How To Receive Support For Your Plans

Writen by Hans Bool

There is more politics in business than there is business in politics. It is hard to tell what came first, but in both areas you need supporters for you plans.

In the case of a business – a somewhat larger firm – you'll often encounter different groups (parties), different opinions and every now an then there is this new idea. Now, the challenge for this organization consists of getting this new idea into practice. The situation is not quite like this; normally there are many ideas and the different groups value each idea in a certain way.

To tackle this issue, the initiator of the idea requires a majority of support before it will be executed. The question is where should he or she start? One approach could be to collect support in the easy way. This is done by starting with the people -– managers, specialist, etc -– who you think are most likely to accept the idea. Doing so, your will find yourself surrounded with a "significant" community and with this growing support you energize yourself to confront the group of people of which you think that they are less easy to convince. When you or others of your support group engage others in the discussion, you are able to refer to a large community that is already convinced.

But then. There is always someone who will question not the number of supporters, but who will check whether "John", "Paul" or "George" is already part of the group. If not, he will not join either.

The other approach start from the opposite side – without losing the opportunity to invite the "easy" members on the way. In this approach, you start with the most difficult group or with ... the leaders. If you know they will join you, the rest shouldn't be a problem anymore.

In fact this is the same approach you should follow when managing a project. Focus on the risks first and leave the easy part for the end ...

© 2006 Hans Bool

Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White a traditional management consulting company that offers online management advice. Astor Online solves issues in hours what normally would take days. You can apply for a free demo account

Where There Is Smoke There Is

Writen by Ed Drozda

FIRE! Every manager knows there are fires to tend in the workplace. From smoldering embers to raging infernos they hamper our ability to manage the routine events upon which our operations depend. The world is not a perfect place and we should be proud of our ability to multi-task, to resolve issues and to maintain control whether in crisis or otherwise. But how often have you said (or heard) "I spend too much time putting out fires?" Keep these ideas in mind: 1) identify and manage the real fires, 2) identify and dispatch the false alarms and 3) prevent fires whenever possible.

False Alarms
A false alarm is an event that is neither urgent nor of considerable import, thus it is of little or no concern to the business. Though false alarms can distract us from the things that matter most, that does not mean they can always be ignored either.

We must apply discretion when deciding upon the proper way to dispatch false alarms. For example the ramblings of a chronic complainer are very time consuming. However, they are not urgent matters and the level of importance is probably suspect as well. However, these ramblings may have a considerable impact upon fellow employees and could result in more serious consequences. On the other hand, an unsubstantiated rumor can effectively be discredited and ignored, without further effort.

Regardless of the origin, it is important to be able to discern the false alarms from the real thing. True fires demand a timely and thorough response; false alarms may require further attention but we know that they are not urgent and so we need to learn to prioritize them so that they do not interfere with our ability to manage the important things.

The fact is false alarms do occur therefore we should: 1) learn to identify them, 2) promptly dispatch those which require no further action, 3) if resolution is needed, allocate time only when matters of greater priority will not be compromised, 4) not be discouraged as this is as much a part of life as death and taxes and 5) work diligently to prevent workplace fires whenever possible.

An Ounce of Prevention
An important workplace goal is to prevent fires, whether they are real or false alarms. This effort is the responsibility of all members of the workplace team. It is also a formidable task that we must put in perspective.

Reducing the incidence of fires is an achievable goal, as is the ability to speed our response time as well as our fire management skills. But out-right prevention? Let's be realistic about this. There are matters that are under our control and some that are not. Outright prevention is, like perfection, a goal to strive for, but it is beyond our grasp. Besides, if we prevented all of the fires, what would become of our crisis management skills?

What we can and should do is make every effort to reduce the incidence of fires and prepare our teams to manage fires when they do occur. In an effort to accomplish these goals we should: 1) encourage staff to be vigilant for smoldering fires before they spread, 2) define processes through which fires are managed and ensure that staff are fully aware, 3) provide clear expectations so that all staff are able to take proactive steps to prevent uncontrolled fires from evolving and 4) acknowledge those whose vigilance has paid off and learn from their achievements.

Since 1996, under the name E & D Associates, Ed Drozda has facilitated the success of businesses of all sizes through effective management of comprehensive projects and strategically delivered business/executive coaching. He earned his BS in Medical Technology from Marquette University and his MBA in Health Care Administration from Bryant University; he is also a graduate of the Coach University Coach Training Program. Ed is a board certified blood bank specialist and has enjoyed over 20 years in the field of clinical operations and healthcare administration. As a project manager, he has worked with major pharmaceutical, medical device manufacturing and blood collection companies. As a business/executive coach Ed enjoys working with dynamic executives and business owners who seek to develop and grow small to mid-size businesses. He challenges and leads these clients to clarify and maximize their goals while discovering and exploiting their inherent strengths. Visit on the web at http://www.4eandd.com.

Police Academy Training Videos

Writen by Jason Gluckman

Most police training centers in the country have now started taping their training sessions and activities, not only to store them for future reference, but also to study changing techniques and rectify errors. Many police academies have video production departments which handle the taping, editing and screening of police training videos. Police academy training videos help in supporting and supplementing the justice system of a state.

The video training sections of police academies have the duty to produce videos for different stages in police training. These videos are used for internal training sessions as well as selling out to other law enforcement agencies. Recruit training is videotaped and used for training new batches. New techniques are also filmed to be screened in different police academies.

Some police academies also produce videos that deal with animal management in the police. These include detailed videos on training police dogs, using them in crime scenes and analyzing evidence unearthed by animals. Training videos also instruct recruits on analysis techniques like forensic reports, fingerprints and post-mortem procedures to be followed by a police official.

The Denver Police Academy uses videos of their recruit training for future uses. They also record officers on their routine jobs to identify and address routine problems faced by officers. This becomes extremely useful for trainers and recruits during performance reviews. They also cover local events to study security arrangements, train emergency personnel and plan future events.

Buck Savage specializes in making police training videos. He enjoys training cops in fighting crime and looking after officers' safety. He specializes in enacted scenarios of crime and ways of combating crime in particular situations. These come very handy in police recruit training and development.

The Law Enforcement Resource Center also has police academy training videos for interviewing and interrogations, arrests, raids, report writings and traffic policing. These videos aim at equipping police academies with routine police jobs.

Training Videos provides detailed information on Training Videos, Management Training Videos, Police Academy Training Videos, Safety Training Videos and more. Training Videos is affiliated with Worker Compensation Insurance.

Medical Practice Management Stop Team Deterioration Part 1

Writen by Christie Scott

Stop Team Deterioration-- Part 1

Your team may be deteriorating.

This may be in the form of employees that are detrimental to the team are allowed to continue on this rampage without recourse or termination.

Your team may be losing members in the form of turnover.

If this is the case, you need to find out how much this is costing you! Find out how expensive Employee Turnover is by getting my Doctor's Employee Turnover Calculator Program. Email me at articles@extremesuccesscoaching.com with the subject line "Doctor's Employee Turnover Calculator Program". Include your name and address and I will be happy to send it to you immediately.

Turnover is time consuming, money consuming, and stress causing. Turnover rates in healthcare are higher than in most other professions at over 20%. This is believed to be because of high stress situations with patients and short staffed long hours.

You may or may not have a problem with turnover, but I will discuss it nonetheless because it is quite widespread and very expensive.

Usually physicians are shocked to see the price they pay every time they lose or fire an employee.

It is worth your time and effort to acquire an estimate of lost fees to turnover in order to determine exactly how serious the situation is. This makes decisions for allocating funds to retention strategies easier and less stressful.

Why do employees leave?

The reasons are many and complex. But to summarize the most common reasons…

Poor Pay Rate
Manager or immediate boss's attitude or
Loss of trust and confidence in leaders often in the form of a "dangled carrot" promotion
Stress among employees
Feeling devalued and unrecognized
Stress of practice

The Bad News

Employee turnover costs can be substantial. The U.S. Department of Labor states that it costs a company at least one-third of a new hire's annual salary to replace an employee.

It has been estimated that replacement costs can average 100 percent of a position's salary. A VHA study showed that the dollars saved by reducing turnover are considerable. The study also found that organizations with low turnover have lower costs per adjusted discharge, a higher return on assets, a lower adjusted mortality index and a shorter adjusted length of stay.

High employee turnover affects the quality of care, which can causes patients to go elsewhere and affects the bottom line.

The workers who stay on the job are challenged by short staffing, and lack of knowledge among co-workers who enter the incessantly revolving door. This causes employee dissatisfaction unnecessarily. Patients are less likely to be pleased with their care when they experience constantly changing staff.

At more than 20 percent, the employee turnover rate in health-care organizations is 5 percent higher than average in most other types of establishments.

Take into account though, in some practices it is quite a bit lower than in others. Hence, turnover is not simply a fact of life. Some facilities are finding ways to keep staff.

More Bad News About Turnover

Productivity continues to be negatively affected even after a new employee is hired. Other staff members must devote time to assist in training the new employee and help resolve errors that inevitably occur in a new employee's work. Human resource professionals have estimated that even when employees receive the highest-quality training, a new employee's productivity level is only 25 to 50 percent that of experienced employees during the first three months of employment, and the new employee is likely to take at least a year to become fully productive.

High turnover sometimes means that patients are simply turned away, or that those patients who are admitted do not receive essential care from overworked staff. In short, high turnover rates "produce the antithesis to consumer-defined quality".

You need to allocate part of every week to being among the staff members connecting with them at every level possible. Tap into what motivates each employee. You need to know what stimulated their interest in health care in the first place, what keeps them coming back day after day and what saps their energy or enthusiasm. Herein lies the key to making a better team and better service for you patients.

In Part--2 of this article series I will go over each of the mentioned reason why employees leave in depth and give strategies for eliminating these! Are you ready?

You may reprint this article in it's entirety as long as you include the following information: Author: Christie Scott The One Physicians Call When They Are Tired of Their Stressful Practice! http://www.extremesuccesscoaching.com

Why You Should Track Your Competition

Writen by Adrian Martin

While it may seem obvious that competition poses a threat to the success of your business many organizations fail to effectively track their competition within the marketplace.

This is important for a number of reasons – one (the obvious one) they take possible revenue and secondly they often provide innovations within your marketplace, they expand opportunities and they influence your customers. By doing this competitors constantly force your organization to develop strategies and satisfy customers.

Who are your competitors?

Identifying your competitors can be more complicated than you initially think and needs to be tackled in a number of ways. By understanding how your customers make their buying decisions, your competitors are often exposed, once you know their there you'll need to asses their capabilities and their place in the market. Once you've identified them, you'll probably want to nominate someone in your organization to gather information and track their activities.

What is the future?

It's not just your existing competition that you'll need to keep your eye on – you'll also need to keep an eye out future competitors. Tracking these can be arduous – where are they – how do you find them? Future competition can come from a number of places:

• Market Expansion – Existing companies expanding into your market area

• Product Expansion – Existing businesses that expand their poduct offering

• Business Change- Changes to existing enterprises (funding, distribution etc) could make a small competitor a major competitor

What should you track?

One of the first things that you should consider tracking is the capabilities of your competitors for example possible capabilities include –their customer base, marketing and distribution activities.

The second element that you should track is the organizations strategy. For example – How do they price their products, what markets are they targeting, how are their product(s) developing?

Understanding your competitors targets regarding market share, revenue targets etc will also be beneficial.

How should you gather information

Luckily these days information is widely available on business activity. Places where you can gather information includes, Trade Shows, Stock Market information, Suppliers, Corporate collateral (e.g. website). Make sure that you business has a central system to store this information and that it is appropriately managed and co-ordinated.

Now your tracking your competition, how you act on the information may have multiple facets – it depends largely on your organizations strategy and the market place you want to operate in. Tracking your competition however will provide the right steer in developing your organization strategy and targets.

Bizbodz.com provides articles, resources and tools to help your business. From General Management to Supply Chain bizbodz is there to help. Business Best Practice at your fingertips.

Has It Become A Quotdirtyquot Word

Writen by Mario Bojilov

There is a very good chance that majority of the people relying on IT in their businesses were tempted to answer "Yes". How come one of the industries responsible for many of the achievements of our civilisation has become the object of such widespread distrust and cynicism? It is so common these days to start a tsunami of winging and complaints at the very mention of any of the words software, hardware, IT. What is the reason for this type of attitude and is it possible to achieve "IT nirvana" at all?

Before attempting to provide any suggestions or answers it may be useful to try and identify some of the causes that created this situation in the first place. Usually they vary from project to project but some general symptoms seem to be present more often than not.

Leadership failure

While many people may disagree with this, it seems that the main reason for over 80% of all horror stories related to IT is the "human factor". In other words, technology fails very rarely on its own. It is the way it is used (abused?) and the expectations placed on it that create problems and disasters. And whether, as business owners/managers, we like it or not, the root cause usually can be traced to the top.

Leadership is just as important in IT projects, as it is in any other aspect of the business. A leadership failure is followed inevitably by a project failure and, subsequent, "witch hunting".

And in most companies it is the senior management team that needs to take the blame. It is much more difficult for a middle manager to get the same cooperation from various business units than for a senior manager.

Even if the most senior people are not directly involved in the project they need to be accessible most of the time. This way any minor "hiccups" can be fixed before they become major "hiccups".

Lack of common sense

For some unknown reason when dealing with IT-related issues the common sense just seems to go out of the window. The processes and criteria used for any other business activity or purchase are disregarded and a variety of "exotic" approaches with little business sense are applied. "People in the know", i.e. technologists, use acronyms and terms no one understands. Other people on the team don't want to lose face and just listen to the gibberish.

But the technology people are not the best in solving business problems. Quite often their focus is primarily on technology and that is simply not enough. Each IT project needs to have clearly defined objectives and deliverables, i.e. "why" and "what". "How" needs to be a secondary consideration.

Poor planning

Unfortunately, IT project management is still somewhat of an art, rather than science. Due to the high complexity of most IT projects it is very difficult to estimate costs and durations within a project. The best project managers usually come within a range of 10%. While 10% may not seem that bad, the major problem here is that people who can achieve these levels of accuracy are few and far between.

On the other hand when a project is underestimated by 50-100% (there are enough examples around), how would a manager feel going to the board or the bank and asking for more money halfway through the project. Let's face it, nobody wants to be in that situation. Yet, it happens so often.

Unrealistic expectations

There's no question that everybody wants to pay for a little 3-cylinder car and get a Rolls Royce. Yet, we all know that's not possible, and after parting away with the money we drive away in a car that makes us happy. Not so, with IT, though. Every project starts with a lot of enthusiasm, good intentions and a splendid vision for the future. Vendors present their products, customers select a supplier and implementation is under way.

Together with implementation, "project creep" is also under way. A new button here, a different colour scheme there, and so on. Most of these changes seem trivial from outside. Anyone who has been in IT for some time, though, knows that some of them may require huge amounts of work to be done. What then follows is disappointment, missed deadlines and increased prices.

It is unfair to put the blame only on one party, though. Usually, this situation is a result of major miscommunication on both sides. Suppliers have a natural tendency to overpromise and underquote in order to get the business. Buyers on the other hand tend to underestimate the size of most projects in order to fit within budgets, look better in the eyes of the board, etc.

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?

Actually, the above problems may be easier to avoid than most people believe. What's needed is proper preparation, right people on the team and good communication with other parts of the business.

Select a sponsor. Before the start of the project select one of the senior managers to become its sponsor. And not just on paper! The sponsor must be a person whose division will benefit directly from the project. This will ensure they will provide assistance when needed. If the Director of Marketing is responsible for the implementation of a financial system they are unlikely to give it the same attention as the CFO, for example.

Identify outcomes. Determine as objectively as possible what can be delivered realistically by the selected vendor based on the allocated budget. If somebody comes to you and offers to sell you a brand new car for $5,000 it is highly unlikely you will buy it. It is much more likely you will think there's something wrong with the car, may be it's stolen, or been in an accident, etc. Same logic needs to apply here. If possible try to involve somebody with an accounting background.

And, please, be fair! If the final price doesn't allow the vendor to make a reasonable profit, they will still make it by taking shortcuts. And this will definitely become lose-lose situation.

Become an avid hunter for information. Try to speak to peers in your industry or related associations. Other companies may have implemented a similar system recently. In such case, there will be a lot you can learn from them. Both, in relation to their successes and problems they have encountered.

Blogs are another great way to get obtain information. Find a relevant blog, and you may be pleasantly surprised how much people are prepared to share. This in turn will definitely help you to avoid mistakes that may cost thousands.

'Tame' users. As soon as word is out about the new project an avalanche of user wants will be created. Most of these will be valid business requests and need to be considered. Some of these may need to be left for the next version and it is always good to try and identify those at the beginning. However, some of the more exotic desires need to be canned straight away. If the cost of the project will go up by 10% just to provide users with the option of changing the colour of their menu buttons, may be they will have to live with the default colour.

Create the team. Even if the project is fully implemented by the vendor there's still a need for client's people there. For smaller projects they may be involved on a part-time basis. For larger projects it will be a full-time role for some people. And, ideally, more than one person will be involved from customer's side.

Most importantly, there needs to be somebody on the team who is a "natural" diplomat, a project "envoy" so to speak. This person will be the link between the vendor and the various departments in the business. Their technical background is not that important, however, their communication and negotiation skills are crucial. It is inevitable there will be some misunderstandings between users and the vendor. No matter how detailed the initial specification was, some things would have been interpreted differently by various people. It is the job of the "envoy" to smooth out these differences and, thus, prevent the project from taking an unwanted direction.

A FINAL THOUGHT ...

So, what about the "IT nirvana"? Well, full "nirvana" may be impossible to achieve, and not just in IT, but something close to it seems quite within reach with just a few simple steps. When approached properly technology can bring real benefits to any business regardless of size or industry. It can help all of us operate more efficiently, compete better and deliver improved products or services to our customers.

Mario Bojilov is the Managing Director of Meta Business Systems. He has been involved with the IT industry since 1989 in a variety of technical and managerial roles. Meta Business Systems provides services to small and medium businesses. The company specialises in custom-build databases and IT Risk Management. Their web address is: http://www.mbsys.com.au.

We Can Fixthis

Writen by Kenneth Strong

Like every beginner, I have thought you could beat, pummel and thrash an idea into existence. Under such treatment, of course, any decent idea folds up its paws, turns on its back, fixes its eyes on eternity, and dies.

- Ray Bradbury

This is a key rule; create a contract with your subordinate that simply says: Your subordinates get the credit when things go well and you will take all the blame when things go wrong. The main reason subordinates will not take risks is that they are hung out to dry when things go wrong or someone else takes the credit when things go right.

To help your subordinates develop their leadership skills to the fullest potential you must delegate duties and assignments in greater degrees of complexity. Leaders are developed best through experiential projects or assignments rather than textbooks and manuals. As each new assignment is completed on time, but perhaps not perfectly, the level of difficulty must be increased. By adopting this tactic you are communicating the message clearly that your trainee is expected to perform at a high level of effectiveness and manage his or her time wisely. Your subordinate must take risks in order to satisfactorily meet your requirements.

The first step is to clearly outline what the assignment is and its corresponding time constraints, resources available, which by the way includes you, and what the expected outcome is to determine if the assignment is to be considered a success. Don't forget to allow time for questions. Provide a brief overview of why the assignment is important. Also include who, what and where the most likely areas of support and challenges will come from. Establish a schedule of meetings to monitor progress. These meetings should be brief, no longer than fifteen minutes. Now that you have set your subordinates up for success cut them loose and let them get to it.

There are two things that happen when subordinates take risks; one is good and the other is not. However, both results have a tremendous impact on the willingness of your leader in-training to take future risks. The first is the assignment goes well, it is completed satisfactorily and on time. You must make a public acknowledgement of the accomplishment and make sure that he or she gets the credit for a successful outcome.

The second result is that the assignment does not go well or is completed after the deadline. There may be a number of valid reasons why the outcome was not what was required. Conduct an after action review to learn what when wrong and how this result can be prevented in the future. This process will contribute to the learning experience.

You must be the person to stop this practice. Simply approach your subordinate and say "We can fix this," then begin to assist your subordinate in taking the necessary steps to correct the assignment and give practical guidance to prevent a reoccurrence. If you follow this process faithfully your subordinates will continue to take on more challenging assignments and risks.

This practice demonstrates that you mean what you say, you are a person of character, you are making allowances for their professional development experience and you are not going to deliberately let them fail. The result of this process is that you will have an extremely loyal and competent staff whose performances will far exceed those of their contemporaries. Your reputation will spread throughout the organization as a leader's leader who trains the future leaders of the organization.

Remember when you adopt the practice of "We can fix this" you turn success into a given when your subordinates are assigned a task.

Feel free to use this article, in your publications; in its entirety provided you include the following notice: © Copyright 2006 GreatestStrategies.com, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA, http://www.greateststrategies.com

Kenneth E. Strong, Jr., MS, is co-founder 0f http://www.greateststrategies.com a web based community devoted to educating, supporting and developing life-long learners

Mr. Strong has been a Health Care executive for 30 years. Mr. Strong received a Bachelor of Science in Health Services Administration from Providence College and a Master of Science in Health Care Administration from Salve Regina College He has had articles published by the American Geriatric Society and has spoken on a variety of topics for the American College of Health Care Administrators and the New England Not-for-Profit Providers Conferences. Mr. Strong has also served as Adjunct Professor at Stonehill College. He is also an evaluator for the Continuing Care Accreditation Commission and a certified Retirement Housing Professional. He is certified by Walden University as an online instructor and certified by Langevin Learning Services as an Instructional Designer/Developer and Master trainer.

Tqm Implementation Project Part 1b The Define Phase How To Overcome Issues

Writen by LM Foong

This TQM article is a continuation of the article titled: TQM Implementation Project published on 13-May-2006. This issue is part 1b of the article. It will deal with the "How to Overcome Issues" pertaining to the application of DEFINE phase of the D.A.I.C. methodology described in the article. I will not be honest if I do not share with you difficulties faced with the team or me in carry out these projects.

As I have indicated in my overview TQM article titled: TQM Implementation Project, that there are several projects that were used this D.A.I.C. to complete the improvement projects. While most of the projects were successfully completed, Listed below is a case study of common problem faced with team leaders and member during the DEFINE Phase of the projects.

Just to recap, tools used in the DEFINE Phase are :

Brainstorming | Multi-Voting | Selection Grid | Problem Statement

Case Study in Brainstorming
During Brainstorming, team need to select a project by generating a list of ideas for the project. While all teams were able to generate a long list of idea for their project, team leader faced with too long a list to deal with.

Because of the long list, team leader would require to narrow down the number of ideas in the list. While attempted to do so, team leader sometime unknowingly, would normally suggest to drop some of the ideas given by members. That upset some of the members. Their argument is that since the rule allows members to give any idea, team leader should not drop any of them. To avoid unnecessary conflict, team leader often leave those idea in the list.

How to overcome Brainstorming issues
To avoid unnecessary time spend on cleaning up the list, team leader can set some ground rules before a Brainstorming session is held. Just like in a football match, ground rules was given to the players before the game starts to avoid unnecessary conflicts in the even of players not following certain rules.

On the same token, to select a project using Brainstorming tool, team leader can set some basic ground rules such as:
• Set the boundary of the ideas e.g. limit to production issue,
• Team leader to ensure relevant members are in the brainstorming
• Ask for permission to Stratify ideas of similar nature

Case Study in Multi-Voting
When the brainstormed list of ideas is too long, team leader has to lead the team to use Multi-Voting to narrow down the list. This is quite a straightforward tool to use. However, there are problem encountered by the team. During this process, a 10 point is given for each member to allocate to ideas they like to be selected. Some member would allocate all the 10 points to one single idea hence affected the overall choice of select from a few ideas. Due to heavy point allocated to one single item, chance is this ideas will be ranked highest.

How to overcome Multi-Voting issues
To avoid lop-sided allocation, ground rule for Multi-Voting need to be established. before it takes placed. It could be overcome by the following rules:

• Set maximum half the total point allocated to each member for one single item. E.g. maximum 5 point for a 10 point allocation
• Agree to minimum number of idea to be allocated with point e.g. 3
• Tally the total number of point allocated by each member to ascertain all the 10 points are used

Case Study in Selection Grid
Scenario a) There were incident that too many selection criteria was raised. All of them seem important to be included. Thus it ended up having 8 selection criteria. The team had hard time to do this tools effectively especially toward the tail end of the process.

Scenario b) Team rate the importance of the selection criteria to each ideas almost similar. Hence, at the end of the process, the tool cannot differential the ranking.

Scenario c) There is big difference of score for the same criteria and same idea with between members. Hence, members spend a lot of time debating who is correctly used the tool

How to overcome Selection Grid issues
Again, to avoid all the unnecessary confusion and rework, a clear guideline to the proper used of tools must be established. Issue pertaining to this tool could be overcome by the following rules:

• Understand how to use this tools from the facilitator
• Limit the number of selection criteria to 3 to 5
• Clarify the meaning of each selection criteria to ensure all member has the same understanding.
• Clarify when to use the lowest and when to use the highest score. E.g. use lowest score of 1 for unfavorable selection and highest score of 5 for favorable selection

Case Study in Problem Statement
Most of the difficulties in this stage is to construct a statement that is simple and easily understood.

How to overcome Problem Statement issues
• Keep it simple. Write exactly what is meant to be instead of try to construct a perfect statement.
• Use point form when necessary
• Seek member's understanding and simplify as you go along
• Last venue is to seek help from facilitator or sponsor

In summary, spend enough time to clarify this DEFINE Phase such that team do not have to come back to this phase half way down the progress of the project

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Resource Box: About the Author, LM Foong

The author holds a MBA major in TQM. He is an expert in Malcolm Baldrige Business Framework and Baldrige Assessment and TQM Implementations in manufacturing and service sector. He facilitates workshops and Cost Reduction and Productivity Improvement projects. He publishes TQM articles, ebooks, case studies, trainer manual and presentation slides available at More TQM articles or Please Visit my Web Site.

How To Make The Best Of It Take Your Weather With You

Writen by Martin Haworth

I once worked in a place where there were three lines of words, placed just before employees went from backshop to front of shop. These said:-

• Smile!
• Remember - you represent your Company
• Delight your customers.

I realised I had choices right here.

• I could play a great part and have fun - make a customer's day (checkout this article here).

• I could show my feelings on the day and behave accordingly or...

• I could be charge neutral - a robot, doing my stuff - passing the time.

Which one of those would be the best for me, for my employees and my business. How cool is it to be able to leave my troubles backshop and play my part. How freeing!

We can be happy or sad. We can find our daily roles fun, boring or dreadful.

It is a choice, and not an imposition. So tomorrow, or whenever you read this - what if I could promise it to be a great day, whatever you are doing? What if you could smile and have fun with everyone you come across? What if you chose differently than maybe you feel?

Give it a go and see what happens.

And if you feel inclined, seek out the 'Weather with You' Lyrics and hum that tune all day.

You'll be truly surprised the difference you make to your own day!

Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, managers and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, http://www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com. (Note to editors. Feel free to use this article, wherever you think it might be of value - it would be good if you could include a live link)

...helping you, to help your people, to help your business grow...

Doing The Right Thing

Writen by Mike Myatt

One of my favorite things to write about is the topic of leadership and one of my favorite business theorists is Peter Drucker. Peter Drucker has authored more than 35 books and is considered by many to be the founding father on the study of management practices. In this blog post I will breakdown one of my favorite "Druckerisms" which states that: "managers do things right while leaders do the right things."

At first glance the above Druckerism might not seem to be all that insightful, but I believe it is very powerful observation that highlights the difference in philosophies between most managers and leaders.

Doing things right is a trait that causes managers to be focused on security and security is most often underpinned by fear based motivations. Doing things right will cause managers to be safe and politically correct in approach. It is this fear based motivation that causes managers to protect turf as opposed to gain ground, to control as opposed to inspire, and to refine as opposed to create. Doing things right leads to comfort zone management that completely inhibits the ability to innovate.

Doing the right things is a trait that causes leaders to be guided by their instincts, principles, values and desire to achieve. Leaders motivated by doing the right things are not risk adverse, rarely politically correct and they thrive on shaking things up. It is leaders doing the right things that innovate, motivate, create and inspire. Doing the right thing is often times controversial, but true leaders are not daunted by the thought of conflict as are most managers. Leaders guided by doing the right thing are willing to step-up and make the big decisions that open markets, exploit opportunities and drive innovation.

If you're not sure whether you are doing things right or doing the right things take yourself through the following personal assessment:

1. When was the last time you witnessed something that you didn't agree with but kept quiet on the issue to protect yourself rather than voicing your concern in order to protect the enterprise?

2. When was the last time you rocked the boat by design? Rocking the boat by default or by mistake doesn't count…

3. When was the last time you drove innovation? Hint: purchasing a new software application is not innovation…

4. If a survey was taken of your peers and subordinates would they refer to you as a leader who inspires, motivates and mentors or a manager who exercises authority and control?

It is important to realize that everyone has fears. Ask anyone who has ever been in combat and they'll tell you that it is being in touch with their innate sense of fear that kept them alive. However as important as it is to be aware of your fears, as a leader you cannot allow yourself to be ruled by them.

Mike Myatt is the Chief Strategy Officer at N2growth. N2growth is a leading venture growth consultancy providing a unique array of professional services to high growth companies on a venture based business model. The rare combination of branding and corporate identity services, capital formation assistance, market research and business intelligence, sales and product engineering, leadership development and talent management, as well as marketing, advertising and public relations services make N2growth the industry leader in strategic growth consulting. More information about the company can be found at http://www.N2growth.com

Workforce Management Solutions

Writen by Alison Cole

Delegation is the buzzword when talking about workforce management solutions. Delegation is the process by which authority is granted to a subordinate by his superior. But for delegation of authority, organizations would remain forever small. Delegation is the only solution to cope with the increasing workload of managers as the organization grows.

Because of the constraints of time and availability, a manager cannot perform all the tasks himself. Therefore, he delegates a certain amount of tasks to subordinates. Authority, on the other hand, is the right to command. It is the discretion power vested with a manager to use organizational resources. Managers acquire authority by virtue of rank or title associated with this position. Authority is granted to individuals in a formal way in the organization. It flows from the top to down in the organization structure.

Responsibility, on the other hand, is obligation to perform tasks and account for their satisfactory completion. It is implied that an individual is expected to fulfill certain job requirements when accepting a position in an organization. In other words, the individual has to answer for the results of a task about to be performed. In contrast to authority, the responsibility of an individual in the organization is always upwards; that is, the subordinate is responsible to his or her superior.

This is a crucial step in that a few important questions like what to delegate? When to delegate? Whom to delegate? And how to delegate are answered. The effectiveness of delegation depends on how clearly these questions are answered. First of all, the manager has to decide the tasks to be delegated to the subordinates. For this, he must be able to distinguish between the routine and non-routine tasks. The subordinate can perform routine and single tasks, while the manager must perform the non-routine and very important tasks.

Workforce Management provides detailed information on Workforce Management, Workforce Management Software, Workforce Management Solutions, Workforce Management Systems and more. Workforce Management is affiliated with Workflow Management.

Delegating Responsibility

Writen by Andrew E. Schwartz

Too many managers waste both time and energy performing tasks an employee could perform just as well, thereby lowering productivity while raising operating costs. The answer to the problem is easy—delegation. However, many managers still limit their own effectiveness, create imbalances in the organization, waste their department's time and energies, and fail to develop their subordinates by either ignoring or mismanaging the techniques of delegation.

Why? Delegating responsibility insures that the work is done by the right person. No manager, regardless of his or her competence, can adequately perform each departmental function as well as the person who does it on a daily basis. Many have not worked their way up through the company and are highly unlikely to have handled all aspects of a process while doing so. Additionally, they would hardly have been promoted to a managerial position without a belief that their talents could be put to use elsewhere. Effective delegation ensures that each task is performed at the lowest appropriate level.

Benefits: Freeing management from routine and repetitive functions. Managers are most cost effective when directing their energies to those top-level duties for which they were hired and are being paid—setting objectives, developing policies, and measuring results. 2. Increasing motivation, confidence, and personal as well as professional growth in subordinates. On-the-job-training challenges employees to evaluate risks, make decisions, and handle conflicts and prepare them for promotion, facilitating company growth. Effective delegation also heightens interest in the company and instills pride by demonstrating the manager's faith in their abilities.

Copyright AE Schwartz & Associates All rights reserved. For additional presentation materials and resources: ReadySetPresent and for a Free listing as a Trainer, Consultant, Speaker, Vendor/Organization: TrainingConsortium

CEO, A.E. Schwartz & Associates, Boston, MA., a comprehensive organization which offers over 40 skills based management training programs. Mr. Schwartz conducts over 150 programs annually for clients in industry, research, technology, government, Fortune 100/500 companies, and nonprofit organizations worldwide. He is often found at conferences as a key note presenter and/or facilitator. His style is fast-paced, participatory, practical, and humorous. He has authored over 65 books and products, and taught/lectured at over a dozen colleges and universities throughout the United States.

Sending Documents Through Email Dont Get Burned By Metadata

Writen by Anthony Licate

During a recent seminar I gave located in the suburbs of Philadelphia, I discussed something called, "metadata". When I asked whether anyone ever heard of metadata, I was confronted with blank stares. This is exactly why I decided to write here about what it is and how it can impact your company.

Metadata is information that exists in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Metadata is simply "data about data", and your electronic documents probably contain lots of it. Metadata describes document attributes such as the title, author, content, location, and date of creation.

Knowing this information can be helpful when cataloging electronic information. But metadata can also share confidential and potentially embarrassing information with an unintended audience. Would you want a potential customer of yours finding out historical data regarding the original author of the document you sent them? How many times it was edited? Who was editing the document? It's possible….especially if you are a user of the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word.

So I'm sure all of you are thinking, "How do I keep this information from leaving the company?" One option for you is to pdf documents with a pdf creator program before sending it. A good free pdf creator is PDF995. You can download it for free at http://www.pdf995.com.

There are enterprise level programs on the market that will clean this information from documents too if you'd prefer to just clean the document before you send it to someone. A good program to use is called Metadata Protect, by a company called Workshare. Metadata Protect allows corporations to set global policies on their computer network to lower the risk of dangerous metadata leaving the company.

Anthony Licate is the President of Spidernet Technical Consulting, LLC (http://www.spidernetconsulting.com). Spidernet Technical Consulting helps companies operate more effectively by means of reducing their computer support issues and streamlining how they work. He has worked with multiple types of businesses to strategize, re-align and implement technology. Anthony can be reached at aj@spidernetconsulting.com

Preventing The Misconduct Of Your Children Or Employees

Writen by Etienne Gibbs

Human behavior, whether that of a child or a grown employee, always stems from a goal or purpose. Starting as a thought, the behavior is further enforced by triggers of the emotions and senses. This behavior, when it is "good", gets us rewards and recognition, while on the other hand, negative, or "bad", behavior creates a strain on a relationship, sometimes fatally.

If you were to look at it closely, the misconduct of some employees closely resembles that of a child's misbehavior while he is seeking his mother's attention and not receiving it. Remember the antics of a young child in the supermarket who had a "Terrible Two's" tantrum because his mother won't but him the candy or toy he wanted? Well, it is my opinion that the goal behind the employee's purposeful misconduct is to seek attention, in one way or another.

"Every behavior, good or bad, has a goal behind it."

Looking at the goals that triggers misconduct, let's begin by looking at the primary misconduct, that of attention-seeking. Behavioral studies show that the desire for attention is universal in all people, regardless of age, color, language, culture, etc. People tend to seek attention in positive and useful ways; but if they can't get it that way, they will seek attention in negative and useless ways.

Turning the Negative into a Positive

To become effective in helping negative attention-seekers, we must first change our response to them by showing them that they can be accepted as a useful and contribution member of the family or organization. We do this effectively when we show them that they achieve significance through their positive and useful contributions rather than through they useless bids for attention or service. In order to focus on their constructive behavior, we must either ignore their misbehavior or pay attention to it in ways they don't expect. Caution: Attention should never be given on demand, even for positive acts, because doing so reinforces their inappropriate desire for attention.

* Instead of reinforcing their negative and untrue belief that they don't belong unless they are the center of attention, help them develop positive feelings about themselves, their abilities, and their contributions.

Who's Your Daddy?

Next set of misbehaviors are those of the power-seekers who feel that they are significant only when they are bossing (bullying?) people around. They tend to do what they want, when they want, and how they want despite the rules, regulations, or policies. Even when their parents or supervisors succeed in subduing them, the victory is only temporary. The argument may be won, but the relationship is lost - maybe permanently. On the other hand, sometimes the defying child or employee may seem to be complying, but they are doing so in their own way, in their own time, and at their own speed, all contrary to the rules, regulations, or policies. This artificial obedience is known as "defiant compliance". If this struggle for power continues and the power-seeker comes to feel that they cannot defeat their parents or supervisor, they may trade-in their desire for power for their next misconduct weaponry, that of subtle revenge.

* When dealing with power-seekers, refrain from getting angry, from "blowing your top", and disengage from the power struggle by refusing to hold a no-win conversation. After arranging an appointment to meet with them when they calm down, turn your back and walk away. (After all, it does take two to tango, doesn't it?)

When Getting Mad Is Getting Even or Stopping the Madness

The revenge-seekers are somewhat paranoid in their thinking, in convincing themselves that the world is out to get them, in believing that they have no significance unless they are hurting others, and in finding their belonging by being cruel in their relationships. Unfortunately, they trigger a downwards spiraling chain of events. Their revengeful acts, when discovered, deeply hurt their parents or supervisors, causing them to want to retaliate. The revenge-seekers then respond to the counterattacks by seeking further revenge, either by intensifying their misbehavior or by selecting another item from their weaponry inventory.

* To be of help to the revenge-seekers, train yourself to avoid retaliation, at all cost. As difficult as it may seem, train yourself to improve your relationship with the revenge-seeker by remaining calm and showing them goodwill. Be prepared to the unexpected: If the war of revenge continues despite your attempts to defuse it, the revenge-seeker may come to feel completely defeated and may give all attempts to become a contributing member. They may even turn their feelings inwards by displaying manipulation as their next weapon of choice.

To Suck Up or Seek Out? That Is the Question.

Manipulators, because they tend to feel inadequate to interact appropriately in a relationship, may display feigned inadequacies or disabilities. Rather than come right out with their wishes, wants, and desires, they will find elaborate ways to get others to do something for them. They become con men and women. To them they are finding the "easy and sure way" to get what their want by lying, cheating, overcommitting, supercharming, and "gently" aggressive.

* To help the manipulator convert this misconduct, train yourself to eliminate criticism, and focus, instead, on their assets, strengths, and abilities. Look for ways to help them, as I like to call it, "maximize their potential".

Turning Misconduct Into Super Performance

Remember that all misbehavior and misconduct, even appropriate bids for attention, stems from discouragement. Discouraged people lack the courage to behave in an active, productive, and constructive manner. Their misbehavior does not become evident unless the manipulator perceives a real or imagined loss of status. Whatever goal or purpose the manipulation serves, it is done in the belief that only in this way can they have a place in the family or organization.

Conclusion: In your relationship with your child or employees, remember that their behavior and intentions towards you will change only when you change your approach. Although you do not cause them to misbehave, you can reinforce and encourage their misbehavior by reacting in ways they expect. Therefore, concentrate your efforts on changing your behavior if you want them to change theirs.

Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW, Management Consultant and Trainer, conducts lectures, seminars, and workshops, and writes articles on helping you maximize your potential for individuals, schools, small businesses, and non-profit organizations, Reach him at http://www.MasterBlogBuilder.com/ .

Staff Retention Is It A Big Issue For Employers

Writen by John Schonegevel

A Big Issue

Big Issues are those that cost your organisation money – lots of money. On that criterion, staff retention is, for many companies, right up there with the biggest of their big issues. And, given the current vacancy and staff turnover levels in many organisations, it has the potential to become an ever bigger issue. Unless you do something positive about it now.

Let's look at some numbers;

Our 'typical' business services firm employs around 1,000 people and has a staff turnover of 15% per annum. We have developed a Financial Impact Model which enables us to assess the impact of losing and replacing staff. This is clearly most accurate when using specific company figures, but still gives useful input at a more generalised level.

Applying the model, we estimate that the total costs (direct and indirect) of 15% staff turnover to this company are around £1,300,000. Or somewhere between 20% to 50% of its annual profits!

Of course this is an oversimplification. Indeed, some level of staff turnover is both expected and required. But what level? What cost is acceptable? And, assuming that it is lower than the current level, what can be done to improve staff retention so that the desired level is achieved?

Mitigating the challenge of staff attrition.

We suggest that managers;

1. Recognise that staff retention is a Big Issue. This can be achieved by ensuring it is measured. And in sufficient detail across the various functions, roles and levels within your organisation. Put the business management spotlight on retention. Don't sideline it as an 'HR issue'. It isn't. It is an issue for general management as well as HR.

2. Calculate the financial implications. They are likely to vary significantly between organisations and indeed between departments and teams e.g. the organisational and costs structure and profit drivers of an outsourcing function will result in different loss and replace costs to those of a management consulting unit. Consider using a specialist to help you work through this.

3. Understand why people leave. Survey after survey show similar results. People don't generally leave because of pay; in fact salary is generally considered less important than career progression, seeking new challenges and achieving greater recognition. Again you may wish to explore the specific reasons that affect your organisation. If so, how about exit surveys and structured interviews?

4. Establish a programme to improve staff engagement and enthusiasm. These same surveys also point out the solution to improving retention rates. Provide your key staff with the means to continually improve the impact and contribution they make to your business and to their own personal development. Help them to understand how they can have frequent 'Career Bests' in their daily work. Help them to understand how they can improve their performance over time, taking on greater challenges, building their capabilities and matching their skills and passions with the organisations needs. Help them recognise that career development doesn't just mean a promotion into a more senior role. Rather it means moving through different stages of contribution, each one adding more value to themselves and to the business.

Build the coaching competencies of all your supervisory and managerial staff. Our research has shown just how important it is that supervisors and managers know how to enable high performance and commitment.

5. Set clear expectations. Employers and employees have shared responsibilities for personal development. Be clear as to what they are and how they are agreed. Build this into your development management system and link it to your performance management process.

6. Measure it. Once you've built a programme, make sure that its impact and value is measured against costs and results. Above all measure all your supervisory staff on their ability to reduce staff turnover and to build teams of committed, effective, engaged and enthusiastic staff.

And if you would like to discuss any of these issues with a specialist, talk to me on +44 (0)1252 727980 or email info@new-frontiers.co.uk

John Schonegevel is a Director of New Frontiers.

New Frontiers helps employers retain and develop great people. We specialise in developing and sustaining high performing people at work. High performance comes from skilled and motivated staff, working smoothly towards achieving clear goals.

We work to change peoples' behaviours enabling them to increase their impact and value at work and significantly grow the contribution they make to their employer's business results.

Our role is to support people in taking responsibility for meeting both their employers goals and their own, increasing their capabilities and so leading to sustained high performance, full engagement and ongoing enthusiasm at work.

New Frontiers is a Novations Consulting Partner

Small Business Plan Are You Financially Ready

Writen by Michael Russell

If you are planning to quit from your paycheck job in order to prepare a business plan and go into business, it is important to ask yourself whether you are financially ready for it.

Running out of money is a very serious problem that you must consider in your business plan as many new business owners come across it. It can be so serious as to cause the business to fail and the owners to just give up the idea of being their own bosses and go back to a paycheck job. Thus, before you take the plunge, make sure you have enough cash or will be able to raise whatever you need when you need it.

How much money would someone like you need to leave your job and go into business? Working this out is not as easy as it may first appear to be in your business plan; in addition to the money that you need to start your business, you will also need to set aside some funds to support yourself and your dependents until the business is able to generate enough income. Estimating when this is going to happen is far from easy.

Many aspiring entrepreneurs fail to take the plunge as they think that; they 'do not have enough capital'. They think that they must have this certain amount of money (rather large, usually) before they can do it.

Well, this is not true. Yes, you do need some capital to start a business, but how much you need will depend on the business you intend to go into, how you are going to run it and the scale of its operations.

If you're prepared to start small and do everything yourself, you'll be surprised at how little capital you need. Thus, instead of trying to accumulate enough capital to start your dream business, an alternative would be for you to choose a business and operate it in such a way and at such a scale that requires only the capital that you already have. The idea here is to just do it. Once you have started your business, you can then slowly build it up step by step to your dream business.

The money needs for your business is variable. There are many ways you can reduce it:

Start small: this is one of the best ways to keep your capital small. Instead of starting a restaurant, why not operate a stall in the food court of a local shopping complex or in a coffee shop first.

Operate from home: many small businesses can be run from the home. When your business has grown and you can afford it, you can move to more suitable premises.

Share an office with others: however, do be careful here. Make sure that they are the kind of people you want to share your office with.

Buy used furniture and equipment: scout the junk shops. You'll be surprised at how much you can save.

Rent or lease your equipment: you may end up paying more for the items in the long run but at least you don't have to come up with a large sum of money up front to buy them.

Barter or trade: this is possible, especially if you're selling a professional service required by your suppliers. For instance, if you're an accountant who is just starting your own practice, you can always tell them that you'll buy from them if they let you do their accounts.

Opt for cash only business: try to avoid business that requires you to extend credit or choose customers who will pay upon delivery of your goods or when the job is done. In this way, if you have limited financial resources, try to focus on the consumer market rather than the commercial or industrial markets.

Last but not least, negotiate extended credit terms with your suppliers: this is may not be easy for a start-up business, but just try anyway.

Michael Russell Your independent Business Plan guide.

Motor Vehicle Policy And Your Employee Risks

Writen by Philip Lye

It is becoming more common for employers to require employees to use their personnel motor vehicles for business use. Reimbursement for business use is commonly by way of a kilometre/mileage allowance or a general motor vehicle allowance for the year.

Did you know that you can be found vicariously liable for the acts and omissions of your employees driving while driving a motor vehicle for work related business?

Even an innocuous journey to pick up the daily mail can be fraught with risk!

I this day and age employees cannot always be relied upon to exercise discretion and common sense. It is therefore important that you take some human resource risk strategies to ensure that any risk is mitigated or at least as much as possible.

Normally a business motor vehicle policy should set the boundaries of employee use such as;

• Is the employee required to use their personal motor vehicle, when and under what circumstances,

• Does the employee have comprehensive and replacement insurance for their and any third party damage,

• How is the employee to be reimbursed,

• Is the reimbursement subject to state or federal taxes,

• Does the employee warrant that they hold a valid drivers license for driving a motor vehicle,

• What is your company policy for an employees' loss of drivers' license. This may be due to potential substance abuse, driving under the influence of alcohol or another offence.

• Does the employee loosing their license mean termination of employment as driving the motor vehicle is part of their tools of trade?

• Is the employee required to advise you of any license restriction and demerit points accrued?

• Do you have a company policy that states that no parking fine, infringement, traffic violation or any other impost federal, state or local will be paid by the company?

By taking time to develop key human resource policies and procedures and by inducting and training your employees you can reduce the potential business and financial risk to your company.

For more helpful articles visit www.biz-momentum.com Subscribe to our free monthly newsletter and receive a free template job description or employee performance review.

Philip Lye is the Director of Biz Momentum providing strategic human resource management to help your business grow. Philip is also a qualified accountant. Biz Momentum assist small to medium businesses. Visit http://www.biz-momentum.com for other helpful articles and to subscribe to Biz Momentum's free monthly newsletter and receive a free Employee Performance Appraisal.

Spotlight On Productivity How To Overcome Email Overload

Writen by Dawn Bjork Buzbee

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by e-mail? Have you ever spent more of your day wading through your e-mail than managing your work? Are you looking for ways to spend less time creating, managing and answering messages? Discover how to overcome e-mail overload and be more productive by writing more effective e-mail messages and reducing the volume of e-mail.

Write Effective E-Mail Messages

Start improving your e-mail effectiveness by creating and formatting easy to follow content, and by using pre-written responses.

Create Clear Content

Consider these strategies to upgrade your communications with understandable, e-mail messages:

• Help others prioritize how to act on your e-mail by including a clear, specific subject line and repeating important subject information in the body of the message.

• Define your expectations in the body of the message. Do you want your recipients to act, respond, read, or is the e-mail FYI only?

• Include only one topic per message. If that isn't possible, then describe and number multiple topics as in 5 items to add to the Wednesday meeting agenda.

• When you type the addresses for your message, check who is getting your e-mail. Many programs attempt to auto-fill an e-mail address which may not be your intended recipient.

• Be careful with your tone and language. As with any other communication, match the message to your audience. Unless the reader understands your dry sense of humor, for instance, they may be confused or offended rather than amused.

• It may be tempting to use acronyms in the world of the Blackberry and IM (instant messaging), but only use extremely common abbreviations, such as FYI or ASAP, unless you are absolutely certain that the individual receiving your e-mail knows what they mean.

• Clearly identify yourself to strangers within your message and in the message signature.

Format Readable E-Mail Messages

Simplify the e-mail messages you send with clean, easy-to-read formatting:

• Get to the point. Shorten paragraphs to no more than five or six lines to reduce reading.

• Limit e-mail text to a single printed page. If you have more text, reduce the message or consider attaching a Word document. Delete previous responses that are no longer relevant to the current exchange.

• Use fonts between 10 and 12 points in size except for headlines and choose a font style that is easy to read. Apply colors sparingly.

• Add blank lines and white space to separate paragraphs and areas of detail.

• Run the spelling checker and re-read messages one last time for clarity and grammar before clicking Send.

Use Prewritten Responses

If you send a few basic messages over and over again, such as a reply to a request for product information, consider saving those responses as signatures that can be inserted into e-mail so that you don't have to retype them. For a majority of messages, create a default signature that includes your full name, position or title, phone, website, and other contact information.

Reduce the Volume of E-Mail

Some of the top ways to cut the amount of e-mail you receive is to manage the number of messages that you send, reduce unnecessary follow-up replies, and determine when person-to-person communication is a better choice. Decrease the Number of Messages You Send Before you write your next e-mail, seek to actively reduce how much e-mail you send:

• Read all replies on a topic before responding to the original message. Resist getting involved with e-mail threads that don't impact your objectives.

• Don't send, and discourage your staff from sending, "chime-in" messages that are simply unimportant responses such as "Thank you" and "You're welcome." Don't respond to junk mail.

• Avoid Reply to All unless all recipients need to see your response. Otherwise you are contributing to their e-mail litter.

• Use the Cc (carbon copy) line only when the topic impacts the recipient's work. Although it may seem easier to send a message to everyone in a department or your organization, first ask yourself, "Who needs to know? Why?" Most people who get a carbon copy assume there is something they are supposed to do.

• Use Bcc (blind carbon copy) to hide large distribution lists or to disguise the names of select recipients. All recipients can respond to a message but replies will not be received by anyone in the Bcc list which reduces the amount of e-mail they get.

Eliminate the Clutter in Your E-Mail

In addition to initiating fewer e-mail messages, look at other ways to reduce the messages in your Inbox:

• Publish frequently requested information on your company website and make sure that the website is quickly updated when changes occur.

• When you are sending out informational messages that do not require feedback, discourage unnecessary responses by using formal language and begin and end messages with No Reply Needed or FYI Only.

• Unsubscribe to electronic newsletters that you don't read and move others out of your Inbox to folders for reading during travel or other down times. Don't unsubscribe to mailings that you never initiated or you may further open the flow of junk mail.

• If it's an available option, setup an out of office message that responds to incoming messages when you are not available to answer your e-mail. Clearly state your response time, when you will return, and who can be contacted during your absence.

Choose Voice Instead of E-Mail

There are often times when phone or face-to-face conversations are a superior choice to e-mail. Pick up the phone or arrange a meeting when:

• Building rapport is critical.

• The topic is emotionally charged.

• There are many intertwined issues to resolve or there is a need for lengthy interactive discussions.

Implementing these strategies for overcoming e-mail overload can help you become more productive and free you from your Inbox.

© 2005 by Dawn Bjork Buzbee

Dawn Bjork Buzbee is The Software Pro™ and a certified Microsoft Office Expert and Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor. Dawn shares smart and easy ways to effectively use software and technology through her work as a speaker, trainer, and consultant. Visit http://www.SoftwarePro.com for great Microsoft Office software tips and tricks or to contact Dawn.

Creativity Management And Time Pressure

Writen by Kal Bishop

There is a pervasive belief that time pressure stimulates creativity. This is both true and false.

There are a number of forces at work:

a) Time pressure increases creative output. By forcing idea production, setting goals and incremental deadlines, a greater number of ideas are produced than if a "do your best" approach is taken. If a leader asks particpants in an idea generating session to address a problem and think of at least 5 ideas every half an hour, then 80 ideas are produced by one individual and 1600 are produced by 20 individuals at the end of an average working day. This level of output is conscious and would not be produced normally.

b) Time pressure encourages prolific production and therefore the probability of generating good ideas increases. It can be said with great confidence that quality of output is closely related to quantity. The best single creative product tends to appear at that point in the career when the creator is being most prolific.

c) Forcing output pushes individuals along the experience curve, refines their methodology, builds competencies and knowledge and improves performance. Screenwriters know that they are likely to produce more, better quality work faster if they set themselves a schedule of a certain number of pages per day.

d) Motivation is critical to creativity. If a person is intrinsically motivated, time pressure may be a synergistic extrinsic motivator. If the person is not intrinsically motivated then it may turn out to be a non-synergistic extrinsic motivator, which reduces the level of engagement in the endeavour.

e) Short term time pressure may be bad in that it does not allow the mind to engage in the endeavour at various cognitive levels. It does not allow rich ideas to formulate through the process of incubation. Intrinsically motivated individuals will benefit from short term time pressure and goals (sets cognitive forces in motion) and will generate richer ideas through incubation over the longer term.

This topic is covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com

Kal Bishop, MBA

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com.

Keep Your Training Sessions On Track Hire A Fullservice Conference Center

Writen by Aldene Fredenburg

If you offer formalized training, whether for your company employees or as a paid expert whose business is professional education seminars, it's important to assure that the entire process runs smoothly throughout the course of the training. A polished presentation, clear, informative handout materials, and a variety of planned activities involving audience participation can together result in a positive experience for the training participants. The right facility can help you create this positive experience by providing the physical layout and support services you need.

If, for instance, you plan to hold a day-long training seminar which involves morning and afternoon media presentations to your entire group, with workshops and hands-on activities planned for smaller groups throughout the day, you'll want a large meeting room which offers a number of seating configurations and the ability to section the room off into two or more smaller rooms; or you can rent several rooms of differing sizes and configurations to meet with your variety of needs.

To maximize productivity at your training seminar, it's important to create a sensible schedule and then stick to it. Make sure you build lunch and morning and afternoon breaks into the schedule, with easy access to food, beverages, and restroom facilities. Holding your seminar at a self-contained meeting center providing refreshments will not only be welcomed by your participants, it will help keep you on schedule, as you won't end up waiting for participants who straggle in after having left the seminar location in search of food.

If you plan to distribute instructional manuals, handouts, and other material at the seminar, consider bundling all the materials together along with pens, pads of paper, and other necessities in a promotional tote with your company logo emblazoned on it; the tote is a great giveaway, and prepackaging the materials and handing them out at the beginning of the seminar will save you time throughout the course of the day.

Think about creating a CD-Rom for participants with additional resource materials which you don't have time to address during the seminar - with your name, company logo, and contact information prominently displayed. If you're a paid expert presenting a professional development seminar, you may also want to gather a selection of books, instructional CDs, and DVDs for sale at the seminar.

If your presentation involves interfacing with the meeting center's audiovisual equipment, make sure you show up far enough in advance of the seminar's start time that you can communicate with the "techies" and troubleshoot the equipment. Even before you get to the facility, you should have identified a specific individual as your contact person and communicate with him or her adequately leading up to the seminar. And make sure you have a solid understanding of the support services they offer; not only will you be able to access these services yourself if necessary, if you can offer the same services to your seminar participants, it will give them added value and reflect well on you.

Meeting and conference centers can be of great assistance in bringing your training seminar into focus. A wise and creative use of the services they offer will make your job easier and optimize the learning experience for your participants.

Aldene Fredenburg is a freelance writer living in southwestern New Hampshire and frequently contributes to Tips and Topics. She has published numerous articles in local and regional publications on a wide range of topics, including business, education, the arts, and local events. Her feature articles include an interview with independent documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and a feature on prisoners at the New Hampshire State Prison in Concord. She may be reached at amfredenburg@yahoo.com.

Managing Your Boss

Writen by Dale Kurow

How good is your relationship with your boss? If you're asking yourself "what relationship?" then read on.

• What baggage are you bringing into the relationship? Do you see your boss as an authority figure (a k a your father or your mother)? Ask a trusted colleague if you overreacted to the latest run-in with your boss. Be open to hearing honest feedback.
• You and your needs are a fraction of your boss's responsibility. Stop taking your boss's behavior personally. She/he probably spends little time thinking about your problem or concern. If you can learn to become immune to your boss's minor slights, which are often a product of his/her stress, you will be happier.
• Put yourself in your boss's shoes. Let that perspective guide you. If you were the boss, you'd want your employees to come to you with solutions, suggestions, ideas and ways of elevating your profile within the organization. Are you doing this with your current boss?
• How many bosses have you had in the last 1-2 years? Do you resent having to prove yourself yet again? Get over it. Rapid management changes are the norm. The sooner your new boss knows you're on his/her side, the better.
• Do you understand your boss's communication style? Does your boss want just the facts? Or does he/she enjoy a more collaborative style and like brainstorming and discussion? When is the best time to speak with your boss; is he/she a morning person or is after 5 PM better? You need to know how to read your boss or all your good work will fall upon deaf ears.
• With a new boss, make it clear how you can help. Talk about how you want to ease his/her transition into the company and outline areas where you can contribute. Don't wait for your boss to come to you. You can get lost in the shuffle during the boss's learning curve.
• Ask for what you want. This goes for money, a promotion or ownership of a new project. Make sure you choose an appropriate time and have a well-prepared case. Be prepared for a no. Hope for a yes. Be willing to negotiate. Know what your fallback position is.
• Speaking of negotiating, when was the last time you negotiated with your boss? Most people run from negotiating. It's too confrontational. Did it ever occur to you that negotiating might be a strength that your boss is looking for from you? Winners know how to negotiate. It's a crucial skill to have in your toolbox. Time to swallow the anxiety and do it.
• Do you feel used, abused, and exhausted at work? What boundaries have you created with your boss? Take a look at how you might be allowing this to happen. Are you afraid to ask for what you need? Are you using work as an excuse not to deal with other aspects of your life? Blaming your boss for your inability to take charge of your life is unfair.
• Do you feel smarter than your boss? Okay, maybe you are. How are you going to use your smarts to position yourself for the next step, assuming that's what you want? And how will you do it without threatening your boss? You need to earn your boss's trust. This is a process that happens over time. And be sure to continue to monitor your need to grandstand. Arrogance is not a plus.
• Do you need to be right? Can you see your boss's point of view? Are you willing to compromise your position for the good of the boss, department, or company? Keeping the bigger picture in mind is key and shows commitment to the team. So, ask yourself "do I want to be happy/successful or do I want to be right? "

  Finally, if you truly do have an ogre for a boss, and nothing seems to work, get out! Sometimes you need a fresh start with a new boss to create the kind of work environment in which you can flourish.

  Dale Kurow, M.S., is an author and a career and executive coach in New York City. Dale works with clients across the United States and internationally helping them to become better managers, figure out their next career moves and thrive despite office politics. Visit Dale's web site at http://www.dalekurow.com/newsletter to sign-up for her free monthly e-zine "Career Essentials," chock full of useful tips and strategies you can use immediately.

Project Managers And Technical Writers The Outsiders That Make Tech Work

Writen by Nigel Fogden

Project managers need to create plans, form teams and keep track of all of the challenges and deadlines that are part of today's fast paced product development cycle. They stand in the center of a crowd of different people, and have to unite and guide them towards a specific goal.

The irony of project management is that while managers have a hand in everything, they participate only indirectly in all of the different tasks that they watch over. Project managers may not write a line of code, but they are responsible for the getting the product done on time. That distance from the specifics of the product can give project managers the objectivity necessary to deliver the product by its deadline.

Even so, the gap between the project manager and those working with the details of the product can lead to serious problems. Many managers have found that an inability to communicate with and relate to the technology experts working under them can doom the most well planned products.

That's where technical writers can step in. Like project managers, technical writers are not scientists or engineers. Unlike project managers, their specialty is translating the language of technology into language that anybody can understand. That ability to build bridges between the development team and management is a powerful, but often overlooked, ability.

Technical writers can:

• Make sure the project managers knows about problems that threaten the product
• Maintain clear, organized records of the development process
• Develop a clear understanding of the different branches of a project through interviews with technology specialists
• Keep the project focused on the audience for whom the project is intended
• Promote communication between management and the development team

It's easy for project managers to get focused only on concrete progress towards a completed product. Technical writing too often gets the lowest priority, yet it is just this kind of rush forward that leads to the kinds of communication breakdowns that technical writers can help prevent.

To take advantage of technical writer's unique skills, project managers need to integrate writers into the development process as early on as possible. By making sure that technical writers have the time and resources they need in order to follow and closely document a project, management creates an open channel of communication with the development team.

Turn your technical writing staff into the bridge you need to stay informed about your project. Technical writers are communication specialists, and it is clear communication that turns a strong development team into a great completed product.

Nigel Fogden is an English teacher and writer with 24 by 5 Tech Comm, a technical writing company that specializes in fast, high-quality, software documentation. For more articles on writing, technology and business, sign up for the 24 by 5 Tech Comm Newsletter at http://www.24by5.com

Trends In Human Resources

Writen by Kadence Buchanan

The role of the Human Resources Department has changed dramatically over the past 30 years and will become increasingly more strategic in nature in the future, said a leading light of the HR community in the recent 2006 Annual Conference and Exposition of HR practitioners in Washington, DC.

Rita Craig, president of the Craig Group and a long-time professional HR consultant, said the role of HR has changed from a primarily administrative position to one that is more strategic. Times certainly have change from those days when the HR department was called the "smile and file" department since in that era, the primary qualifications for HR were simply a friendly disposition and an ability to file.

She said that the emerging trends in HR call for HR professionals to take the lead in planning for the future and becoming strategic business partners in their organizations. She identified several other trends in the industry, as follows: (1) a shrinking talent pool, (2) An increase in outsourcing, (3) A more intense focus on work/life balance; (4) Changing workplace demographics, (5) Greater need for talent management, (6) Ethics requirements, and (6) Globalization.

But the key appears to be strategic planning. With the changing landscape of Human Resources management in the years to come, strategic planning will be the key for HR to meet those needs and to succeed. The key to HR planning for the future begins with one simple question that HR professionals have to ask themselves, says Craig: "If we are successful in the years to come, what will our customers and competitors be saying about us?" With the answers to this question, HR practitioners can formulate a clear, shared vision and a sense of direction for the organization.

As a possible starting point in providing answers to the key question, Craig suggested the following: Focus resources on key goals and strategic measures, create and sustain long-term performance, and create a living document that can change when necessary.

In closing, Craig warned against "powerful and pervasive barriers" that prevent HR professionals from being effective in their roles. She pinpointed these as resistance to change, failure to implement plans, the wounds of past strategic planning failures, and failure to anticipate the impact on people, process and organizational structure.

Kadence Buchanan writes articles on many topics including Employment, Consumer Information, and Education

The First Place To Look For Talent

Writen by Mike Myatt

No company is immune to the perils of employee turnover. But what if I told you that there was a way to recoup some of the investments made into former employees? While I'm sure each of us can easily recall those former employees that we were glad to part company with, it might not be so easy to recall those good employees that got away from us. Even the best of companies will from time-to-time lose good employees. Think about the number of employees that have come and gone over the years and you will quickly realize that some great talent (or great talent in the making) has slipped through your fingers.

Under the right circumstances former employees can provide fertile ground for present day recruiting efforts. Corporate "alumni" were good enough to hire the first time around so with more maturity, experience, possible business intelligence gained from working for competitors or fresh perspectives gained from working outside the industry they should certainly be good enough to invite back for an encore performance. More and more organizations are developing formal corporate alumni programs to take advantage of these types of benefits. If nothing else, those that have come and gone only to come again should require less training and ramp faster than the alternative of first time hires.

A management consulting firm that I worked for in the mid 80's has sent me a recruiting letter each year on my birthday for almost 20 years. It is a professional yet friendly piece of correspondence reminding me of my former relationship, the many benefits associated with being a member my former firm and inquiring as to the possibility of me rejoining the firm. I have always had a good feeling about my former employer and the annual letter hasn't hurt. While I have not yet taken them up on the offer to rejoin the firm I know many of my former colleagues have with some of them on their 3rd and 4th rounds of employment with the firm.

The fact of the matter is that former employees can not only make great re-hires on a full time basis, but they can also be called upon to fill interim needs on a contract basis. Following are the keys to creating an alumni program for your company:

1. Create a Talent Management Strategy: To maintain a competitive edge HR can no longer be a passive, reactionary, compliance focused department. A "real" HR group will have a strong hand in leadership development, training, team building and culture optimization. As early as the initial employee in-take interview the HR department must start creating sense of corporate family and belonging. The company must win the hearts and minds of its employees and HR must be an active participant in this.

2. Make the Most of Exit Interviews: Most exit interviews are conducted with little strategic purpose and are nothing more than a formality to be concluded when closing a file. If HR is looking for anything it is usually looking to mitigate any potential future liability. But what about future opportunity? HR should be looking for specific talents, abilities, characteristics and leadership qualities so that the file can be appropriately noted as a potential source of information when looking to fill open positions in the future.

3. Convert Closed HR Files into an Active Database: As mentioned in number two above, a career history, personal profile and contact information should be entered into an alumni database that is kept current and that can be searched by specific variables. This database should be e-mailed frequently with company updates, news and information to foster the sense of "alumni" that will allow you to successfully mine this valuable source of talent.

4. Establish an Alumni Website: To go hand-in-hand with the alumni database you should create an alumni website where former employees can retrieve information and communicate with the company. Consider an alumni blog or hosting an alumni webinar to facilitate an even broader base of communication with your former employees.

The bottom line is that if you build the right brand and the right culture employees will take pride in being associated with your company both during their tenure of employment as well as after they have left the company. Creating this type of environment is a solid retention strategy that will make it more difficult for employees to leave the firm but it will also make it much easier for them to return to the company at a future date.

Mike Myatt is the Chief Strategy Officer at N2growth. N2growth is a leading venture growth consultancy providing a unique array of professional services to high growth companies on a venture based business model. The rare combination of branding and corporate identity services, capital formation assistance, market research and business intelligence, sales and product engineering, leadership development and talent management, as well as marketing, advertising and public relations services make N2growth the industry leader in strategic growth consulting. More information about the company can be found at http://www.N2growth.com.

Lead By The Right Example

Writen by Kevin Eikenberry

We've all heard that leaders should lead by example; that people pay more attention to our deeds than our words. This is completely true. What is implied by this truth, but not always articulated, is that people will follow whatever example we set.

To be a remarkable leader then, we must make conscious choices to set the right examples – to lead in directions we want people to follow.

The Caterpillars

Processionary caterpillars are an unusual species. They travel one after the other, head to tail in their search for food. It is because of this behavior that Jean Henri Fabre, the French entomologist, conducted an experiment.

He placed processionary caterpillars around the rim of a teacup one after the other in a circle. In the tea cup he placed their favorite foods, inches from their current location.

Through instinct and the strength of habit, the ring of caterpillars circled the teacup for seven days, until they died from exhaustion and starvation. They died with the food they were searching for just inches away. Because of their nature and this arrangement they all assumed someone else was leading.

While we as humans are more insightful, complex and intelligent, our behavior, sadly, often mimics that of the processionary caterpillar.

We follow our leaders and habits blindly, without questioning if our direction will get us where we want to go. If we are leading we often rely too much on instinct and habit. Perhaps worse, if we aren't the assigned leader don't think at all, assuming those who are leading are doing it well. Perhaps they are. Or perhaps you are collectively lining your own teacup.

Following blindly is dangerous enough for us as individuals, but can be even more devastating for us as leaders. As leaders we are asked to lead people to a desired future. It is rightly expected of us to do that with good information and a reasoned approach.

The Quick Trip

Many years ago I worked in a business with very difficult economics. There was an opportunity to make a significant sale to a new Customer who happened to be located in Hawaii. As a part of the negotiation for this long term supply of product, they wanted to meet with our General Manager.

Our General Manager flew from San Francisco early one morning, and with the advantage of the time zones, was able to meet with the Customer all day. He then went back to the airport and flew home on the red eye.

He saved some money, no hotel stay, etc. – an important consideration in our tough business climate. But the more important reason for the quickness of his trip was that he wanted to lead by example. He told me later, "It was important for people to know that I went for the business, and not a mini vacation."

The example he set made a difference for those he led. Through his simple act, people re-focused on ways to improve the business and save money. Steve clearly led by example.

I could give you many other examples – some big and historic and others seldom mentioned – to illustrate the power of a leader's correct example.

Your task though is to take what you already know, that people follow the actions of leaders and not their words, and use it to your advantage.

Stop today to review the direction you are heading as a leader. Review the choices before you and make the best one, based not on comfort or habit, like the caterpillars, but based on the future result you desire.

Make your choice and step boldly forward in that direction. The combination of bold decision and action aligned with your words will be powerful, and will allow you to move people, and therefore your organization, in the right direction.

Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (http://KevinEikenberry.com), a learning consulting company. To receive a free Special Report on leadership that includes resources, ideas, and advice go to http://www.kevineikenberry.com/leadership.asp or call us at (317) 387-1424 or 888.LEARNER.