Medical Billing Ca0 Record Fields 20 Through 30

Writen by Michael Russell

In continuing with our review of the CA0 record for medical billing claims through electronic means, we're going to cover fields 20 through 30. Some of these get a little tricky so we'll cover those in a little more detail, starting off with the first one.

Field 20, position 173, may seem a little strange to those who aren't in the business. This is the patient death indicator field. Many people think why would you bill a claim for a patient who has died? Well, whether the patient lived or died, the provider of services still needs to be paid for the work done. So why the indicator? This is to let the carrier know that the patient has died and by date of death, the provider can't bill for any other services after that date. That's why the indicator.

Field 21, positions 174 - 181, is that patient's date of death. This is recorded by the carrier so they know the patient can no longer be billed for services. This is another way of cutting down on fraud.

Field 22, position 182, is the other insurance indicator. This tells the carrier that the patient has other insurance in addition to the carrier's insurance. This is important in cases where a carrier only pays a partial payment.

Field 23, position 183, is the claim editing indicator. This is a field that just about nobody uses so don't concern yourself with it. If it is needed, consult the manual.

Field 24, position 184 - 185, is the claim type indicator. This is a two character code that tells the carrier what type of claim this is, such as DME, dental, etc.

Field 25, position 186, is the legal representation indicator. This is one of those very complex fields but we'll try to simplify it here. In some cases, a patient has a guardian or somebody with a power of attorney. Basically, this means that there are legal issues involved with the care of the patient and therefore the submission of the claim. This has to be indicated here. These are usually very messy claims as far as who is paid, how much and when.

Field 26, positions 187 - 195, is the origin indicator. This indicates the care facility that the patient was admitted to and where care was given. There are a number of codes for this that can usually be found in the software's lookup table when doing medical billing.

Field 27, positions 196 - 212, is the payer claim control number. This is currently not supported by any carriers using NSF 3.01, so there is no point even trying to explain what this number is for.

Field 28, positions 213 - 227, is the provider number. This MUST match the provider number that is transmitted in the provider record or the claim will be denied.

Field 29, positions 228 - 233, is the claim ID number. Every claim has one of these and it must be transmitted. All references to this claim will be made through this number.

Field 30, positions 234 - 320, is filler national and must be left blank or the claim will be denied.

This concludes our review of CA0 record fields 20 through 30 for medical billing of claims through electronic means.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Medical Billing

Corporate Event Planning

Writen by Eddie Tobey

The company that you are working for is having a fundraising event to provide financial resources for a charity organization.

It excites you to think that this big conglomerate is planning and holding a big event such as this one, and it most especially appeals to you because the proceeds will be helping out a charity that really is in dire need of resources so as to continue its mission and goals.

However, what does not appeal to you right now is that this big event is all your responsibility. Your boss has appointed you as the main person in charge of this important event.

Frazzled nerves are what you are experiencing right now. You do not know where to start and you also do not know what to plan for and prepare for. This is not your kind of thing. And, of course, you surely would not want to put your boss down. He is counting on you to push this big event through.

The Internet holds answers to the many questions regarding corporate event planning. There are plenty of resources that could assist corporate event planners on different issues. These online resources also list things to consider in regard to corporate events. If your company has a sufficient amount of resources, there are many small companies who specialize in corporate event planning.

Corporate event planning requires that many things be taken into consideration so that effective decisions can be made. There is the venue and location, the entertainment, the invitations, the publicity, the food and drinks, the music, the decorations, and a whole lot more. Keeping a checklist helps corporate event planners tremendously. It is important that each detail of the corporate event be taken care of.

Event Planning provides detailed information on Event Planning, Convention Event Planning Services, Corporate Event Planning, Event Planning and Production and more. Event Planning is affiliated with Corporate Event Management.

Business Needs Vs Network Performance Critical Challenges Facing Network Managers

Writen by Amichai Lesser

Networking is getting tougher. Networks must deliver a growing range of services, from ERP, CRM and email to VoIP and web services applications, each of which has its own idiosyncrasies and requirements. Each new service introduced onto the network contends for available resources with every other service, impacting the network's ability to support the business.

Meanwhile, the network itself is constantly changing. New locations are added – some of which may be in another country or on another continent. Equipment is upgraded and/or re-configured. New management and/or security tools may themselves impact service performance. Decisions about data center consolidation and business re-organization also affect the network in different ways. All of this makes the network a highly dynamic environment where even subtle changes can have a major, unforeseen impact on application performance and availability.

Yet business users expect this complex environment to be as reliable as electricity – despite the fact that networking budgets are not being increased in proportion to these growing challenges. So network managers can't simply over-provision network infrastructure to make sure every service has all the bandwidth it needs. Moreover, over provisioning may not even solve the problem and/or ensure the required level of performance.

That's why network managers are facing many challenges, including:

1) Pinpointing potential network performance issues early in the development lifecycle

Ideally, the impact of the network on a new application or service should be dealt with from the very beginning of the development process – when potential problems are much easier and less expensive to fix. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Problems with an application's "networkability" are typically discovered only after its roll-out into the production environment is initiated. At that point, it's usually too late to make any significant changes in the application's design. So the problem gets pushed onto the shoulders of the networking team. That's why, in '05, smart network managers will focus on nipping these problems in the bud.

2) Validating new or modified applications and infrastructure before they are deployed in production

As the network becomes more complex and more critical to the day-to-day-operation of the business, network performance related risks associated with application and infrastructure change are continuing to rise. In fact, some of the worst business interruptions that companies have historically experienced have not been the result of unexpected equipment failure. They've been the unexpected consequence of a planned modification. Networking teams must therefore implement change management best practices in '05 that prevent them from having to put out fires that they accidentally started themselves.

3) Improved troubleshooting of intermittent/transient network problems

One of the most frustrating things for a network manager is dealing with a problem that keeps disappearing before it can be adequately understood and remedied. However, as the business's tolerance for network interruptions continues to drop, these intermittent problems will become a bigger management issue. So this year, network management teams need to develop more effective methods for capturing transient network conditions and discovering the root causes of these problems.

4) Accelerated time-to-benefit for new and/or upgraded applications

When C-level executives decide to make investments in new applications and services, they want to see those investments pay off quickly. That's why the slow, staged production roll-outs of the past won't cut it anymore. Instead, networking teams need to be able to quickly deploy new applications across the enterprise. This can only happen if caution and uncertainty about the actual behavior of these applications in the production environment is replaced by confidence and certainty in '05.

5) More intelligent planning for and support of business growth

Network managers constantly have to cope with change. They have to determine how increases in network utilization will affect application performance. They have to decide how to best engineer the network to support business expansion, re-organization or mergers and acquisitions. However, they can only do so if they have an effective means of performing capacity planning tasks and assessing a full range of "what-if" scenarios. Such scenarios are also critical for formulating realistic contingency plans that can ensure business continuity under a variety of possible conditions.

Looking at these challenges, it quickly becomes evident that conventional production network management tools alone are no longer sufficient for today's networking teams. These tools are great for monitoring the production network and discovering certain types of problems – but they don't enable network managers to validate new technologies and applications before they're deployed on the production network. They also force network managers to solve problems that should have been addressed in application design.

Conventional tools aren't very helpful for troubleshooting intermittent and/or transient network problems either, since they don't provide a means of reconstructing and analyzing such intermittent conditions. Nor do they help accelerate production roll-outs, facilitate experimentation with "what-if" scenarios, or support formulation of network contingency plans.

So what's an overworked, under-resourced network manager to do? The answer is to look at network modeling technologies. These technologies provide an environment in which new applications, technologies and problem-solving strategies can be safely and thoroughly evaluated. Because they allow an application's network behavior to be fully validated before it's deployed in the production environment, these technologies also empower network managers to perform more rapid, glitch-free roll-outs. Plus, modeling technologies are uniquely able to provide insight into any number of "what-if" scenarios – so network managers can make plans for growth, corporate re-structuring and/or disaster recovery.

"Empirical" modeling solutions offer today's network management teams particularly excellent business value, because of their accuracy and relative ease of implementation. This accuracy and ease is achieved by running the actual applications against a model that uses captured conditions from the production environment. The result is a clear understanding of the user experience well ahead of deployment.

To learn more, visit www.shunra.com. Shunra empowers enterprise organizations and technology vendors to eliminate the risks associated with rolling out complex, distributed, applications and services. The Shunra Virtual Enterprise (Shunra VE) solution provides accurate, highly granular insight into how networked applications will function, perform and scale for remote end-users. It creates an exact replica of the production network environment, allowing users to safely develop, test and experiment with applications and infrastructure in a lab environment before deployment in production.

Amichai Lesser Bio

Amichai Lesser is the director of product marketing at Shunra Software, a company that delivers award-winning solutions that recreate a replica of any production network environment for testing the functionality, robustness, performance and scalability of applications and services - before rollout.

This article is copyrighted by Shunra. It may not be reproduced in whole or in part and may not be posted on other websites without the express written permission of the author who may be contacted via email at Shunra@digitalbrandexpressions.com.

Project Management I Want It All

Writen by Luc Richard

The knee-jerk response to prioritizing requirements is to mark everything as a must-have . "I need everything before the product becomes generally available. I want it ALL!" Give me a break.

Granted, if a requirement is written in the SRS, then it must be because you want it. But the reality is some features are more important than others and a good product manager can tell them apart.

If everything is high priority, then there are no priorities. Let me repeat that statement once more. If everything is high priority, then there are no priorities.

Unless this is your very first software project, you know that time is always a constraint. Combine an overly optimistic project schedule with a list of requirements that aren't prioritized, and what do you get? A team of developers that implement what they want, when they want.

You have a choice. You can (a) leave it up to the development team to pick and choose their favorite features to implement, or (b) give them a clear sense of direction by prioritizing the requirements. Have them start with the must-haves, followed by the nice-to-haves. When the project deadline comes up, you can decide to extend the project schedule to add a few more nice-to-haves, but you won't be forced to because your product will already include all of the must-have requirements that would make or break your sales. In other words, you're managing the schedule instead of letting the schedule manage you.

Wondering how to best prioritize requirements? Check out First Things First in The Project Mangler's archives.

Luc Richard is professional speaker and author with over 10 years of experience managing the development of software applications. He can be reached via The Project Mangler (http://www.projectmangler.com).

The Difference Between Typical Project Management And Six Sigma Project Management

Writen by Peter Peterka

The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) became an accepted standard (as established by the Project Management Institute) that is still widely used in many industries around the world. At a basic level, many of the methodologies advocated by PMBoK and Six Sigma have a great deal in common. Both seek to establish a sound plan; identify and communicate with stakeholders; conduct regular reviews; and manage schedule, cost, and resources.

Six Sigma is not just another project management initiative or process improvement program. Six Sigma is not just a new term for project management nor is it a mere repackaging of old concepts. It is more than that because it is a robust continuous improvement strategy and process that includes cultural and statistical methodologies. Six Sigma is complementary with existing project management programs and standards but differs in significant ways. Both disciplines seek to reduce failures, prevent defects, control costs and schedules, and manage risk. Generally, professional project management attempts to achieve these goals by encouraging best practices on a project-by-project basis, often through the mechanism of a project office that promulgates policy, provides templates and advice, promotes appropriate use of tools such as critical path method, and perhaps performs periodic project reviews.

Too many project management methods have failed not because they weren't adding value but because you couldn't measure the effectiveness of the methodology or quantify the value added by process changes. Six Sigma provides a structured data-driven methodology with tools and techniques that companies can use to measure their performance both before and after Six Sigma projects. Using Six Sigma, management can measure the baseline performance of their processes and determine the root causes of variations so they can improve their processes to meet and exceed the desired performance levels.

Six Sigma allows managers to take their projects to new levels of discipline and comprehensive commitment. For standard project management ideas, you can approach them ad hoc and implement them as you learn them. You can't do Six Sigma halfheartedly, and that is a good thing. Six Sigma is not for dabblers. You can't implement it piecemeal. If you're in, you're in deep, and you're in for the long haul. Again, that is a good thing because that level of commitment not only gets everyone involved and keeps them involved but also leads to more substantial and far-reaching change in your processes.

There are many challenges facing project managers: data gathering and analysis, problem solving, understanding and evaluating existing processes, developing and tracking measurements in a standardized manner, and making quantitative evaluations. Six Sigma methodology provides tools and techniques to help a manager be successful in all of these challenges. This success is accomplished by means of understanding what the methodology is, how it is applied, and how it used.

Six Sigma is not simply another supplement to an organization's existing management methods. It is a complementary management methodology that is integrated into and replaces the existing ways of determining, analyzing, and resolving/avoiding problems, as well as achieving business and customer requirements objectively and methodically. Six Sigma can be applied to operational management issues, or it can directly support strategic management development and implementation. Six Sigma's set of tools are more broadly applicable than those commonly applied within typical project management. Six Sigma is more oriented toward solutions of problems at their root cause and prevention of their recurrence rather than attempting to control potential causes of failure on a project-by-project basis.

The breadth, depth, and precision of Six Sigma also differentiate it from typical project management. Six Sigma has a well-defined project charter that outlines the scope of a project, financial targets, anticipated benefits, milestones, etc. It's based on hard financial data and savings. In typical project management, organizations go into a project without fully knowing what the financial gains might be. Six Sigma has a solid control phase (DMAIC: Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) that makes specific measurements, identifies specific problems, and provides specific solutions that can be measured.

Six Sigma is a robust continuous improvement strategy and process that includes cultural methodologies such as Total Quality Management (TQM), process control strategies such as Statistical Process Control (SPC), and other important statistical tools. When done correctly, Six Sigma becomes a way toward organization and cultural development, but it is more than a set of tools. Six Sigma is the strategic and systematic application of the tools on targeted important projects at the appropriate time to bring about significant and lasting change in an organization as a whole.

Peter Peterka is President of Six Sigma us. For additional information on Six Sigma Green Belt or other Six Sigma Certification project programs contact Peter Peterka.

Peter Peterka is the Principal Consultant in practice areas of DMAIC and DFSS. Peter has eleven years of experience performing as a Master Black Belt, and has over 15 years experience in industry as an improvement specialist and engineer working with numerous companies, including 3M, Dell, Dow, GE, HP, Intel, Motorola, Seagate, Xerox and even the US Men's Olympic Team. For partial list look here. Peter is a certified a Master Black Belt and holds an MS degree in Statistics from Iowa State and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Purdue. Peter worked for 3M over 10 years where he gained extensive experience applying Sigma Methodologies to a variety of processes.

Peter has successfully developed Six Sigma deployment strategies and training for Product and Process Development, Manufacturing and Business Process Improvement. His broad experience across many technologies helped him gain insight on how to apply Six Sigma methods to Business Processes.

Tales From The Corporate Frontlines Senior Management And Directional Change

Writen by Josh Greenberg

This article relates to the Senior/Top Level management of an organization, and how a huge vision of directional change translates into the day-to-day operation of the company. AlphaMeasure defines senior management as the team of individuals at the highest level who have the day-to-day responsibilities of operating the organization. For many employees, this competency will target the managers occupying positions above their immediate supervisors. This competency covers topics such as strategic leadership, corporate vision, and corporate direction. Evaluating this competency can be especially useful in understanding how much your workforce favors the present direction of the organization.

This short story, Senior Management and Directional Change, is part of AlphaMeasure's compilation, Tales from the Corporate Frontlines. It illustrates how undertaking a drastic directional change within a company requires planning, engagement, and honest evaluation by the top levels of management, those who are ultimately responsible for the implementation of the changes.

Anonymous Submission

When a company decides to change direction in a major way to increase profits and change with the prevailing business climate, change often begins at the top. Our company decided to change its marketing strategy significantly, nearly two years ago. Our main product was extremely service oriented, so it made sense to focus marketing efforts on the Internet, rather than the time-honored methods of TV ads and heavy direct mail.

This meant strategic restructuring- nothing drastic at the worker level, or even at middle management. But at the top level, there was a definite lack of expertise in the area of Internet marketing. Some on the executive team who were most responsible for day- to -day marketing operations not only disagreed with the decision to change strategy; they were also extremely vocal about their reservations.

We waited patiently to see how the parent company executive team would handle the situation. It was no surprise when the objectors were asked to leave. After their departure, responsibilities were restructured to give those in charge of the change maximum resources with which to accomplish the task. As the work proceeded, streamlining eliminated various positions, and certain workers were given responsibility for projects quite unlike anything they'd worked on before. Some training was offered, but apparently not enough. After a few years, it became obvious that the vision for change in marketing strategy was unsuccessful.

A team was assembled to investigate why the effort had failed. It was determined that top level management simply did not have the in depth knowledge and expertise in Internet marketing that was required. The company had removed the workers that were deemed non-essential to the plan, but this was not enough. Top management had not pressed hard enough to properly train those left to handle the transition. Expecting middle management and below to know and handle what the top level did not had deeply wounded the entire transition effort. Our investigation team determined that there was a genuine lack of experience and recommended intense training and education efforts as well as the hiring of highly experienced personnel in key areas. These recommendations were followed, but not before our company learned a tough lesson about top management's role in turning a broad vision for change into day to day reality.

© 2005 AlphaMeasure, Inc. - All Rights Reserved

This article may be reprinted, provided it is published in its entirety, includes the author bio information, and all links remain active.

Measure. Report. Improve your organization with an AlphaMeasure employee satisfaction survey.

Josh Greenberg is President of AlphaMeasure, Inc.

AlphaMeasure provides organizations of all sizes a powerful web based method for measuring employee satisfaction, determining employee engagement, and increasing employee retention.

Launch your employee surveys with AlphaMeasure.

Call Centres Customer Or Internal Metric Focus

Writen by Kevin Dwyer

"Your call is important to us. We will attend to you as soon as we can". One wonders sometimes what is more important to call centres, the call or the customer. In most call centres, customers wait for a few minutes at the end of a telephone line for an answer from an individual who is governed by a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that has more to do with the efficiency of the call centre than satisfying the needs of the customer.

Call centres which fall into the trap of providing a cost focus on single calls tend to be driven by an operational focus over the strategic role in the business of the organisation. They tend to become a law unto themselves with few people in the leadership team taking an active and detailed interest in their role.

Call centres are put in place to improve customer experience and thereby develop increased repeat business for the organisation for which they are providing that service. Using technology to deliver better services at about one tenth the cost of delivering the same services across a counter means the case for developing a call centre in an organisation with a high level of transactions is usually very compelling.

Call centres therefore should have a strong strategic focus. Their focus should, in a commercial environment, be about customers, not calls. They should concern themselves with the retention, annual value, life time value, total numbers and profitability of customers.

In taking a customer view, organisations then would concern themselves in an operational sense with customer access, customer identification, customer issue identification, customer routing, consultant skills, data availability and escalation policy to ensure that customer's issues are resolved first time.

The operational requirements of the number of calls, the average time for calls, consultant attendance, consultant turnover for example, need to be considered as part of the budgeting and reporting mechanism, not as the drivers of the call centres reason for being.

However, forgetting what they are there for, call centres can become mesmerised by the need for efficiency in dealing with a single call rather than effectively dealing with each customer. As a result, the overall efficiency in dealing with their entire customer base over a period such as a year is anything up to fifty percent less than it otherwise could be. Service levels, in the customer's mind, are similarly anything up to eighty percent less than they could be.

An example of how concentration on call centre operational metrics increases costs and reduces customer service can be found in the number of repeat calls a call centre receives. From studies and personal experience, I know that most call centres that I consult with will have approximately thirty percent of calls being repeat calls. The reason for the majority of those repeat calls is that the customer did not have their issue resolved. The need that caused them to call in the first place was not satisfied.

Satisfying needs in the first place or in call centre jargon, achieving first time resolution, can reduce overall labour costs by thirty percent. From my experience achieving ten or twenty percent is quite achievable. The corollary is of course that users of the call centre's services are more satisfied with the service provided thereby improving the perception of the organisation called. Happier customers and lower costs, which organisation would not want that?

One of the root causes for these repeat calls is when consultants feel so obliged to meet an average call handling time that has been set as a target. I once was calling my bank in Melbourne from London to enquire about why the bank had transferred money out of my account into the account of another person I did not know. After three minutes on the phone, not getting very far, I was told that I would have to hang up as the consultant had reached the limit of their time allotted to a phone call!

This was an extreme case. In my experience however, this pressure is felt at consultant level in most call centres, even as an unintended consequence of a well meant set of operational KPIs. The result is that customers do not get satisfaction and do make a repeat call, a more irate one!

With the growing presence of internal and external call centres in Fiji, an opportunity beckons to provide a better service and be more effective and efficient for it. To do so, call centres need to see themselves as being a strategic part of an organisation's business, not just operational.

Call centres must not allow operational focus to obliterate strategic focus. Call centres must understand how they are the means to providing better value for an organisation's customers, not just the end by which an organisation cuts costs.

Kevin Dwyer is Director of Change Factory. Change Factory helps organisations who do do not like their business outcomes to get better outcomes by changing people's behaviour. Businesses we help have greater clarity of purpose and ability to achieve their desired business outcomes. To learn more visit http://www.changefactory.com.au or email kevin.dwyer@changefactory.com.au ©2006 Change Factory To see more articles visit http://www.changefactory.com.au

Important Features Of Business Improvement Programs

Writen by Groshan Fabiola

There are various reliable training centers on the World Wide Web that allow business owners to actively participate to various professional Business Improvement Programs. Such professional training programs account for a wide range of features including business management, innovative sales and marketing strategies, as well as long-term business planning strategies. Solid Business Improvement Programs are aimed at debating both the basics and the subtleties of proper business management, accounting for all relevant aspects regarding profitability, the customer-employee relation, the development of strategies for achieving short-term and long-term goals and so on.

The extended curriculum provided by professional Business Improvement Programs renders such training courses appropriate for any business owner, regardless of the previous level of training in the branch. While inexperienced business owners can rapidly assimilate valuable information regarding proper business management and marketing solutions, well-trained business owners can further enhance their knowledge and acquire a set of innovative strategies for boosting the profitability and the longevity of their business.

A complete Business Improvement Program can actually guarantee success in virtually any type of business. Considering the fact that all businesses share similar characteristics, following common patterns of development, a reliable Business Improvement Program can enhance the potential of any business, regardless of its nature, size and market position. Structured on multiple levels, Business Improvement Programs rigorously explore and debate a wide range of subjects related to business planning, management, and development, familiarizing attendants with the entire process of running a business.

Professional Business Improvement Programs are taught by the best professionals in the branch, allowing attendants to acquire vital information regarding proper business management. The training programs are well-structured and contain comprehensive materials, stimulating and facilitating the process of learning. Unlike self-study oriented programs, professional Business Improvement Programs involve active participation, allowing attendants to interact with both "business coaches" and the other trainees. In addition, people who participate to Business Improvement Programs are encouraged to freely express their ideas and confront their opinions with other business owners. Business coaches offer prompt and extended feed-back, ensuring that all participants understand the issues discussed during the program.

It is important to note that Business Improvement Programs are not solely focused on theoretical courses. Professional programs often include seminaries and laboratories which are aimed at developing a set of practical, managerial, negotiation and interaction skills and abilities, crucial in the process of achieving and maintaining a successful business.

By attending to a professional Business Improvement Program, business owners can rapidly assimilate a complete set of knowledge and practical abilities, vital in the process of management. With the help of such training programs, business owners can effectively increase sales by implementing new marketing strategies and by attracting new potential customers to their business. Thanks to their proved efficiency and reliability, Business Improvement Programs are recommended by thousands of business owners worldwide!

So, if you want to find more information about Business Improvement Program, we recommend you clicking this link.

Company Liability Hostile Sexual Harassment Environment

Writen by Rhonda Goetz

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, age, national origin, and sex.

Federal sexual harassment law is broken into two categories: Quid Pro Quo and Hostile Sexual Environment. This article looks at Hostile Environment.

A Hostile Environment occurs when unwelcome sexual conduct ruins an employee's work environment.

When this occurs the behavior or its effect unreasonably interferes with work performance and/or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment either at work or at company-sponsored events.

The behavior must be unwelcome and in most cases repeated.

Types of harassment includes:

• sexually explicit jokes, pinups, or graffiti
• vulgar statements and sounds
• abusive language
• indirect sexual comments
• overt sexual conduct

It is important to note that with this type of harassment, it doesn't matter whether the behavior was intended to be harassing or flattering. The harassment is always defined by the victim. If the victim finds the behavior unwelcome, regardless of the intent, then it is harassment.

The courts have held employers liable in cases that involved supervisors, other employees, and/or customers or vendors.

Court Case

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced a settlement with London International Group, LLC (LIG) in a lawsuit charging the Eufaula-based plant, which manufactures condoms, with subjecting a class of employees to a hostile work environment in which they have been subjected to numerous racially and sexually derogatory cartoons and comments since 1995.

Award: $625,000 in monetary damages

For more on other types of Sexual Harassment, read about Sexual Favoritism or Sexual Harassment by Non-Employees.

Protect your business from this type of harassment. Make sure your employees are well-trained in harassment and discrimination prevention and awareness.

Rhonda Goetz
Chrome Zebra, Inc.
Helping Employers Prevent Harassment and Discrimination Lawsuits
866.241.9927
http://www.chromezebra.com
Online Human Resource Trainng

Rhonda Goetz is the owner and CEO of Chrome Zebra. She also is an authorized harassment and discrimination trainer and online instructional designer.

Her online courses provide businesses with an alternate training method that saves time and money. Employees train at their desks or workstations, and can train anytime. Businesses no longer have to lose production time to large training seminars, or hire expensive consultants or be locked into a set training schedule. Online training is cost-effective as well, per employee cost is approximately $25 or less for each employee.

Get the F.ree 10 Tips to Prevent Sexual Harassment, sign up here.

How Productive Are You

Writen by Mike Myatt

Let's face it...Productivity is the standard by which most of us are judged in the business world. At the end of the day, in most business environments your destiny is likely to come down to a "what have you done for me lately" type of evaluation. My question to you is this...Are you as productive as you think you are, or even as productive as you used to be? In today's blog post I'll share my thoughts about the things that adversely affect your ability to produce as well as some of the key items that can leverage your ability to optimize productivity.

Even though entrepreneurs and executives are typically bright, talented and motivated people known for being highly productive, studies have shown that most professionals, when objectively assessed, are found to view themselves as being more productive than they really are. This is even true with the classic over-achieving type "A" personalities. So, what separates the productive from the non-productive? In working with countless executives and entrepreneurs it has been my experience that those professionals who like to cover a lot of ground and consider themselves masters of multi-tasking are not nearly as productive as those who have an ability to focus (see previous post entitled "The Power of Focus").

OK...Let's examine an all too common scenario: You have 30 minutes before the beginning of a strategy meeting which you are facilitating, and as you start to prepare your final thoughts you receive an e-mail from legal asking you to review the latest version of an important contract before you go into the meeting. As you begin to redline the contract you receive an IM from the CEO asking for your immediate attention on a key issue. As you start to respond to the CEO your assistant informs you that an important client is on the phone and needs to speak with you immediately...As you begin to take the phone call you glance out your window only to see a small line forming outside your door, and just then your Blackberry goes-off with a 911 from your wife...

The sad part about the aforementioned illustration is that for many executives this is standard operating procedure. The pressure to become a multi-tasking phenom is in my opinion at the root of a decline in executive productivity. Multi-tasking in my opinion is choosing to deal with perceived "urgent" matters rather than focusing on truly "important" matters. My father once told me that "part-time efforts yield part-time results" and I have found that with rare exception his premise is correct.

In the scenario presented above it is likely that this fictional executive would not have been properly prepared for his meeting, missed a key business point in reviewing the contract, sent the CEO an indiscernible IM full of typos, upset his important client by not giving him/her the deserved amount of respect and attention, frustrated the co-workers lined-up outside his door and more than likely would have ended-up sleeping on the couch because he forgot to return his wife's phone call.

It is impossible to kind-of, sort-of, almost focus and still be productive. If you find yourself constantly multi-tasking you are exhibiting a lack of focus, an inability to prioritize and regardless of what you think you are not optimizing your productivity. The first step in dealing with an addiction is to recognize it exists in the first place. Technology can be a beautiful thing but only if you learn to be its master and not its slave. Without question the most successful executives I know are the ones that can prioritize, delegate, focus and say "no." Learning to stop trying to conquer the world on your own is what leads to a certainty of execution and an increase in productivity.

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 or by viewing http://www.N2growth.com/blog

Decisions How Close Are You To A 100 Strike Rate

Writen by Eric Garner

Managers, team leaders and their staff can take as many as a hundred or more decisions in the course of a day, each day and every day. Many of these decisions are, of course, no more than automatic responses to familiar situations in which they have to choose between two or three options. However, from time to time, we all have to take decisions on which the course of our future and that of others depends. Then, it is a question of making sure they are right. Here are 6 principles to guide you in right decision-making.

1. Time Them. There are two traps which people fall into when making decisions: making them too soon and making them too late. Some people make decisions too swiftly and without due thought. This may be because they are uncomfortable with the tension that is created when a decision has to be made but they don't have all the information needed. Instead of living with tension, they make the decision before time. Other people delay making decisions because they fear making a mistake or fear the changes that will result. The best decisions are hot-iron decisions: those that are well-timed, which you make when the iron is hot and the time is right.

2. Align Them. The more decisions you make consciously, the more you can align them with your goals and purposes. Studies show that the average person makes 612 decisions a day. Each one takes us closer or further from our ultimate goals in life. In a week, that means 4,900 decisions. In a year, 254,800. Results are cumulative. Strategic thinking means looking at how your decisions today affect your tomorrows. When your decisions are in alignment with what's important to you, then life becomes meaningful, productive and delightful.

3. Balance Them.There are three balancing acts to be aware of in taking a good decision. They are:
• Care and not care. Do all your worrying before the decision and once a decision has been taken, stop worrying.
• Think and act. Too much thinking puts off the action; too much action may be at the expense of thought. Seek the right balance.
• Look before you leap and leap before you look. See the possible risks of your decision but, once decided, take the plunge with courage.

4. Act When You Have To. You should only make decisions when you have to. Here are five "don'ts" to guide you.
• DON'T make a decision unless you have two or more equally valid options.
• DON'T make a decision if it's somebody else's responsibility.
• DON'T make a decision unless there is disagreement.
• DON'T make a decision about irrelevant matters.
• DON'T make a decision if it can't be turned into action. "If there's one thing I've learned in politics, it is: never make a decision until you have to." (Margaret Thatcher)

5. Don't Decide Without Acting. Eric Aronson tells this riddle: If 5 birds are sitting on a wire and one of them decides to fly away, how many are left? The answer is five. One bird's decision to fly away does not mean it did! Theodore Roosevelt said that the worst thing you could do when you have to make a decision is to do nothing. Even if you make a wrong decision, the very making of it and the learning from it are steps forward. As Frederick Langbridge added, "If you don't follow through on a decision, someone else will pick it up and use it. When you make a decision, jump in with both feet, don't just stick your toe in the water. Be daring, be fearless, and don't be afraid that somebody is going to criticize you or laugh at you. If your ego is not involved, no one can hurt you."

6. Keep Your Decision Under Review. Decisions are a mix of what we currently want (goals); what we currently know (information); what we believe (outcomes); and what we can do (actions). There is no guarantee that any of these will stay the same or that they will come right. No decision is perfect. This is because…
• half-way through the implementation of a decision we may realise we don't want to achieve the goal after all.
• after taking a decision, we may stumble across more information which, had we had it before, would have totally changed our decision.
• since outcomes depend on an educated guess about the future, we might guess wrong.
• a successful decision depends as much on motivation and skill in implementation as on getting it right.

Nobody who regularly makes important decisions affecting the lives of others will tell you hand on heart that they get it right every time. Decision-taking is more of an art than a science. But practice, and learning from our results, may at least take us closer down the road to a 100% strike rate.

© 2005, Eric Garner, ManageTrainLearn.com

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Invite Selfmanaged Staff

Writen by Linda LaPointe

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being." -Goethe

Two hundred years ago, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, German poet and philosopher, knew how to inspire and interact with others: recognize the best in them and act upon those positive expectations. This takes conscious effort and constant vigilance to be self-aware of our actions. And we owe our fellow human beings nothing less. Successful supervisors live this sentiment daily in their connections with their fellow human beings. They believe in the basic goodness of people and consciously act upon their beliefs in every contact, every day. These staffers guide the people with whom they work toward self-esteem, self-confidence and self-determination.

Effective supervisors, those who develop staff who are trusted, productive and stable, assist them to become what they are capable of: self-managed, productive and trusted. This requires a combination of the best of 'soft' skills, or how we treat people, and 'hard' skills, or how we engage and support their capabilities.

Supervisors are stronger in one of these skills than in another, but the best supervisors become good at both and make a conscious effort toward a balance. The following ABC's make an immediate and measurable change in the workplace. The A's and B's, or act and believe, are the soft skills in practice, and the C, or coaching, employs the hard skills.

A's & B's: Actions and Beliefs

The seven back to basics beliefs which help us treat people the way Goethe intended:

1. People are important and deserve respect.

2. Ordinary people can perform extraordinarily.

3. People deserve to be trusted.

4. People are good and want to do a good job.

5. People are self-motivated.

6. It is our job to assist others to grow and become "stars".

7. Supervising is a humbling experience.

Wasn't it your mother who said, actions speak louder than words? Our beliefs dictate our actions, but most of us are too busy to really take each of these and hold them up to the light, inspecting their every attribute and power. We do business as usual without reconsidering our commonly accepted behaviors toward employees.

Do our actions unequivocally manifest positive beliefs? Do our actions demonstrate that we believe that staff are trustworthy, or do we lock up our supplies? Do we act as if frontline staff are the most important worker in our organization because they do the work for which the company is paid, or do we interrupt a meeting with them to take a call or make them wait for us to arrive for an appointment? Do we hover over their work or insult them with insignificant gifts or raises? Do we recognize them for their daily efforts or thank them for being at their work station so we don't have to do their job on any given day? Do we educate them in the business side of the company and ask them for their opinion in big decisions?

These soft skills and actions make the difference between humane or harsh workplaces, between bosses to whom staff will be loyal or bosses who staff plan to leave. All actions articulate our beliefs.

C: Coach as Leader, Manager and Supervisor

The workplace coach functions as leader, manager, and supervisor to support and elicit exceptional performance. Each of these three roles has distinct behaviors, intent, and purpose. The coach as leader: The leader imparts philosophy to create and support care-full staff. Philosophy is the only signpost to give guidance in unanticipated situations. Every coach must lead by imparting philosophy. Vigorously ask & answer "why" questions such as, Why does the company exist? Why does the world and our community need us? Why do we choose to join this endeavor? Why do we do something this way instead of that way? Every one of us wants to aspire to a higher purpose. To be part of something greater than ourselves fulfills our desire to belong and provides us with an important place where we can make a difference in this world.

The coach as manager: The manager conveys knowledge to create and support staff who are mind-full and power-full. The coach in the role of manager answers "what" questions. What business are we in? What do we do to fulfill our purpose? What difference do we make to our customers? What are our goals? What are our expected customer outcomes and business objectives?

The coach as supervisor: The supervisor establishes structure to support staff who are success-full. The coach as supervisor answers "how "questions: How do we do our business? How do we meet our goals? How is this task or activity performed and how do I prove it? How will we know when we get it right?

A good coach supports direct-care staff who are care-full, mind-full, power-full and success-full through imparting knowledge, philosophy, and structure. Goethe gave us the answer to creating humane human service workplaces 200 years ago.

Act, believe and coach your way to being a supervisor who staff will admire and want to work with. Focus on these basic ABC's, to develop a solid team of skilled, self-managed and stable employees.

About The Author

Linda LaPointe, MRA, has trained thousands in these simple but powerful practices. More free articles and pages from her book can be seen at http://www.thenewsupervisor.com; lapointell@yahoo.com

Taking Responsibility For Your Own Career Development How To Make The Most Of It Part 2

Writen by John Schonegevel

In Part One we concentrated on how to build a career that meets your personal aspirations, drivers and values. In this part of the article, we'll concentrate on the other key requirement for effective career development - your organisation's needs.

Identifying your firm's needs

It is clear that most organisations have higher expectations of performance than ever before. Standards are both more important and often less clear. At the same time, the traditional measure of good performance - job promotion - is no longer a viable gauge.

Although professionals are expected to focus on growing within their current roles, rather than on looking for the next promotion, most of us do not have an alternative way of discussing or conceptualising our development in terms of role growth.

One powerful model for achieving this is the Four Stages Model developed by Gene Dalton and Paul Thompson whilst professors at Harvard University. Dalton and Thompson were originally asked to investigate performance at a large electronics firm. This organisation tracked engineers' performance over time. Their data made it clear that expectations of individual performance change as people move through their careers. While some engineers continued to be rated as high performers throughout their careers, the majority received progressively lower ratings, even though the work they did remained the same in absolute terms. As Dalton and Thompson continued their research it became clear that the differences could be explained by four stages of development. Subsequent research with groups of professionals and managers from other sectors confirmed their initial findings.

The progression identified by the two professors is independent of position on the organisation chart. It explains why two people with the same job descriptions may be valued differently by their firm. However to be a high performer in the latter stages depends on mastering the early stages. Thus the Four Stages provides a powerful road-map for understanding the long-term expectations organisations have of their employees.

The Four Stages of Contribution Stage 1; Contributing Dependently or The Apprentice

Stage 2; Contributing Independently

Stage 3; Contributing through Others

Stage 4; Contributing Strategically

Stage 1 contributors accept direction, establish basic competence and learn the ropes. While people who do this early in their careers are seen as highly effective, those who continue to depend on others for direction after several years are seen as contributing less than their peers who enter Stage 2 by becoming technical experts.

In the same manner, those independent experts who fail to broaden their perspectives and to develop others will in time, be perceived as less valuable, unless they are brilliant enough to contribute as much on their own as their Stage 3 colleagues do by contributing through others.

Those who are able to develop Stage 4 characteristics of having the vision and credibility to influence organisational direction are perceived as being the most valued by leaders in the organisation.

One of the many interesting and useful findings from the research is that most of the people who perform Stage 3 functions are not in formal management roles; for every manager in Stage 3, there are at least three non-managers performing similar leadership roles.

The implications for career development

The Four Stages Model describes values that have existed in companies for decades. However understanding the model has become extremely important for all those interested in appreciating how to develop their own careers.

Moving from one stage to the next increases an individual's ability to contribute, it increases their value to their employer and leads to increased job satisfaction.

Understanding the process of making this move gives us all more control over our own development as well as a providing a roadmap for increasing our contribution and future success throughout our career. This in turn increases the likelihood that valued employees will stay with their current employer, with all the attendant benefits for both parties.

Further research shows that moving from one stage to the next, especially between Stages 2 and 3 and from Stage 3 to Stage 4 is difficult for most people to achieve without the additional support, coaching and development capabilities provided by enlightened leaders and employers.

Is yours one?

John Schonegevel John (Skoonie) Schonegevel is passionate about people. About how to help them live fulfilling lives at work. About how to create and sustain organisations in which people are able to give of their very best. Organisations where culture and practice encourages personal responsibility and enables every individual to be engaged, enthusiastic and effective. Because organisations need more people like this. You can share and swap ideas with him through his website http://www.new-frontiers.co.uk. Skoonie is a director of New Frontiers, behavioural change specialists and Novations Consulting Partners.

Employee Satisfaction Surveys

Writen by Eric Morris

Employee satisfaction has become a very important determinant of a company's productivity. Employees are demanding more and more from their organization in exchange for their services. Employee turnover is very high in most industries, and retaining good talented employees has become an arduous task for even the best companies across the world today.

Every company is faced with the challenge of understanding what drives employees most. Satisfied employees not only remain with the company but are more productive. They are also loyal and are most likely to recommend their company's products and services whenever and wherever possible. They would also help the company to attract the best talent for future recruitment.

Almost every company conducts employee satisfaction surveys now and then to feel the pulse of the employees. The most relevant and important aspects that need to be covered in an employee satisfaction survey questionnaire are: the employee's understanding of the company's mission and long-term strategy; the employee's confidence in the company's leadership; the employee's understanding of his/her role in the company; the importance the employee gives to authority and responsibility in his/her job and the extent to which these needs are satisfied; the employee's trust in the company's culture; the employee's idea about the system of communication within the company; the morale, team spirit and professionalism in the company; the employee's relations with the supervisor/peers/management; the extent to which the company satisfies the employee's explicit as well as implicit needs such compensation, training and development, vacation and other benefits, personal accomplishments, recognition, empowerment, job security, appreciation and encouragement, and so on. Open-ended questions such as "what is the best thing about working for this company" or "what do you dislike most in the company?" are very useful in understanding the exact cause of satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

The questionnaires also generally contain other questions such as the employee's annual income, age, sex, personal details about the family, marital status, the department working in, previous employment record and others. These are useful in analyzing the data more accurately.

However, most companies do not pressure employees to provide these details if the employee is not comfortable with it. It is also very important that the answers are kept highly confidential so that they are not used against the employee.

The questionnaire should be ideally small enough to take around 20-30 minutes of the employee's time, easy to understand and open enough to encourage additional comments or suggestions. The surveys can be conducted on paper or online. Online surveys are faster, cheaper, and are found to have a high response rate. They are also easy to interpret, as comments written by hand on paper are sometimes difficult to decipher.

Generally, employee satisfaction surveys are conducted by the HR department, but these days, companies are outsourcing them to third-party survey agencies which are able to provide unbiased as well as expert advice on the survey results. There are many companies today that are offering comprehensive employee satisfaction survey services professionally.

Employee Surveys provides detailed information on Employee Surveys, Employee Satisfaction Surveys, Employee Exit Surveys, Employee Attitude Surveys and more. Employee Surveys is affiliated with Online Surveys.

Medical Billing Homebased Business Opportunities

Writen by Michael Russell

In some cases, opportunities for a home-based business in the medical billing field can be a scam. There are many ads appearing on the internet, in addition to ads in the classified sections of newspapers that lure people into the idea they will make good money working at home, filing claims for doctors.

Beware of these ads until you have thoroughly checked them out. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has warned against these advertised business opportunities and has also brought charges against these scammers for misrepresenting not only the possible earnings, but also, not informing the person of the investment required to start this home business.

Claims of $20,000 to $45,000 a year earnings potential is normally what is promised in these ads. In many cases, people assume they are applying for a job, as their ads will be listed in the 'help wanted' classified section. Some ads will claim you need no previous experience - just simply purchase their software and this will set you up in business!

The cost of this software varies from $300 to $500 and it's claimed there are instructions in the software on how to process claims; plus, this software will contain a list of clients (doctors) who are looking for someone to do this type of work for them. Usually, this list of clients is bogus and completely useless.

The general rule in paying up-front money to anyone is to be sure you know who you are paying it to and this rule would apply in this case.

They will tell anyone who calls their toll-free number, in answer to their ad, that processing medical claims is a very thriving business allowing for them to earn good money. They also inform people that there are many doctors who are in search of medical billing processors.

Be aware, most doctors either contract their medical billing services out to established firms or they have an in-house staff who does this work for them. Thus, it takes time and a lot of work to acquire doctors as clients who will put their trust in someone working from home.

To verify a medical billing business opportunity, ask for references of other people who have bought and used their system. Several names are required to allow you to talk with a few people to get a true sense of the validity of the business opportunity. If only a couple of names are offered, beware, as these people could be 'plants' working for the scammer.

Definitely, do some research on medical billing to determine how lucrative it is and how much need there is for this type of work. Check to see what kind of training is required and how much training it takes to do this. There are medical billing businesses in various communities that could answer some of your questions. Sometimes, doctors will be available to advise on this, also.

Checking with your state's Attorney General's office is always a good idea, when dealing with a company not familiar to you. They will be able to tell you if there have been any complaints filed against this company, but, keep in mind, just because there haven't been complaints, doesn't mean the company is on the up-and-up. These scamming companies are constantly moving and changing their names to hide the unsettled complaints against them.

Bottom line - it's always best to consult an attorney to look over the contract and advise whether it is best for you to proceed.

Don't let the possibility of being scammed prevent you from starting a home-based business in the medical billing field, as there are legitimate opportunities out there.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Medical Billing

Oltp Vs Dss Systems

Writen by Kostis Panayotakis

Information systems are classified into two major categories, according to international developments: A. On-line transactional processing systems (also called operational systems)

B. Decision support systems (DSS)

Α. On-line transactional processing systems OLTPs are systems which serve transactions with suppliers, partners and customers, as well as internal business transactions. They support operations throughout the value chain of the Organization:

• Supply Chain Management (SCM)
• Production support (e.g. MRP, Advanced Planning & Scheduling)
• Customer interface management (e.g. sales, order management and billing) (CRM)
• Finance and Accounting (ERP)
• Sales force automation
• Web channel operations (eCRM)
• Internal workflow support systems

Β. Decision support systems DSS provide management at all levels of the Organisation, with information which supports understanding of the current Business position and taking informed decisions (fact based management). OLTP vs DSS systems Even though OLTP (on-line transactional processing) and DSS (decision support systems) functionalities may overlap (e.g. an OLTP system may provide some operational reporting functionality used for decision support), it is clear that the purpose of the 2 categories differs, given that they serve different functions and different User groups in the Business. Therefore the development philosophy of the two categories differs radically. Specifically, differences are identified on the following criteria (1 for OLTP, 2 for DSS): System functional requirements:

1. Clearly specified given that the system serves specific functional needs – the predetermined transactions
2. the determination of a complete requirement set is a challenge, given that there are dynamically changing informational requirements.

Capture of current and historical information:

1. Current state information is captured (some historical data may exist only to serve potential future transactions)
2. Recent and historical information is captured (current may not be captured, given that data from the OLTP are retrieved at regular intervals)

Data models used:

1. Complex, focused on business entities (in terms of relational databases it is called normalized data structure (e.g. 3NF))
2. Different approaches exist. The simplified denormalised dimensional structure gains momentum, since it allows easier understanding by business users and optimized execution of complex queries.

Information level of detail:

1. Detailed data per transaction are kept
2. Detailed data are kept in a different structure and are enriched by 'dimensional' information which allows analytical processing. Moreover, aggregated data like KPIs (key performance indicators), are calculated and stored in persistent storage.

Volume of data:

1. The volume of data is relevant to the size of the Business and the penetration of IT in it.
2. The data volume handled by a DSS, is multiple of that of the OLTP systems on which it is based, given that it maintains multiple historical snapshots

Copyright 2006 – Kostis Panayotakis

Material relevant to business intelligence can be found at www.pleroforea.com

Work Environment Tidbits

Writen by Jeremiah P. Huck

 

Color is a big factor effecting all indoor environments. Since most of us spend many hours each day at work, the coloring of the space has a big  impact on us. Monotone color schemes can over charge certain personality and behavioral patterns. The color grey can cause depression and frequent change, leading to coping actions like drinking alcohol. Too much grey [ a common business/office main color ] can also lead to unclear thoughts and actions. Sometimes in life and business things need to be simply black and white, clear and simple! The best solution to this problem is to introduce many colors into the work space. Even small items of varied colors can do wonders, so add some to the work-business space and watch the changes.

• When getting dressed for work/business each morning wear the colors that are not in the work place......that way your colors become a part of the environment, effecting both you and all those around you........you become a balancer for the colors missing at work....try it.
• Stay grounded all day! That means that no matter what is going on around you [ you can't always control that stuff ] you are not so effected. This way you stay stable and help stabilize an often highly charged emotional situation. Staying grounded means to keep both feet on the floor ....no matter what happens! This can be real hard to do since many people around you will try to pull you off balance [ ungrounded ], just keep trying this and you will get better at it.
• See your job/business and work place as both mundane and sacred at the same time. That means to do the job and work the space in practical ways while understanding that there is more going on then meets the surface of things. That life and work is all holy and sacred.....not just when you go to church, etc. This helps to bring a higher level of order and purpose to all you do...you tend to get better results in everything. Try it!
• Keep the space clean and clear. This sounds too simple to be of real value but this is not true! Try it and watch the results........
• Good luck!
• The Business Shaman

 

Jerry is a former psychotherapist and is currently a professional shaman. He publishes an online magazine and newsletter dealing with shamanism and holism as they apply to life and business. You can reach the magazine at this address: http://www.jeremiahhuck.workzsites.com

How To Lead An Effective Meeting

Writen by Steve Kaye

Leaders determine the success of every event. Here's how to lead a meeting.

1) Open the meeting by reviewing the goals, outcomes, and activities. This helps everyone work with you to accomplish what you want.

2) Start the meeting by describing the culture you expect during the meeting. For example, you might say, "I value all of your ideas. I want you to think creatively because we need powerful solutions to this issue."

3) Compliment the participants during the meeting. Brief praise such as, "Thanks," "Good idea," or "Excellent," will motive the participants to work with you.

4) Maintain a safe, positive working environment. Harsh, predatory cultures inhibit creative thinking. Insist on respect.

5) During the meeting, remind the participants how much time has been budgeted for each activity.

6) Present each issue in the form of a specific question. This focuses thinking on specific solutions. For example, ask, "What could cause Unit #2 to produce 5% more defects?" This is far more effective than saying, "Let's talk about Unit #2."

7) Maintain a state of benevolent urgency. You want to push just hard enough to make the participants aware of offering high value comments. And you want to allow enough time for adequate consideration of an issue before making a decision.

8) After completing a major part of the meeting, summarize what the group accomplished. This celebrates the achievement, reminds everyone what they finished, and formally ends the activity.

9) Introduce each part of the meeting by stating the goal for that issue and describing the process you plan to use. This helps everyone focus on the same task.

10) Model the behavior that you expect from the participants because this determines how they will act during the meeting.

Note: Of course, there's more. Read about Effective Meetings at: http://www.squidoo.com/OneGreatMeeting/

- - -

Steve Kaye helps leaders hold effective meetings. He is an IAF Certified Professional Facilitator, author, and speaker. His meeting facilitation and leadership workshops create success for everyone. Call 714-528-1300 for details. Visit http://www.stevekaye.com for a free report.

The Seven Cs Partnership Danger Signs Conflict Becoming The Norm Part 1

Writen by Dorene Lehavi

A series of articles exploring the seven critical areas that can indicate a partnership is in trouble.

Conflict Becoming the Norm – Part 1

Dr. Dean Ornish, noted cardiologist, says the greatest cause of disease is the stress that comes from conflict. Conflict is bad for your health, your personal life and definitely bad for your business.

When disagreements have reached the stage of conflict, emotions have overcome the issue. At this point no one is thinking clearly or speaking truthfully about the original problem. It becomes all about winning. How useful is that?

You can win the battle and lose a whole lot more. Conflict becomes a nail in the coffin of your marriage, or in your business partnership. Though you may win in court, you often lose in life. This is a major component of the scenario that accounts for the high rate of divorce in marriage and even higher rate of dissolution of business partnerships.

Even if conflict doesn't reach this dramatic result, living with conflict is an unhappy, unhealthy situation. Not only does it cause you misery, but it is contagious. Employees, clients and family members feel the tension. They may be taking sides even without realizing the unspoken details of the issue. You and your partner avoid meeting, may deteriorate into a yelling match when you do meet, or live in silence avoiding addressing other important issues as well. This is not the scenario that inspires you to get out of bed in the morning.

The best solution is prevention. Resolve things at the disagreement level before they become conflicts. If the two of you can't get to resolution where you both feel like winners, call in a coach. Actually, my clients find that a monthly meeting is a great preventative and also teaches them the tools needed to handle most situations on their own.

Now is the time to remember that there were good reasons you chose your partner. If you were honest and sincere in your initial evaluation and desire to succeed, it's helpful to keep that in mind and if things have gotten out of hand, hire an outside expert who can help you get back to that place of harmony and mutual respect.

The first step in resolving conflict is to agree to do so and to agree on the ultimate goal which is greater than each of you as individuals. When you are seriously committed to the same outcome things can usually work out. When you've reached this point, a third party, non-biased expert listener and coach is not just desirable, but essential to direct the discussion and keep emotions at bay.

About The Author

Dorene Lehavi, Ph.D. is principal of Next Level Business and Professional Coaching. She coaches Professionals and Business Partners and teaches teleclasses on techniques to break through barriers to the next level. Dr. Lehavi offers a complimentary coaching session so you can experience how coaching can work for you. Contact Dr. Lehavi at Dorene@CoachingforYourNextLevel.com or on the web at Http://www.CoachingforYourNextLevel.com. Subscribe to Mastering Your Next Level monthly e-newsletter at http://www.coachingforyournextlevel.com/newsletter.html

dorene@nextlevelpartnership.com

Best Thinking A Catalyst That Creates Competitive Advantage

Writen by Tom Northup

Wise leaders know that they will generate organizational best thinking that is far above what one person can accomplish alone when they draw on the wealth of knowledge that employees, with their differing professional interests, experiences and perspectives, bring to their jobs.

Best thinking is a catalyst that:

• Raises the effectiveness of an organization to a level that cannot be reached by any other means.

• Gives a company a competitive advantage in its market place.

• Builds personal motivation among team members by allowing them to personally contribute both emotionally and intellectually.

• Develops focus in organizational direction and initiatives. Focus drives performance, performance drives results.

• Brings members of management teams together so that they become change agents, not change critics, working together for the good of the company.

Companies that use best thinking know that these advantages flow to the bottom line. Studies show that companies with strategic plans are 40% larger than those without such plans and have slightly fewer workers, resulting in 45% higher revenue per employee.

This gives such companies a competitive edge because the business cycle in most industries is much shorter today than in past decades. For instance, before the middle of the last century, the telephone took years to change from black to beige and from dial to push button. Now phone features and functions change frequently. The software industry now measures product life cycles in months, not years.

Why isn't best thinking used more often?

Best thinking is not a natural function in most organizations. The most common organizational structure has functional areas that operate as vertical silos. Managers are responsible for their silo and management is hierarchical. It is natural for employees in each silo to think their work is most important.

How can effective leaders develop best thinking?

Change starts with the CEO, the owner and the leadership of the organization. The most effective leaders have strong self-awareness and self-confidence along with a deep understanding of their emotions, strengths, limitations, values and motives. These strongly self-aware leaders are realistic and honest with themselves and about themselves. They know where they are headed and why.

This attitude allows CEOs to share power with employees as they guide and inspire them with a compelling vision. Effective leaders develop high-level, cross-functional best thinking that crosses boundaries and helps expand employee attitudes.

CEOs must trust their management team to carry out their vision. Great leaders learn how to inspire people. When they spend the time to fully develop a team they gain confidence in the team's ability to work together and achieve results.

Where is best thinking most effective in an organization?

Historically companies have used planning and best thinking on a sporadic basis, sending team members back to their silos and their compartmentalized jobs after short brainstorming sessions. These irregular events fail to build best thinking into the everyday consciousness of employees.

For instance, the management team may apply best thinking only at infrequent strategic planning sessions where the management team together plans the direction of the company.

CEOs who wish to develop an environment where shared knowledge becomes part of the culture of the company must build best thinking into the organization on an everyday basis.

Best thinking is appropriate in all planning activities and in every functional area. For instance, in new product development a team encompassing best thinking would receive input from engineering, marketing, sales and production. In manufacturing, inventory planning would receive input from finance, marketing, sales and production.

What are the barriers to best thinking?

The most common barriers to best thinking are:

• Lack of commitment and focus from the CEO.

• Organizational political realities wherein people develop judgments and patterns of working that block open communication.

• A perception among employees that their work ranks first among all tasks.

• Lack of expertise among leaders at achieving open, out of the box dialog from a diverse group.

How can companies build best thinking practices?

Building organizational best thinking practices takes commitment and focus from the CEO, who must encourage employees to work and interact together.

Best thinking takes time to develop. Initial thoughts are always fragile and not fully formed. In planning sessions CEOs must allow the time and open dialog necessary for these initial thoughts to fully develop into best thinking. If the company environment is not conducive to open honest dialog without fear, best thinking will not happen.

Organizational best thinking is most effective when it becomes part of the culture and is ingrained in employee's attitudes. Many CEOs start this process by building cross-functional teams that they charge with specific initiatives. These teams can operate at different levels in the organization and work on issues that are appropriate to their level of responsibility. CEOs hold these teams accountable for developing functionally integrated responses to everyday business issues.

Although companies can carry out many team functions internally, some situations, such as high–level strategic planning, where setting objectives for the next period is simply too important to operate at less than the best level, require use of an outside facilitator.

Skilled facilitators have the experience to bring out the best from all participants. As neutral parties, they overcome the political and hierarchical environment and help fragile thoughts blossom to the highest level. Their systems are proven, ensuring the company's plan is a product of the team's best input and that the team has complete buy-in.

Summary

Properly implemented best thinking is the catalyst that generates high level focus. Focus drives performance and performance drives results.

Companies with high level best thinking are larger, leaner and more profitable. Best thinking becomes the catalyst for competitive advantage.

Best thinking is genius work – the highest and best use of the CEO's time.

Best thinking must drive all planning events, which are too important for anything but the best efforts of all members of the management team. CEOs must incorporate best thinking into the culture of the business so employees regularly share knowledge across functional boundaries.

As Ken Blanchard said, "None of us is as smart as all of us."

With more than 30 years in operations management, Tom Northup understands the business complexities faced by today's busy executives. The former CEO and principal of three successful businesses, Tom is his own success story. Through coaching, consulting, mentoring, and training, he provides real-world, practical experience and thoughtful leadership—all with a focus on sustainable success and results. He may be reached at tomn@lmgsuccess.com and http://www.lmgsuccess.com

Manage Your Business From The Rockies Not The Prairies

Writen by Martin Haworth

The day job as a manager is all about managing your people to deliver, to meet the needs of your customers or clients and generating success after success! Right? And you have consequences if that doesn't happen.

Worst case scenario is that you lose your job or your business, because your people haven't delivered. So the temptation is understandable. Get in there, dirty your hands and work your socks off making it happen.

Admirable, fulfilling even!

But how much energy have you got? How hard do your really want to work. Indeed, how long can you take the pace of keeping everyone else afloat. Before you fall apart, or it kills you?

Or, despite all your years of strife and giving your heart and soul for your business, you lose it, or your job, or both. It doesn't seem fair does it?

But there is another way - and it's easy.

Use your people better

Space ships sent off into the far universe, use the gravitational pull of planets to accelerate them onwards, just like gravity pulls us to earth. It's free energy!

The limited fuel that the rockets have, is used to ever-so-gently fine tune direction, so that as they approach the planet pulling them in, they alter their course to miss the planet and, with renewed energy, they carry on their mission. Clever stuff eh?

That's what you can do

If you play a bigger game than spending your whole life doing the job that others can and should be doing, in the false belief that you are 'helping out', then you aren't going to cut it. In fact, like I once realised, moving from one sized store to a bigger one - you cannot do it all - it's time to manage the business through the people - it's just too big for me now.

And that was a big and painful realisation for me

But I got it!

It came to me one Easter, when I was running a big store and I was filling up the Easter eggs. It was fun! But I wasn't doing what I was paid for - managing and even leading a great bunch of people, all of whom could do this better than me. It was time to do my job. The time had come to leverage their potential and create value using my unique skills and talents.

As it happened, my office was on the fourth floor (because it had a view!) and the business traded on the lowest two floors. And this became my metaphor for managing from high up. The Rockies, not the Prairies.

Even though I spent a lot of my time on the Prairies, I was, in my mind, way up high. I was managing the people from above. I was managing the great people I had.

I was able to step back from working 'in the business' to 'on the business', as Michael Gerber would say. And it made a great difference to me. I realised that part of it was showing my troops that I was working just as hard as they were, and, indeed, I could do their job pretty well.

Yet, I was also resisting where the stretch was for me - letting go of other people's jobs, and doing my own.

For me, it was a shift to the next level, Sure, I did my hands on stuff from time to time. But it was at my choice and to work with them to show soldarity and focus when the chips were down. But it was after the management stuff was done.

It was my way of bringing the Rockies down to the Prairies, yet enjoying the fruits of both.

Copyright 2005. 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. This article may be edited for use in your publication or newsletter. But please leave a live link to the website)

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

Lean Principles In Action

Writen by Adam Sommers

Abstract

The electrical products industry is one characterized by fierce competition, declining margins, and legislative regulations, all that have forced the majority of electrical product manufacturers to rethink their business models. This article describes a successful story from a leading electrical products manufacturer and its journey towards lean, which to date, has saved the company over $65 Million in hard –dollar savings.

Background

Tefen has worked closely with one of the world's leaders in Power and Control products. With worldwide consolidated sales exceeding $9 Billion in 2002, the company has roughly 200 manufacturing plants worldwide, with about half of them in North America.

In North America, Tefen has specifically worked with a division known for quality switchboards, switch gear, breakers, and other electrical components used within the energy, building, industry and infrastructure markets. The company faces stiff competition from General Electric, Siemens, and Westinghouse Electric in most categories. Given the level of world-class competition, the company has continually pursued strategies to improve its cost position, quality, and overall order fulfillment processes.

In the industry, this company is renowned for its ability to tailor its products to meet the specific needs of its clients. The ability and willingness to customize has created a competitive edge for them, while at the same time created operational challenges. Engineer to Order (ETO) products with a high degree of variability can often drive long lead time from design to production, large inventories, obsolescence, design control issues, production complexity, and inefficient scheduling, among other problems.

From 1996 to 2001, the highly competitive North America market and economic downturn drove steady margin erosion. In response, the company launched an enterprise-wide initiative to reduce manufacturing costs by 20-25% within two years at select manufacturing sites. Further, it set goals to build the skills base necessary to generate lasting continuous improvement, drive consistency in production systems, and optimize key areas of the supply chain.

A major plant in South Carolina was chosen as a key ETO facility to target for manufacturing cost improvement. With its 258,000 square feet of production space, large dollar opportunity, and products of strategic significance, it was a logical target. Tefen was engaged to understand the current state operation, define improved methods by applying Lean techniques, and then drive rapid implementation. The stated goal was to reduce conversion costs by a minimum of 20%.

The Situation at South Carolina

During the first week of the 3 week long diagnostic phase, Tefen worked with plant personnel to understand the current state of the operation. The Motor Control Center product (MCC), along with the Fabrication area (Fab), were the subjects of particular focus. Here, a number of key findings highlighted the need for dramatic operational improvement. Specifically, it was uncovered that the two areas of focus were characterized by:

-	Long changeover times  -	Excessive  WIP and Raw Material  -	Excessive active part numbers  -	Long lead times  -	A functional layout with poor material flow  -	High order variability  -	Inefficient labor utilization  -	Inefficient order entry processes  -	High level of overproduction and rework  -	High transportation costs 

These underlying issues hindered the company's performance at the plant level, which in turn, diminished the overall corporate operating result. Besides diminished cash-to-cash cycle time efficiency, the plant experienced

less than optimal order fulfillment performance, low inventory and asset turns, and high overall supply chain costs.

The Solution

During the second and third weeks of the diagnostic, Tefen defined a number of key levers to drive significant conversion cost savings. To conduct the diagnosis and quantify tangible savings, a number of tools and techniques were employed. For example, Value Stream Maps were created for both the "current state" and envisioned "future state" of the facility. Besides providing powerful visuals of the operations, these maps were used to quantify cycle times, inventory levels, number of operators, and the ratios of productive times to lead times. Another key analysis looked at the demand data to understand the volume/product/order mix. By coming to grips with the level of variation, smarter scheduling and better flow techniques could be devised. A full listing of analyses and the associated tools used to conduct them are shown below in Figure 1.

In Figure 2. the levers for savings and associated key activities are detailed. At the core of Lean is speed – process cycle-time efficiency is the overall defining Lean metric that paints the picture of a manufacturing plant's health. By applying Lean principles, Tefen was able to identify ways to dramatically improve cycle time efficiency, which in turn, pointed the way to a 21% reduction in conversion costs. Recommendations focused on several key areas including improved material handling through a revised layout, reduced touches and dedicated handlers, reduced changeover times through standardized work, a flexible workforce operating within a flowing cellular line, and a scheduling system based on customer "pull" rather than forecasted "push." In addition, Tefen recommended implementing a Constant Daily Output (CDO) system to produce the high volume products to a schedule. Instead of ramping production up and down in response to order volume, production of high volume material would be leveled based on order volume history.

Getting Results

Having identified what to fix, the next step was to put together a workable roll-out plan and begin implementation. Prior to the diagnostic, the pervasive culture at the SC plant was a typical one. There was a lack of urgency for improving things – inefficiencies were accepted as the normal mode of operation. One of the by-products of the three week diagnostic was an awakening among plant personnel. By including plant personnel as an integral part of the diagnostic process, new possibilities became apparent to them. Word spread and when it came time for implementation, there was more of a willingness to change. Further, Tefen's "Go-Fast" implementation approach instilled a true sense of urgency and importance throughout the plant. The "Go-Fast" approach is designed to obtain significant results within 10 weeks, achieve more than 50% of the targeted savings within 6 months, and foster a continuous change culture.

Figure 1.

  Improvement Lever	                Key Activities  Reduce Overproduction Waste	 -	Schedule starts based on a pull system  Align Lead Time Information Flow -	Define lead time across all systems  Improve Material Flow	-	Cellular layout and elimination of excess storage  Reduce Order Variability	-	Produce 80% of volume to a daily demand  Improve Labor VA Utilization	-	Flexible work force, 5S discipline, shorter C/O  Reduce  Transportation Costs	-	Load consolidation and lane simplification  Improve Order Processing 	-	Develop Constant Daily Output order generator  Standardize Work Methods	-	Improve C/O, eliminate multiple handling  Improve Inventory Management	-	Constant daily production on top 80%, use stores

At the SC plant, a number of dramatic changes were made which drove significant savings in a relatively short amount of time. Within the first 10 weeks, over 40% of the targeted 6 month goal was achieved, 30% greater than what was predicted.

Numerous changes were implemented to increase efficiency and reduce inventory. In the MCC area, a pull approach was employed to reduce WIP by employing a build trigger for the main structure. Prior to the implementation, structures and a related component were scheduled separately and were connected together at an area called plug-in. This created WIP of structures and the component waiting for their mates. By triggering the structure build when the component was done, the structure WIP at plug-in was dramatically reduced. In addition, the entire structure line was redesigned to balance the stations, shorten the cycle time, reduce space, and reduce the raw material inventory needed at the line. Production space was reduced by introducing U-shaped work cells in both the structure line and wiring areas

In the wiring area of MCC electronic work instructions were employed to allow the wirers to always have the latest revision print, reducing rework as well as part shortages.

To further drive efficiency and reduce unnecessary material handling, kitting and "milk run" concepts were implemented. With these techniques, fewer operators were needed as productivity rose with more time on task.

In the Fab area, the other area of particular focus in South Carolina, additional improvements were implemented. A cellular layout based on material flow and capacity analysis was created. Changeover times were greatly reduced by division of internal and external work content to maximize operator value-add time. Further, a constant daily output (CDO) scheme was implemented to help reduce the effects of variability. Level loading of Fab production was accomplished by observing the 80/20 rule where 80% of the volume is driven by 20% of the part types. For the remaining 20% of the volume, which reflected special customer orders, lead time was greatly reduced by using a Supermarket to provide a buffer to demand variability. The Supermarket technique allowed for a lead time reduction from 6 to 2 days.

Other improvements impacted the entire plant, beyond the MCC and Fab areas. Scrap reduction of over $40K month was accomplished via coil re-banding. At the plant, raw material arrives on a coil. When a part type is finished at its CDO quantity, the coil is taken off the press and re-banded instead of becoming scrap. Previously, before the re-banding implementation, 21% of raw material became scrap. Improvements in the Tool crib added another $100K in inventory reduction.

Implementation of actionable performance metrics solidified the overall gains and instilled a culture of continuous improvement. The metrics enabled a focus on reducing waste and drove operator empowerment at the cellular level. KPI's are now tracked at the plant level, the department level and the cell level to illuminate cost/efficiency, service level, quality, and continuous improvement. Examples of KPI's implemented include: CDO Stability, Supermarket space requirements, Planned schedule versus actual, and the percent of good parts out.

Looking forward, the outlook for further improvement is bright. About 60% of the total identified savings will be realized according to schedule. The remaining savings are on track to be realized within a year and a half of the implementation start.

About Tefen Tefen is a publicly traded, international operations consulting firm with seven offices in United States, Europe and Israel. The firm has over twenty years of experience in improving the overall operational effectiveness of Fortune 500 clients around the world. Tefen designs and implements solutions that enhance operational performance throughout an organization. The main areas of focus include operational excellence, manufacturing, quality, customer service, research and development, and supply chain management. All of Tefen's support programs are ISO 9001 and TCS (Total Customer Satisfaction) certified. Our hands-on approach has achieved success in delivering quantifiable and value-driven results. The company has remained profitable since its inception and currently employs over 250 professionals worldwide, 40 of whom are certified Six Sigma Black Belts.

Adam Sommers is the author and Partner at Tefen (http://www.tefen.com/). For questions or further information regarding this article, please contact Raymond Cheng, Marketing Manager, at info@tefen.com.

Adam Sommers, a Partner with Tefen USA, has over 15 years operations management and strategic planning experience. His background and expertise is in all aspects of organizational improvement including manufacturing productivity, supply chain management, and business strategy. Adam has worked with leaders in a variety of industries including Aerospace, Energy, Telecom, Electronics, Medical Devices, and Travel. Currently, he is helping an $8B Power Distribution equipment manufacturer achieve significant productivity gains via a focused Lean/Six Sigma program. Prior to Tefen, he ran the corporate strategic planning function for The Columbia Energy Group, a Fortune 200 diversified energy company. Adam received his MBA from The Wharton Business School and a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Polytechnic Univers