 2006, he should have apologized immediately. Instead Edmonson made three classic errors. He delayed. He got defensive by deflecting responsibility ("I wasn't responsible for the web site"). And he tried to explain. These behaviors lad to a death spiral from which no CEO can recover.

Over at R.H. Donnelly, Swanson went to his board before the issue became a public. Swanson accepted total responsibility and apologized. The company nervously issued a news release to correct the record, but it never became a problem. At the time, news reports about the incident praised Swanson for his candor. With hindsight, Edmonson recommends that CEOs incline toward more transparency. "When you own up to your own shortcomings, the fear of whatever you are guarding is released," he says. "Apology frees you from the burden of whatever you have in your past."

If you want an example of a company whose brand was at risk and that regained its credibility, you can look no further than the toy maker Mattel.

A key benefit of apology for leaders is that it reassures people that the leader is on their side. Leaders who acknowledge fault with a genuine apology argue against people's suspicion that they are indifferent to the pain their companies have caused. From this position, people are more likely to forgive. The truth of this was dramatically demonstrated at Mattel, when the toymaker had three recalls in one summer representing 18.2 million toys, the most in company history, because of lead paint and design flaws.

"I started every discussion on the recall with these words: 'I am sorry we are here. I'm sorry this recall happened," says Robert A. Eckert, chairman and CEO of Mattel. "Even though the lead-based toy recalls represented less than 1 percent of all the toys Mattel produced, it should have been zero. I'm sorry you have to worry about this." Eckert just kept on apologizing in person, on TV, and in print. He was even criticized for apologizing too much. But the results supported his commitment to accountability. Many analysts predicted that the Mattel brand would suffer. Instead, the company exceeded revenue expectations.

What is one situation in your life when an apology helped you?

Just recently an effective apology got me out of a well-deserved ticket when a state trooper pulled me over for speeding.

I was driving on a business trip and hurrying to get to my next appointment. A state trooper pulled me over. "Sir, are you aware you were going 75 miles per hour when the posted speed limit is 55 mph?" he said. Instead of giving an excuse, I decided to admit it and apologize. "Officer, you're right. I was speeding. I'm a guest in your beautiful state and I'm afraid I have abused the privilege. I'm sorry." He looked at me for a minute and I thought I detected a smile and then he said, "Sir, I'm going to issue you a warning today. Please observe the posted speed limits. Drive safe and have a good day."

Of course there's no way to know for sure what the trooper would have done had I not apologized. And had I received a ticket, the fine would have been my restitution. Apology is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. But what are most of us tempted to do when caught doing something wrong? We deny we were speeding or offer excuses or plead for mercy: all attempts to evade responsibility. Here's the paradox of apology: by admitting responsibility and accepting consequences, we often find that the consequences are not as dire as we fear. The world may not be as punitive as we sometimes think it is.

——
John Kador is an author, consultant, and speaker who acts as if every word is a moral choice. His work centers on identifying and describing best practices in leadership and promoting the highest standards of personal accountability, humility, and transparency. This book, which describes the benefits that leaders accrue when they embrace apology rather than shy from it, is squarely in that tradition. His personal credo is that different is not always better, but better is always different. He is the author of over 10 books, including Charles Schwab: How One Company Beat Wall Street and Reinvented the Brokerage Industry, 50 High-Impact Speeches & Remarks: Proven Words You Can Adapt for Any Business Occasion, and the NY Times bestseller Net Ready: Strategies for Success in the E-conomy (with Amir Hartman and John Sifonis). His latest book is called Effective Apology.

A story of taking the path less traveled and following one's dreams -- [AUDACITY], [COURAGE], [FAITH]

2009-05-02T22:17:00.001+02:00

This seems like pretty good advice in any situation! What are your thoughts?
(Excerpts:)

"...which decisions did you make that helped the most?
"- The decision to learn to speak in public...
"- The decision to commit. Commitment brings its own reward - in ways that are unimaginable things happen to speed you on your way. But you must commit."

Personal Branding Interview: Phil Town

By: Dan Schawbel on May 1st, 2009

Today, I spoke with Phil Town, who is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Rule #1 and the upcoming author of Payback Time, which debuts in September. In this interview, Phil tells his own story of how he's build his personal brand to be what it is today. Also, he gives you the secret to getting a book deal and becoming a bestselling author, tells you how to invest in this economy and emphasizes the importance of social media in the world today.

Phil, how did you go from an average high school student pumping gas to a #1 NY Times bestselling author and world renowned speaker?

I took the path less traveled and followed my dreams. I wanted to be a soldier since I was a kid so I went in the Army and eventually was awarded the famous Green Beret and joined Special Forces. I liked some parts of what I did in Latin America and Vietnam but it wasn't for me so I got out at age 23. I got a job as a whitewater guide because running drugs looked too dangerous.

I loved running rivers, living outside and I did that on a bunch of rivers for ten years. I had a lot of time off season so I started reading philosophy, got stoned a lot to discover the secrets of the universe, turned to meditation instead, lived in India and France in ashrams so I could ponder the absolute and eventually was so absolutely broke I took an offer to apprentice with an investor who taught me the right stuff and then I went off and made my millions. And then wrote about it so you can do it, too.

There are hundreds of thousands of books published each year. How were you able to stand out? What marketing tips do you have for authors?

"The key thing to understand about the publishing industry is that they don't sell books, they publish them."

Since they don't sell books, they look for authors who can sell the books if they publish them. This ability is highly prized. They will pay you a lot of money for your book if you can show them how it will be sold in large enough quantities that they'll not only get their money back but also make a profit. In my case, I had been on a speaker circuit with several seminar producers and over 2 million people had seen me already. Plus, the seminar producers raised their credibility by raising my credibility so they featured me in ads after the book came out and they put the book out to their subscribers …. all of which drove it to #1.

"Here's the marketing tip of the century: create a large group of fans who will buy your book before you write your book."

In a horrible economy, what three pieces of advice do you have for hardcore investors and what three pieces do you have for a beginner?

For the hardcores: Be careful. The best investments are usually the one's you don't make. And only buy wonderful businesses and only when they are on sale. Then go do something else and wait for the price to go up as it inevitably will.
For the beginners: Ditto.

If you had to examine your personal brand throughout the past few decades, which decisions did you make that helped the most?

The decision to learn to speak in public. That led to being in front of people. That led to a book. That led to another book … and that will lead to a bigger audience. And that leads to a lot of fun.

The decision to commit. Commitment brings its own reward - in ways that are unimaginable things happen to speed you on your way. But you must commit.

You have another book coming out in 2010, and you're already preparing now for it's launch, with a Facebook page and Twitter. What role does social media play in your life now and in the future?

It is huge. Unimaginably huge. In two years I will not need a stage to speak on. My audience will be connected to me through social media and web 2.0. These are incredible democratizing tools that allow talent and skill to rise to the top. Learn how to use these tools. Do it now.

—-
Phil Town is the author of Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing in Only 15 Minutes a Week! (Crown Publishing Group, 2006)—the #1 New York Times best-seller and Amazon.com's top-selling business book of 2006. He heads the list of motivational speakers, addressing 500,000 people per year across the nation at the mega-seminar "Get Motivated." An ex-Green Beret and former river guide, Phil is a self-made millionaire several times over. Town usually is found sharing the stage with the likes of President Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell and Zig Ziglar, speaking to groups numbering 20,000. His latest book called Payback Time: How to Outsmart the System That Failed You and Get Your Investments Back on Track, comes out in September.

Source: http://personalbrandingblog.com/personal-branding-interview-phil-town/

Study: Prayer Leads to Good Health

2009-04-28T23:16:00.001+02:00

From Newsmax.com.

Study: Prayer Leads to Good Health

Monday, April 27, 2009

By: Phil Brennan

Meditation and prayer can improve your physical, intellectual, and emotional well-being and may even slow the brain's aging process, according to a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania.

Writing in his new book, "How God Changes Your Brain," Andrew Newberg, reports the results of brain scans that he and his team conducted on more than 100 meditating or praying people.

Newberg, director of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind, says his research shows that the physical and emotional benefits of spiritual observances "dramatically accrue over years of practice, but even recent converts exhibit healthier brains," according to the San Francisco Chronicle's David Ian Miller.

In one of Newberg's studies his team did brain scans on people who had never meditated before and went on to teach them simple meditative methods, Miller writes. After a mere eight weeks of just 12 minutes a day of meditation, there was a considerable improvement in memory scores and a measurable decrease in anxiety and anger.

Newberg told Miller, "A lot of the new research that we've been doing shows that when people engage in religious or spiritual activities and practices, or they have religious experiences, by and large they tend to have a positive impact on a person's mental health and wellbeing. That helps them accomplish their goals, to set a path for themselves, and therefore helps them survive. At the same time, religion and spiritual pursuits help us change and grow over time by giving us a model for transforming ourselves. Ultimately, they're our way of asking ourselves to follow the ideals of what we think a good human being should be".

Newberg's study echoes a 1999 study, "Scientific Research of Prayer: Can the Power of Prayer Be Proven?" by researcher Debra Williams.

Williams looked at more than 4,000 participants over the age of 65. She learned that those who pray and attend religious services on a weekly basis, especially those between the ages of 65 and 74, had lower blood pressure than their counterparts who did not pray or attend religious services, according to Jet magazine.

Moreover, they found that the more religious a person, particularly those who prayed or studied the Bible weekly, the lower the blood pressure. These people, the study showed were 40 percent less likely to have high diastolic pressure or diastolic hypertension than those who did not attend religious services, pray, or study the Bible.

© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

“You need to make the value proposition clear, so the people who engage get something out of the process.”

2009-04-15T10:57:00.001+02:00

A couple of tips on how to solve a problem that requires cooperation. From the intelligent blog of David Henderson - consultant, author, journalist.

10 Twitter Tips for the Workplace

Posted: 14 Apr 2009 12:03 PM PDT

Among the rash of tips about online social media, this piece by Carolyn Duffy Marsan of Network World is outstanding, and clearly the best in my book. She knows what she's talking about, and provides a wealth of links to back-up her examples.

Carolyn has graciously given permission for me to excerpt her 10 Twitter Tips for the Workplace:

1. Identify a business problem you are trying to solve.

Don't deploy social media tools just to appear cool.

"You really want to focus on the business problem you are trying to solve and the communities you need to engage to help you solve that problem," advises Lena Trudeau, program area director for the National Academy of Public Administration.

The Defense Information Systems Agency, for example, is using a commercial mash-up tool from JackBe to allow military commanders to create real-time feeds using information from many disparate sources, says DISA CTO Dave Mihelcic. The Web 2.0 software solves a real-world problem for military commanders. "If senior leaders and decision-makers can get a common visual depiction of a situation, it will be easier for them to synchronize their decisions," Mihelcic explains.

2. Get buy-in from management.

Involve all of the key stakeholders: the people who have the information and those who control its distribution.

The General Services Administration's top management "has been very supportive" of the agency's social media efforts, says B. Leilani Martinez, bilingual content manager with GSA's www.gobiernousa.gov. "That has helped us a lot. Across government, the reaction from top management has been quite inconsistent. Certain government agencies block employees from using some of these tools. For me, I was on Facebook every day from work and on Twitter. GSA allowed us to think outside the box and to experiment."

Valuable Yoga Relaxion Techniques Release Tensions

2009-04-13T15:32:00.001+02:00

Yoga techniques for body maintenance!

http://yogawithdoreen.com/Articles.html

Doreen Kleinschmidt offers Svaroopa® Yoga Classes, Yoga Therapy...and more. All offerings lead to a powerful release of tightness in the body and the mind...

Svaroopa® Yoga's "Core Opening"

By Doreen Kleinschmidt

"Core Opening" is a term coined by Rama Berch who created Svaroopa Yoga. Core opening is a concept and a consequence of the practice of Svaroopa Yoga. Svaroopa Yoga is defined by two immensely distinguishing characteristics.

First, deep inner immersion — every Svaroopa yoga class offers shavasana (yoga's relaxation pose) at the beginning and shavasana at the end — shavasana is the pose which offers the greatest relaxation. Second, poses are done in sequence to reliably release the deep muscles of the spine – beginning, most importantly at the tailbone and continuing through the sacrum, waist and ribcage. Rama's approach doing poses this way derived from her technology of the tailbone and the paradigm of release. This way of doing hatha yoga is dramatically different. It is said that Svaroopa Yoga is physical and more than physical.

Svaroopa yoga relies on a number of primary principles that all serve in opening the spine. It is this opening of the core which actually leads students to experience the benefit of yoga in their lives by activating their own power of transformation, and it is an opportunity to understand the body in new and wonderful ways. Students learn "it all begins at the tailbone" — that the release of tightness first and foremost at the tailbone initiates a process that carries up through the whole spine. We all know the consequences of tight tailbone muscles — back and neck aches, TMJ, sore shoulders, tight hamstrings, and the inclination to worry, just to name a few.

Support equals release. We use propping in the poses which along with other elements, actually elicits the reliable release of muscle and the opening into poses. When a yoga practice is done like this, there is true alignment in every asana.

Bones are for support. We learn to lean on our bones and use them for the support they are meant to provide.

A tight muscle is a weak muscle and a weak muscle is a tight muscle. We learn that every tight muscle is a weak muscle. These weak, tight muscles constrict blood flow (along with the proper nutrition and oxygen) as well as diminishing the flushing of toxins.

Perhaps the most important thing we learn is how to experience our inherent bliss. When Rama took Svaroopa's name from the yoga sutras. she turned to "tada drashtuh sva-rupé vasthananm." This means the moment the mind becomes quiet "the seer sees himself in his own true nature." In other words, the moment the mind becomes quiet, we can then experience the inherent bliss of our own inner self.

So the core opening releases tight muscles and, even more interestingly, tight minds. The core opening also leads to a true core strengthening. By unraveling deep internal tightness, tissues replenish, joints align, breathing and digestion improve, all organs, nerves and glands are nourished, and the relaxation response kicks in. Svaroopa yoga inspires a cascade of openings that detoxify and restore the body. Along with the physical openings comes a feeling of pervading peace.

Try this test when you go to bed some night. Reach down and press your thigh. Is it soft, supple and yielding to the touch or is it like a brick? Muscles at rest should be soft, not stuck in the engaged state. Our muscles are our soft tissue. When a muscle isn't being used for work, it should feel soft. Often, we may not discern our tightness. The body is very forgiving, very accommodating. It won't let us walk around tilted to one side, twisted, or bobbing up and down. Rather, if it has a tightness on the left buttock, for example, it might counterbalance that tightness with a complementary tightness on the right shoulder. This is a way for the body to maintain symmetry. However, arising out of tightness, this symmetry is an illusion, it is tightness bouncing off tightness. And to add to the illusion, tightness over time asserts "numbness" from the tourniquet effect the tightness imposes in muscle tissue.

Very often, traditional methods of working with the body and strengthening the body may, in reality, be layering tightness over tightness.

They say that yoga makes you flexible and healthy, keeps you young and connects you with your inner true happiness — this is a happiness not contingent upon outside circumstances. With yoga, you like yourself better and others are more attracted to you. You become more aware of your own vastness, spaciousness and bliss. You become more Open.

Your Body — Your Vehicle

By Doreen Kleinschmidt, CSYT

Our bodies deserve at least the same care as our cars. We acquire our bodies immediately upon birth and keep them our whole lives and drop them off when we are done with them. With our cars, we make sure we do everything we can to keep them safe and smoothly running. We consult our manuals to find the guidelines for successful car ownership and then follow the suggestions.

Now don't you wish someone would give you the manual for care and maintenance of your human body and its parts? Svaroopa Yoga offers just that, a "manual" for how to keep us in good running condition and how to get and keep what Svaroopa calls "core openings." Svaroopa Yoga was stylized by Rama Berch of California some thirty years ago and is rapidly becoming one of the major styles of hatha yoga in practice today.

This style is earmarked by a very different approach to the practice of hatha yoga. All poses lead to the release of tension in the tightest muscles of the spine, beginning at the tailbone and continuing through the whole spine. This produces the deep essential openings which facilitate our doing the poses and provides a deeper experience of ourselves. We get a better body/mind both "outside and inside." We hear a lot about "outside and inside" in our Svaroopa class, as Svaroopa is a perfect bridge from outer distraction to internal continuity.

Tightness + Time = certain negative effects. First of all, the spine is the main conduit for all the body systems. Tightness in the muscles misaligns the spine. The misalignment, in turn, influences every organ, nerve and gland. We all know muscle tightness in our neck and shoulders, back, hips and hamstrings. Tightness isn't a simple singular state. Syndromes arise from tightness, sciatica, tendonitis, carpal tunnel, scoliosis, sinusitis, to name a few. More seriously, impaired function of primary life support organs like the liver, kidneys and gall bladder may occur along with altered function of organ systems. Worse than that, sustained inflammation can cause heart disease and cancer. So tightness can be simplistic or tightness can be extreme.

Good posture isn't just a matter of standing upright. Muscles are not designed to hold us up. That is the job of our bones. Structural integrity depends on proper alignment and muscles that flow through both contraction and relaxation. The tighter we are, the more we move away from our original ease. We become amnesiacs in a sense, we forget what is it was like when we were at ease. Through our dedicated practice we regain what was lost, we "come to our senses," so to speak. We find a true restoration of body, and a true peace of mind. Our vehicles run well, run happy.

Stress + Bodies + Minds are complex but the Svaroopa solution is simple. Keep your vehicle humming, do Svaroopa yoga! Your body will thank you and you will love the ride!

Useful information for life

The healing power of baking soda

Rules of honest journalism: Jim Lehrer [INTEGRITY], [TRUTHFULNESS], [HONOR], [JUSTICE]

"The 100% commitment experiment" in marriage [LOYALTY], [TRUST], [TRUTHFULNESS]

Idea incubation comes in seemingly unproductive times [CREATIVITY], [DETACHMENT], [PATIENCE], [CONFIDENCE]

The Ability to Prioritize - Making room for what really matters [DETACHMENT], [EXCELLENCE], [WISDOM]

TIps for College/University students

To network: Connect in a respectful and personal way with those in your same situation

Structuring one's day

Blogging: 5 Tips For How to Start and Grow a Successful Blog

More diverse habitat creates more ways for the many forms of life to survive and evolve

Skills involved in setting priorities

How to design - gain clear, thorough understanding of the user, collaborate multi-disciplinary, experiment rapidly via prototyping

Efficient innovators plan less, act more; do research before design

Ingredients for a successful advertising recipe

The motivational aspect of small, tangible achievements

Being systematic in 5 steps

Consultation as a Tool for Integrating Personal and Professional Life

Being pro-active in down-times [ATTENTIVENESS], [ZEAL], [INTELLIGENCE], [PURPOSEFULNESS]

Motivating one's team members

Say it now: "Thank you." Turn to the person beside and you say it to them. "Thank you." [THANKFULNESS], [UNITY], [GENEROSITY]

Tracking progress and instituting accountability creates the discipline needed to effect change [INTEGRITY], [TRUSTWORTHINESS], [RESPONSIBILITY], [UNITY]

Email-tiquette Guide

Six Ways to Improve Employee Morale Without Breaking the Bank [ENCOURAGEMENT], [SINCERITY], [OPENNESS]

Management Lessons on an Aircraft Carrier at Sea [EXCELLENCE], [COOPERATION], [COMMITMENT]

Overcoming objections: provocative, enlightening, and winning questions

Ten Tips to Improve Your Brain

Five requirements for getting a senior team ready to embrace change leadership and drive better performance

Center for Creative Leadership

Evernote will index all words it finds in pictures you upload

What you know – you do. What you don’t know – you get help with: 6 Tips for Running Your Business

Leadership Learning from Horses: Life Lessons from the Herd

"Today, innovation is all about collaboration" [COOPERATION], [HELPFULNESS], [CREATIVITY], [AUDACITY]

Business Visionaries

A Q&A with Tom Koulopolous, the founder of Delphi Group.

Why “Goofing Off” At Work Boosts Productivity

The theory: The generality of people...live for themselves. The result: High divorce rate

Movement and cognidtion: Taking four steps back improved a subject’s accuracy...

Recent studies have shown that moving our body in certain ways can improve our ability to think. Christie Nicholson reports

What Is This Recession Here to Teach You?

Wifi security: Airport Wi-Fi easily hacked

Using gestures assists in learning mathematics etc.

How using gestures can make you smarter

Reflection on the Pursuit of Elegance [GRACE], [SIMPLICITY], [BEAUTY], [INTELLIGENCE]

The virtues of Conviction and Integrity [HONESTY], [THOUGHTFULNESS], [FAITH], [COURAGE]

Conviction

1) Integrity is Totality

2) Integrity is Tenacity

I have a conviction that _________ will alter my quality of life

I have a Conviction that _________ will dictate the quality of my faith.

Conviction that _________ will set the pace for generations after me.

3) Integrity is Tempting

Characteristics of successful leaders

The value of HUMILITY in Management [HUMILITY], [TACT], [CARING], [CONSIDERATION], [UNDERSTANDING], [WISDOM]

The Most Beautiful Word in the English LanguageBy Bruna Martinuzzi

Simplify your life via gadget consolidation

Facing the facts induces humility, brings success [COURAGE], [HUMILITY], [TRUTHFULNESS], [HONESTY]

Can you explain how executives who apologize earn more than executives that don't?

Do you really think that "sorry" is an important word if there is no meaning behind it?

Personal branding is about authenticity. How can leaders harness their true self?

Can you give examples of 2 people and 2 companies that have apologized and earned back their respect?

What is one situation in your life when an apology helped you?

A story of taking the path less traveled and following one's dreams -- [AUDACITY], [COURAGE], [FAITH]

Phil, how did you go from an average high school student pumping gas to a #1 NY Times bestselling author and world renowned speaker?

There are hundreds of thousands of books published each year. How were you able to stand out? What marketing tips do you have for authors?

In a horrible economy, what three pieces of advice do you have for hardcore investors and what three pieces do you have for a beginner?

If you had to examine your personal brand throughout the past few decades, which decisions did you make that helped the most?

You have another book coming out in 2010, and you're already preparing now for it's launch, with a Facebook page and Twitter. What role does social media play in your life now and in the future?

Study: Prayer Leads to Good Health

“You need to make the value proposition clear, so the people who engage get something out of the process.”

Valuable Yoga Relaxion Techniques Release Tensions

The Most Beautiful Word in the English Language
By Bruna Martinuzzi