Top Management Story

How To Grow Your Trucking Company

2009-03-04T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Marco Terry

Running a successful trucking company requires three things.

1. Finding truck loads of freight
2. Moving the truck load from point A to point B
3. Managing all the little details so that 1 and 2 happen successfully

Sounds easy, doesn't it? However, most trucking companies fail because of the little details that go wrong. Repairs are missed, so trucks stop working. Drivers are not paid on time, so the drivers quit. Fuel is not paid for, so the trucks stop moving freight. Although the problems may look entirely unrelated, they are connected. They all indicate that there are cash flow problems. What is worse, your company may be doing great and invoicing a lot, and still have cash flow problems. That is why most owners don't find out about the problems until it is too late.

Trucking companies need money to keep running. Actually, they need more money than traditional companies. Money to pay drivers. To pay for fuel and repairs. To run their business. In the transportation industry, you surely need to spend money to make money. Otherwise, try hauling a load in a truck that does not have fuel.or a paid driver.

The biggest cash flow challenge that trucking company owners have is waiting up to 60 days to get paid for their freight bills. Slow paying clients can limit your cash flow and potentially drive you out of business.

Fortunately, trucking companies have a great financing option that is easy to qualify for. It is called freight bill factoring. Freight bill factoring provides you with immediate money for your freight bills and eliminates having to wait to get paid by your clients. It provides you with the necessary funds to repair your trucks, pay your drivers and keep up with fuel expenses.

Freight bill factoring is really easy to do and set up. And more importantly, once you set it up, it can provide you with ongoing continuous funding. This enables you to turn invoices into cash almost immediately, and use the money to grow your company.

Growing your trucking company does not have to be a financial challenge. Freight bill factoring can help you finance your way to success.

About Commercial Capital LLC Moving truck loads of freight? Need business financing? Use freight bill factoring to finance your growth. Call Marco Terry at (866) 730 1922 for a consultation and a quote.

Creativity Management The Role Of Knowledge

2009-03-03T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Kal Bishop

What do creativity managers do?

Replace the word management with the word optimisation.

That's what creativity managers do: they optimise the quality of the idea pool (creativity) and the implementation process (innovation).

There are many methods of optimisation and the creativity leader must be aware of all of them, in other words, he or she must synthesise them for optimal effect.

Areas [within creativity] that need managing include motivation, organisational culture, organisational structure, incremental versus radical effects and processes, knowledge mix, group structures, goals, process and valuation.

Areas [within innovation] that need managing include idea selection, development / prototyping and the art of commercialisation.

It is worth noting that 4000 good ideas result in 4 development programs, which in turn results in 1 winner.

The role of Knowledge

The knowledge mix influences creativity output. There are many ways to look at it.

First, does in-depth knowledge of a field enhance the probability of a breakthrough or is that likely to cause blinkered vision? Another way of looking at it, can an individual with no knowledge in a field make a significant contribution to it?

There is much interesting data, for example, the most valuable creative product appears at around year ten of an individual's engagement in a domain. Also, when peer influence is reduced, novel, diverse and valuable products tend to appear sooner.

Second, how to we maximise the level of tacit knowledge? Tacit knowledge is all that cannot be easily coded (explicit knowledge) and includes experience, intuition and the like. Tacit knowledge makes up a far greater part of the knowledge base. Solutions include utilising frameworks, creating networks, collaborating, bridging and so on.

Learn more

Download the MBA research, learn about this topic at http://www.creativity-management.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made, the author's name is retained and the link to our site URL remains active.

Download the MBA research, learn about this topic at http://www.creativity-management.com/

Assertive Behaviour Recognises That Reality Is A Construction Of The Mind

2009-03-02T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by M'Hamed Cherif

Gentle assertiveness is founded on tolerance and respect for others. It entails the need for envisaging the possibility that others may have good reasons to see things differently. Truly assertive people are creative and accommodating, while aggressive people transgress the rights of others. Gentle assertive people assert their opinion, but they also recognise the importance of carefully listening to others. When confronted with assertive people, it is also important to remember that are good reasons not to be subdued and to let others push you over. These reasons can be summed up by 'you have your views, I have mine'. In any event, assertive behaviour denies others the monopoly of holding the truth without questioning, while permitting the free expression of your opinion with tolerance and constructive dialogue.

In her acclaimed book, entitled 'Mapping the Mind', Rita Carter draws on the latest in brain imaging to give extraordinary insights into how the brain works. I vividly remember a shocking point made by the author who asserts that reality is a construction of our mind. She says, "There is no definitive picture of 'out there', only a construction in our heads triggered by the external elements we are best equipped to register". So, an individual's perceptions, views and thoughts are formed by their genes and by how their brain has been modelled by experience. People have elaborate recognition systems to identify, imagine and name things.

Our relationships with things, even quite simple things, are multifaceted and subjective. Each facet of a memory of a thing may be stored in a separate, appropriate area of the brain. Recognition of that thing rolls off the end of a long and complex assembly line. So, what you have in mind is not a faithful reflection of the outside world, but rather a unique construction of you own mind. In other words, your conscious imagining of a thing is probably different my own view of that same thing. For concepts, ideas and thoughts, these have most probably different meanings for different people. Hence, some humility is in order in accepting differences of views. In turn, you have the right to expect others to recognise the legitimacy of varying views. In general, such a state of mind is conducive to enhanced assertiveness, as you find it natural to have own views.

The illusions of thought and prejudices that pollute our unconsciousness are yet another reason why you should expect others to respect your right to have own views. Our brains hold pre-programmed theories about the world. They are to some extent hard-wired into our brains. They have been engraved in our brains because they had served some useful purpose. So, these prejudices help us deal quickly and practically with complex challenges. If your throw a dice six times, the probability that you get six times the same face is the same as any other combination of faces. Yet, you choose 'six times one' for your bet? I really doubt it ! These prejudices are like sensory illusions, like a knee jerk. Our essential prejudices are created by the layout of our brain, the bulk of it laid down during our lifetime, bearing the fingerprints of our own experience. You ought to keep in mind that the views of the other person reflect to a large extent their past. An assertive person is usually conscious of this relationship between own views and own heritage.

Sarah and M'Hamed CHERIF are part of the Cutesolutions' team. Cutesolutions is a Belgium-based provider of innovative training (i.e. e-learning & CBT) on personal development and business management. Available online courses cover assertiveness, leadership, communication, speaking with impact, creativity, project management and other topics. For further information, please contact us at:

Cutesolutions
30, rue Josse IMPENS
1030 Brussels - Belgium
Tel. +32-2-2155157 Fax +32-2-2156416
ibl.belgium@telenet.be
http://cute4u.net:8082 or http://www.cute4u.net

Management To The Visioncontribution And The Role Of Compliance

2009-03-01T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Rosemary Johnston

As a manager our role is to:

1. Establish the vision, or our contribution to the vision.

2. Establish the plan and forecast for our management contribution, be it $1million or $1billion.

3. Gain endorsement of the plan and forecast, by the vision holders.

4. Manage the plan and reality to the vision-contribution.

This is very simple on paper.

Assuming we have achieved the first three, let's focus on the fourth as it is vitally important.

Firstly, too many managers make a subtle twist here and manage the deliverables to the plan forgetting that the vision is the ultimate goal! To tweak the plan as we go, means we may readily exceed our contribution to the vision within the time frame. This is a wonderful over achievement, there to for the having, if our eyes, ears and hearts are open to the possibility!

My client had a plan to deliver sales of budget for the year. Nearing the end of Q3 they found they had exceeded budget substantially and could set a new target 25% over the previous budget. All it required to be done was to continue to sell at the same levels. There had been no product withdrawals by the competition, no category killers by their own company, just an extraordinary and consistent performance.

Her focus was on the vision not the plan, the plan would have enabled her to relax in Q4 and focus on a killer Q1. The vision meant she could change the contribution now.

Secondly, compliance is the ability to have others deliver the vision. Our client's staff can be joined into the vision, be left out but still be expected to deliver it.

IT consultants have delivered huge IT project to enable technological advances in work processes for years. The average to poor ROI projects may have great IT but do not readily fit the culture or the creative energy of the company.

Again a subtle but profound twist occurs. We focus on the technology to deliver the results and serve its requirements, rather than finding the model of delivery and have the technology serve it!

The business model is established and the technology serves it, and example.

A consultant to QANTAS found they had over 100 interfaces for the IT group to maintain and support an enormous technical feat for their staff numbers! The issue arose as IT was too slow in partnering with the business units in making the decisions about the technology to support their initiatives.

He simplified the process of interaction to a one page intranet form and 24 hours for low budget projects; and, one page intranet form and rapid interaction for more complex projects. The businesses found it easy to engage IT and IT added value by delivering better technical help and support for their initiatives.

As a result no new interfaces were introduced, and, many were retired or relegated to less essential operational areas. Millions of dollars and man hours were also saved.

Is your management two dimensional and falling over for you, or three dimensional, challenging, interesting and dynamic?

This article may be reproduced in printed or web format, provided the resource box below is included.

Rosemary Johnston is a professional corporate and personal coach. Working with executives from some of Australia's largest and most successful companies for over 15 years.

Rosemary's new book, "How To Develop Your Leadership Style and Skills to Take Charge of Your Career and Life" is now available to download at her web site. Read about how you can share some of the success Rosemary has had coaching leaders in Australian blue chip companies. http://www.leadershipfirst.com.au

Surprise Its Performance Appraisal Time

2009-02-28T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Kevin Dwyer

A performance appraisal should be the opportunity for a leader in an organisation to set the development opportunities for their employees alight. It should be an invigorating, refreshing occasion.

Admittedly, sometimes it may be a tough experience as some home truths are formally shared about performance and leadership. But it should never, never be a surprise.

Many organizations fail the most rudimentary test of a good performance appraisal system. The system becomes routine. A tick the box exercise that has as much to do about developing people's performance as macroeconomic theory has to do with customer service.

Performance appraisal systems which are routine and more about the system than the systemic and systematic development of people are a failure and should be stopped and overhauled for the good of the organisation.

A good performance appraisal system will have coaching at the heart of its structure and application. If an organisation has not set about teaching their leaders how to coach, it is not serious about having a performance appraisal system.

Not many people are naturally good coaches. They need to be trained. They need to be able to comprehend that the appraisal is not about them but is about the employee. The key to a successful appraisal is having the employee believe they have performance gaps and that rewards will come through closing the gaps. Belief is a powerful motivator.

Belief comes from your upbringing and experiences. However, when you are inexperienced it tends to come from people whose views you trust.

Less experienced people will believe they have a performance gap if they are told so by someone they trust. More experienced people will trust their own views most. They will be independent thinkers. A leader must have the ability to get the employee to believe through their own thoughts and not just tell them.

A leader must be able to avoid some common pitfalls of appraising performance, including biases, such as wanting people to be similar to me or positive or negative leniency; wanting to give everyone high or low scores.

Attribution; tending to see poor performance more within control of the individual and superior performance as more of an influence of external factors, is another common bias.

The forced bell curve; expecting in any group that there will be some poor employees and some great employees is another common bias.

A good performance system will also have structure that fits the nature of the business. A fast moving industry, such as telecommunications or advertising, may well have formal quarterly appraisal systems. A slower moving industry may have annual appraisal systems.

A common characteristic, however, in all industries is that appraisal must be continuous. Waiting until the annual or quarterly formal approach is not appropriate for the employee, the leader or the organisation.

Whether an employee's performance is below where it needs to be or above where we expect it to be, a leader must give immediate feedback.

When it is below where it needs to be, how can we as leaders have a conversation that says last year's performance was below par and never have told the employee? When that happens it is our performance we should be concerned most about. We have failed to lead and insist on performance until a year later!

When an employee's performance is above what we expect we need to let them know as soon as possible to get a repeat performance. Even good performers are not necessarily aware of what constitutes good performance, even if we have attempted to make them understand.

A good appraisal system will also have clear standards of performance below which no one in a similar role will fall and targets of performance which individuals will strive for. If these are not clear then what are we appraising and how can an employee expect to ever meet those standards?

Harking back to earlier comments on coaching, the leader must know how to go about setting standards which if reached, will assist the organisation in reaching its goal.

Excellent appraisal systems should be three hundred and sixty degree in their nature. That is, they should be as much about the leader as they are about the employee and data should come from peers, subordinates and superiors.

A word of caution though; if the organisation's appraisal system is not working well, a three sixty degree system is not a solution. They are difficult to make work well. Not only do the leaders need to be coaches they also need to be able to take criticism they have not heard before from people who are not expected to be coaches and deal with it.

Above all, good appraisal systems must be continuous. The quarterly or annual "appraisal" should be a formalisation of what has already been discussed, not a surprise.

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

Creativity And Innovation Management Psychological Reward

2009-02-27T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Kal Bishop

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

Psychological Reward

Psychological rewards and recognition are major factors in the motivation equation.

Status theory argues that every action, movement and inflexion of human beings is in some way related to status. There are compelling arguments that human behaviour is based on status seeking. In the animal kingdom, higher status individuals have more sex, more access to food and resources, more space and so forth.

The present day occupation with celebrities is a testament to the power of status. Big Brother and reality TV show how far people will go to get it.

Status is addressed in the corporate world in expressions such as "give the dog a bone." Consequently, there is a tendency to give people high-sounding names without considering the other motivational factors. People either resent this or are happy for only short periods.

Psychological rewards include an environment of psychological safety and freedom accepting an individual as unconditioned worth; recognising that the individual is capable of producing but that their value is not based on producing; understanding empathetically; understanding the individual from their point of feeling and view (Vernon, 1970).

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

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

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

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

Jack Welchsuccess Is Getting Back Up On The Horse

2009-02-26T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Alan Boyer

A few months ago I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with Jack Welch, past CEO of GE. A fantastic opportunity.

Some of the things he said about who they hire and what they are looking for in managers sort of hit home with what I am telling clients, and what I am telling my teen leadership group (our Rising Stars program).

The Best Managers Aren't Perfect But They Keep Getting Back on the Horse

Jack Welch--"We look for people that are not perfect. People that have made mistakes, but know how to quickly get back up on the horse when they've been thrown off, and those that turn the loss around into a win. It isn't about never making mistakes, it's about getting back up and moving forward toward the results. If someone has never experienced falling off and shown their ability to get back up they might not be the managers we want."

"Leadership is about results, not experience, not education, or any of the other things that everyone claims is leadership. It's about

Being able to consistantly deliver results,

Being able to recover from falling off that horse,

And geting right back on until you ultimately deliver results."

That's so in line with what I keep telling my clients and my youth leadership groups I work with. The path to your destination is almost never a straight line. There will be zig zags, side trips, and steps backward.

Too many people slip off the trail, and just walk away telling themselves they just failed. The winners are the ones that learn from what took them off the trail, figure out how to get back on the trail, and keep steadily plodding toward the goal even with the setbacks.

Failure Is a Choice--Choose to Win

You only fail one time--when you say you have....and QUIT.

When that happens there is only one guaranteed outcome--Failure. That makes failure a choice. Those that choose to not get back on choose to be victims.

Those that win choose to get back on the horse, get back on the trail and plod along toward the goal.

Alan Boyer, President/CEO of The Leader's Perspective, LLC is considered one of the world's leading breakthrough specialists. He has worked with some of the worlds largest companies, on projects in the multi-billion dollar area, and with single proprietor companies. He has worked on many hundreds of projects with companies that have resulted in multi-$100 million savings or gains. With over 35 years of business, quality, and process experience, he has catapulted businesses lightyears ahead in weeks. Some have doubled and some have jumped 10 times. He claims the key to that is:

Helping the business owners/employees develop the business skills

Helping them overcome the limitations and attitudes that they built between their ears (the self imposed limitations, I can't, this won't work for me, I'm different)

By helping them find the breakthroughs in their business and thinking

He helps companies worldwide reach further than they EVER thought possible.FASTER

http://www.leaders-perspective.com

mailto:AlanBoyer@leaders-perspective.com

Get It Done Soft Skills Not Hard Tools Are Required

2009-02-25T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Chuck Yorke

If your organization has people, then interpersonal skills are needed.

I work with companies that are on a path they call the lean journey. Whatever you call it, it's based on the Toyota Production System. Some manufacturers embraced it and it became known as Lean Manufacturing, expanded into the Lean Office or Lean Enterprise. During this transformation the approach became focused on tools, but Toyota's approach is about people.

The focus of Lean Manufacturing training has been on technical skills such as value stream mapping, 5S, and set-up reduction. People skills; also known as "soft skills" or interpersonal skills haven't been much of a priority. Difficulty in moving from a traditional to a lean organization is usually blamed on the culture of the organization. If this is true than interpersonal skill training needs to be a higher priority. Communication often determines if the transition succeeds or not. Could the "soft" stuff actually be more important than the "hard" stuff?

Somehow, many companies seem to believe that training managers to "create a vision" and engineers to map the value stream, make work instructions visible and dictate how to clean and organize will magically transform the company.

However, as we all know, it's the people who do the work, not maps or set-up calculations. In a Lean organization, it's the people who do the work that create the standardized work, not managers or engineers. In his book, The Toyota Way, Jeffrey Liker explains, "it's the people who bring the system to life: working, communicating, resolving issues, and growing together."

Toyota, on its website, states that "Improvements and suggestions by team members are the cornerstone of Toyota's success." Managers act as coaches and develop their people. Once again, let's not forget, it's the people who do the work. Continuous improvement is part of the work.

It's easy to see (but somehow difficult for some of us to embrace) that any organization can effectively follow Toyota's lead. Managers only need to coach and develop their people. Communication is the key. Interpersonal skills training, the "soft" stuff is actually more important than the "hard" stuff.

Chuck Yorke is an organizational development and performance improvement specialist, trainer, consultant and speaker. He is co-author of All You Gotta Do Is Ask, a book that explains how to promote large numbers of ideas from employees.

Chuck may be reached at ChuckYorke@yahoo.com

Computer Consulting 101 Hiring Tips Part 1 Of 2

2009-02-24T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Joshua Feinberg

Does your business need the services of a computer consulting firm? Before you rush out and hire the first techie or slick-salesperson that knocks on your door, be sure to consider these favorite Computer Consulting 101 hiring tips for screening and interviewing local computer consulting firms. In this first in a two-part series, we'll look the root of the problem, as well as the four most basic criteria that you'll need to ask about when searching for computer consulting vendors.

Computer Consulting 101 Preventative Medicine

Many small business owners have a tough time knowing how to deal with difficult computer consultants. However, if you're able to uncover potential problems at the start of your computer consultant/client relationship, you can avoid many of these unpleasant issues altogether.

Root of the Problem

While most entrepreneurs and small business managers know exactly what to ask when it comes to hiring for internal staff positions, hiring a computer consulting firm can be more difficult.

So on top of dealing with the myriad legal issues surrounding how you retain the services of contractors (best advice: consult with your attorney), as opposed to hiring employees on your payroll, you'll need to know how to ask the "right" questions. Don't make the ultra-common common mistake of focusing on the wrong things. Use these Computer Consulting 101 Hiring Tips as your checklist for doing your homework before you sign on the dotted line.

Part-time or Full-time Computer Consulting

Do you have a "day job"? Are you moonlighting?

Solo Practitioner or True Computer Consulting Business

What do you mean by the "we"? Are there any other people who work at your company?

Are they employees or contractors? What are their names, specialties and backgrounds? How long have they been with the company? Will they be involved with this account? (Tip: The more pointed questions you ask, the more you'll flush out the B.S. and hyperbole.)

Small Business or Large Company Computer Consulting Experience

What "size" is your typical consulting client, in terms of number of PCs, employees and annual revenue?

Generalist or Specialist Consulting Company

What industries or vertical markets have you worked with? And in what particular aspects and software applications?

What kinds of products, services, and platforms does your company shy away from? Do you work with any specialty hardware, software or services vendors?

The Bottom Line

In this first of a two-part series of these Computer Consulting 101 hiring tips, we looked at why small business owners and managers find that computer consulting companies are so difficult to hire, as well as four basic issues that you must confront when searching for a new computer consulting vendor. In the second installment of this two part series on Computer Consulting 101 hiring tips, we'll look at how you can get your hands around the true costs of using a computer consulting firm, as well as how you can more objectively evaluate the computer consulting firm's suitability for the task of servicing your company's technology needs.

Joshua Feinberg, co-founder of Computer Consulting 101, is a 15-year veteran of small business computer consulting and an internationally recognized expert on small business computer consulting. He has appeared in dozens of business and IT trade publications including CRN, VARBusiness, Microsoft Direct Access, TechRepublic, American Express OPEN Platinum Ventures, Entrepreneur, Inc, SCORE, Small Business Computing, and USA Today. To get immediate online access to Joshua's proven sales and marketing strategies for growing your computer consulting company's profits, sign up now for the free one-hour computer consulting training recording at http://www.computer-consulting-101.com

Manage Your Risks Dont Avoid Them

2009-02-23T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Kevin Dwyer

Ever been involved in a project that was a high risk, high return project that never got off the ground? Or the high risk project that did get off the ground, briefly. Before it disappeared with much acrimony as the potential risks were realised and the hunt commenced for the guilty?

Opportunities are wasted and investments frittered away through the lack of even the merest attention to risk management. The deficiency of application of risk management principles either sends organisations into paralysis by analysis or riding their luck to whatever consequence fate seems to have in store.

Risk analysis can be complex. However, simple risk analysis is not difficult to carry out and is very effective. It begins unsurprisingly with an analysis of the risks attendant to the desired outcomes of pursuing the opportunity. Analysing these risks, clarity about the desired outcomes is necessary. Sometimes this is a stumbling block with opportunities presenting a range of favourable outcomes.

Whilst it is not mandatory to arrive at a singular outcome, the more outcomes that are considered to be desired, the more difficult it becomes to analyse the risk. As a rule of thumb, have no more than three outcomes to analyse for risk. Desired outcomes need not all be numeric in nature, but it helps if they are.

Having determined the desired outcomes, next complete a brainstorm of all of the things which could go wrong and prevent the opportunity being realised. Ensure that all the possible, not just probable, external and internal events such as poor processes, personnel changes, poor quality, government decisions, competitor actions, supply disruptions and natural events are taken into account.

For each event listed as one of the "things which could go wrong", determine the probability and the impact of event, from high to low, against each of the desired outcomes. The probability of each event occurring is assessed against norms in the organisation, industry, country and geographical region in which the risk analysis is being carried out. The impact is assessed directly against the desired outcomes.

The probability and impact allow the event to be placed in a two by two matrix of low to high probability and low to high impact.

Low probability, low impact events are unlikely to occur often, and even when they do they don't have a large impact on the desired outcomes. They are best monitored to ensure continued low levels of risk.

High probability, low impact events occur often, but don't have a high impact associated with them. These events are sometimes called "nuisance events" and are best tackled using a quality improvement program such as Six Sigma.

Low probability, high impact events don't occur often, but when they do there is a serious impact. Because they don't occur often, it is sometimes difficult to effectively manage these events to lower levels of probability. These are the events to take insurance against, for example with process failure events by ensuring there are backup processes or capabilities available in case of failure.

High probability, high risk events are identified as having a high probability of failure and a high impact on the desired outcome. These events are prime candidates for urgent re-engineering of processes, procedures, policies and design to eliminate the probability of the event occurring.

A trap that organisations undertaking risk analysis fall into is basing their analysis on poorly quantified data. Data can be categorised in four increasing levels of reliability. First is internal opinion, the equivalent of a few sales people sharing opinions about their sales market around a bowl of grog. Second is external opinion, the equivalent of a few sales distributors expressing an opinion about their supplier's market. Third is internal fact, the equivalent of internal sales data. Fourth is external fact, the equivalent of census figures.

Being reliant on only internal opinion puts the risk analysis process at risk! Organisations need to prepare for a risk analysis by gathering as much data as they can across the range of data reliability. If internal opinion is to be relied upon, then organisations need to tap a wide cross section of opinions and use a strong facilitator who is able to surface all opinions and then challenge inconsistencies in opinions.

Having completed a sound risk analysis and developed a contingency plan for the risks some organisations still take poor options. Some leave it at the analysis and do nothing about the high probability, high impact events, implementing a project thinking the analysis is enough. Sounds stupid, but it happens. Conversely, in risk averse organisational cultures, decisions are made to do nothing about the events and carry out more analysis.

The correct option, having analysed the risks and determined the opportunity is still viable, is to feel the fear and do it any way, and implement the contingency plan.

To see more articles visit http://www.changefactory.com.au

The Survey Feedback Process For Organizational Development And Change

2009-02-22T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Chris Stowell

THE PURPOSE OF SURVEY FEEDBACK:

In globally competitive environments, organizations are seeking information about obstacles to productivity and satisfaction in the workplace. Survey feedback is a tool that can provide this type of honest feedback to help leaders guide and direct their teams. Obstacles and gaps between the current status quo and the desired situations may or may not be directly apparent. In either case, it is vital to have a clear understanding of strategies for diagnosis and prevention of important organization problems. If all leaders and members alike are clear about the organizational development and change, strengths, weakness, strategies can be designed and implemented to support positive change. Survey feedback provides a participative approach and enables all members to become actively engaged in managing the work environment.

SURVEY PROCESS STEPS:

Identify project plan and objectives
Brief team leaders and employees about the process
Administer survey
Conduct interviews and focus groups
Train leaders on facilitating team discussions
Analyze the data and construct a report
Provide feedback to leaders
Team leaders conduct feedback action planning and meetings
Leaders present reports on progress and results to Senior Management
Follow-up by senior leadership to ensure progress and accountability

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEAM LEADER:

Once the data has been collected and observations have been clarified, it becomes the leader's responsibility to familiarize the team with the findings. Next the leader involves the team in outlining appropriate solutions and strategies that members can "buy into" and support over the long-haul. When leaders can facilitate collaborative teaming and become an organizational development and change agent, people in the team will contribute creative ideas to enhance their work environment.

It is important for leaders to not underestimate the time and facilitation skills needed to pass on the information and foster an action-oriented environment. The initial meetings and communication sessions are just the start of a development process, not a single event. If the survey feedback is to be effective, it must be implemented into a comprehensive strategy that includes goals, responsibilities, time frames, revisions, and reviews.

Prior to the action meetings, leaders need to gain a full understanding of the survey data and begin to structure a plan for the first meeting. Once the meeting begins, the leader should guide the group's evaluation of the results and development of solutions. Following the initial meeting, a summary should be documented and action plans circulated. Follow-up meetings are necessary to coordinate and evaluate changes and progress. Action plans are the means of fully utilizing the survey feedback, without it we simply have a snap shot of where the organization is, with no plan for positive change.

If the team feedback meeting is poorly handled, there will be low front-end commitment on the part of the team. Of course group dynamics will be unique in every situation, and the leader will need to consider this as the survey data is disseminated. Tailoring sessions to meet the group characteristics will provide for a more effective discussion. In any case, consider a few of these ideas:

Be optimistic and excited about the information and how it can be used to better the organization.
Verbally express positive points.
Ask for participation by all members and reinforce their openness and contributions.
Invite them to explore with you the areas that need improvement.
Be supportive and clear about action and follow-up plans.
Establish a clear commitment to utilize the survey feedback long-term and seek further feedback from the group.

Most importantly, help the group understand the purpose and mission of the survey feedback As a leader, feast on the opportunity of having clear data and truly listen and involve members in your organizational development and change endeavor.

QUESTIONS:

The Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness (CMOE) was founded in 1978 with the vision and mission to help improve individual leadership and team member skills within organizations.

If you would like to speak with someone regarding organizational development and change, please do not hesitate to call us at (801) 569-3444. We will be more than happy to share our experience with you in more detail.

Document Management A Dream Of Paperless Office

2009-02-21T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Navneetkumar Kumar

What is document management: When we think about "Document Management" we usually see a picture of paperless office. It is not an easy task to make an office paperless due to several existing problems based on Industrial needs. Even it is very much difficult to make a shop paperless using document management. Document management is about to manage the document in such a way so that it can be within our reach whenever needed in the desired form without wasting extra time and space. Since computer is a wonderful device and much useful in document management.

How document management work: There are several software which can help in document management. There are some terms which is useful to know for document management.

Electronic Document Capture (EDC) for document management.

Scanning, Text recognition & image conversion are comes under this category in document management. In this we simply convert paper media to soft copy. This is a very useful activity to do document management. By this our reach towards any document becomes more easy and cost effective. Take an example if you want to search a particular paper from a bunch of thousand papers. Using soft copy it is very easy and cost effective. If you want to give a copy to any other person then too it is very quick and economic.

Optical character recognition (OCR) for document management.

Just what will happen if your document is a normal document typed using a simple typewriter font. Optical character recognition plays a role to understand what is it exactly. Simply saying it recognize the characters printed on a physical media you can say a normal paper.

Electronic document management system (EDMS) for document management.

If you have a big collection of electronically created documents then electronic document management system is the basic need to correctly locate and display the required document. There may be several requirements to manage the electronically created documents with respect to searching and some other similar operations. There may be a need to maintain summary of all documents and different versions of source documents.

Electronic Record management system (ERMS) for document management.

There are several application where there is need to maintain the records in highly ordered way like payrolls & patient records. This system manage the documents in such a way so that these are easily accessible effectively.

Web content management (WCM) for document management.

This system is used to manage websites in a very systematic way. There are so many web documents which needs to store and publish to any website defining several permissions. This document management system take care of all such needs.

Workflow management (WFM) for document management.

If a document is created after passing several highly ordered steps then this work flow management system is used for document management. We use very efficient software for this document management. Every document should be within reach of correct person timely and that's done by this type of document management.

Knowledge Management (KM) for document management.

FAQ are the good example of this type of document management. Any information should be communicated to relevant person easily. This is very useful in industries where this type of document management system fills the bridge of communication gap.

These are general terms which are used for document management. Now it may be very easy to decide which type of document management is best suited for any need. Afterwards you can search and implement the particular document management.

Author is an engineer and is running a website http://engineering-updates.com, you can reproduce this article if all the link are alive.

Basel Ii And Operational Risk A Primer

2009-02-20T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Stanley Epstein

The operational risk requirements of Basel II (International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards) place a heavy emphasis on the identification, assessment, monitoring and control of operational risk. The ultimate requirement for reserving capital against operational losses are closely linked to the actions that a bank needs to take to manage these risks. Keeping a banks capital allocation against Operational Risks is a hands-on business, based on controlling and mitigating risk.

Credit risk is well catered for in exceptional detail. Credit risks are clearly understood by all players, for credit is the reason why banks exist. In the current mad scramble to meet the Basel II requirements, credit risks have been getting the lion's share of attention while far less attention has been given to the operational risk issues. Basel II is more than just reserving capital against credit and operational risk. Now for the first time, banks have to take into account the operational risk aspects as well.

To start with, Basel II provides a range of options for determining the capital requirements of credit and operational risks. This allows banks and bank supervisors the opportunity to select the most appropriate option for their operations and their financial market infrastructure. Additionally, allowance is made for a limited degree of national discretion in the way in which each of these options may be applied.

Based on the Basel II requirements, I summarize briefly what needs to be done to effectively implement the operational risk aspects of this important international standard.

The starting point is the board of the bank and the creation of an appropriate "Risk Management Policy". It should be remembered that bank boards generally do not have members with operations experience. Very often board members are drawn from business areas within the bank whose primary concern is revenue generation. Operational risk controls cost money and generally reduce profits which means that they are not really a popular boardroom subject. Bank boards need to be educated and coaxed into the role they have to play in the mitigation of Operational Risk.

To effectively implement operational risk controls it is first necessary to identify the risks and then to establish appropriate written board policies and procedures to reduce these. These policies are the foundation for the development of risk control measures and need to be established for the whole range of operational issues including products, processing, IT & security and business continuity.

Risk mitigation can only be effective if a centralized risk management unit controls the whole risk reduction process. Most banks internal risk functions are fragmented and split over numerous areas (such as IT security, internal audit, physical security etc.) that tends to render a common risk policy ineffective. A critical element in the whole approach to operational risk control is the centralization of this function at a director level within the bank.

Once the appropriate policies are in place the next step is to undertake a risk assessment. Risk assessment is the process that identifies and evaluates the internal and external factors that could adversely affect the achievement of a banking organization's operational, information and compliance objectives. In the full sense of the word this should cover all the risks such as credit, market, liquidity and operational risk. For our purposes we limit our focus on operational risk alone. Under Basel II operational risk is defined as " the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems or from external events". This definition includes legal risk, but excludes strategic and reputational risk.

Basel II is specific on the actions that need to be taken in operational risk management. These actions are based on international risk containment standards, most of which have been developed through the Bank for International Settlements. There is a strong emphasis on detailed definitions and documentation relating to the use of the methods, the development of policies and their implementation. There is less focus on technology and more on doing.

Once the Risk Assessment has been completed the previously defined risk reduction policies need to be implemented.

Implementing Basel II is not a once off operation. It is an ongoing process aimed at limiting a bank's exposure to risks. In the operational area reducing and containing operational risks so as to control the amount of capital that will have to be reserved. This ongoing process can only be achieved through the following steps;

Fine-tune Operational Risk controls New products, process and techniques will need to be brought under appropriate controls. Existing controls will need to be reviewed and changed where necessary.

Feedback on Policy Experience will indicate whether the Operational Risk policy is both effective and appropriate. This may result in the need to refine the Policy and the Controls over time.

Stanley Epstein is a Principal Associate and Director of Citadel Advantage Ltd., a consultancy dealing in bank operations and specializing in Operations Risk and Payment Systems. Further information and details can be found at http://www.citadeladvantage.com.

What Do Workers Really Want Anyway

2009-02-19T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Wally Bock

If you think that giving workers what they want means giving them extra high wages, lots of free time, and no pressure, think again. Giving that to the people who work for you probably won't have an ounce of effect on productivity.

But there are things that workers want that you can deliver and that will make a difference. Here are some of them.

Workers want to be treated fairly. They want fair compensation, not necessarily the highest salaries around, but fair relative to other people they know who do similar work.

Workers also want to be treated fairly compared to how they perform. In a fair workplace, the consequences match the performance. Good performers do better. Poor performers get reprimanded and get better or leave.

Workers also want a fair shot at doing a good job. Make sure your people have the training and the resources to do what you want before you hold them accountable for results.

Workers want to know what's expected. This is only logical. You can't expect people to do what you want if they don't know what you want. So lay out your expectations and check rigorously for understanding.

Workers also want to know about company values and how they're supposed to act. Make sure everyone is singing from the same hymnbook. Tell the values story over and over.

Workers want to know how they're doing. So tell them. Check on performance frequently.

Then give usable feedback. Telling a worker that he or she should "do better" won't help much. Be specific about what needs to change and when in order for performance to be acceptable.

Workers want to enjoy the workplace. This doesn't mean parties all the time. It doesn't mean shiny happy people holding hands. Workers want to feel safe in the workplace, free of harassment and unfair discipline.

Workers also want to work with people who pull their own weight. That's why bad apples, slackers and nay-sayers spoil the barrel. Give your bad apples the opportunity to reform. Fire the ones that don't.

Workers want a rewarding job. For most adults that means they want reasonable challenges on the job. They want respect from their boss and their co-workers. And they want to work in a place where they can learn and grow.

Workers want to do something important. If you're the boss, part of your job is to help your subordinates understand how their contribution matters. Tell them how it matters to the team. Tell them how it matters to the company.

Workers want the maximum control possible over work life. Give qualified workers control over basic work decisions as much as possible. If you have doubts about whether they're qualified, try giving them control to see how it works.

Workers want to grow and improve. Help them do that. Part of your job as a boss should be to help everyone who works for you do better.

There's really magic about all of this. Part of it is simple human nature. Part is common sense. But if you can give your workers what they want, the rewards can be great for all of you.

Wally Bock is an author, speaker, consultant and coach who helps leaders improve the performance and morale of their teams. Wally is the author of Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership (http://www.performancetalk.com/) and the Three Star Leadership Blog (http://blog.threestarleadership.com/). You'll also find tips and resources about all aspects of leadership at the Three Star Leadership site (http://www.threestarleadership.com/).

Accountability Giuliani Style

2009-02-18T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Sharon Youngblood

Over the past 7 to 8 years, I've heard a lot of execs tell me they don't have time to "set up systems", "hold meetings", and/or "measure results". Imagine my delight when I picked up Rudy Giuliani's book and found that he did all of that during his tenure as Mayor of the greatest city on earth. That's a big enough job in itself but Rudy's preparation paid off in a huge way both in managing New York City and in the aftermath of the September 11th tragedy.

For those of you who complain that it is too much time taken to hold meetings every week please read Giuliani's view on DAILY meetings of key executives. That is, action packed, accountable meetings not, paper shuffling dead donut stuffing mind numbing well, you get the point.

I lived in New York City pre Giuliani. I know how terrifying it was in the early 80's how lawless and in many ways, hopeless. Everybody thought there was just nothing that could be done about crime, graffiti you name it. After leaving the city in 1988, I didn't return to my beloved NYC for some years and when I did I couldn't believe the changes.

Giuliani, with a leadership drive that is unequaled, cleaned up New York. Is there still crime? Well of course but believe me the city is nothing like it was in the early 80's. For those who have never lived and or traveled in NYC, it really is hard to imagine the sheer magnitude of the "continuous improvement" in the city. Nothing escaped the eagle eyes of Hizzoner the Mayor. Even it if is a myth, the results of speak for themselves.

How did he do it? One important component was the organization of his departments. Equally important is the idea that everyone who heads up a critical department or group is as the table and accountable for results. If you don't want to go to a meeting you'll hate this but Rudy insisted on a morning meeting EVERY morning. On September 12, there was a morning meeting. Problems had no opportunity to be shelved "until the next meeting" where reports of being unable to do anything are given. If a problem came up one day the next day better show some movement! Total Accountability. Total Commitment to improving operations. No chance to "table" issues until the next ineffective meeting.

But it wasn't just the meetings. It was setting standards and measuring results with thorough data. No B.S. artists need apply the data shows who is focused on their job. This is nothing new TQM works the exactly the same way Continuous Improvement Process Improvement whatever you want to call it you have to organize around purpose, know what results your after, improve the process and measure your results. Most A/E companies that say they want to improve collect data in a half hearted hit or miss manner then they say it doesn't work for them. Maybe but I'm betting they don't do the work!!

Why don't more firms do the work? It's a lot of work and it's not project work. But duh, if you do the work, the projects are better and more profitable. Most of us will never be tested the way the mayor of New York was tested on September 11, 2001. But we are tested in the performance of ourselves and our teams as leaders. How good are your test scores?

If a city as complex as NYC and an event as momentous as 9/11 can be dealt with as well as Giuliani did what are you waiting for? Surely you can create the leadership in your company to do what most want be profitable, provide a good living for other people, contribute to your community, develop capable leadership in the ranks and make a difference in your company.

The tools are readily available if you need help, get it but get going on developing the leadership you need today. We all benefit from it and we all need stronger more capable leaders.

Sharon works with organizations and individuals to dig deep; to discover and strengthen their core abilities. As a business consultant since 1992, she has worked with over 55 different product/service categories, ranging in size from start ups and small businesses to billion dollar corporations. Sharon Youngblood is a Certified Management Consultant, coach and speaker. She may be contacted at say@youngbloodconsulting.com or (520) 795-7498. Additional articles are available: http://www.youngbloodconsulting.com

Mba Dissertation Managing Creativity And Innovation

2009-02-17T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Kal Bishop

There are a number of critical issues to master in the art of creativity and innovation management:

What are the critical differences between creativity and innovation? Are different competencies required?

Do "creative people" have common characteristics and, if so, what are they? Are they stable across situations?

Can creativity be learned and developed or is it a special gift? Why is it that some people just are more creative?

Why is motivation more important than nature or nurture? How can it be enhanced, measured and managed?

Blocks and unlocking. Organisational culture. We can all be more creative, so what is stopping us? What properties of an organisational culture cultivate productivity?

What properties of an organisational structure foster creativity and innovation? Organisational structure results from a number of factors and modifying it is often not desireable, so how do we get around this?

What is the most effective team structure?

What is the role of knowledge? How do we effectively collaborate and use networks to frame-break and reduce path dependency? How do we tap into tacit knowledge? Does mastering all the literature foster creativity and innovation or does over-specialisation cause blinkered vision?

What are the differences between radical and incremental creativity and the consequences for structures, processes, skills and resources? Is it wiser to target radical or incremental ideas?

Is there value in structure and goals or is "do your best" more effective?

Is there a process that makes insight, eureka, the aha! experience more likely? Does this process allow us to produce a stream of consistently good ideas?

How do we value an idea, so as to decide how to invest resources? How do we risk manage the innovation process

Learn more

The Complete MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity and Innovation can be found at http://managing-creativity.com

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

**********************************

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

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

Top 10 Ways To Improve Your Leadership Skills

2009-02-16T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Dr. Laureen Wishom

As an entrepreneur, solo-preneur, or business owner you are by position a leader. As a result, it only makes sense that you strive to improve your leadership skills and get the most out of life for everyone in your sphere. Here are 10 ways to improve your leadership skills:

1. Have a clear vision of yourself, others, and the world.

Who are you? What do you stand for? What is your life's purpose? What is your business purpose? How do you want to influence others? How do you want to contribute to others? Start by answering these questions to formulate a concrete vision of yourself and your business.

2. Know and utilize your strengths and gifts.

Each of use has unique gifts that we were born with and personal strengths we have developed over our lifetime. Utilizing these gifts and strengths will assist you in being a terrific leader.

3. Live in accordance with your morals and values.

Make choices and take actions that align with your morals and values. By doing this, you will succeed almost effortlessly.

4. Lead others with inclusiveness and compassion.

The greatest leaders are those who include everyone in their sphere of influence by recognizing each person's greatest value.

5. Set definitive goals and follow concrete action plans.

You have to know where your destination is before you can map out a plan to get there. To improve your leadership skills, first set specific life and business goals with a time line that includes milestones.

6. Maintain a positive attitude.

No one respects a grumpy or negative person. Always maintain a positive attitude, it shows that you are looking at the bright side of life. People are naturally attracted to people who have a positive attitude.

7. Improve communication skills.

Great leadership skills include being able to clearly and specifically communicate your vision, goals, skills, intentions, and expectations to others. Join a toastmaster group; it is a great way to involve your presentation and communication skills.

8. Motivate others to greatness.

A leader is as powerful as his team. As a leader, you will want to surround yourself with a powerful team by assisting others in recognizing and utilizing their strengths, gifts, and potential. Remember the more your give, the more you receive.

9. Be willing to admit and learn from failures and weaknesses.

No one is perfect, and everyone has made one or two mistakes in their lifetime. The most successful leaders know that the key to success is not in avoiding falling or failing, but in learning how to get up and start again.

10. Continue to educate and improve yourself.

Great leaders continue to improve themselves in every possible way. The person who thinks he is an expert has a lot more to learn. Never! Never stop learning.

Dr. Laureen Wishom is a contagious and ebullient person who has touched the lives of thousands through her powerful seminars and workshops. She is the Founder and CEO of Masterpiece Solutions, LLC "business consulting at its finest". This Houston and Dallas-based practice specializes in Business Development, Setup and Growth Consulting; Career, Life, and Business Coaching; Business/Life Success Training; and Empowerment/Enrichment Motivational Speaking.

Dr. Laureen is known as an electrifying motivational and inspirational speaker and a pulsating writer, mentor, trainer and strategist in the areas of non-profit development, for-profit business start-up, expansion and development, fund development, re-careering, workplace change, networking, brand identity and self-empowerment.

What To Do Before The Implementation Of Performance Management

2009-02-15T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Hans Bool

A project is like the realization of a dream. At the beginning your team is full of energy that it gained from the picture of a new world. But after a while and after some first difficulties the initial high level of energy is reduced to its normal proportions. And to implement Business Process Management (BPM) you also should scale a rather large project.

BPM came to life in order to measure the performance of business processes. The term is introduced as a solution to the functional approach of organizations. Before the BPM insights, business management was about managing a functional organization. There were various departments and each department was responsible for the function of a certain system; invoicing, debts, new acquisitions, administration, etc.

Before the internet area, this approach was good enough. The client was not able to look in the kitchen and although the result of a client request could take quite long, the client itself was never able to see why this (process) took that long. Nor could the client (easily) notice the fact that department A had a different view on the situation than department B.

With internet, this has changed a lot. Because of new communication channels or medium, the client is able to perceive inconsistencies. And the result was a strengthening of the client relation ship (management). All the various departments ought to be seen as one (from a clients viewpoint) organization.

To facilitate this, business process management could be a solution. But the introduction of BPM is not a minor operation. One of the main challenges for a successful BPM implementation is the optimal granularity of the business designing approach.

A logical first step before implementing BPM and before going into too much details would therefore be to start with a simple company profile. this profile shows you the main processes that are at stake. Your consultant will be able to offer you this.

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

The Prime Directive Does Your Companys Hr Function Lead Or Fail To Lead

2009-02-14T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Jeff Altman

The July 17, 2006 issue of Businessweek carried a terrific column from Jack and Suzy Welsh entitled, "So Many CEO's Get This Wrong" that describes how HR should function and the mistakes that corporate HR makes.

Responding to a question that points out the HR is often felt in a negative way vs. The Welsh's claim that it is the most powerful part of any organization, they acknowledge that HR is often marginalized in organizations into the people who issue the newsletter, plan the company picnic or, at the other extreme, "the cloak-and-dagger society."

They then call for HR to be "the killer app" within a company but acknowledge it seldom is, laying the blame squarely upon the CEO who does not put HR at the table the same way as the CFO.

They recount a story of speaking to 5000 HR executives in Mexico City and asking how many of their organizations were on the same footing as the CFO and getting fewer than 50 hands to go up. They then ask whether the Boston Red Sox would be better run by the CFO or the Director of Player Personnel (as a Yankee fan, I encourage the Red Sox to try the Welsh's suggestion and report back in a decade or two).

So what do they suggest?

Part pastor (who can hear all sins and complaints without recrimination) and part parent (loving and caring but giving it to you straight when you get off track), they are men and women with stature and substance.

Their job is not to make people warm and fuzzy. The job is to create ways to motivate and retain people; they create review and appraisal systems that let's people know where they stand and monitor it with the rigor that is invested in SOX compliance. Third of all, they need to be able to confront charged relationships like those with unions, people no longer delivering the goods, or those with egos as large as all outdoors but who have stopped growing.

They exhort CEO's to elevate HR to the same level of professionalism as is expected of their CFO's while acknowledging that few organizations are currently pointed in this direction. They ask, ". Since people are the whole game, what could be more important?"

So, what's the focus of your work? Is it attracting and retaining great people? What are you doing to put systems in place that motivate, inspire and reward (yes, reward) talent. You know, the people you say are at the crux of the organization and its achievements and success.

And what are you doing to support people when they stop growing or stop performing. How do you get them on track or get them out?

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter

Concepts in Staffing

jeffaltman@cisny.com

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you're looking for a new position, include your resume).

Medical Billing Gd0 Record Fields 41 Through 50

2009-02-13T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Michael Russell

The long and winding road of medical billing and the GD0 record is starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. If you've been with us this far, hang in there just a little longer. We're picking up our review of this generic CMN with field number 41.

GD0 fields 41 - 44, positions 160 - 179, are the diagnosis codes. Many people don't understand why diagnosis codes are required for a CMN since these codes are transmitted in the FA0 record. Well, the reason that diagnosis codes have to be transmitted with the GD0 record is because these diagnosis codes are specifically for the CMN itself. To understand this, a brief example is required.

Let's say a patient is billing a carrier for a procedure involving surgery for a broken leg. The diagnosis codes for the surgery will be specific for the surgery itself. Now, let's say that same patient because of the surgery can no longer walk and needs a wheelchair. When the CMN is transmitted, the diagnosis codes that go with the CMN are not the ones pertaining to the surgery but are the ones pertaining to the reason why the patient needs a wheelchair.

GD0 field 45, position 180, is the nursing home indicator. This indicator tells the carrier if the patient is currently residing in a nursing home. If so, the field is filled in with a Y. If not, it is filled in with an N.

GD0 fields 46 - 47, positions 181 - 196, are the nursing home from and to dates. These are the dates that the patient resided in a nursing home if the indicator in field 45 is transmitted as a Y. If the patient is still in the nursing home at the time of this transmission and is not expected to be discharged, then the field is left blank.

GD0 field 48, position 197, is the respiratory tract indicator. This field tells the carrier if the patient has mobilizing respiratory tract secretions. If so, this field is transmitted with a Y. If not, this field is transmitted with an N.

GD0 field 49, position 198, is the equipment supervision indicator. This field tells the carrier if the patient is using the equipment that the CMN is for with or without supervision. If with supervision, the field is transmitted with a Y. If without supervision, the field is transmitted with an N. This field is very important because with certain equipment and under certain conditions, if the patient is not supervised and something should happen directly related to the operation of the equipment, there is a good possibility that the accident will not be covered by insurance.

GD0 field 50, position 199, is the propel/lift wheelchair indicator. This tells the carrier if the patient is unable to propel or lift a standard wheelchair. This needs to be sent for patients who are given motorized wheelchairs, which is typically what these CMNs are for. A Y entry means the patient is not able to operate a standard wheelchair.

In our next installment of medical billing, we'll continue our review of the GD0 record with field number 51.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Medical Billing

Show Me The Money

2009-02-12T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Skip Shuda

Are you ready to raise money for your startup?

Leslie Mitts, Managing Practice Leader at the Wharton SBDC and Lead Advisor for the Wharton Venture Initiation Program, tells us that most entrepreneurs coming through her programs are focused on raising capital, even though there are higher priorities in many of their businesses. Since fresh dollars help drive the business engine, this is a natural entrepreneurial concern.

But are you ready to raise money?

Going to investors before you are really ready can damage your reputation and may actually hinder future funding efforts.

Team and a Dream uses a unique Fundability Diagnostic to help companies assess their strengths in four key areas:

Team - This is the most frequently cited attribute examined by investors. Many investors will invest in an A-level team and a B-level product, but not the opposite. Having your Seed Team nailed is crucial.

Traction - Showing momentum is a critical element to demonstrating progress and your ability to execute.

Perceived Pain - Do people really need your product? Why? Will they need it in the future?

Product Eco-system - How does your product fit into existing and emerging landscapes? Who else is out there and how big will this market grow?

Find out what you need to succeed and discover your roadmap to getting there. Take the quiz below to see how well you might expect to score with investors. For each of the four sections outlined above, see which hurdles you can clear given the current state of your business.

PROCEED WITH CAUTION: Only self-aware entrepreneurs should take these results seriously.

ASSESSING YOUR TEAM

Part A:

If you or any member of your current team are not planning on being the CEO, give yourself two points and proceed to Part B.

If someone on your team IS planning to continue on as CEO, then you'll need to answer yes to both of the next two questions in order to score two points; otherwise, take a zero.

A1. Our CEO has significant, previous management experience in a startup or comparable operating environment (i.e. middle management in a large company doesn't count!) ( 1 point)

A2. Our CEO is able to rapidly assess and prioritize our work with the respect of the team ( 1 point)

Part B:

Score one point for each answer.

B1. Someone on my team has significant experience in the domain space in which we are starting the company ( 1 point)

B2. Our team understands and acts as if they understand the difference between tasks that are urgent, urgent and important, important, and none of the above ( 1 point)

B3. This team has terrific chemistry ( 1 point)

Your score (0-5) is your Total Team Score.

If you scored three or more, you pass the Team Hurdle.

TRACTION

Score one point for each item you can answer positively.

1. We have made a few initial sales and have positive indicators from the marketplace for additional sales growth ( 1 point)

2. So many good things are happening I am bouncing off the walls with excitement ( 1 point)

3. I have added a significant team member (besides myself!) in the past two months ( 1 point)

4. In the past two months, I received press coverage that would be acknowledged by my prospects as legitimate business coverage ( 1 point)

5. We recently have achieved a significant product or marketplace milestone (includes a single, initial sale) ( 1 point)

Your score (0-5) is your Total Traction Score.

If you scored three or more, you pass the Traction Hurdle.

PERCEIVED PAIN

Award your Team the number of points indicated after each question that you answer positively.

1. My product or service solves an important problem for a well defined group of people ( 2 points)

2. My product or service will be in great demand in the future in order to solve problems emerging from a new trend that has a large population of prospects ( 2 points)

3. My product or service takes advantage of newly available market forces (technology, demographics, societal). The result is an offering that will clearly appeal to an existing, well-known market demographic ( 1 point)

Your score (0-5) is your Total Perceived Pain Score.

If you scored three or more, you pass the Perceived Pain Hurdle.

PRODUCT ECO-SYSTEM

Score the stated number of points for each item you can answer positively.

1. My product is unique in a clearly defined (i.e. I can describe the difference in one or two clear sentences) and useful way ( 1 point)

2. My product is patented or can easily be patented or I have another competitive barrier (e.g. trade secret, unique manufacturing process, etc.) that will make it difficult for others to compete directly ( 1 point)

3. My marketplace is well established but fragmented or my product has "category killer" potential because it is so unique to the market ( 1 point)

4. My marketplace is either very big (> $5 billion/year in sales) with clear room for a product like mine or is rapidly growing with well documented trend lines ( 1 point)

5. My marketplace is wide open and there are no competitors ( subtract 1 point)

Your score of (-1 to 4) is your Total Product Eco-System Score.

If you scored three or more, you pass the Product Eco-System Hurdle.

Now that you have completed the scoring, we shall take a look at how "fundable" your company is. Before we do, it's important to realize that this is a snapshot in time. If you are not satisfied with your score, there are plenty of things you can do to improve it. I've seen many of my clients make tremendous progress along these dimensions by extending their team, focusing on sales or tweaking their offering.

YOUR FUNDABILITY RATING:

Number of Hurdles Cleared: None

IMPLICATION

If you received this score and hope to receive funding, then you have a lot of work to do. Perhaps you just know you want to start a business and are looking for ideas. If so, keep these criteria in mind as you formulate your plans.

If you already have a business concept, you should think long and hard about "re-conceiving" some elements of it to improve your scores.

Many perfectly good "lifestyle" businesses may fall into this scale you just can't get funding for them.

Number of Hurdles Cleared: One

IMPLICATION

Funding from your rich uncle may be possible

Number of Hurdles Cleared: two

IMPLICATION

Funding from family and friends network may be possible

Number of Hurdles Cleared: three

IMPLICATION

Professional investors will consider this, but you'll need to be prepared to explain how you'll address your gaps.

Number of Hurdles Cleared: all four

IMPLICATION

Put the finishing touches on your business plan and hit the funding trail!

You will have the best chances of success in fund-raising if investors see that you can clear the hurdles in all four areas.

NOTE: Team and a Dream offers a professional version of this assessment that offers additional detail and examines nuances that aren't possible to convey in a simple quiz. If you have an interest in the professional assessment, please visit us at http://www.teamandadream.com/contactus.htm

Contact Information:
http://www.teamandadream.com
skip@teamandadream.com

As an advisor-builder with a sense of adventure, founder Skip Shuda has worked with numerous startups since 1983, including Destiny WebSolutions, which he founded in 1994. Destiny was named Startup Company of the year in 1998's Philadelphia Area Enterprise Awards. Destiny grew to $25 million in annualized revenues in 2000 and employed over 120 people. Today Skip enjoys working with technology startups and using his experience, lessons and tools to assist fellow entrepreneurs. He works with private clients as well as Wharton SBDC clients as a VIP advisor. Prior to founding Destiny in 1994, Skip worked as a software architect with data communications and object oriented database development firms. He also ran a successful consulting practice with clients that included The Vanguard Group and Unisys. Skip has spoken at numerous industry events and has been published and/or quoted in top trade publications on technology-based strategies. He has an MS in Computer Science from Villanova University where he specialized in artificial intelligence and natural language processing.

Case Study Improving Managerial Efficiency Of Owner Operator Franchisees

2009-02-11T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Lance Winslow

Managerial efficiency is often the stumbling block for older operator franchisees in large franchise systems such as; mobile carpet cleaners, mobile screen repair, mobile auto detailing, Mobil oil changing or even mobile decorating and interior design. No matter how hard you work to train your franchisees once they are out of field often they are overwhelmed with business and fall down in either scheduling or sales.

In our franchising company we were able to fix this problem using creative tactics and royalty reduction incentives. From an abstract standpoint is very similar to tax incentives to give small businesses and middle-sized businesses to body from certain types of industries or to help allow for a change in overall policy by government. Below is an excerpt from a speech that I gave to a regional franchisee association within our company in an effort to help them help them selves in improving managerial efficiency;

". . .Also on the royalty reduction list will be the full cost of a Franklin Day Planner, with pages and binder. If you already have a binder go buy new pages for your Day Planner, whatever brand it is. Send us a copy of the receipt. If you use an electronic version like a Palm PC, then we will trade this reduction for a copy of Microsoft Publisher for your computer (send copy of receipt)."

Additionally, we always had our franchisees write out their business and personal goals and submit them to us. And to make sure they get it; for both their benefit and ours we made optional however, we also provided a royalty reduction for this;

"If you run out of pages to write your goals, but still wish to take advantage of your $350.00 discount then we will also give you $50.00 per page off for suggestions to improve our services to you and ideas for us to streamline our system. We received great feedback last year from our Franchisor Evaluation Royalty Reduction Program and we made significant changes that have streamlined our system."

It is truly amazing what you can do with a little entrepreneurial creativity in a franchising company and I submit to you that if you are wise you will in fact consider this case study for your company. Think of this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Five Ways To Earn Your Employees Respect

2009-02-10T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Marnie Green

In the old days, respect came with the title. Managers were respected because they were managers. Heck, we even addressed them as "Mr. So and So." Today we are wise to that scam. Or at least we think we are. The reality is that today's employees have clear expectations of what they want from their leadership. And, if they get what they need, they'll respect you. If they don't get what they expect, they can make your life as a leader difficult. Here are a few of the most common expectations I hear from employees who don't show much respect for their managers:

"Don't treat us like mushrooms. Give me the big picture." As I conduct focus groups and employee interviews, I am amazed that employees just don't have the big picture. The staff I talk to have a great sense of their own duties. They want desperately to contribute in a positive way to the organization's goals. Employees respect leaders who give them more information than they need, rather than less. Giving employees only the information you think they need deprives them of the opportunity to contribute to the big picture.

"Show an interest in my development." Recent studies have shown that on-the-job learning keep people interested in their jobs. In addition, using growth or individual development plans help employees stay focused and committed. Managers can develop trust and respect by showing an interest in the individual interests and development needs of each employee. Sitting down with each employee on a regular basis to talk about their career can only develop better relationships.

"Have the guts to hold everyone accountable." One of the fastest ways to destroy morale and the employee's will to do more is to allow the slackers to slack. Managers who address performance issues head on are seen as strong leaders with clear vision. Those managers who allow poor performers to continue in their ways face the impacts, not only from the poor performers, but from those who perform at the highest levels. Who wants to work hard when a colleague slacks off and gets the same or similar rewards? It's an equity issue.

"Get into the trenches once in awhile." I worked with a team whose biggest complaint was that their manager did not know what they did. Their function was clerical in nature and the manager, when asked, said, "It's simple. They greet the public and file paperwork. How hard can that be?" In reality, the manager had never done the job. He had no idea what kinds of complaints the staff heard everyday. He had not experienced an eight-hour shift standing behind a counter. He had not experienced the rush of a brief 30-minute lunch period. He lived in a different world and they did not respect him. Had he spent one day a month or one hour a week behind the counter, working side-by-side with his staff, his perspective about the job would have been different and their perspective of him would have changed too.

"Be human." In today's complex world, we cannot afford to not recognize that employees have a life outside of work. And, in some cases, this life presents difficult challenges. The respected manager shows compassion, listens, and makes allowances where possible to show a human side. This doesn't mean that the manager is a counselor or therapist. On the contrary, the manager must keep the goals of the work unit clearly in mind; however, the respected manager is flexible enough to help employees through the rough times.

All of us want to be respected. We want people to believe what we sayto trust us. To ensure that your staff has genuine respect for you, consider these five requests as the starting blocks.

Marnie Green, Chandler, AZ, USA

Marnie E. Green is Principal Consultant of the Arizona-based Management Education Group, Inc. She is the author of Painless Performance Evaluations: A Practical Approach to Managing Day to Day Employee Performance (Pearson/Prentice Hall). Green is a speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations develop leaders today for the workforce of tomorrow. Contact Green at http://www.managementeducationgroup.com

We offer this article on a nonexclusive basis. You may reprint or repost this material as long as Marnie Green's name and contact information are included Mgreen@managementeducationgroup.com, 480-705-9394, http://www.managementeducationgroup.com

So What Is A Quotserverquot Anyway

2009-02-09T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Anthony Licate

I was in the middle of a sales meeting when I was asked, "Anthony, what is a server, anyway?" Those within the field of business hear this word thrown around all the time. Some business owners know their companies have servers and know their companies need servers, but are unclear about what a server really does. If you're like many people and are confused about this whole "server" thing, I will attempt to explain what a server does to help businesses.

Let me start with an analogy, which is the easiest way I can explain what a computer server is. I want you to think back to the last time you were at a restaurantmaybe you were there with some friends or family. Upon sitting down, you were given menus. You and your party looked through the menu and found the items that were of interest to you. You were then greeted by your SERVER. The server welcomed you and asked what you would like to order. After the server took your orders, the server processed the order for food. When the order was ready, the server distributed the food to you and your party. At the end of the transaction, you were left with a receipt, auditing everything that was processed.

Computer servers are very similar to the tasks of a waiter or a waitress. A server does just thatit serves up information. A server is a single, specialized computer that is used to centralize information and resources. If your business has about 5 or more computers, you can achieve significant time and cost savings, while increasing the efficiency and productivity of your employees by using a server. Consider these dilemmas faced by similar businesses that do not have a server within their company:

Do you want to centralize and organize your files because you can't always find the right information when you need it?

Can you efficiently share ideas and information with your colleagues?

Do you need access to e-mail, data, and files while you are away from the office?

Can your employees share equipment and resources such as printers, fax machines, and Internet access?

Do you have a plan for creating backup copies of important information if a disaster happened at the office?

Is your business information protected from unauthorized users?

Oh, and one more thingif your company is interested in learning more about whether a server is right for your company, give Spidernet Technical Consulting, LLC a call. We'll give your company a free technology assessment!

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

People You Cant Make Them What Theyre Not

2009-02-08T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Alan Fairweather

Many business people and managers are spending too much time trying to change the underperforming people who work for them. They seem to believe that if they train people - tell them what to do or even threaten them with the sack - then the performance level will go up.

The successful manager concentrates on developing the strengths of his team members - not trying to correct their weaknesses. Sometimes you have to manage around a weakness, but you can't make people what they're not.

Some years ago I decided to improve my golf by taking some lessons. A friend and I spent some hours with a professional golfer and coach at a local country club. This was really useful to me and I did get better. However my friend Robin hadn't a clue. No matter what the pro told him to do, how to change his stance and his grip, he could hardly hit the ball.

If you'd given Robin a hundred lessons and threatened him with a gun, I doubt if he'd ever have completed a round of golf in less than two days. Robin is a successful lawyer and makes a lot of money, however a golfer - he is not.

So if you have a sales person on your team who isn't bringing in the sales or a production engineer who isn't making his quota, then you have to make a decision. Is this person not producing because they don't have the ability - because they need more training or - because there's another reason?

You can read more about coaching and other reasons for non performance in my book - "How to get more Sales by Motivating your Team" but for the moment it's important to understand that the individual may not be able to do the job.

They may tell you they can do the job because they're unwilling to accept defeat; however I've known people in sales jobs who shouldn't be in sales and doctors, plumbers, lawyers and engineers who were also in the wrong job.

What you need to do is get people who can't do the job into a job that they can do or get them out of your team.

I joined three companies as a manager and in each case I inherited team members who didn't have what it takes to do the job. I'd usually find three categories of people in the teams - The first group were the 'good guys,' the ones I knew could do the job and wouldn't give me any hassle.

The second group consisted of people who needed a bit of looking after, watching closely and definitely some coaching.

The third group were the ones didn't have either the skills or the characteristics to do the job and no amount of training, or anything I could do, would change that. I would often find that these people, due to their lack of success, weren't exactly happy in the job anyway and were sometimes only too pleased to be transferred to another position.

I hear you saying - "easier said than done Alan" and you're right. But the successful manager needs to address these issues for the good of the team and the business.

The successful manager concentrates on strengths not weaknesses. It's vital to give your people feedback on their strengths and also on their weaknesses. However these should only be weaknesses that you know the individual can do something about.

It's a waste of your time and effort trying to sort weaknesses that can't be sorted. Some people just can't build relationships with customers; others can't work as fast as you need them to and others can't write a report to save their life.

Your most productive time as a manager will be spent giving feedback on strengths and how to develop these even further. Many managers spend the majority of their time with team members trying to resolve weaknesses. They then don't have the time or sometimes the capability to give feedback on strengths.

Discover how you can generate more business by motivating your team! Alan Fairweather is the author of "How to get More Sales by Motivating Your Team" This book is packed with practical things you can do to get the best out of your people . Click here now http://www.howtogetmoresales.com

Top Ten Tips About People Management

2009-02-07T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Martin Haworth

To get the best results you have to be very good at Managing People...and it's not as hard as you might think. Here are the secrets of the very best managers:-

The best at Managing People...

Manage!
They focus on getting their people to deliver the key activities and don't attempt do too much themselves. The best managers delegate widely, using the ethic 'Ask for forgiveness, not for permission' to free their people from blame or wrongdoing.
Build the Best Teams
Leveraging the exceptional talents of all the people around them, managers develop and utilise capability fully - and glue it together.
Focus on Delivery
Managers are there to deliver the day to day tactical results the business or organisation needs. Here, there is little space for strategy or vision as such, but those great at managing peoplewill keep a reference point there. Every manager's defined goal is measurable results.
Build Relationships
As it's all about people, great managers build relationships easily and make it a priority, day-in-day out. They spend a lot of time with and listening to, their people.
Accept Feedback
Actually, they don't just accept it, they suck feedback in - they use their excellent listening skills to seek out feedback all the time - in every interaction.
Develop Others
Grasping the opportunities, the best managers quickly link them to those who can make progress in their own development - and in line with ongoing Succession Planning, prepare for the future well in advance.
Are Accountable
They are very clear that they are 'where the buck stops'. No blame elsewhere, not upwards deflection of decisions; no 'someone else's fault'. They are where the action is and they accept it. It's down to them.
Set Standards
To ensure that everyone is clear, great managers have simple and clear standards throughout their area of operation - ideally created in collaboration with their people.
Are Determined
Focusing entirely on value-creation, they stick to plans, policies and change programmes like glue. They have a skill to know and deliver what is right, without veering from their Vision.
Can Be Trusted
The best managers are ethically sound, fair and honest. They make promises only when they know they can deliver. Everyone is treated equally and their own behaviour models fairness and transparency.

Simple steps, using them can make 90% of your management very, very effective. Checkout the website for key information in 40 different people skills to develop your management skills fast!

Copyright 2005 Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, executives and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, http://www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com. and a regular blog right here (Note to editors. Feel free to use this article, wherever you think it might be of value - it would be good if you could include a live link) ...helping you, to help your people, to help your business grow...

Business Process Consulting Understand The Nature Of The Business

2009-02-06T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Peter McLean

A key element in business process consulting is understanding the nature of the business. Successful business owners and effective managers pay careful attention to the "character" of their own organizations. In so doing, they ensure that they lead their organizations to where they ultimately want them to be. They know that they cannot simply let their organization wander along in some vague hope that it will achieve high performance and outstanding results as if by magic.

For instance, even in world-renowned jazz ensembles, which may appear to be "jamming" in a free-form manner, the leader of the group is constantly paying careful attention to all the highly variable elements present in the group for which he or she is responsible. The leader of such a group, even in the most fluid of environments, does not simply let the group go wherever it likes.

Instead, a dynamic and "magical" character is deliberately controlled through leadership skills development, self-awareness, interpersonal communication skills (often just a look, a smile or a nod), practice, interpretation, style, planning and great skills for negotiation. The leader incorporates and employs all of these elements to provide direction to the group, as the way forward emerges.

In today's highly competitive business environments, business leaders must exhibit these qualities of good leadership and pay careful attention to all the factors that compose the character of their own business, in order to ensure that it is driven relentlessly toward achieving its envisaged success.

The intention behind thinking about the character of an organization is to provide the required insight, as well as the implementation of business development and risk management plans that:

- Address the cultural shifts that are occurring and that need to be managed

- Help people manage and deal with the changes that are occurring across time

- Identify organizational development needs

- Build on business strengths

- Develop mechanisms to manage and/or compensate for weaknesses

- Point out future directions.

Every business has unique and distinctive characteristics that set it apart from other businesses, even in the same industry. The more that is known about the ethos of a business and the greater the clarity that is articulated by the business owner or effective business manager, the more readily the people around them are able to address, interpret and develop the elements that will improve organizational effectiveness in and around the company's mission, vision and values. This is the road to high performance.

Peter McLean is a highly experienced Coach, Senior Manager, Consultant, Business Owner and Company Director. He successfully coaches top Executives in some of Australia's leading multi-national companies. One such Senior Executive recently won an International Award for Excellence within his particular field. In addition, Peter works extensively in the Public, Private, Commercial and Not-for-Profit sectors, delivering outstanding results for his clients. To learn more of how you can benefit from Peter's experience, visit the Essential Business Coach web site!

Employee Motivation Through Recognition

2009-02-05T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by R.G. Srinivasan

Managers are often confronted with high employee attrition. For most managers the easiest solution when a valuable employee resigns his job is to offer more benefits in terms of money and perquisites. But rarely does it work. Exit interviews often point out low moral due to infrequent appreciation and recognition of the contribution of the employee leading to de-motivation and disenchantment with the job.

Improving employee motivation and morale is the easiest method of improving organizational productivity and cut down employee turnovers. Replacing good employee could be expensive in terms of recruitment costs and time.

Research has conclusively established that the major reason for attrition in an organization is not money. It is more a matter of lack of recognition and rewards. You may be able to reduce attrition considerably if managers are trained to recognize and reward good performance. In fact every opportunity must be used to appreciate the work of the employees. Easier said than done, it takes a dedication and commitment towards the employees.

Here is a list of the ways one can motivate employees

Find every opportunity to appreciate good work

Recognize contributions in public forums and employee get together or meetings

Offer opportunities to learn, improve skills and knowledge through training

Create scope for sharing success through with others through narrating best practices adopted

Token gifts and invitation to a Dinner with family

Offer opportunities for rest and relaxation on attaining goals and good performances

Feature in house journals. If house journals are not available make sure to write out a appreciation and put on notice boards and circulate to all members of the organization

It only takes imagination to create a list as long as you want. Plan and create the list for frequent use.

Employee motivation is a complex subject and generally a neglected area. Whatever recognition and rewards are conferred are very mechanical and lacks warmth and spontaneity.

It is easier to theorize than practice employee motivation programs. It would not be a bad idea to train your managers extensively on this area. The rewards for the organization could be less employee turnovers, high levels of motivation, increased productivity, commitment and team work.

R.G. Srinivasan is a managerial professional, Writer and Author. He writes a regular blog on management thoughts with interesting articles, resources, personal experiences and links useful for any manager at http://management-thoughts.blogspot.com

Are Your Marketing Pieces Up To Date

2009-02-04T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Mike Shannon

The other day someone asked me for one of my informational brochures. As I was giving her the piece I stated that if I were printing these today it would be a little different. The piece was only about two months old and already the way I wanted to communicate things had changed slightly. Then I got to thinking. If I were to print informational brochures six months from now, they would probably be a little different too. Don't get me wrong. I am a big believer in consistency of marketing. However, in today's business environment especially as fast a pace as our business develops, things change...sometimes minutely and sometimes in a big way. What do you do?

What I do is to keep my printed materials updated with my current thinking on my computer. That means if I have a new idea or thought or way of saying something to my prospects I put it right in my pieces even though I may not print off more for a month or longer. Developed a new product? Put it right in your flyer now instead of waiting until the last minute. Come up with a better way to explain what you do? Update your brochure while you are thinking about it rather than waiting until you need to print 500 more and don't have time to change the copy. Keep your marketing pieces current at all times and you will save a lot of hassle when you need them.

As a matter of fact, why not jot down an action task in your list to review all of your pieces as soon as you can. Update them with your current thinking. And then practice keeping them updated between printings as your business evolves.

Mike Shannon is the owner of Shamrock Business Coaching, a coaching practice that helps business owners increase profits. You can visit Shamrock Business Coaching on the web at: http://www.ShamrockCoaching.com.

Running Successful Meetings The Key Steps To Getting It Right

2009-02-03T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Peter Fisher

We all complain about meetings which are a waste of our time and the truth of the matter is that so many are exactly that. We've also seen the "corridor" meeting that takes place afterwards where it seems the real decisions are taken, or the agreed decisions are overturned.

You'll get your chance at some point in your career to run your own meeting - is yours going to go the same way? or will you make sure it's effective and does the job it is supposed to?

Well run meetings contribute to team building and high morale; badly run meetings are at best a waste of everyone's time and at worst potentially damaging to relationships and the business as a whole.

Here's how you can get it right:

All successful meetings depend upon a number of independent factors and if you approach each one methodically you'll find that your meetings are the ones that get action.

Planning

Preparation

Information

Structure & control

Records & action

Planning

What is the meeting intended to achieve?

what will the meeting actually achieve?

what happens if you don't hold the meeting

who needs to attend and why?

is there a more effective way of communicating?

Preparation

prepare and circulate an agenda in advance;

invite agenda items before the meeting;

arrange agenda logically;

consider the important - v - the urgent issue;

arrange the timings and set limits;

clarify objectives for each item.

Information

tell those involved what's expected of them;

tell everyone time, date location etc;

circulate any required pre-reading or information.

Structure & Control

Discuss each item in turn;

seek contributions but keep people to the point;

avoid going over old ground;

be aware of thre needs of the group;

prevent splinter discussion groups;

summarise often to bring back to the point;

commend contributions;

confirm any conclusions;

stress actions and who takes it.

Records & Action

record discussions, actions and responsibilities;

produce clear simple minutes immediately.

There are a number of points to learn about the effective handling of meetings:

invite the right people;

set an agenda that's do-able;

control timings and people;

encourage members to listen to each other;

note actions;

review and record

So if you want to avoid the "let's all turn up and see what happens" approach it just means you need to take the time to think through to what you really want and need to achieve, and then get on with it. People will thank you for not wasting their, or your, time.

Peter Fisher is a Director of Career Consulting Limited and provides pragmatic career advice at all levels from junior staff to executive directors. Visit http://www.your-career-change.com/index.html for help with career change issues from self-marketing to CV writing and Interview techniques.

The World Of Digital It Will Never Best The World Of Analog Heart

2009-02-02T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Cameron Switzer

The book I am reading, "The World is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman, talks all about how technology since 1991 has dramatically and radically ripped asunder and irrevocably changed the face of the globe. It has opened everything up to new potential never-before imagined. Especially since about the year 2000, things have begun changing so fast that people and companies are now able to do things that they never could have dreamed of "just a few years ago". It is all happening so fast, in fact, that it is almost impossible to keep up with the changes. But, says Friedman, you must keep up otherwise you lose your advantage and the other three billion people out there who have just recently come online, will walk all over you until you cease to exist.

He is so right.

So much has changed so dramatically that the old way of doing business will likely lead to death of that business if I.T. is not embraced completely.

We as human beings no expect so much more for so much less. We want it faster, deeper and cheaper than ever before. In effect we want to eat the whole pie and have it to. This I.T. world has changed us to the point that our wants have become our needs and our expectations have skyrocketed.

BUT....

Today when I went to give my Year End Greetings to a company that I buy product from and respect greatly as a friend, the president came out to my car and said to me something that has always been in my heart, something that I have always believed regardless of this I.T. onslaught.

"Cam-san, everyone is talking about IT these days how it is changing the face of the earth. BUT, there is one thing that will NEVER change and that is the human heart. Our demands may increase due to I.T. but our hearts, minds and souls will forever be analog and that will never change."

He is so right.

No matter how deeply you go into I.T. now matter how much you exploit the Everest-like ascent of the I.T. mountain, the human condition will always be unchangingly analog. The true human needs, that is communication, trust, truth, honesty, a desire to help, will always need to be met through the heart, through the mind, and the soul. This will never change. I.T. may speed it all up and allow us to do things on a global scale that we could never have even imagined before, but in the end, like the rock used by the caveman to kill the deer for food, I.T. will never be more than JUST A SIMPLE TOOL.

When I returned home and checked my email today I received a message from Shivdeep Dhaliwal, a friend/associate in India who is doing exactly what Friedman talks about in his book: working on I.T. from India and receiving outsourcing work and more for the world with a European partner. How is that for a flattened world?

This is what he writes today:

"In my past 3 years of experiance in this field, I have realised that IT is basically a business driven completely on Communication and Understanding."

He is so right.

A computer can never "understand" a human's needs (unless you believe the S.F. movies) unless is becomes sentient. Who knows what the future holds on that wild wild frontier, but at this point in time, it is humans that communicate with humans. And it is humans that understand humans. A computer is just a tool to help get this ultimate goal accomplished more easily than ever before. But again, the I.T. and the world of computers will never be more than JUST A TOOL.

Communication, real communication is human to human and that will forever be analog.

And it will forever be necessary. If you remember that in all of your business dealings, from the front office to the back office "applications", you can't but succeed. Human interaction, heart-to-heart win-win communication is required to succeed in business.

- Cameron

Cameron has lived and worked in Japan for over 15 years. Originally a researcher and educator he has a penchant for details and a natural born flair for communication "soul to soul".

His extensive experience in the culture, coupled with language fluency and a deep understanding of Japanese ethics, morals and thought processes has allowed him to develop a special niche market in the business world.

While working to develop a global presence for a titanium raw material / parts & accessories distributor for the eyeglass manufacturing world for 5 years, Cameron saw the difficulties small/medium sized manufacturers were having themselves trying to expand their businesses outside of Japan. He decided to assist those kinds of businesses get started successfully.

Currently Cameron owns and operates a one-man (one dog) SOHO business designed to help Japanese and foreign companies come together in business in a very efficient, effective, and cost-effective successful manner.

Reach Cameron @: http://www.intrmarketsolutions.com

Visit his blog @: http://360.yahoo.com/intrmarket

Being Proactive How Not To Miss Your Deadline

2009-02-01T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Kevin Augustine

As you climb higher and higher on that precarious corporate ladder, you'll eventually get to the point where you are depending on other people to get work done for a deadline you are responsible for. An example of this would be if you are leading a team doing software design, and you are responsible of having all of the designs done by a certain date. You are responsible for the end result (all of the designs done), but you need your team to actually write the designs for this to happen. What happens if your team doesn't make the deadline? Who gets the blame? This is a simple answer: You.

With this idea firmly in mind, how do you prevent missing a deadline? This is another simple answer, and yet many people don't follow it: Be proactive. What does this mean? Well, I find that a good amount of the time a deadline is missed because the team lead does not check to see if their team is on track until the last minute. Finding out that three designs aren't going to be done the day before the deadline is due is not going to do you any good, as it is too late to do anything about it. However, if in this same situation you were to check a week or two before the deadline was due, the outcome might be different. This is being proactive. For our purposes, we can define it as taking action with enough time before your deadline is due to correct any problems.

The following are three things that you can do to be proactive on your projects as a team lead:

Have regular meetings - Not just every once and awhile on the fly, but scheduled meetings. This means that your team knows that you have a meeting at a certain time on a certain day every week. For instance, you could have a 10:00 AM meeting every Monday to kick off the week and make sure everybody knows what they should be working on. Also, you could have a meeting at 3:00 PM on Friday to wrap up the week. You don't have to go overboard and have a meeting everyday (unless you're in really deep trouble), but I've found once or twice a week to be effective. Make sure that you have a structure to the meeting as well, and it's not just everybody standing around randomly talking. You need to conduct it and have a clear agenda when you go in for what you want to get out of it.

Keep a tracking spreadsheet - This is another important organization tool: The tracking spreadsheet. Yes, it is a pain to maintain. However, it will save you from a lot of problems in the future. With this spreadsheet, you can see your team's progress at a glance. This makes it easy to go into a meeting with them and ask questions about who is slipping or who is going to be ahead of schedule and why. This can save your deadlines by allowing people who are ahead of schedule to help pick up the slack of those who are falling behind. Also, this is good for meetings with your boss so that you can give them an easy to understand overview of how your team is progressing. The key point to remember here is to make sure your tracking spreadsheet is up to date. It does you no good if you have one, and yet nobody has updated it for a week. If your team is responsible for updating, remind them to update at the end of everyday (or whatever works for you, I just find the end of the day to be effective). If you are responsible for updating it, make sure you set aside a certain amount of time to do it everyday.

Check in individually - Even if you have regular meetings, you should have informal progress checks with each of your team members. This doesn't mean that you have a schedule a specific time for this, this can be as simple as stopping by their cube and asking them how they are doing. This way you don't have to find out about a problem that happened on Tuesday at your regular Friday meeting. By performing these progress checks, you relay a message to your team that you are right there with them in the trenches, and that you are there to help if they have any questions. Also, as stated above, this allows you to take action immediately on a problem instead of having someone waste their time working on it for days at a time. Linking to the point above, if you find a change in someone's progress as you talk to them, update the tracking spreadsheet immediately after you get back to your desk. This way you can see how that change is going to impact the rest of the team and your final deadline.

These are just three ways I've found that help me to be Proactive. There are probably lots of other ways specific to your work situation that can also help you out. A good way to think about your deadline situation is this: Whoever is holding you responsible for your deadline probably looks at your project as something of a black box. They don't want to know the fine details, they just know what they want to see come out of it. With this in mind, you want to deal with any problems that arise inside that box, rather than outside of it, so that when your finished product comes out the end result is what this person is looking for.

Kevin Augustine is the administrator for Workplace Life - Where Every Cubicle Has a Window. Visit us for helpful articles on common Microsoft Office software such as Microsoft Word and Excel. We also have articles on career management, surviving in the office, professional email tips, and bits of humor to lighten up your day.

Is Your Management Style Assisting Or Hurting Your Business

2009-01-31T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Vishal P. Rao

Many times business owners can have significant differences in management styles that can deter the growth of both the employees and the business.

Employees can have differing needs that require differing methods of management as well. Problems arise when the management style of a business owner does not match the needs of the employees.

There are two basic management styles that are also broken down into more minor categories, the Autocratic Management Style and the Permissive Management Style. An Autocratic Management Style is one in which the business owner makes all decisions unilaterally. In other words, the business owner is the "boss" period and doesn't value input from employees. The business owner's word is law. The Permissive Management Style allows employees to take part in business decisions. A rather considerable degree of autonomy on the part of employees is encouraged in this management style.

If a business owner possesses an Autocratic Management Style, and the employees and/or type of business would benefit more from a Permissive Management Style, problems will arise, and vice versa.

Management styles may also be "situational", in other words, should be changed depending upon the needs and growth of the business, as well as the differing situations that may occur.

How then can a business owner know if their overall "approach" or management style is hurting or assisting their business? Easy: Results.

The results of the business, in all facets of the business, will dictate which management style is needed, or if a business owner needs to amend their management style. If a business is doing well financially, if clients are routinely satisfied, if employees are happy, are all indications that the management style of the business owner is appropriate. Discontentment and loss of business would be indicators that the approach is incorrect.

An example of this will explain this principle further:

Karen R. successfully managed her own business for several years. She employed a rather Permissive Management Style, allowing the employees plenty of input, with a rather "family style" atmosphere developing. The employees were very much engaged in the business and considered the business "their own" as well, leading to much devotion on their parts.

However, as the business grew, so did the demands of the clients. It became imperative for Karen R. to change her management style to the Authoritative Management Style, as she needed to quickly enforce parameters, and complete projects. There simply was no time for discussion among the employees, and no time for multiple approaches to each project.

This led to much discontent on the part of the employees, and they needed to be reminded that their opinions were no longer welcomed repeatedly, which left Karen R. frazzled and stressed too.

The solution: Karen R. engaged a series of psychological tests for both herself and her employees, as initially she had no clue what was wrong or how to relieve the problems. This test revealed that she was being somewhat "overly authoritative" in her approach, and also that her employees were "too expectant" in their demands that she include them in decisions. A compromise was reached, and Karen R., now allows some "input" from the employees, but retains the right to make a decision unilaterally. This combination of Authoritative/Permissive Management Styles has led to the relief of the stress within her organization, and has also led to increased happiness and productivity on the part of the employees.

Without a good knowledge of their own management styles, or psychological approaches to business, business owners can set themselves up for problems. They may be so difficult in their approach, and so set in their ways, that they in essence, would not put up with this behavior if they worked for themselves. Or they can be so passive, and so permissive, that they become "doormats" for the employees, thus not achieving enough control over the business. Karen R. above is a good example. Her Authoritative Management Style, when adopted, became much too rigid for the growth of the business, and this was because of her perceived "need" for control in a business that was growing rather rapidly. Because she herself felt somewhat overwhelmed by the growth, she tended to approach the employees, with an attitude that was too strict and unrelenting.

Assessment of situations, along with psychological tests administered to all within a business, if problems arise, can go a long way towards alleviating the problems. These tests are generally available online or from Human Resource providers.

Business owners can't rectify a problem or their own behaviors or that of their employees, unless they know specifically what these problems are. Insight into themselves and others, will assist business owners into successful resolution of all problems as they occur. Knowledge of behaviors and knowledge of management styles, can prevent problems in management problems before they happen.

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Vishal P. Rao is the owner of Work at Home Forum, an online community of people who work from home.
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Tqm Implementation Project Part 7a The Control Phase How To Do It

2009-01-30T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by LM Foong

The CONTROL Phase is the most neglected but critical phase to ensure action / solution put in placed are permanent and yield expected results. It cannot be over emphasized the importance of CONTROL.

They are some basic tools used in this phase, namely:-

In this issue, I will deal with the above tools in bold Trend Charting Not only team member need to control the improvement result, equally important they track the continuity of the action / solution. These are the critical components of the whole Improvement Projects to ensure sustainability of the improvement. However, members tends to keep track of the result without realizing it is the action / solution that bring about the improvement. The results is the consequences of the actions / solutions.

During this phase, least difficulties were encountered by team members. Perhaps it was due to the fact that most action / solution are taken placed in the work area they are in charge. However, there are cases where teams are set up for a cross-function project in which action / solution to be taken are in work areas not the responsibility of the team members. In which case, team members faced with the following difficulties :-

a) Action and solution are not carried out consistently

b) Some of the line workers are not aware of the changes

c) Tracking is focus on results but did not extend to the action / solution

Besides tracking and monitoring, it is important that new action / solution are standardized across the company with simple yet effective work instructions and Standard Operating Procedures. And they are periodically audited for compliance. That Management team has included these items in their operation review meeting until such a time they feel it is sustainable.

Control Chart This is a statistical chart that use to track the performance of a measures over time. It look like a line chart except that it has 3 additional lines around the line chart. One of the three lines is the Mean or average line, the other two are drawn on the upper and lower end of the mean line. While the mean line is easy to determine, since it is an average line of those data. The other two lines is not so straight forward. It required some calculations to determine the position of the line drawn.

I do not intend to work out the detail calculation of the two lines. Briefly, one of the line which is placed above the mean line is called the upper control limit (UCL) and the other line which is placed below the mean line is called the lower control limit (LCL). These two line are the boundary of the data performance in which should be within these limits at any time. If it is out of the range, then it indicates an out of control situation. Investigation need to be taken place to find out why the data is out of range.

This control chart is useful to monitor the trend of the performance in term is the control limits. However, in real situation, it is more complicated as there are cases where the data performance is within the two lines, it is still consider out of control. Example, iof the data move along above the mean line for more than 7 points in a row. It is called a "RUN".... There are sevral others but will not be discussed here.

In summary, the trend chart and control chart is used to monitor the performance of the data. However, by the time it is plotted onto the chart, it si already histroy. Nevertheless, it is still a good tools to track the performace of the data basic on his performance over time. This will tell the team whether their solution provides a long term sustainability performance. In my next article, I will deal with Documentation and Audit of solution.

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Disclaimer: This article is written by the author based on his practical application experience. All definitions and interpretation of terminology are his point of view and has it has no intention to conflict with experts in similar topic. The author holds no responsibility for the use of this article in any way.

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Free to reprint or re-publish: All rights reserved. You are free to reprint or re-publish this article as long as you include my resource box at the end of this article. Please ensure that the URL in the resource box remain intact and it is linked to the author's website.

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About the Author: LM Foong The author provides consulting services specializing in TQM Implementations in manufacturing and service sector. He provides facilitation workshops and hands-on application in Cost Reduction and Productivity Improvement projects. He publishes TQM articles, ebooks, case studies, trainer manual and presentation slides. To View Free TQM articles, please click http://www.tqmcasestudies.com/tqm_article.htm OR Please Visit my Web Site http://www.tqmcasestudies.com for other TQM related matters.

Medical Billing Ea0 Record Fields 20 Through 31

2009-01-29T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Michael Russell

The EA0 record is very long and takes a while to get through it all. In this installment of our series on medical billing and the EA0 record for electronic claims submission, we're going to pick up our review of this record with field number 20.

EA0 field 20, positions 80 - 94, is the referring physician number. Every registered physician in the United States has a number for each state and each agency that they bill to. This field contains their number registered with the payer that the claim is being billed to.

EA0 field 21, positions 95 - 109, is the referring physician UPIN number. This is where things can really get confusing. A UPIN number is a number assigned to every physician in the United States who bills Medicare. This is only used for Medicare billing and not to be confused with the number in field 20, unless they happen to be the same number.

EA0 field 22, position 110, is the referring physician tax ID type. This is a one character code that tells the payer the tax status of the physician. Most are the same, unless there are physicians who work in special clinics that are tax exempt or have different tax laws.

EA0 field 23, positions 111 - 121, is the referring physicians tax ID number. This is the actual tax ID number, similar to a social security number that is assigned to the physician by the government.

EA0 fields 24 - 26, positions 122 - 152, is the referring physicians last, first and middle initial. This must be filled in with the doctor's legal name on his medical license issued by the state to which he is billing.

EA0 field 27, positions 153 - 154, is the referring physician's state. This is the two character abbreviation for the state to which the referring physician is billing this claim to.

EA0 field 28, positions 155 - 162, is the hospital admission date. This is the date when the patient was admitted into the hospital if such an admission took place. If not, then this field is left blank. It is called a conditional field. There are many of these in electronic billing.

EA0 field 29, positions 163 - 170 is the hospital discharge date. This is the date the patient was released from the hospital. If the patient has not yet been released or if the patient was never admitted to a hospital then this field is left blank.

EA0 field 30, position 171, Is the outside lab indicator. This field tells the payer being billed if the patient was given tests by an outside lab and not the referring physician. This is field in with either a Y or N.

EA0 field 31, positions 172 - 178, is the outside lab charges. If the patient was given tests by an outside lab, then any charges must be submitted in this field. These charges may or may not be covered depending on the patient's coverage.

In our next medical billing installment of the EA0 record, we'll continue our review with field number 32.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Medical Billing

What About Doing Nothing

2009-01-28T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by James La Trobe-Bateman

"Change is the only constant". We have had it drummed into us so much that we find it very strange to leave things as they are. But just think about the benefits to your organisation of changing nothing:

* Your attention will not be diverted from the daily need to meet customers' needs

* You will not create anxiety amongst your people that they are about to be "restructured"

* You will save the cost of the project resources needed to make those changes happen.

So why are you hell-bent on throwing it all up in the air and changing everything? The issue is not really changing nothing, but not changing everything. You can be sure that there is something you must do to continue to compete. Have you identified what it is? Maybe you know that you need to change, but are not clear what and why. So you change more than you need in order to be sure that you nail the real problem.

Let's put this into context. Suppose that your business supplies healthcare equipment across the world. You have to develop products, market, sell, make, distribute, and service them to your customers. You expect to make a profit and you would like to make more. You call for ideas. In a typical organisation this is how different functions might react to such a call.

* Product Development Make the best use of the technology that you have to develop new products with the minimum of effort and risk in the quickest time

* Production Reduce Unit Manufacturing Cost

* Distribution Use the 80-20 rule to sell more to the minority of customers that are most profitable

* Field Service Reduce headcount

* Marketing Seek new high value niches or new markets for existing products

Is this the best approach?

Resource Needed

Whenever you try to do something differently, you must create a 'project' to make things happen. Projects absorb effort, even when managed by the existing staff. So, in the case of Product Development, for example, the efforts to work out how to match existing technology to new product needs will actually reduce the resource available to actually develop products. This may indeed pay off, but not necessarily so. Certainly in Production, reducing cost will require teams of professionals (industrial engineers, lean experts) to plan and manage what has to be done. Implementation will absorb the energies of the production staff as well as incur the expense of the change agents. Presumably Marketing will need to research new niches and then fight internal battles (often of a political nature) with their peers and managers to accept their new ideas. This is again resource sapping. Overall, investment of resource (and that boils down to money) is needed to make things happen across all these functions. The more things that you change, the more resource it will consume.

Will it Lead to More Profit?

In principle, all of the above actions could lead to more revenue for less expense, i.e. more profit. In practice, all of the above actions could also lead to more revenue with more expense, or less expense but lower revenues:

Product Development

If the cost structure and performance of your products is in fact largely determined by the current technology (for example, in diagnostics the use of micro-titre wells) then the only long term way to eliminate constraints to cost and performance must be by adopting a new technology.

Production

Suppose that you can adopt a '6 sigma' philosophy. This will involve a large investment in training and staff. Their choice of projects will be compromised by the need to do things that fullfill Black Belt certification timescales (for example). Further, in a highly regulated environment, you will soon find that you need to change things that will involve validation that is expensive or takes too long. At the end of this exercise, you might be lucky to get your money back on the investment.

Distribution

You may decide to promote a current best-selling product to more of your best customers. However, their calculation of "profit" will be based on transfer prices from the factory. The true profit margins may well be completely different. This means that the organisation as a whole may end up making less profit from the change.

Field Service

This department is widely regarded as just expense. The only way to reduce it is to reduce headcount. This could well lead to poorer service to the customer. Eventually you pay the price in losing customers. You reduce expense, but then reduce revenue too.

Marketing

It will be difficult for marketing to assess the incremental operating expense for any new markets that they enter. If the extra revenues are not up to expectation, then profits will not be as good as they hoped.

Could You Do Better?

It is clear that an uncoordinated approach will definitely involve extra expense in the short term and is unlikely to produce the best possible increase in profit for that extra effort. This means that at best you will have improved profitability, but you will certainly have spent more effort than you needed to do so. There is a worse scenario. Suppose the key constraint on profitability lies outside the individual remit of any of the departments, or more probably depends on actions across departments. In this case, you will not achieve any kind of "breakthrough" improvement at all. You will effectively get nothing for your money. Doing nothing in this situation is better than doing a lot that is ineffective.

Of course, you WILL hit the jackpot if you identify just one project that removes the key obstacle to improving profitability and apply resource to making just that happen. Elsewhere you simply change nothing. Is that so outrageous?

***************************** by James La Trobe-Bateman, Founder of reMODEL Consultants International Ltd.

About the Author: James La Trobe-Bateman. Co-author of NEW BOOK 'Bridge Of Faith for Operations with examples in Medical Device & Diagnostics'. Presented with 'Global Innovation Award' by Bristol-Myers Squibb. Nicknamed the 'dynamic duo' by operations director for a division of Johnson & Johnson.

Over 25 years ago in oil & petrochemical industry, he first started predicting the effects of one change on all parts of the organization. Inspired by Eli Goldratt in the early 80's. For over 15 years now in the Healthcare Manufacturing Industry, James very passionately continues to drive highly successful, ongoing Operations Improvements as well as resolve New Product Development & Market issues Internationally.

James has won various prestigious awards over the years for his work. He is a Chartered Engineer, Member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and graduate of Cambridge Univ.

You are probably trying to change many things. If you could only change one, what would it be?

You can reach James La Trobe-Bateman at to find out where to start. www.remodel.co.uk

James La Trobe-Bateman. Co-author of 'Bridge Of Faith for Operations with examples in Medical Device & Diagnostics'. Presented with 'Global Innovation Award' by Bristol-Myers Squibb. Nicknamed the 'dynamic duo' by operations director for a division of Johnson & Johnson.

James has won various prestigious awards over the years for his work. He is a Chartered Engineer, Member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and graduate of Cambridge Univ.

You are probably trying to change many things. If you could only change one, what would it be? You can reach James La Trobe-Bateman to find out where to start at http://www.remodel.co.uk

Make Your Best Decisions Use Yes And No Very Wisely

2009-01-27T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Martin Haworth

Every decision we make, in business, in life in general, is bounded by just two options.

Like an on-off switch, we make one or the other - there are no variances to this. Because it's as simple as Yes or No - and so often we get it wrong.

You see it's those times that we say 'Yes', when it would serve us much better to say 'No' and we often say 'No' when there are real benefits in saying 'Yes'.

So, let's take a look at those situations we get ourselves into.

Saying 'No' More
It is quite natural to say 'Yes'. We do it every day in our lives and it is the least confrontational thing we can do.
Agreeing to the wishes of others pampers to our inner need to be liked, to be loved.
Man is a social animal. We like to be liked by our peers - and so we go along with them.
In business this is no different. It is tough, for most of us, to say 'No'. So we agree - we comply. And with what consequences?
Saying 'Yes', way too often, leads us to complications we could do without. In the worst cases we take on tasks that others ask us to do, without question, which grinds us down, makes us bitter and generates a 'blame' culture.
We agree to things that others, maybe stronger, maybe just more thick-skinned, thrust at us.
Passing accountability to us, who say 'Yes'. Way too often.
One solution to this is simple. At least put off 'Yes' decisions some of the time.
By positive procrastination, we can put ourselves off making the wrong 'Yes' decision in haste - so make it tomorrow by coming up with a few 'let me think about it' phrases.
By training ourselves, on just a few occasions to start with, we build our strength to say 'No' a little more each day. People start to realise we aren't a pushover anymore.
Another solution, is to agree only on our terms. To say 'Yes' with a proviso. That a new ad-hoc piece of work can only be done if something else is dropped. Or on our timescale.
Pushing back on someone else's urgency helps them to realise that there needs to be a different way - and they gradually learn to treat you differently too. New 'boundaries' are set. And everyone wins.
And now the opposite!
Accepting a 'Yes' is OK!
There is a converse to the saying 'Yes' too often problem.
Sometimes we don't say it enough. Maybe it's a British thing. Maybe our 'reserve' means that whatever happens, we can cope. We can manage. So that when people offer us help. Make a gesture, that we feel we 'shouldn't' accept it.
So we don't. And the problems pile up.
Listen up - accepting help, by saying 'Yes', everyone is a winner again. You win, because you accept help. You show that you are open to support and you model that it's OK - to the rest of your team.
There is another win. If you offered help to someone and they accepted, how would you feel about it? You would feel a stronger bond to the person who accepted. It's nice to be wanted.
Offering support and having it accepted is a magnificent feeling. By being the one who says 'Yes' you show others that it's OK too. And others ask as well, and accept.
The team grows by development support generously given and gratefully accepted.

This repositioning of 'Yes' and 'No' works in business as well as at home. The simple examples shown here are snippets of what this change in your philosophy can create - there is much more opportunity here.

To say 'Yes' less and 'No' more. To say 'No' less and 'Yes' more. In the right places.

© 2005-6 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.

Finding And Using A Sample Mission Statement

2009-01-26T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Shaunta Pleasant

There are many important elements to the creation of any new business, but the mission statement is perhaps the most critical.

After all, it is the mission statement which sets the tone for the business and tells the world what the operation is all about. Fortunately for the new business owner, there are many places where a sample mission statement can be found.

Books Devoted To Business Planning

For instance, it is often possible to find a sample mission statement in one of the many books devoted to the world of business and entrepreneurship.

There are entire shelves in the bookstore devoted to these subjects, so finding such a sample mission statement should not be too much of a problem.

Modifying The Sample Mission Statement To Meet Your Needs

A bigger problem than finding a sample mission statement is modifying it to the needs of your own business.

Each business is its own unique entity, and it is unlikely that the sample mission statement will be appropriate in and of itself.

It will be the changes made to the sample mission statement that allow it to be used well for the business in question.

Writing Down A Little Bit About Your Business

After locating a good looking sample mission statement, the next step is to sit down and write a little bit about your own business and what you want it to do.

While it may be possible to get some sample language from the sample mission statement, it is important for each business owner to think carefully about the message he or she wants to convey in terms of their own business.

Incorporating The Format Of The Sample Mission Statement

After thinking carefully about the mission statement you want to create, it should be possible to incorporate the format of the sample mission statement into your own personalized mission statement.

It is a good idea to change many of the formatting elements of the sample mission statement you have found.

Doing so will make it look less like a sample mission statement and more like your own polished and professional looking document.

Shaunta Pleasant is a professional web writer and editor on business mission statement topics. Visit my site to learn more about writing a business plan at http://www.yourbusinesspal.com/sample_mission_statement.html To download a copy of Business Plan Work Shop at http://www.yourbusinesspal.com/business_start_up_work_shop.html

Performance Appraisals Must Go

2009-01-25T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Rick Dacri

Destroy Your Performance Appraisals. That's right, destroy them. Your employees don't want them. Your managers hate to give them. And frankly, it is rare that they are written honestly anyway.

So why do them? Why do employers continue to inflict so much pain on themselves and their workforce? What are they trying to accomplish?

Employers often think they should do them in order to foster a workplace where employees are held accountable; where good performance is rewarded; and where employees are paid fairly. If these are the goals of performance appraisal, then why does study after study report that no one is happy with this system of evaluating performance? Why is there always tension in the air and acid in the stomach when it is performance appraisal time?

Let's look at a few of the reasons appraisals exist and see if there may be a better way to achieve these admirable goals.

1. Appraisals correct bad performanceUsing an annual or semi-annual meeting with your employee to correct problems that occur during the year is ineffective and unfair. Appraisals cannot correct past problems. If the behavior was done in the past, it cannot be changed because you cannot change what has already occurred. Problems must be addressed as they occur. Waiting for appraisal time to correct the problem is the equivalent to threatening a child with "wait until your father gets home!" Appraisals shouldn't be a "gotcha" time. If you want to correct bad performance or behavior, then address it immediately either through coaching, counseling or discipline, but not through an appraisal.

2. Appraisals are used for wage increasesThis is a problem for many reasons. First, money clouds the open dialogue between a manager and an employee. While managers are focusing on performance, employees are focusing on how much money this is going to mean in their pocket. Recognizing this as a problem, companies often separate the issues into two discussions held at different times. But this rarely works. Money and not performance remains the overriding issue.

Secondly, using appraisals as a way of differentiating between good and bad performance might have worked when merit budgets were 10% and 12%, but those days are long gone. With merit budgets often averaging 3%, does a 1%, 2%, or even a 3% differential between good and bad performers adequately send a message that recognizes and rewards good performance?

And finally, supervisors are often forced to be dishonest on the appraisals in order to ensure that the employee gets something or to avoid the inevitable confrontation associated with telling an employee that they merited no increase. There are better ways to recognize and reward employees.

3. Appraisals are tools to develop employeesFrankly, when done properly, appraisals can be a good development tool. However, with all the baggage associated with appraisals, there are better ways to develop your people. If employers focus on an employee and discuss his or her strengths, areas needing development, skills and skill gaps, and what is needed for career success and organizational growth, then a positive plan can be developed where both the employee and the employer comes out as winners. A discussion that begins with "Let's talk about how we can put together a plan focused on growing you in the organization" will be reviewed more positively than "Let's talk about your performance."

So does this mean we should not do any type of appraisal? No. Ongoing, continuous discussions with your employees are critical to their success and the success of the organization. But the process must be continuousdaily, weekly, and nor just an annual event. It should focus on improving future performance. It must be honest and sincere. It must be developmental with a focus on growing the employee. It can include a discussion about goals and objectives. And yes, if you must, things can be written down. You will find that with this type of forward thinking focus, there will be less pain and less acid in the stomach.

Rick Dacri is an organizational development consultant, coach and featured speaker at regional and national conferences. Since 1995 his firm, Dacri & Associates has focused on improving the performance of individuals and organizations. Rick can be reached at 1-800-892-9828, rick@dacri.com, or http://www.dacri.com.

Immaturity In The Workplace Signs To Look For

2009-01-24T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Barbara A Kee PhD

Anytime we assume that all people are functioning at the same level behaviorally and emotionally in the workplace, we are sure to be surprised. Surprised when we encounter a co-worker who responses to what we thought was a simple comment with an emotional outburst that resembles that of an eight-year-old rather than a thirty-year-old.

Although emotionally immature employees can be a cause for difficulty at any level according to Sherry Buffington, Ph.D., as they progress up the organization the greater the problems. Should we be able to see inappropriate emotional outburst coming? Are there signs that will give us a heads up about the emotional immaturity level of various co-workers? Look at the following signs:

1. Inability to compromise with the rules of the workplace and with co-workers. Any group of people who spend time together must be able to compromise at times. Not everyone can have their way at every turn of the day.
2. Self-defensiveness and excuse making when confronted with a reality at work. Part of the difficulty in dealing with self-defensiveness and excuse making is that it can easily divert one from the original issues.
3. Avoidance of responsibility for work and/or interactions with other co-workers. The ability to say, "I was wrong and you were right." is a major mark of maturity. It also helps us stay within the reality of situations instead of trying to create a false scenario in order to protect ourselves from having to take responsibility for our work and actions.
4. Misuse or response to authority, which leads to resentments on the part of others. It often results from a false sense of entitlement. "I am the boss and I do not have to respect you."
5. A tendency to revert to quarreling rather than communication toward conflict resolution. The most common response when an emotionally immature worker feels they are challenged at work is often, "Yeah, but" And when the one bringing up an issue is verbally attacked without the real issue being dealt with.
6. Complacency toward making efforts toward quality work, which is another way of saying they come across as lazy. But complacency is not the same as lazy. If the person is engaged in the project, they can be energized toward completion. Complacency is more the lack of caring about the outcome.
7. Try to make others responsible for their own emotions. It is always someone else's fault that the emotionally immature worker is having a difficulty at work.

The good news is that any one can mature emotionally at any age. The bad news is the workplace is not the best place to help a person grow up emotionally. Few managers want to be the "parent" to emotionally adolescence workers. The problems that can occur within the workplace, especially in the area of interpersonal relationships, can be very disruptive. Figuring out how to grown-up emotionally immature workers can be a challenge for managers and co-workers to find solutions.

A manager can put into place ways to hold their staff accountable in the workplace. This needs to be done in a mature way. It does not help when the manager is reacting at the same level of immaturity as the staff member. Meeting each incident of emotional immaturity with a quiet, consistent, response that calls for the staff member to look at their own behavior and to change to meet the expectation of the managers is a challenge.

Working with a peer where you have no authority can be more difficult. Your options are more limited in how to influence your co-worker to grow up emotionally. Sometimes the only options you have are to be as emotionally mature as you can be, while trying to stay out of the line of fire of the emotionally immature co-worker.

Barbara A. Kee, Ph.D., is a Life Strategy Coach (http://www.BarbaraAKee.com) working in personal, executive, and corporate coaching. She primarily coaches around the issues of workplace survival, how to influence when you are not in charge, and the development of leadership skills. A major part of her client list is physicians working within corporate locations. Her other specialty is helping all-but-dissertation students move toward completion of their dissertations (http://www.DissertationCoachDrKee.com) Please contact Barbara A. Kee at Barbara@BarbaraAKee.com

The Ins And Outs Of Internal And External Relations

2009-01-23T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Andrew E. Schwartz

INTERNAL PUBLIC RELATIONS: Never overlook an opportunity to do internal public relations about your department and its offerings. A training department must, first and foremost, be visible in the organization it serves. Larry Lottier, Manager, Education of Dana Corporation publishes a training department course catalog with faculty, course listings and course descriptions to publicize his department's offerings. Gary Slobodian, Assistant Manager, Corporate Staff Development, of Great-West Life Assurance Company has found that getting training on the agenda at national sales meetings increases his department's visibility.

ACHIEVING CREDIBILITY: Make sure your department has credibility within your organization. There are several ways to attain (and maintain) credibility. Your departmental plan of action must " support what the organization is trying to do, be integrated into it," says Susan Warshauer, whose upcoming book, Inside Training and Development, Creating Effective Programs, examines this. The trainings offered and the department's overall philosophy must give tangible answers to the needs expressed by senior management. Understanding that business plan its goals, mission, ethics and company positioning is essential to the training department being seen as "one of us" by the rest of management. To have this kind of personal credibility with senior executives, a training manager must "speak the language of the suits."

BENEFITS OF EXTERNAL RELATIONS: If you are considering using outside consultants to supplement your in-house training staff, consider some of the benefits of external people that our experts identified: --Breadth of experience, have been inside several other organizations, more objectivity, wider range of solutions. (James Hayes) --You can buy `being up to date' with the latest technology; it costs to teach an internal person that. (Robin Grumman) --Sometimes outside eyes see more. (Sharon Burns) --Technical experts can fill needs we can't do in house. (Mary Belle GrosJacques) --You don't need to pay them benefits or keep them on staff. (Markus Zimmer).

DRAWBACKS OF EXTERNAL RELATIONS: If you are considering using outside consultants to supplement your in-house training staff, consider some of the drawbacks of external people that our experts identified: --They don't know the culture. (Barbara L. Thornton) --May not be available the next time you need them. (Ken Wessel)

--You never know what you're going to get; there is an element of risk that you may not need with a first time program. (Susan Warshauer) --An internal person is hooked into the performance appraisal system at the company, and external person needs more supervision, more of a manager's time. (Sharon Burns).

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

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

Can A Business Still Be Profitable When People Skills Are Absent

2009-01-22T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Chuck Yorke

In our current world of rapid and amazing technological advances, many entrepreneurs have managed to dramatically limit the need for staff in highly profitable operations of all kinds.

It is therefore tempting and believable to imagine that with every passing day, the need for people skills is diminishing. In fact most entrepreneurs are convinced that one no longer requires people skills to run a highly profitable enterprise. After all technology can do it all for you.

This is both an unfortunate and inaccurate view that can cause a great deal of trouble.

While it is true that technology has resulted in much leaner staffed enterprises, the truth of the matter is that businesses still need people. They need people to run the technology and more importantly to make important decisions that will impact on the company and its products and services for years to come.

Although the numbers have drastically been reduced, the role of workers and staff in companies has dramatically risen in importance. The fact that you have fewer people running a multi-million dollar operation means that human checks and balances are virtually non-existent. So in effect you will need more reliable and dedicated staff members. There is no way you can achieve this without actively promoting people skills in your organization.

It is actually scary that much more power has been put in the hands of fewer people. Meaning that disillusioned and unmotivated workers can cause great damage to any enterprise if they choose to throw a monkey wrench in the works.

While a business may at first seem to be hugely successful and profitable, even without the active promotion and nurturing of people skills, this is definitely not a situation that can be sustained for long.

The correct long-term approach would be to actively nurture people skills in the top echelons of the business and to promote active staff participation in the management and operations of the business. Nurturing highly motivated workers who will actively contribute creative ideas for improvement in the enterprise is an investment that will pay big for years to come for any management team that makes the effort.

Chuck Yorke is an organizational development and performance improvement specialist, trainer, consultant and speaker. His specialty is helping companies improve by tapping into the creative ideas of their workers. He is also co-author, along with Norman Bodek, of All You Gotta Do Is Ask, a book that explains how to promote large numbers of ideas from employees. Chuck may be reached at ChuckYorke@yahoo.com

http://www.peoplekaizen.com/

What Working Women Want

2009-01-21T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Liz Ryan

Women have been in the white-collar workforce for a generation, but plenty of things about them still puzzle many a male manager. As an HR leader and working women for a generation myself, I've compiled this Top Ten list of tidbits that the women in your workplace would love for you to know.

1) View me as myself, not a stand-in for The Working Woman.

Women tell stories, when they get together, about being the token woman in the management meeting, the only woman in the sales meeting, the only woman on the business trip. That's not the bad part - the bad part is being viewed as a specimen, representative, and spokesperson for the entire gender.

2) Don't compliment me by saying that you wish you could compliment me.

Ten years ago, it was irritating to have to listen to boorish male co-workers say "Gee, that skirt really shows off your legs." Today, it's almost worse to hear them say "I'd tell you that you look great in that skirt, but I'd get in trouble!" Just can it - the lame disclaimer doesn't help.

3) Don't assume that I don't know what I'm doing.

It shouldn't happen, after all these years, but female software engineers still report that their male colleagues say things like "Check her code again, just in case." Because she's a woman. And it shouldn't happen, but when a woman gets promoted, someone is sure to say "Well, they must have needed more women in management." What if she's just, well, qualified? Can we assume that men and women are equally equipped to do their jobs?

4) Don't ask me about my child-bearing plans.

If you and I are friends, that's one thing. But if we're not, you have exactly no right to ask me a) whether I plan to have children; b) whether I plan to have another one, once I've had one child; or c) anything else relating to my family planning. Why do some managers assume, that because my three-month absence for maternity leave might have some impact on the business at some point (if I'm still working here, when I have kids, if I even make that choice) that they have a right to know about it?

5) Don't put me in the Girl Ghettos.

If I apply for a job in PR, Marketing or HR, that's your cue that I'm interested in one of those jobs. If I don't, please don't jump to the conclusion that I need to work in one of the designated Female departments. If I'm succeeding as a mechanical engineer or the Director of IT, that's because I like the work. Let me succeed or fail in it!

6)Don't get freaked out when two of us arrive.

Many a female manager has noticed that as long as she's the only woman in the group, her male co-workers do okay. But when the second women leader shows up, people get nervous....as in, The Women Are Taking Over! That's ridiculous. Men still rule the roost in corporate America, for better or worse, and two (or three, or four) women in leadership does not a coven make.

7) Don't worry about my family - they're fine.

Working women report being caught in a vise - when they're going great guns at work, their bosses still give them less challenging assignments or stall their career growth "for the sake of your kids." They're my kids, for Pete's sake! I'm perfectly capable of deciding how many hours at the office, how much travel, and what size job I can manage while parenting them. You, as my boss, have nothing to do with it.

8) Don't dismiss my non-linear judgment.

It's well established that women's and men's brains operate differently. But there's a great tendency in the corporate world to pooh-pooh and belittle the non-linear, intuitive decision-making that so many women are so good at. If I'm getting the right answer most of the time, I deserve to get airtime: even if I don't lay out my argument in your favored Powerpoint-style, data-driven format.

9) Don't freak out when I get emotional.

Look, male managers pound their fists on the table and everyone's supposed to deal with it. But let a woman show a little mist in her eyes, and people say "She's emotional," "She's hysterical" and "She's not playing fair." You've got your emotional expression, and we've got ours. We're tired of hearing that our hard-wired emotional reaction to an emotionally tough stimulus is any less PROFESSIONAL than yours is.

10) Don't make me your mother, or your child.

It happens every day: a working woman realizes that her male boss or co-worker has substituted her for his mom or daughter, to her utter dismay. If you're treated with respect, kid gloves, deference and have no influence in decisions - and are "protected" from bad news - then you're Mom. If you're treated graciously and carefully and kept out of difficult or thorny situations, you're somebody's surrogate daughter. Women won't tolerate that. We are just who we are - women that you hired, women who will make your company thrive and flourish, if you let us.

Liz Ryan is a former Fortune 500 HR executive, workplace expert and founder of WorldWIT, the world's largest online network for professional women (http://www.worldwit.org). Liz lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Mistake Proofing Or Poka Yoke

2009-01-20T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Tony Jacowski

Thrashing out mistakes in manufacturing engineering was developed by the Japanese as a tool of mistake proofing that helps reduce waste in areas such as time, energy and resources. The idea stresses on producing zero defects as a part of a quality tool kit to prevent human errors. Although Poka Yoke is applied differently in different situations, the common thread that binds them all is its simplicity; it uses small tools at the point of the anticipated mistake generation itself.

Empowerment of Employees As A Tool of Poka Yoke Development

The beautiful part of mistake-proofing is the empowerment of employees to identify, suggest ways out and execute the plan to iron out the cause of the mistake at it's point of origination. In fact, anybody from a manager to a line employee can be allowed to complete mistake proofing planning. It applies to every other area, including commercial transactions, in the same way.

How Can Activities Be Mistake-Proofed?

Mistake proofing is simply managed by presence of mind. Sometimes it so happens that an employee notices a mistake in the way things are done in his section or line. Generally, exposure to multiple aspects such as work content and execution procedures let the employee think about ways of rectifying the mistake.

One who has noticed the mistake will come up with suggestions for eliminating the mistakes by rather simple methods. Empowered environments nurture enthusiasm in employees, which ultimately results in success.

Let's take different simple examples. Colgate Palmolive was losing its market share to a rival toothpaste producer and the people in their marketing department could hardly help reverse the trend, despite their best efforts. This was until an employee in the packing department suggested a rather 'simplistic' idea that ultimately has shown results. The employee suggested enlarging of the tubes' opening, which increased the amount of paste issued each time the consumers wanted to brush.

Where does mistake proofing figure into the equation in this instance? The mistake was not in the manufacturing, packing or quality of the product but in the way it was marketed. The marketing was centered around an emphasis on quality and not on the quantity the consumers should use, which was irrelevant in the absence of severe competition.

Mistake elimination need not have complex solutions that consume lot of time and resources. Simple solutions can sometimes be arrived at by those who work on the shop floor. Let us look into another example which significantly explains Poka Yoke. Take a small mistake in the assembling of pens, such as a forgotten spring for operating the writing tip by a button located on top of the pen. The assembly worker would not have forgotten if he was given all of the components in sets rather than each part like springs, refills etc separately.

The Simplicity Of Poka Yoke

Quite evidently, Poka Yoke is pretty simple. It does not involve spending huge sums of money, time and complex procedures. It employs making the best use of empowered human minds. If it is used on a continuous basis with the goal of eliminating many smaller mistakes, the results can be wonderful.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solutions Six Sigma Online ( http://www.sixsigmaonline.org ) offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

Improvements In A Large Public Electric Utility In South America

2009-01-19T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Jose Sanchez

The company decided to develop and implement an improvement program. The main thrust was to propose strategies and alternatives for the implementation of a quality program.

Later on, the company declared the "Year of Quality", which kicked off the beginning of an improvement program focusing on providing better service and paying more attention to the customers. That same year, after several internal attempts on the part of the company to carry out such a program, executive management requested our assistance to evaluate the current situation and implement a Corporate Management System .

Policy Management

The purpose of Policy Management was to determine the company's priority areas in order to align resources towards customer satisfaction. The corporate vision, that is, the future the organization aspires to reach, had to be established first in order to develop the fundamental objectives. Besides describing the desired position, the vision helped define what had to be done to reach it.

Developing the vision demanded a sincere evaluation of the company's strengths and weaknesses, and a deep investigation of the needs of the customers and all the actors that impact the company's product or service This was a very revealing experience since the analysis of customer needs uncovered some requirements that became known for the first time.

To accomplish this it was necessary to involve all of management. The managers, from all departments, established four teams. One group was responsible for identifying the customers' requirements another, the corporate problems and business requirements, a third group designed strategies to implement the program throughout the organization and the last one analyzed information needs that allowed them to get control of the demands from clients and actors and the degree to which they were satisfied.

The conclusions arrived at by these teams were the basis for the Executive Committee to formulate the vision and, afterwards, to develop the Corporate Management System. This system was deployed and promoted at all levels of the organization in 1993 and is the management system being used today. Through the Corporate Management System the vision, long and short term plans were transformed into concrete actions; the role and responsibility of each member of the organization was clearly defined; a systematic and participatory process oriented towards corporate improvement was created.

Improvement Teams

The company's Corporate Management Process is supported by the knowledge and involvement of its human resources and team work. Fifteen internal instructors were trained and certified on the advanced Methodology for Continued Improvement, "Tools, Techniques and Methodology". The training strategy was to start training at the time the Priority Areas for the company were being established. Having these two activities in parallel enabled the company to have the key personnel trained on the tools and techniques for improvement, by the time corporate policy was ready to be functionally deployed.

This is why the company, through its own instructors, trained the rest of the organization and was ready to act when the Executive Committee deployed five of the ten Priority Areas identified through the Corporate Management System.

The Improvement Teams' efforts were supported by various clearly defined support structures, which were implemented based on our guidance. The purpose of these structures, endorsed by Executive Management, was to improve the company operations and satisfy the customers' expectations and valid requirements.

At the beginning of 1994 the company had twenty improvement teams that were assigned to work on specific problems, derived from the Priority Areas and deployed through the short term plans. These teams continue to work on improvement activities today.

Daily Management

With the goal of increasing the level of participation of employees in routine jobs, the company decided to implement "Daily Management" in 1994. This strategy resulted in the training and development of a pilot area, the Information Systems Group, in all the methods and techniques of Daily Management.

The training consisted of:

the methodology to select the most important process

the techniques to identify the needs of the customer: internal and external the method to establish responsibilities

and the development of indicators, targets and a follow-up system

The pilot also served as a means to transfer the technology of Daily Management to the company.

The company continues to train their employees on this methodology to accelerate the efforts that lead to the improvement of products and services by controlling and improving the critical business processes. At the same time, the program is being expanded to other areas of the organization. As more people become involved in monitoring and controlling their own activities, management is beginning to see improvement results in all areas of operation.

Managing Parner, Management Resources Inc.

When Change Is In The Windheads Up

2009-01-18T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Marcia Zidle

In these days of takeovers and mergers, of downsizings and lean management, chances are that you are going to be caught in a job upheaval at least once in your career. Probably more than once!

Change in the wind may come like an invigorating breeze on a hot humid night. For instance, your boss is promoted to a new job and you have to get used to reporting to someone new, who turns out to be even better. But change also can come as a spark before the forest fire, when an outside takeover of your company leads to unexpected layoffs, outsourcing, and redefinition of the company itself.

But whatever the situation, once you've got a new job or a new boss or a new company, you must realize you have to change. That's survival lesson number one. The worst thing you can do is cling to the old ways of doing things or to ignore what's happening right before your eyes. To deal effectively with change, you need to pay attention to four stages of workplace transition.

Stage 1. Something's Up: What To Do Before The Change.

If you're lucky, you'll have some advance warning and time to prepare. Sometimes you simply have the uneasy feeling that something is up. There might be lots of hushed conversations or closed-door meetings. Top management might seem especially busy and inaccessible. Or the rumor mill is running high.

If you sense something is happening, get out there and keep informed. Don't stay buried behind your desk or in your office. Be visible inside and outside your company. Just because you're doing a good job, don't assume you'll be taken care of. While you're gathering information within your own company, keep your antennae up and ears perked for news of openings in your field. Pass the word discreetly among professional colleagues that you're thinking of trying something new. You may not need to or want to change jobs, but it's important that you know what's out there.

As soon as you know something definite, plan how you are going to manage yourself. The change, no matter how big or how small, will affect you personally. By acknowledging your feelings of anxiety, frustration or loss, you can get beyond the initial shock more quickly, start thinking more sensibly about your career options and move on.

Stage 2. Getting Acquainted: The First Couple of Months.

In the first weeks of the transition, take extra care to be visible, productive, and open to change. This is not a good time to go on vacation for two weeks. Ask yourself: Is there professional opportunity here? Or, should I now begin looking elsewhere? How can you decide whether to put your energy into making a go of it or to start letting go?

First, do more research. If there is new ownership, learn all you can about that corporate culture. Study past, as well as, current reports in the business press. Ask people what it's like to work there. If you're used to a regimented, bureaucratic company and the new owner has an entrepreneurial approach you may be in for big changes. However, if you have a flexible, go-get-em personality, you might find it exhilarating.

If you have a new boss, find out how she was perceived in her previous job. Pick up the phone and ask around to find someone who knows her work. If it's a restructuring, try to understand the reasons behind it. What is the company dealing with now, that it wasn't dealing with in the past? What goals is it trying to accomplish in the reorganization? In what way can you contribute to these new goals?

Put yourself in your boss's shoes. What are the key problems that need to be solved right now? Are you part of the problem or are you part of the solution? Are there things you could be doing right now to come out ahead of the game? If you choose to stay, it's up to you to get on with the program, and to show your new boss how indispensable you really are. Do it as soon as you can. If you hang back it might get harder. Take the initiative. Ask for a meeting to discuss your background, to provide an update on your projects, and to find out about the new goals for your team, department or division. You need to be perceived as adding value not just taking up space.

Stage 3. Settled In: The Six Month Benchmark.

Now that the dust has settled, it's the time to gauge your career health. If you're working with a new boss or new owners or are in a totally different area, ask yourself: Do I feel like an active participant or am I on the sidelines looking in? Have I gotten reassuring comments or positive feedback? If you are in the dark, take the risk and request a meeting with your boss to discuss your performance.

You need to be direct. Say, "I've been working hard to cooperate and adjust to the changes, but I've been wondering, how am I doing from your point of view? And what's the next six months going to look like?"

You may get an indirect response such as: "You're doing fine, keep up the hard work"; or "Let's set a time to discuss this further." However, don't be satisfied with an evasive or avoidance answer. Performance feedback is essential during times of organizational transition. If all the signs are looking good, you can start breathing a sign of relief. But don't let your guard down completely. The next six months are also very important.

Stage 4. A Year After: Is The Coast Clear?

By the time you're a year or more into a major change in your organization, it's reasonable to wonder: Has my work life settled down at last? Am I home free? After a year, if not before, take time out from your normal routine and evaluate what's been going on.

Has the sense of crisis passed? Do you see a gradual shift to a more smoothly run ship? Is your area still moving in the new direction, even if there has been an occasionally glitch? Is your new boss fitting into the company and working well with her staff and superiors? If this is the case, great! You've come through the storms of change and now are going on to calmer times, at least for the short term, - long term who knows?

Or is the atmosphere still very hectic despite many attempts to try to fix what's not working? Or, is everything on hold again for the nth time waiting for someone to make the decision to move ahead? Or do you feel that your workload does not seem to be easing up? In fact, it's getting worse. Sad to say, sometimes things never calm down especially in troubled industries or rapidly changing ones.

If this is your scenario, you may decide that you need a break from the relentless change. You can try to find a calmer port within your company or you may need to seriously consider finding a new job all together. Taking control of one's career sometimes means making some very hard decisions. But once a decision is made and action is taken, then you can get on with your life. Isn't that what professional empowerment is all about---taking charge of one's destiny?

Marcia Zidle, the 'people smarts' coach, works with business leaders to quickly solve their people management headaches so they can concentrate on their #1 job to grow and increase profits. She offers free help through Leadership Briefing, a weekly e-newsletter with practical tips on leadership style, employee motivation, recruitment and retention and relationship management. Subscribe by going to http://leadershiphooks.com/ and get the bonus report "61 Leadership Time Savers and Life Savers". Marcia is the author of the What Really Works Handbooks resources for managers on the front line and the Power-by-the-Hour programs fast, convenient, real life, affordable courses for leadership and staff development. She is available for media interviews, conference presentations and panel discussions on the hottest issues affecting the workplace today. Contact Marcia at 800-971-7619.

Tqm

2009-01-17T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Mary Anne Winslow

One company that has implemented quality and has a had success from it is British Gas. British Gas has a comprehensive business management system in place that encompasses quality management, environmental management and Investors in People. This system is subjected to regular external review by specialist independent assessment bodies as well as internal challenge, providing a framework for continual improvement. All operations employees are regularly assessed for safety and technical competence and improvement actions put in place where appropriate.

Total Quality- what it is and what it is not has been debated endlessly by people involved at all levels. Many are still confused, and whilst confusion reigns the opportunities continue to slip away.

As competition in the global marketplace increases the importance of quality and in particular Total Quality Management (TQM) has become a key management issue within most major corporations. More and more companies are applying the principles of TQM and the topic is well publicised in many books and papers. The procurement function plays a key role within any company, as they are the link between the business and its suppliers. In essence the buyers interpret the requirements of the business and convert this into the materials required to satisfy the needs of the customer.

A total quality management environment aims to get it right first time, and this means that quality, not faults must be designed into the organisations products and operations from the outset.

The successful pursuit of a quality programme requires the dedication of substantial organizational resources, and it is vital to understand whether and how the programme generates value for the organization. It is evident from the quotation above that China, the world's largest emerging economy, consisting of 1.2 billion potential consumers, is treating quality not just as an organizational issue but as a national one.

To be successful in the introduction of TQM many attitudes need changing, thinking developed and perceptions broadened. TQM is a continuing process of organisational improvement and therefore requires an organisation wide commitment. TQM is about setting standards (in everything!) and getting (product and process) quality right first time, every time! TQM is about a shared vision and success.

Four principal barriers to quality: systems and procedures, culture, organization design, management perspectives.

TQM has three major components:

* People (teams)

* Quality tools and techniques

* Quality policy and management commitment

TQM has evolved from the Japanese understanding of the importance of people as a resource in the persuit of CQI aimed at customer satisfaction.

Total Quality, with the vital attitudes ingrained in the workforce, is possible. However it is a gradual process requiring top down management support, commercial commitment, and a firm will to make it succeed.

There are many business that have implemented quality management successfully and have turned them around. The results of implementing quality cannot be seen straight away it is a continuious improvement and the results can only be seen over time.

Strategic Quality goals are established at the highest company levels and are part of the companies business plans. This concept of strategic quality goals is a logical result of the movement to give quality the top priority among the companies goals.

Mary Anne Winslow is a member of Essay Writing Service counselling department team and a dissertation writing consultant. Contact her to get free counselling on custom essay writing.

How Smooth Is Your Business Sailing Along

2009-01-16T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Stuart Crawford

Have you ever been sailing on a beautiful summer's day, the wind perfect, the water ideal? But when you look around, you notice there were a number of other sailboats, with their sails as full as yours, but some are much faster, and you feel like you are standing still!

You look around and find your anchor is running along the bottom of the marina. You were still moving forward, but no where near the speed as the other sailboats out that day.

Is this happening to your business? Are your sails full of great opportunities? Is your competition passing you by? Does your business lack the momentum to get you out to the open water?

Many businesses are dragging their anchor. What do I mean by "dragging their anchor"? This anchor can refer to employees who just don't have what is takes to be successful in your business line or are the type of employee who brings down the rest of the team. The anchor stops or slows down your momentum in your company.

Having employees on your team who consistently challenge the corporation in a positive manner is a good thing! They keep your company competitive in the marketplace. However having an employee or group of employees who weigh down your company in a negative manner, is something you need to act upon.

Negative employees can knock the wind out of your company's sails! The team members who fill your company's sails daily, with great ideas and forward momentum will soon become tired and lack the energy, required to move your sailboat forward. Eventually these same employees will find an easier boat to blow their powerful wind into, while your anchors will continue to slow down your progress.

Many organizations continue to work on developing their anchors instead of harvesting the wind that blows into their sails. Anchors will always be anchors, and they may have moments of promise in transforming into a sail, BUT the trend is, they almost always revert back to being an anchor. A good read on this topic is a book titled "If You Don't Make Waves, You'll Drown" by Dave Anderson. One of the book's lessons is, many of today's leaders spend the majority of their time on the non-performers, instead of their performers. Again, continuing with this practice will have your performers looking for another stage to perform on.

Can you imagine a sailboat with no sails and all anchors? Business owners need to remove the anchors or at least secure your anchors onto your sailboat and focus on the sails in your organization. Sails do not need a lot of effort, however, they do need attention, regular support, and care.

Harvest the winds in your company so you can have full sails to allow you to compete in the marketplace and keep pace, ahead of your competition.

Stuart R. Crawford is the Director of Business Development, at IT Matters Inc. (http://www.itmatters.ca), a Microsoft Gold Partner, Small Business Specialist and Microsoft IMPACT Award Finalist 2005 - Network Infrastructure Solution of the Year. Stuart is also a certified coaching practioner with execuCoach International (http://www.execuCoach.net). He can be reached at scrawford@itmatters.ca.

Motivation It Starts With Acknowledgement

2009-01-15T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Alan Fairweather

Acknowledgement is about recognition or attention from another person. It can be physical such as - a pat on the back, a touch or a handshake. It can also be psychological such as - a word of praise, a compliment, even a "hello!" It can even just be time spent with the person.

Physical and psychological attentions are absolutely vital to human beings. We all need it and we need it every day. However, it must be said that every human being has a different level of need for acknowledgement.

If you looked at it on a scale of 0 to 100 then there are a small number of people who'd be low on the scale. These are the people who cut themselves off from others, the hermits amongst us. The majority of people however, are pretty far up that scale.

The need for acknowledgement is something that's programmed into us. Babies and children have a huge need for physical acknowledgement. You can see that demonstrated by the way they reach out for you, how they want to be held and cuddled. Research has shown that infants who are denied this physical acknowledgement can suffer both in their physical and emotional growth.

As children develop their use of language, they start to need psychological attention as well. I'm sure you've experienced children coming to you, with something they've drawn or made, looking for your praise. As we grow into adulthood we become more sophisticated; however our need for acknowledgement doesn't go away, we just seek it in a different way.

We send out all sorts of signals just to get acknowledgement. We "casually" mention some achievement - "I've managed to reduce my golf handicap" - "My boss has asked me to take on more responsibility" or - "Our child has just passed their exams."

We take other actions to meet our need for acknowledgement. Do you remember the TV programme Cheers about the regular customers in a Boston bar? The show's signature theme had a line in it which went something like - "Everybody goes where everybody knows your name!" The characters in Cheers don't just go to Cheers for a drink; they know that when they walk in the door someone, probably the person behind the bar will acknowledge them.

I was speaking to a participant on one of my seminars and he was telling me all about his role as President of his local fishing club. All the things he had to do, the newsletter to write, the competitions to organise and the meetings to attend. I asked him if he got paid for it. "Oh no" was the reply, "I do it because I like it." Of course he does it because he likes it and no doubt it's a lot of work and takes up lots of his time. However, the acknowledgement he receives from this is massive.

I've known elderly parents who exaggerate illness just to get their family to visit and spent time with them; they just want acknowledgement.

A human's need for acknowledgement is so strong that they will sometimes behave badly to get that acknowledgement. I'm sure you're aware of children who behave badly in school just to get attention - well, adults do it too. That person in your team who gives you all sorts of problems which are often difficult to understand, may just be seeking acknowledgement.

The people you manage need acknowledgement and spending quality time with them is the way to do it. Just to be clear - acknowledgement isn't just about praising people; it's about spending time, listening and speaking with them.

Aircraft Washing And Regulatory Issues

2009-01-14T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Lance Winslow

Perhaps you are a pilot or just love aircraft and you want to start a business washing, cleaning and detailing general aviation aircraft such as single engine, cabin class twins and private or corporate jet aircraft? There will be things that will be required of you by the local airport in order to get an activity permit, as well as some regulatory issues.

Should you build your own aircraft washing unit? Well, if you build your own unit, you will need a way to remove the water from the ramp, as most Airports have NPDES Permits of what storm water is allowed to leave. Even though it is full of Jet A and de-ice fluid run off, they seem to go over board to regulate aircraft washing? Silly I know? But realize the EPA is a little insane anyway? I am sure they will tell us we cannot breath the air, because it is regulated by the FAA and the EPA says it has contamination from the Chinese Dust Storms or an Indonesia Volcano?

Between the EPA and the FAA you have to at least understand what you will be dealing with. One person told me that he read on the FAA website that the FAA now regulates aircraft washing, well this is simply not so, and if the FAA website states this, well then the FAA site is in error, basic washing requires no licensing. I am sure someday those blithering idiots might attempt to control more that which they do not understand. Such as Private Space Flight? Consider all this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Communication Strategies Systems And Skills

2009-01-13T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Jim Clemmer

Poorly designed organizations, ineffective processes, bureaucratic systems, unaligned rewards, unclear customer/partner focus, fuzzy visions, values, and purpose, unskilled team leaders and members, cluttered goals and priorities, low trust levels, and weak measurements and feedback loops all cause communication problems. Whenever a manager contacts us to solve a "communication problem," we always know we have some digging to do.

Communication strategies, systems, and practices do play a central role in high-performance. Information, understanding, and knowledge are the lifeblood of the organizational body. A thoughtful and comprehensive communication strategy is a vital component to any successful change and improvement. The education and communication strategy sets the tone and direction of improvement efforts.

Education and communication strategies influence the energy levels for change and improvement. Strong communications keep everyone focused on goals and priorities while providing feedback on progress and the course corrections needed. Effective communication strategies, systems, and practices have a huge and direct effect on organization learning and innovation. Effective communication strategies, systems, and practices:

Deliver clear and consistent messages to all parts of the organization

Are simple, direct, and fast with a minimal number of filters and interpreters

Inspire and energize

Are user-friendly, human, and personal

Move information, experiences, learning, ideas, direction, and feedback equally well in all directions up, down, and across the organization.

Provide multiple channels

Are only possible in an atmosphere of trust and openness

Despite all their talk about communications, many managers don't appreciate the highly strategic role communication plays in their improvement efforts. Consequently, they don't spend enough time thinking through what they want to say and the best ways to say it. But the amount and type of communicating we do speak volumes about how much we trust people and whether we see people as partners or "subordinates" who "work for me." Our communication strategies, systems, and practices set the dimensions of the environment we are putting people in.

Up Close and Personal

"A vision is little more than an empty dream until it is widely shared and accepted. Only then does it acquire the force necessary to change an organization and move it in the intended direction." Burt Nanus, Visionary Leadership

The best information and communication systems, strategies, and technology can actually make things worse if we don't have strong communication skills. With today's technologies, a much bigger audience can conclude much faster that we don't have our act together. A powerful Context and Focus (vision, values, and purpose), clear goals and priorities, and a well-designed improvement plan won't look that way if poorly communicated.

Many managers devise slick internal marketing campaigns and invest in expensive information technologies. They're on the right track. But although customers and partners appreciate and (when well trained and supported) will use these technologies, they want to break through the mechanical alienation these tools and approaches can bring. People want a personal touch. They want to feel the passion, energy, and human side of their leaders before they can partner with them.

Leadership and communications are inseparable. Our ability to energize, inspire, and arouse people to ever higher levels of performance is directly related to our ability to communicate. Strong leaders are strong communicators. If my communication skills (especially verbal communication) are weak, I'll never be much of a leader. I may be a strong administrator, director, technician, team member, or manager. But without strong verbal communication skills, I'll be a weak leader. Unless I improve my communication skills, I'll become a victim of the shifting balance between managing things and leading people.

Effective communication is no more a natural skill than leadership is a born trait. Very few powerful communicators just opened their mouths and let the words naturally flow out. Most leaders learned, developed, practiced, and refined their communication skills through a lot of hard work and conscientious effort. They learned how to sell and persuade. They learned how to infuse a well-formed case or logic with emotional appeal. They were able to light their logic on fire.

Jim Clemmer is a bestselling author and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, workshop/retreat leader, and management team developer on leadership, change, customer focus, culture, teams, and personal growth. During the last 25 years he has delivered over two thousand customized keynote presentations, workshops, and retreats. Jim's five international bestselling books include The VIP Strategy, Firing on All Cylinders, Pathways to Performance, Growing the Distance, and The Leader's Digest. His web site is http://www.clemmer.net/articles

Eight Stupid Things Human Resource Departments Do To Screw Up Performance Appraisals

2009-01-12T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Robert Bacal

We've written an article entitled "The Ten Stupid Things Managers Do To Screw Up Performance Appraisals", but the truth is that managers don't do dumb things just to fill up their time. A lotof the time we find that when managers are doing performance appraisals badly, they are getting a lot of "help"from their human resource (HR) or personnel department. Central HR departments can create a situation that virtually destroys any value from the performance appraisal process. Here's the list of dumb things HR folks do.

Stupid Thing #1: Focusing on and stressing the paperwork and forms.

We can understand why human resource people want some sort of paper trail related to performance appraisal. But when the emphasis on the forms and paperwork overshadows the real purpose of doing appraisals, then huge amounts of resources are wasted. When HR departments focus on getting the forms done, that's exactly what they get. Forms done. If that's all this is about, hire a monkey to do it. Any fool (no insult to the monkey) can tick off boxes on a form and send it on.

Stupid Thing #2: Believing that a ratings based form of appraisal will serve as protection against lawsuits by employees.

Big mistake. If you are caught speeding, do you think the court is going to accept as evidence a policeman's statement that "On a scale of 1-5 the driver was a 4?" I don't think so. But HR departments believe that THEIR form is going to withstand legal scrutiny. It's not. It's too subjective and too vague. This desire for false security is one reason HR folks feel they need to pressure managers to get the forms done. At least until their first lawsuit.

Stupid Thing #3: Using an automated system.

This is a new development. You can purchase software that automates the performance appraisal process. What it does is it takes a lousy paper process, then makes it a lousy computerized process, so now we go much faster pretending we are doing something useful.

Performance appraisal is an interpersonal communication process. Even between two people, it's often not done well. Automating the process is a waste of money and time, and HR departments that go that route are doing charitable work for the vendors of the software.

It's bad enough we mechanize a human process using paper forms. Now we can take it one step further. Heck, now managers never have to speak to staff. This is progress?

Stupid Thing #4: Undertraining or mis-training managers in the process.

Take some HR folks. They design some new forms, and a new way of doing performance appraisals. They print out some basic instructions, print out some forms, and distribute them to managers. The assumption is managers will know the purpose goes much further than "getting the forms done".

That's not going to happen. If the HR folks yell and scream, they probably WILL get the forms back, but not much more. Managers need extensive training, not only regarding the nuts and bolts of the appraisal process, but about the why's and interpersonal parts of it. Without that, one gets an empty paper chase (while people pretend it is a useful way to expend energy).

Stupid Thing #5: Not training employees

Why would you train employees in their role in the appraisal process. First, because the only way it works is when employee and manager work together, in partnership. Both manager and employee need to hold the same understanding about why they are doing appraisal, how it will be done, and what is expected.

Very few organizations offer anything but a superficial orientation to the appraisal process. That's because they see it as something done TO employees. It isn't, except of course when the HR department treats it as something done to employees. Then managers will probably do it that way.

Stupid Thing #6: Thinking pressuring managers to get the forms in is productive.

One reason managers procrastinate with respect to doing appraisals is that they don't see the point, or see it as a waste of time. There are other reasons, too. Most can be dealt with by using flexible approaches that take into account the needs of managers. Unfortunately, a good many HR departments believe it's just a question of ordering, yelling, coercing or begging managers to get them done.

That doesn't address the reasons why managers aren't doing them. If they felt they were useful, they would do them. The key to getting them done is to make them useful. Unless of course the HR folks want to spend their days ordering, yelling coercing and begging.

Stupid Thing #7: One size fits all fantasy

Imagine the difficulty for HR staff if every manager used a different form, or different method. How would you keep track? How would you file them? We can understand the desire to standardize the forms across a company.

But if you think about it, does it make sense? Can we evaluate a teacher in the same way as we evaluate the school custodian? Do we evaluate a baseball umpire the same way we evaluate a baseball player? Of course not. But still, HR departments expect managers to use a single tool for everyone, often a rating form. This kind of inflexibility addresses a filing problem. Is that why we do appraisals? To make it easier for the HR department? No, we do it to improve performance.

Stupid Thing #8: Playing the appraisal cop.

Unfortunately, HR and personnel departments get stuck with the responsibility of getting appraisals done by managers. Perhaps it isn't their fault, but it is a strong indicator that the system being used is or has failed. How come?

In a properly functioning system, each manager is assessed on a number of things, one of which will be their fulfillment of the performance management and appraisal function. The responsibility lies with management. If a manager is not carrying out the responsibility, it is his or her boss that should be evaluating the manager. It's a cascading process. No appraisal system is going to work until each manager's boss makes it clear that getting it done is going to be a factor in the manager's own appraisal.

HR departments shouldn't be appraisal cops If anyone is to do that, it should be the manager's boss. Anything less is going to be a waste of time and effort.

(c) 2005, Robert Bacal, Bacal & Associates. You are welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end) all links are made live, and this copyright notice and indication of authorship are included.

Robert Bacal is a noted performance management author, consultant and trainer, and is the author of a number of books published by McGraw-Hill including Performance Management - A Briefcase Book, Manager's Guide to Performance Reviews and Perfect Phrases For Performance Reviews. For more free information and help with performance management, reviews, and appraisals, visit the Performance Management & Appraisal Help Center at http://performance-appraisals.org.

In addition to over 800 articles on performance related subjects, you will find tools to help with diagnosing performance, using progressive discipline, and setting objectives at http://performance-appraisals.org/learnto.

His company also runs a free site to educate consumers, with buying guides, scam alerts and consumer protection hints and tips at http://consumerprotectionzone.com.

Why Can A Familyowned Business Fail

2009-01-11T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Al McClymont

Business management in family-owned companies is conditioned, as in any other company, by economic and organizational factors, but also by emotional issues.

It so happens that a very large percentage of automotive dealerships around the world happen to be family-owned businesses. Having said that, there are a great many issues concerning family-owned companies, mainly regarding succession and management, which must be dealt with so that the company can accomplish the goals that the family sets.

This the first in a series of articles titled "Common Problems in Family-owned Businesses" based on an interview between J.C. Aimetta, an expert and coach who specializes in family-owned companies, and Al McClymont, CEO of Autologica Dealer Management Systems.

J.C. Aimetta is 46 years old and has dedicated the past 15 to helping owners and directors of over 65 family-owned small and medium-sized businesses manage growth, professionalize their management and prevent problems with succession. He has been a negotiator in family conflicts and in the sale of family-owned businesses. Mr. Aimetta teaches the subject in graduate and post-graduate courses in 3 Argentine universities, and has given conferences in Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela.

Here are some thoughts that emerged from the interview.

Al McClymont: I know this is a broad subject to be treated in such a short time, but I hope we can go through some of the main points. The first thing I would like to ask you is: What do you think are the main reasons a family-owned business can fail?

J.C. Aimetta: Well, the main reason is that the owner and manager roles get mixed up. Thus, an endless number of confusions occur as regards to who is the owner and who is the manager, the administrator.

For most family businesses the role is only one. Therefore, whenever you ask someone, Why do you run this business?, the answer is: Because it is mine. And what empowers you to run the business? The fact that it is mine.

Al McClymont: It's also important to analyze this from a management and operational point of view side, for example, when the sons and daughters of the owners reach an age appropriate for them to work in the company.

J.C. Aimetta: Well, what happens is that the new generations evolve and the children inherit the same notion, and believe that they can manage the business simply because they own it. As the children are generally more, two, three, four a company cannot have four managers. And it is at this moment that most confusions arise.

Another thing to bear in mind is that in the long run the family always grows more than the company. In other words, there are more people intending to live from a business that is not growing as fast as the family. If we also consider the in-laws that sometimes, not always, want to work in the family business, conflicts may arise.

Furthermore, we have to bear in mind that job evaluations are done under emotional parameters. That is to say, whenever a relative is hired, it is very difficult to punish lackluster performance, a poor job. Because an emotional cost is paid, a "happiness" cost.

In a nutshell, a family-owned business maintains a delicate balance between happiness and efficiency, profitability and affection. As the business grows, its owners must try to gently tip the balance to one side. Because it is impossible to simultaneously achieve maximum profitability and maximum happiness, and make the growing family's entire happiness depend on one particular business.

In the next part of this interview, we'll talk about problems that may arise in a family-owned business when one family member wants to sell their share of the company.

Al McClymont is founder and CEO of Autologica SA (http://www.autologica.net). Founded in 1994, Autologica helps automotive, agricultural and construction equipment dealers around the world increase their bottom line through the use of its Windows-based Dealer Management System and CRM tools. Autologica has a presence in South Africa, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Mexico and South America.

Business Management Effective Results Strategy How Management Delivers The Results In A Business

2009-01-10T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Adrian Pepper

Among the small businesses that I coach, I find that the more effective entrepreneurs recognise that planning and managing success has three parts:

They depend on measuring the past accurately.
They strive to follow their plans in the present.
They build flexible plans for the future.

Looking back

You need numbers to count what you have achieved over the last business cycle. Clearly performance is not numbers alone: their meaning needs to be interpreted before you can decide how to respond to them. Examining your business goals and market conditions will determine the right measures for your business: (some examples in random order)

Return on Investment (RoI) - this ignores the contribution that individual sales make when used too narrowly.
Employee productivity - this is effective when 90% cost is wages, it is less good when your infrastructure costs predominate.
Customer satisfaction - the 'golden glow' is subjective, fickle and fashion-ridden.
"Gross margin = Revenue Costs" - this can be distorted where the overheads are apportioned inappropriately and some goods are carrying an unfair amount of shared costs.
Employee Turnover - this can be useful when skills are critical to the business.
Market share - this measure is good in stable conditions but the past is a poor guide to the future when your competitors are active.
Inventory Turnover - this is used to control working funds and to reduce dwell times for retail stock.
Burn Rate - this was used by Dot.Coms to estimate how soon all their capital might be spent. It was effective in warning people how soon they needed to find a new job.
Customer Loyalty (retention, repeat sales) - this measures sales effectiveness.
Cost of Sales (CoS) - this tends to become distorted as manual effort is automated.
Median credit time - this useful when your profit margin is achieved by living on your creditors' stock.
Return on Capital Employed (RoCE) - this is similar to RoI but devalues any 'unemployed' capital that you own.

Shaping the future

With care, you can find a couple of measures that suit your company and help you understand how your business works. Then you need to set your goals: "Where do I want to go and how do I plan to get there?"

Please remember that good plans are regularly re-drafted. If your current results are worse than you expected, face reality, get past your defensiveness and ask: "Why did I get that result and what do I need to change in the future?"

Running in the present

In the present, you need to follow your plans as far as possible. However if you need to re-plan, drop your old ideas and make new assumptions. Remember that all your costs to date are sunk and can rarely be recovered. You can only plan forward from today.

You need to ask yourself: "How well am I sticking to my plan and how closely do current market conditions relate to my planning assumptions?"

Building options for the future

As you build combinations of new and old ideas into your plans, you can estimate where you think you will be by the end of your next trading cycle. This is where the value of the plan is clear: if you work out your options and preferences beforehand, when unplanned events impact your business, you will be able to respond quickly and keep your delivery on course.

You need to ask yourself: "What changes in my assumptions would invalidate my plans and how can I easily create new options in order to get back on track?"

Putting the three parts together

Big companies have managers who are dedicated to delivery; smaller companies have owners and entrepreneurs who try to combine technical, production, marketing and sales roles.

Managers in all companies can become locked into the present and to forget to work through all three parts equally: past, present and future. Then they need to step back, stop working in the business and work on the business.

I encourage my clients to review their plans at least annually, possibly with external and independent help. Then they can to assess their business against the results, tune up their plans, and work for the results they want to achieve.

Adrian Pepper coaches people through business and personal difficulties, helping companies figure out what to do, how to move forward and what to get organised. You can contact him through Help4You Ltd, through his website at http://www.help4you.ltd.uk or by phone +44-7773-380133. At http://feeds.feedburner.com/help4you, you can listen to his podcast for small businesses.

Counseling

2009-01-09T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Pat Wiklund

Fred, the new manager, was working with Grant, an employee who wasn't getting his work done. Fred had delegated work to Grant, and Grant hadn't made progress on the project for almost 4 months . . . long past the due date.

For the most part, Fred had done well with the first two steps of delegation and checking. He just wasn't acting on Grant's lack of performance.

The key point in the process that determines if Fred needs to have a coaching or counseling session with Grant is when Fred asks if Grant needs anything from Fred to make the project happen now. If Grant says anything but nothing, then Fred had coaching work to do. If Grant replies that there's nothing he needs from Fred, time for a counseling conversation.

Coaching is needed when an employee can't do the work he needs to do. Counseling is needed when an employee won't do the work he is assigned.

Typical situations where counseling is needed include ongoing poor performance, an insecure employee who is skilled, but doesn't do as well as could be expected, an employee who is allowing personal problems to adversely impact performance, or employees who have an "attitude." They feel angry, frustrated, vindictive, unappreciated or unrewarded, and they get back at the company by choosing not to work.

Like with performance problems that require coaching, sometimes Rule #1 is at work. Managers have inadvertently "rewarded" employees into non-performance. The manager has allowed employees to "get away with" not performing, and the employee finds not working more rewarding than working. Sometimes doing the work is punishing or not rewarding: there's nothing in it for an employee to do a good job. Or, an employee may not have the authority to get the job done, or is expected to buck policy or the way it's always been done. Or, worst of all, good performance or bad performance, it just doesn't matter. No one seems to notice.

If any of these are true, time for a little rehab program for the manager, and even more work to bring the employee's behavior into line.

Fred has made the problem of Grant's poor performance worse by letting him "get away with" not getting his work done. Now he has catch up work to do.

Step one: Prepare for the conversation. If Grant suggests there's nothing Fred can do to help him get the work done, then it's clear one of two problems is going on: Grant either doesn't know how to do it and won't say he doesn't know; or Grant doesn't want to do it and has some belief he doesn't have to. Either of these means time for a counseling conversation.

Fred's preparations must include deciding if Grant is willing to address the issues, alternatives, and consequences of his poor performance. If Fred has any question about Grant's willingness to participate . . . time to check in with HR.

Step two: Counseling conversations start like coaching conversations: establish rapport with the employee, attend to the situation, and keep the context professional, not personal. Fred needs to be clear that this conversation with Grant is about his continued poor performance, and the need for resolution.

Step three: Set the context. Focus on behaviors, not intent, values, or motives. Fred's task is to keep the conversation focused on Grant's behavior, even if he is addressing attitude. So he can describe what he's seen, i.e. rolling eyes, tsk'ing in response to questions, shrugging when asked a direct question, rather than labeling or judging.

Step four: Solicit input from the employee. This is the time for Fred to listen to Grant's side of the situation. Fred needs to maintain professional boundaries and not get caught up in solving the Grant's problems for him. Attitude is Grant's problem. At some level, you can't insist employees think or feel a particular way. But, you can insist on performance.

Step five: Offer support while expecting a resolution. Keep the balance between sympathy and solutions. Fred can't offer to fix it for Grant. Grant needs to take care of his personal problems himself. This means Grant has to do more than 50% of the work towards the solution. Set a benchmark date for resolution, and commitment to expectations.

Managers can get into difficulties with counseling conversations in a number of ways. The first, and most deadly, is by not checking with HR for assistance and policy/procedure clarification. Counseling conversations are designed to resolve issues that interfere with performance, they aren't a time to play shrink. Remember you are not running a mental health clinic, and even if you were, you wouldn't be treating an employee. Avoid interpreting, or telling the employee what the real problem is, even if you are convinced your perspective is the real truth. They won't hear it and they just get frustrated and annoyed.

With either coaching conversations or counseling conversations, the goal is improving employee performance and getting the work done. If problems continue, time to have a more serious conversation with your HR rep. It may be time to move to the next level.

Patricia Wiklund Ph.D. works with managers who are challenged with a difficult employee or colleague, and organizations that need to get back on track to effectiveness and productivity. Start increasing your management and leadership skills with her new audio coaching program on Emotional Intelligence: The Leadership Edge. Just click here: http://www.PatWiklund.com/eiaudiocoaching.shtml Contact Pat at Pat@patwiklund.com

Business Continuity Testing

2009-01-08T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Albert Streab

Disaster Recovery is not Business Continuity. Many companies do not have full business continuity plans. They say they do have business continuity plans but they really mean that they have a disaster recovery plan, usually meaning that they have alternative premises and possibly equipment that can be used in the case of a full scale disaster. Business continuity covers far more than just the IT systems. Think of all the paper records an organisation needs to continue working. Think of the most important asset of all to most organisations: its staff. Without its staff these organisation ceases to exist. A business continuity plan contains information for all staff and their activities in the case of problems affecting the organisation.

A preliminary to the testing of any plan is to establish some form of Business Continuity Group consisting of representatives from each of the main business areas, together with those responsible for finance, facilities and IT.

Once a business continuity plan exists it needs to be maintained and tested regularly. Once again, many organisations say their plan is tested but what happens is that they show that the major IT systems can be seen to be working on equipment at a disaster recovery site. Often there is no involvement other than from the IT Group.

It is essential that business continuity testing follows a risk based approach. This provides 2 main advantages. Firstly any business continuity must be aligned to the business and that the plan should be designed to cope with risks to the business. Secondly, by following a risk based testing approach to business continuity, this highlights the areas not to test, by prioritising the main risks to business and therefore identifying areas of negligible or zero risk.

Business continuity testing need not be onerous or expensive. There are a number of ways in which testing can take place; each is mentioned below.

Business continuity testing can be broken down into 2 main areas, desktop testing and physical testing.

Desktop testing can be a paper walkthrough where a group of people work through the plan looking for areas which require further work. It can also be scenario testing where a group sit and work through a scenario given to them, such as electrical failure, fire, bomb threat etc. The scenario is defined by a different group of people who then monitor the accuracy of the business continuity plan.

Physical testing means a form of business continuity testing that happens outside the conference room. This is broken down into a number of different tests. Firstly a communications test. Can everyone who needs to be notified during a problem actually be contacted? Second in physical testing is a disaster recovery test, where the IT systems are established on a secondary set of computers, and thirdly, a full relocation test, where the business areas relocate to another site. All of these tests are carried out in order to hone the business continuity plan and to provide assurance that it will be effective when required.

In summary, all business continuity plans need to be tested. Some companies believe that the testing would be too complex, time consuming or expensive. It is therefore essential to use a 3rd party group of experts to advise, help carry out and monitor the tests that are carried out. The 3rd party would also make suggestions regarding any changes believed necessary to the existing plan.

A Streeb is an experienced practitioner of business continuity testing at Acutest, an independent consultancy specialising in business continuity assurance and software testing services. For more information on this topic visit http://www.acutest.co.uk or send an email to enquires@acutest.co.uk

5 Ingredients To Improve Team Performance

2009-01-07T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Ryan Leibowitz

All great minds think alike, and so do great managers when it comes to managing their teams and employees. So what is the secret sauce that allows for world class team performance? It has nothing to do with numbers, tools, software, or latest business fads. It all boils down to the soft skills. Here are 5 ingredients to kick start your managerial skills along with team performance:

1. Motivation: find out what makes your employees tick, and then once that's done, use it to boost their motivation level in a way that will encourage them to use their strengths for the task at hand.

2. Goal Setting: It's not only important for you as their manager or leader to know the company vision or project vision. It's important to communicate this from the onset and to constantly direct that towards the goal. Make them feel like they are part of the business and not merely hired hands.

3. Praise: It is in people's nature to want to be appreciated, show your appreciation from anything as simple as a verbal acknowledgement to a bonus in pay.

4. Feedback: provide constructive criticism as necessary but be sure to throw in some great praise in between for the good points and the potential you see your employees reaching.

5. Management: have an open door policy in general; make yourself a resource and not just a manager of human resources. Become a model of that performance from which you want your employees and team to achieve.

Simple right? So is creating a fitness regimen, easy on paper, trickier in practice. But the more you do it, the better you become for yourself, for your employees, and for your business.

Get your free information packet on project risk management techniques and project management program training.

Performance Evaluations 7 Strategies That Get Results

2009-01-05T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Cheryl Clausen

Many of you conduct year end performance evaluations with your employees. In this article we will presume that these have been positive experiences for both you and your employee and that you mutually agreed upon opportunities for growth, development, and improvement. As you look back over the past year did you see progress toward the achievement of those opportunities or did the employee start off enthusiastic but soon returned to the old way of doing things or behaving? Are you wondering why? Well first let's agree that nearly every employee truly wants to do a good job and gain the approval of their employer. Those rare birds that don't are another discussion entirely. That means that when employees aren't giving us what we ask of them we need to evaluate our systems and pinpoint the systemic problem. So what could possibly be wrong with our performance evaluation process?

Given that only 3% of the entire population knows how to truly set and get goals, goal getting may be a big part of the problem. If you and your employee(s) haven't truly established a plan, you have a low probability for success. So let's review how to help your employees get their goals. One of the most important elements is making sure that the employee writes their own goals. They need to own their goals. That will never happen if you or someone else sets their goals for them. Here are some guidelines to help your employees move closer to goal getting:

1. Written Have the employees make sure their goals are written, specific, measurable, achievable, challenging, and that you have a mutually agreed upon target date. Now is the time to get them to come up with goals that will enable them to contribute to the overall organizational/departmental plan.

2. Balance Encourage them to establish goals for their personal life as well. This will help them to achieve balance in their lives so that they don't burn out and get frustrated from feelings that their entire life revolves around their job. As I work with my coaching clients we often discover that when the wheels seem to be coming off their cart that a lack of balance is the source or their difficulties.

3. Avoid Procrastination People procrastinate because of fear of change, fear of success, or fear of failure. When you see the employee has fallen off the path, don't wait immediately set time aside to talk with the employee and determine whether fears or other obstacles are standing in their way. Then work with them to remove either the fear or the obstacle.

4. Break it up Often times in our excitement to make dramatic improvements we confuse goal categories with individual goals. For example, if the goal category is improved sales an individual goal might be to hold six appointments each week with qualified prospects. Starting and succeeding with the critical small steps builds the skills and confidence needed to achieve the bigger things.

5. Positive affirmations Positive affirmations keep you focused on positive attitudes and results. In one mid-sized insurance group I know the agents shout out their positive affirmations each morning in their offices to both keep themselves self-motivated and to inspire others in the group.

6. Obstacles Help the employee to foresee and forestall the obstacles that could stand in their way. Write down each and every obstacle and come up with a plan for how to either avoid or overcome that obstacle. If an obstacle is related to lack of skill or knowledge on the part of the employee, plan how the employee will attain the needed skills/knowledge.

7. Check-up Performance evaluations shouldn't be a once a year event. From the onset plan when the two of you will get together next to discuss progress or difficulties. Let the employee know that you are always available to talk about their difficulties and the unforeseen circumstances that are causing them difficulties. Brief quarterly discussions are a good idea. Remember to encourage their efforts and to act as their support partner to help them overcome their challenges.

These brief guidelines will put your employees on the path for goal getting and enhance their self-esteem and the work relationship between the two of you. We all appreciate a partner in our corner striving to help us to be our best. This approach puts you on the same side working toward the development of empowered and self-motivated employees that excel in their job.

Cheryl Clausen is a business coach specializing in working with professional service providers such as financial planners, insurance agents, and realtors, as well as small business owners. To contact her call 402-926-1134 or visit the Measured Success Inc. website at http://www.measuredsuccessinc.com and sign up for her ezine "Short Notes."

Trusted Management Score Card

2009-01-04T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by John Mehrmann

Share this article with coworkers in an email and enter your TOTAL SCORE in the Subject Line, ask for a reply to see how your score relates to others in your organization. Trust is a fundamental foundation for any relationship, business or personal. Without it, the relationship has defined limits and greater risk of gradual erosion or collapse. With Trust, the relationship is exponentially stronger than the sum of the individual contributors.

Score each of the categories on a scale of 1 (low confidence) to 10 (high confidence).

(1) ___ Tolerance: Rate the level of security. How much concern is there about making a mistake? How familiar are you with the term "C.Y.A."?

(2) ___ Confidence: Rate the level of confidence in taking reasonable and measured risks. How much confidence is there with a position or making a decision?

(3) ___ Authority: Rate the level of personal control, the ability to make decisions that pertain to individual specific job responsibilities.

(4) ___ Common Goals: Rate the level of awareness and aligned strategy.

(5) ___ Empathy: Rate the level of compassion and understanding of individual personal objectives and motivation.

(6) ___ Consistency: Rate the level of continuity in decisions, actions and communications.

(7) ___ Integrity: Rate the level of integrity exhibited throughout the organization as exemplified by ethical decisions and actions.

(8) ___ Selflessness: Rate the level of 'self-sacrifice' or parity with regards to activities between management and contributors.

(9) ___ Ownership: Rate the level of personal individual responsibility for success, support of others, and dedication to the common good of the team.

(10) ___ Communication: Rate the level of communication by quality, confidence and honesty (not necessarily the quantity).

Total Score ______ out of 100

How does your score compare with the other people in your organization?

Score 90-100:

A rich environment of trust and confidence that encourages mutual support for common goals. This is an organization that empowers individuals to contribute to shared rewards, as well as an opportunity to experience self-attainment. Individuals within this organization can develop personal talents and enjoy an atmosphere of continuous learning. Even if you feel that you are temporarily in the wrong position, apply your talents and develop your skills and your contributions will deliver lasting personal and professional rewards. The grass really is greener on your side of the fence.

Score 80-90:

This is exceptional. Be proud of your organization and the people around you that treat you like family. Your score indicates that you are honest with yourself, as we as with your coworkers. You have a healthy environment and are willing to acknowledge that there is always a little room for improvement. This is why you will continue to improve, and you will support others to achieve greater goals as well. Create a reminder for yourself to cherish and protect this environment. Some people only realize how good they had it after it is gone. Don't let that happen to you. Recognize, encourage and promote the trust within the organization, and share this experience with your customers and clients.

Score 70-80:

You are beating the odds. This score indicates that you have a foundation of trust, and that there may be some areas for improvement. Compare the different categories for areas of strength. Focus on actions or activities that will promote the areas of strength while you initiate communications to unravel the areas of concern. Sometimes the weak categories are related to specific events, misunderstandings, or possibly even specific individuals. Areas of weakness as illustrated by low scores may take time and planning to remove obstacles and develop trust.

Score 60-70:

There is risk of losing talented individuals. The talent that does not abandon ship will be underutilized and demoralized. The first step to creating an environment of trust is to be honest with yourself, then honest with your peers. Honesty does not mean confrontation with each other, but it may be necessary to confront some difficult topics with fierce and open communications. It will take conscientious effort to improve and sustain, but it is worth the investment of time and energy. Remember that the first step to becoming trusted is to allow yourself to be trusting.

Score Below 60:

The race is on to see who will leave first, typically the customers will be the first to go, and then the employees. Get help, this isn't funny anymore. The employees who stay will feel trapped, as personal perception becomes clouded to believe that there is nothing else better. The confident individuals will eventually recognize another opportunity and go to greener pastures. Loyalty, like trust, is a two way street. The bigger risk is that the individuals who flourish in this type of environment are satisfied with taking advantage of the organization, coworkers, and eventually even the customers.

Reflection

The University of Chicago interviewed 800 Americans in 2002 and discovered that more than 80% had 'only some' or 'hardly any' confidence in the people running major corporations. More to the point, according to the results of the 2002 Golin-Harris survey, 69% of respondents agreed with the statement "I just don't know who to trust anymore". If there is a predominant lack of confidence based on lack of trust, imagine the competitive edge for any company that can offer an environment for individual contributors to flourish with confidence, security and unleashed creativity. Organizations that nurture a culture of trust have an advantage when it comes to hiring and retaining talent. The environment that is fostered inside the organization becomes brilliantly or blazingly apparent to customers, clients and competitors outside it.

______________________________________________________

Words of Wisdom

"It's troubling because a distrustful environment leads to expensive and sometime terminal problems. We hardly need reminding of the recent wave of scandals that shattered the public's faith in corporate leaders. And although you'll never see a financial statement with the line item labeled "distrust", the WorldCom fiasco underscores just how expensive broken trust can be." - Robert F. Hurley, "The Decision to Trust"

"A person who trusts no one can't be trusted." - Jerome Blattner

"Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

______________________________________________________

About the Author:

John Mehrmann is a freelance author and President of Executive Blueprints Inc., an organization devoted to improving business practices and developing human capital. www.ExecutiveBlueprints.com provides resource materials for trainers, sample Case Studies, educational articles and references to local affiliates for consulting and executive coaching.

www.InstituteforAdvancedLeadership.com provides self-paced tutorials for personal development and tools for trainers. Presentation materials, reference guides and exercises are available for continuous development.

You may distribute this article freely, print it, sell it, or include it as part of a package as long as it is intact, unchanged and delivered in the original format with acknowledgement to Executive Blueprints Inc.

John Mehrmann is a freelance author, industry expert and President of Executive Blueprints Inc, an organization dedicated to developing human capital and personal growth.

Preparation For Lean Manufacturing

2009-01-03T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Patrick Birmingham

It seems that every manufacturing company is now trying to adapt the Lean Philosophy, invented and mastered by Toyota Corporation. Lean manufacturing has also spilled over into non manufacturing industries. Unfortunately, many companies don't completely understand the true meaning of Lean Manufacturing. Lean Manufacturing, simply put, is "continuously improving your processes to eliminate waste". This sounds simple, but many companies will fail to become truly Lean because they don't have an environment to implement and maintain Lean.

Most people believe Lean is just a set of tools (One Piece Flow, JIT, Kan-Ban, 5S, Six-Sigma, Kaizen Teams, Push / Pull Systems, etc.) that can be used to cut waste. However, Lean is not only a set of tools, it is a culture. If a company has severe issues with employee turnover, employee morale, product quality, product delivery, equipment uptime, plant housekeeping, etc., it will be extremely difficult to shift the employees to a new way of thinking and conducting business. In other words, if your employees are in constant fire fighting mode, they will not be able to properly implement Lean.

Fix the obvious problems first

To prepare for Lean, you must "fix the obvious problems first". Many times employers will know exactly what the problems and solutions are. They just don't have the time, resources, or incentive to fix them. If you have an automobile that is constantly breaking down because of a bad transmission, then fix it! Repair or replace the transmission. Do not implement a Lean Strategy to fix the car. Just fix it. Lean is not used to fix broken processes. Lean is used to continuously improve working processes to eliminate waste. When all the obvious problems are fixed on that vehicle, it's then time to fine tune it to become more efficient. It's time to look at ways to cut waste (cost) to ultimately save money!

A Word about Six-Sigma

Some companies now mandate that Six-Sigma be used to fix problems. Unfortunately, Six-Sigma isn't always used correctly. Six-Sigma is intended to solve complex problems that have numerous variables that cause variation in a process, which ultimately cause defects. Six-Sigma uses statistics to systematically identify what the different variables are doing in the process and points to potential solutions. It eliminates guessing as to what's causing the variations. Again, fix the obvious problems first. Many problems don't have to be analyzed to detect solutions. In many instances, the solutions are obvious: i.e., If the light bulb is blown, then, change the light bulb.

Value Your People

Society generally refers to companies as entities. We speak of IBM, GM, and Microsoft as entities; however, they are really groups of people. GM doesn't build cars, the employees of GM build cars.

To develop that culture as successfully as Toyota Corporation has, companies must first realize that they have to develop, nurture and value their employees. In order to build a culture of people wanting to continuously improve, people have to be engaged in their jobs. They have to feel valued by the company. They have to feel they are noticed and rewarded for their contributions. Ultimately, the company has to value having low employee turnover to create consistency. A company with high employee turnover cannot maintain a successful Lean environment.

To foster this type of environment in today's business world isn't easy. There is low loyalty between U.S. companies and their employees for a variety of reasons. Some companies look at employees as an expense rather that an asset that can be easily cut. If employees of a company do not feel the company values them, they will find other jobs. With today's business world, it's difficult to implement a long term Lean strategy. Yes, a company can dictate to it's employees to use Lean tools to cut waste, however, to sustain that ideology long term require an engaged, loyal, consistent, work force.

Develop and Retain Strong Leaders

Good managers are coaches, poor managers are dictators. A good manager will believe in the team concept where every member of the team is important and his/her opinions are valued. A good manager will value his/her employees and realize that for him/her to be successful, the team has to be successful. A poor manger will dictate to his/her employees, which creates havoc! A good, efficient, business unit with high employee morale will fall apart within weeks if a poor manager has taken over. Poor managers fail because they don't have strong leadership skills. They lack people skills, communication skills, decision making skills, and delegation skills necessary to develop and maintain effective teams. A strong leader must sell the Lean Strategy and realize that ultimately the employees as a team are the ones to make it happen.

Think and act World Class (even if not there yet!)

To become Lean is to become World Class. When walking into a facility that has an unclean, unorganized work environment, one knows he/she haven't walked into a World Class facility. There is no need to look at the productivity numbers to determine whether or not the facility is World Class. If a plant is World Class, it looks World Class as soon as you walk into the door.

A Lean facility is thoroughly organized. Every process is clearly defined via standards. Production is operated via very clear Visual Management. A true World Class facility has the discipline to sustain organization. Outside auditors, potential customers and employees will be turned off if the work environment isn't clean and organized. Keeping a work area clean and organized is simple; however, many companies overlook this simple task.

Make Decisions Based on Logic and Not Politics

Most of the time decisions made senior management are implemented without questioning regardless if the decisions make sense or not. Too many times, decisions are made by senior management without them fully understanding the process and issues. Lower-level managers ultimately implement ideas and strategies that are not based on logic but politics. They will implement ideas even if they themselves do not believe in them. This can create numerous problems which makes implementing Lean Strategies difficult.

Decisions should be made throughout the organization through effective communication. Senior management should not just mandate, but sell their ideas and be open to questioning and suggestions from lower-level managers. Senior management should fully understand the issues and processes by effectively communicating with the managers at the different levels. Major decisions whenever possible should be made as a team vs. an individual.

by - Patrick Birmingham - Mechanical Engineer, MBA, Six-Sigma Green Belt, Web Master (mZeus.com | Insurance For Everything | Cell Phone Digest)

Tales From The Corporate Frontlines Job Security In Todays Workplace

2009-01-02T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Josh Greenberg

This article, Job Security in Today's Workplace, is part of AlphaMeasure's compilation, Tales from the Corporate Frontlines. It tells the story of a manager who decides to look for ways to bolster the morale in his company when it crashes after an extensive layoff.

Anonymous Submission

I've worked for the same company for ten years now. At the end of last year, we reorganized, and in the process, over 10% of the workforce was terminated. In the wake of the layoffs, morale hit an all time low. My colleagues in upper management were becoming especially depressed. Every meeting I attended began with a discussion about low morale and productivity, complete with a round table of horror stories to illustrate the nightmare.

Our company couldn't afford to see this happen---we'd just restructured out of financial necessity.

Sick of hearing the horror stories and dire predictions for the company's future, I decided to do a little research; I was sure that I could find at least one solution to the declining morale problem. At the next staff meeting, I'd pass what I learned along to my colleagues. The big question was: What could the company do to heal the hard feelings created by the layoffs and restore a sense of security? Here are some of the answers I found by reading through magazine articles, newspapers, websites, etc.:

* First of all---be honest with our employees. They are smart enough to know that NO employer is going to issue a written guarantee of job security for any length of time. Employers that address the future dishonestly only fuel more feelings of mistrust and insecurity.

* Encourage employees to take advantage of available company sponsored training. A broad based skills set makes them more adaptable to changing conditions and more valuable to the company.

* Empower employees by encouraging individual responsibility. When they feel that they are making a real contribution, employees are more confident and worry less about job security.

* Encourage networking. If by chance the worst does come to pass, employees can build a safety net by keeping in touch with business associates, sales reps, suppliers---all professionals in their field who may become valuable contacts later on.

* Provide a means of record keeping. People rarely update their resumes unless they are forced to use them. Find a way to help employees keep record of new skills mastered, courses, seminars and workshops completed, so that this information is accurate and close at hand if needed.

My colleagues were happy to finally have some answers, and agreed to work with their people to bolster the morale in their departments. Although some of the recommendations seemed harsh, we all saw the reality of the situation--- it's a different kind of workplace----and helping our employees to deal with that reality is the best way we can provide the job security they need.

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 AlphaMeasure employee surveys.

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.

Rediscovery Procedures For Building Effective Management Systems Phase V

2009-01-01T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Chris Anderson

Now we turn the corner to our final phase: Re-Discovery.

Last year marked the 200th anniversary of the expedition of Lewis & Clark, and much has been written about their remarkable journey up the Missouri River and on to the Pacific. This band of explorers was aptly named The Corps of Discovery. In reality, The Corps made two trips, the second being their return. It is likely that the unheralded return journey was more revealing and insightful than the outbound leg, offering them a chance to re-discover with clearer vision what they had already seen.

It is in this frame of mind that your organization will embark on the Re-Discovery Phase of building an effective management system.

Management Policies and Procedures

The Re-Discovery Phase completes the loop of the entire project, and then overlaps with The Discovery Phase of the next year. Therein lies the "never-ending cycle" of the project. The Re-Discovery Phase allows your organization to migrate from a "fix it and done!" mentality to one of continuous improvement. In Re-Discovery/Discovery Phases you will always be reviewing and assessing your organization for ways to improve performance, compliance, and effectiveness.

As in all Phases it is wise to identify a Project Leader to manage document controls, lead the audits and report to management.

Review the Audit Results and Process Measures

When we pass down a street for the first time, our minds are focused on reaching the destination. Upon returning, we are able to notice things that were previously missed. Returning allows us to go through the same path of the original Discovery Phase in this different light.

This will involve reviewing audit results, process measures and customer satisfaction to determine possible adjustments to the mission, objectives and action plans as well as effectiveness criteria. You will want to asses the appropriateness of these elements now that you have completed your "outbound journey" through the Planning, Development and Implementation Phases. What will you see differently? How will you prepare for the cycle to begin again next year?

Culmination of Policies and Procedures Project

In Phase I, we learned how your organization specifies the project mission, objectives and effectiveness criteria. Phase II entailed setting requirements for project tools, budgets and schedules to manage your project. Phase III taught us about identifying and testing processes within the system. And in Phase IV we learned about learning. So now the Re-Discovery Phase will culminate the project that started 6-12 months ago (time certainly does go by quickly, doesn't it?). And with these five phases completed, you will have undertaken perhaps quite a long process but also one that will lead you to building (and maintaining) an effective management system.

Chris Anderson is the managing director of Bizmanualz, Inc. and co-author of policies and procedures manuals, producing the layout, process design and implementation to increase performance. To learn how to increase your business performance, visit: Bizmanualz, Inc.

Flexibilization

2008-12-31T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Michael Beitler

Professor Walter Oechsler of the University of Mannheim (Germany) believes the workplace and workforce in the 21st century will be characterized by "flexibilization." Oechsler sees the "flexibilization" of the workplace and workforce leading to "a core group with unlimited full employment, and an increasingly larger group of short-term limited and/or part-time employees who face severe employment risks, ultimately resulting in stress."

Unfortunately, I must agree with Oechsler's rather unpleasant prediction. Increasing global competition will lead to increasing pressure and stress on all employees. Employees who are unprepared for the new workplace will find themselves at great risk.

Oechsler goes on to describe a major change in corporate strategy. "Whereas the typical corporate strategy of the industrial society was uniform mass production with Tayloristic structures and stable employment, the dominant strategy for global competition is flexible specialization...The strategy of flexible specialization is directed toward customer needs."

This shift in focus from fixed standardized production schedules to flexible customized customer services will dramatically affect the workplace and workforce. The 21st-century employee will have to bring a "flexible specialization" to the 21st-century organization.

Twenty-first century organizations will only be interested in hiring employees who bring a specialization that will serve the flexible needs of customer/clients. Staff positions to support these customer-driven processes will still be available, but these staff positions (non-core competencies) will constantly be re-evaluated in light of possible outsourcing.

Except for a small group of core professionals, employees will have to adopt a mindset of selling their special competencies to different employers. Oechsler envisions these employees as "entrepreneurs marketing their own human resources in order to make a living". Employability will be the key to employee survival, not the stability of the company.

Another powerful trend in the workplace will be the technologically possible "virtual company." Oechsler believes the virtual company can suppress social interaction and lead to new forms of alienation. What we know about group dynamics in face-to-face interactions will have to be re-examined in virtual interactions. How will employees react in the decentralized work structures of the virtual companies? We simply don't know.

Oechsler believes, "Information technologies will dissolve social entities". If Oechsler is correct, what new entities and relationships will be created? I assume the social aspect of our human nature hasn't changed.

Oechsler (2000) summarizes his predictions for the 21st century workforce by saying, "The employee will take on more and severe risks of being unemployed."

The work of organizational effectiveness (OE) consultants will be dramatically affected by these changes in employer-employee relations. The downsizing, outsourcing, and global alliances that began to grab headlines in the 1980s were not simply fads driven by a few greedy capitalists. These trends are indicators of the more powerful megatrends of increasing global competition and increasing technological sophistication. No doubt, numerous psychosocial problems will arise from these trends.

Are you and your organization (or clients) ready for flexibilization?

Dr. Mike Beitler is the author of "Strategic Organizational Change." Read 2 free chapters of the book right now at http://www.strategic-organizational-change.com/

7 Steps To Hire The Best

2008-12-30T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Michael Mercer

You can use this step-by-step method to hire applicants who are likely to be "superstar" employees:

- highly productive

- low-turnover

Important: Focus on hiring applicants you rate positively on all seven prediction methods.

1st Prediction Method = Brief Initial Screening Interview

If an applicant's application looks suitable, then conduct BISI, a customized 15-30 minute over-phone or in-person interview. BISI quickly reveals if an applicant has biographical data similar to your company's "superstar" employees.

For example, at one company, we discovered "superstar" Sales Reps had many similarities before working for this company:

* Work: (a) 1 or 2 previous sales jobs, (b) only 1 or 2 jobs before applying at the company, and (c) kept prior jobs 2 5 years

* Education: (a) earned B.A. from state universities, (b) majored in business or liberal arts, (c) worked part-time throughout college, and (d) college jobs entailed a lot of people contact

* Pay: Earned less than likely first year compensation at this company

* Vocal Style: Exuded high energy

So, this company's BISI screened-in applicants with similar work, education, pay, and vocal style and screened-out other applicants.

2nd Prediction Method = Customized Pre-employment Tests

If the applicant did well on 1st Prediction Method BISI, then you can have applicant take customized pre-employment tests. Use tests specifically designed to screen applicants and predict:

A. Work Behavior e.g., interpersonal skills, personality, and motivations

B. Mental Abilities e.g., problem-solving, vocabulary, math, grammar, and small detail abilities

Importantly, the test must use customized "benchmark scores" based on scores of your "superstar" employees. With customized "benchmark scores," you quickly see if an applicant scored similar to your company's "superstar" employees.

3rd Prediction Method = In-Depth Interview Using Customized Interview Guide Form

If you decide the applicant did fine on 1st and 2nd Prediction Methods, then you may conduct an In-Depth Interview. Crucial: Create a customized Interview Guide document for each job, including (a) 6 9 key "make-or-brake" job talents, (b) questions to ask, (b) note-taking, and (c) ratings.

Importantly, you must provide seminar training to teach managers how to use your customized Interview Guides to assess applicants. Without superb training, interviewers fail to hire the best.

4th Prediction Method = Role-Play

If the applicant did well on 3rd Prediction Method, then have applicant do Role-Play immediately after In-Depth Interview. The 15 30 minute role-play lets you see if the applicant has critical job skills. For example, have a Sales Rep applicant role-play selling. Then, assess the applicant using a customized Role-Play Rating Checklist.

5th Prediction Method = Realistic Job Preview

If you decide applicant did well on 1st 4th Prediction Methods, then do Realistic Job Preview: For RJP, the applicant spends ½ - 1 day watching an employee doing the job. Benefit: Applicants who received RJP are less likely to (a) accept job offer but, if they accept, (b) turnover. Reason: The RJP assures they know what they are getting themselves into!

6th Prediction Method = 1 Executive Must Approve All Hiring

If the applicant did well on 1st 5th Prediction Methods, then one executive at your company reviews Applicant Rating Summary Form. Your company's quick Applicant Summary Rating Form

* summarizes ratings positive, average, or negative on 1st 5th Prediction Methods

* "forces" managers to actually use your structured hiring steps

Important: If the applicant's ratings on 1st 5th Prediction Methods include

+ all positive ratings, then executive may approve hiring applicant

- average or negative ratings, then the executive may not allow applicant to be hired

7th Prediction Method = Reference Checks

If your company decides the applicant did well on 1st 6th Prediction Methods plus accepts job offer then you conduct Reference Checks. If they prove

+ positive, then your company keeps applicant as an employee

- negative, then you take appropriate action

How Much Time Do You Need to Hire the Best?

Many managers moan they are time-crunched, and ask how much time these seven steps require. Two answers:

1. If an applicant does well on 1st 7th Prediction Methods, then you invested 2 3 hours to hire the best

2. Ask yourself: How much time and money did you waste when you hired average or below-average applicants? You wasted many hours plus salary, benefits and low productivity because you failed to invest only 2 3 hours to hire the best!

Michael Mercer, Ph.D., is America's Hire the Best Expert. Dr. Mercer authored five books, including "Hire the Best -- & Avoid the Rest". Many companies rely on his pre-employment test "Abilities & Behavior Forecaster Test" to help hire the best. You can subscribe to his free e-Newsletter at http://www.DrMercer.com or call him at (847) 382-0690.

The Challenge Of Retention

2008-12-29T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Amir Shahzad

I being employer believe that our real assets/customers are our employees. It means, if our employees are satisfied they will automatically be loyal to the company, which ultimately leads to growth and development of the company.

Meeting the demands of today's changing environment requires building and retaining satisfied, loyal, and motivated staff. In this competitive work environment, workers are no longer inclined to stay at one position or in one company for the entire duration of their career. The most talented professionals are more likely to be hunted by other organizations, especially by competitors, and previous company is left with tears of turn over costs, which include recruitment, rehiring, and orientation/training cost and the turnover effect on the targets is another big issue. With the turnover ratio of 15% in higher management and 10% in middle and lower management, company can't make succession planning because success does not depend only on financial and material resources but on satisfied and loyal employees and good leaders.

The manager whose mood swings, determine the climate of the office on any given workday. Poor interpersonal skills, unfortunate office practices, some managers by sheer shameful force of their personalities make working for the employees rotten. So we can call them toxic managers. Apparently, their results may look fine but behind the screens, none is OK even if you loose one from your workforce. It is unhealthy, unhappy, and unproductive, and it will eventually undo HR's efforts to create a healthy, happy, and progressive work place.

Here the question arises that why managers are remembered as toxic. The main reason is that companies don't rate the managers outside the productivity and business performance. The reasons are culture and the background.

Another cause for high turnover rate of any company is unsatisfactory compensation and benefits plans e.g. Base pay, performance based pay, equity based compensation and bonuses, benefits packages and different allowances and facilities like conveyance, medical, house rent etc, also the lawful benefits like gratuity and provident funds, which varies across countries. This plan of C&B depends on the HR of the company as much as the HR is strong, it will make and implement good policies.

Putting aside some specialized industries, I believe that there is no labor shortage in this country, if in case there is any that is of unemployed people; however, there are millions of qualified people in labor market. Hiring the people from open market is not a big issue but hiring and retaining competent work force is the biggest concern. Now the question arises, how to retain them? How to reduce the turnover costs? What policies make the employees happy and satisfied?

The key to retain employees is that one must start before the first day of the job, when a worker looks for a place to hang a jacket, or refrigerator to keep his lunch fresh. As the first impression is the last impression. This is the work environment a good worker look into.

Company should identify the bad apples (toxic managers and workers who are responsible for dissatisfaction of other employees). HR should take care of these bad apples and should recreate these into detox. Because we do not need dictators, we need good leaders, who could inspire the employees and can motivate the staff even under the hard circumstance and work conditions. We need managers who could manage things instead of complaining and de motivating the staff so by finding good leaders and managers; we can prevent future problems, which can also reduce turnover ratio.

If you cannot offer with good salaries than at least keep your compensation packages competitive to the market. If, comparatively you are paying a little lesser, compensate them by other sources, as money is not every thing for every body, may be some employees are interested in big increments and salaries, but for most, it has no attraction. The good working conditions, environment, good communication, leader subordinate relationship, caring management, employee relationship and career development through training and development and career management plan, all are very important factors to motivate and retain employees.

The awareness also plays an important role in employee's management. First of all employees should be well aware of the goals, which are given to them and of course regarding rewards and benefits expected after completion. They should have a vision and a mission before them. All managers should be communicated about the turnover cost on priority bases. Managers should also be held accountable for employee's turnover and the cost involved. These costs should be a part of every department's profit and loss statement, and should be made integral aspect of each department's budget. Today employee retention is a big issue, and can only be handled successfully by team effort along with a strong communication network, and feed back mechanism.

Aamir Shahzad, Human Resources Specialist and consultant from Pakistan.e-mail: aamirhrd@yahoo.com, cell.# +92 300 5229192

You Cant Quit Youre Too Valuable

2008-12-28T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Don Doman

I really enjoyed the feature film Last Holiday starring Queen Latifah. In the movie the character Georgia Byrd, played by Queen Latifah, finds out that she only has a short time to live. She changes her outlook on life and becomes determined to enjoy every moment she has left.

One of the first things she does is quit her retail job. She stops in at her manager's office and knocks, but the manager is too busy listening to a greedy self-help tape (Hip and Rich). When Georgia enters his office, the manager growls at her for not knocking. He recently barked at her for offering food samples in her popular cookware section. As Georgia tries to talk to him, he takes a call on his cell phone even after she asks him not to. When she gets completely fed up and quits, he is aghast. He tells her that she can't quit. Her area is the only bright spot, profit-wise, for the store. She quits anyway. The manager tries to entice her with little, piddling raises of fifty cents an hour and then boosts it to a dollar and then a dollar and a half . . . she is too busy leaving this part of her life behind to notice or care.

This one little scene is indicative of bad management and bad judgment. When employees do an outstanding job, the least they deserve is recognition. You wouldn't expect a marriage to last very long without terms of endearment. Why should management think employees on the job function without respect and recognition? What does it cost to say, "I love you?" It cost nothing, but those words let marriages endure many hardships. What does it cost to say, "You are doing an excellent job?" Again, it costs nothing, but those words help many organizations endure corporate change, economic change, and encroachment by the competition.

Some friends of mine sold their family business three years ago. They remain friendly with the workers there. The new owner added some new sales people at higher pay than previous positions. My friends confessed, this was a good move, but there are still problems. There were employee appraisals promised by the new owner and they are long overdue. Business is up and the indication is that appraisals would mean "job well done" statements and pay raises, which haven't been done since the business sale. Respect and recognition would help retain some unhappy key employees.

What we say today affects how others act tomorrow. Respect and recognition saves marriages and employees. The time to show people that you value them is now . . . daily . . . every chance you have. Life is short.

Author Don Doman: Don is a published author of books for small business, corporate video producer, and owner of Ideas and Training (http://www.ideasandtraining.com), which provides business training products. Don also owns Human Resources Radio (http://www.humanresourcesradio.com), which provides business training programs and previews 24-hours a day.

Working With Professionals

2008-12-27T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Kim Haas

Even the smallest and newest business needs help from at least two kinds of specialists: an attorney and an accountant. Depending on your type of business and your skills you may need the advice of other professionals such as an insurance agent, computer specialist or public relations experts. There are several guidelines you should follow no matter what kind of expert you are dealing with.

Always interview professionals to make sure you feel comfortable with them. Since you will be exposing various aspects of your business, you may want to check out their references before deciding on a particular person. Also make sure to check out the fees that you will be paying ahead of time so you won't be surprised when you receive their bill.

Be honest about your business situation. If you are seeking advice on investments or legal matters, you will only be hurting yourself in the long run if you are not completely honest. Professionals need complete information in order to give you the proper advice based on your particular situation and needs.

Always pay your professionals on time and be prompt in keeping your appointments with them. Remember that your professionalism is also being considered by the professional you are working with.

Your Lawyer can help you with many stages of business from the initial setup to handling more difficult aspects of your business. A lawyer can help you decide which business entity you would benefit the most from such as sole proprietorship, partnerships or a corporation. He or she can help you with zoning, licensing, contracts, patents, trademarks, copyrights and other legal problems or questions. Since there is always a possibility of a lawsuit, you will also want to have someone who is familiar with your business before any legal crisis may occur. You should also consider when choosing a lawyer, what their specialty is so they will be the most beneficial to you should a situation arise.

When choosing a lawyer, it is always best to go with someone who comes highly recommended as well as for the fees they charge. You might find an attorney who charges $75 an hour, only to learn that he has little experience in business ventures and may not be the best choice for representing you and your business. Should you decide to hire an attorney on retainer, always have a written agreement as to what you expect and what is expected of you in your working relationship. You will also need to agree on a high spending limit so that if additional work is required beyond what you intend on spending for fees, the attorney should call you before proceeding so you won't be shocked by unauthorized fees on your bill.

Your accountant is a very important part of your business. As with the attorney referral, you will also want a referral for an accountant. He or she will have access to all of your business information and you should be able to trust that this information will remain confidential. Discuss fees in advance and have your attorney write up an agreement about how you will work together.

Decide in advance whether the accountant will handle all matters of your financial workings, such as all data entry and tax computations, or if he or she will simply be double checking your own work. I have found it most beneficial and financially "doable" to have the accountant go over my records at the end of each year when the annual tax returns are filed. Many, prefer to have an accountant involved in the quarterly tax returns or even in the day to day recording of accounts payable and receivable.

Making the right choices as to the professionals that will be involved in your business is important. Remember, they work for you so you'll want to interview each one thoroughly and make sure you feel that you can trust them completely with your business matters.

Kim Haas is a WAHM and Founder of Womans-Net.com, a popular online networking community focusing on working from home and women in business and owner of http://Article-Host.com. To learn more about Kim, visit http://kimberlyhaas.com
Copyright 2005 Kim Haas

Knowledge Management Tools

2008-12-26T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Kristy Annely

A variety of software tools have come into existence for the management of knowledge. These tools generally provide features such as intranet, logged chat, search, FAQ lists, personalization, database maintenance and so on. All these supposedly help the process of knowledge sharing within an organization. The development of technology has resulted in facilities such as the Internet, search engines, group support systems, portals, data warehouses and the use of artificial intelligence techniques. This is very useful in managing large databases of knowledge and providing access to them from anywhere in the world. It is in this regard that software tools provide valuable assistance to knowledge management systems.

The question of managing and keeping track of myriad documents in an establishment, searching for a certain piece of knowledge from a huge knowledge base, or providing customer service round the year, 24/7, is resolved through software tools that help organize and manage knowledge.

Knowledge management tools have the advantage of the existing information technology infrastructure in any organization. With the evolution of the IT industry, companies are keen to empower their employees with access to information, intranets, document management tools and full text indexing tools, to name a few, as called for by knowledge management. It follows, therefore, that employing those technologies in knowledge management has encouraged the development of knowledge management tools. Knowledge management is nothing but a collection of technologies used for authoring, indexing and storing data, and for the application of this information and knowledge, where applicable.

Knowledge is an invaluable advantage for organizations, and the security of this knowledge has to be addressed by all tools used in the management of this knowledge.

No matter what the type or format of knowledge, it has to be stored in repositories. All tools that sustain these repositories must have shared features such as regulation, storage, search and recovery, content delivery and content evolution.

Knowledge Management provides detailed information on Knowledge Management, Knowledge Management Software, Knowledge Management Systems, Knowledge Management Tools and more. Knowledge Management is affiliated with Supply Chain Management Software.

Back To Square One

2008-12-25T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Michael Harrison

If you look, see, hear and think you will learn.

Sounds obvious but how many do it? I am a self confessed infoholic. My addiction is information on topics that interest me; world affairs/politics, business and sport. I am interested in 'cause and effect' so the net result is I read a lot.

Not just novels like most people but what interests me. It's amazing what you see, what it means and what you learn.

Recently I came across two short articles in the same journal on facing pages and they said so much about why people fail in business and yet, do people ever learn?

One article gave statistics on businesses failing from cash flow problems and the other was about a business that went down because it's single largest customer placed it's business elswhere.

In summary it goes like this; a survey revealed that in the UK 100,000 businesses fail each year because their owners fail to do any financial planning.

25% of firms never set any financial targets and 35% have never set aside funds for employee development. 20% admitted to beginning to plan when it was too late and 50% blamed this on not having enough time. They were surprised to learn that these causes of failure were greater than adverse trading conditions.

The failed business was a very cost sensitive business that did sub contract machining. It had been established 49 years and employed 12 people.

It was dropped by it's single biggest customer. The owner has now re started as a 'sole trader' doing the same subcontract machining and 'working all hours' to survive.

He says he has learned his lesson and will not carry out work for businesses in the sector of the company that dropped him and is now doing work for other businesses.

I admire his tenacity and wish him well for the future but these two tales tell us so much that should be applied as normal business practice.

Never rely on a single customer, never stop marketing, prepare an annual business plan with costed goals and timed targets.

Manage against that plan and review progress making adjustments in accordance with the trading position. At all times control cash flow and only spend when you can afford to. Simple but so effective and as important as any 'day to day' task.

My experience is that many business owners have a job working for themselves. They do tasks 'in the business' and though this is necessary when starting a business the objective must be to develop the business by working 'on it' not 'in it'.

If our business owner had set a financial plan with a costed marketing plan to acquire one new customer in each of the 49 years history - would it have gone bust? I believe not. I am almost certain that in many of those years he was busy working 'in' the business not 'on' it.

No matter what type of business you consider continuous, targeted and costed marketing is crucial. No customers, no cash flow, no business.

Tip: Look, Listen, Learn and take strong firm action. Do the thing you think you cannot do,

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Resource Box: Article by Michael Harrison, Author, Publisher and Business Consultant. Learn from an expert: Go to: http://www.be-your-own-business-expert.com/

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**Attn: Ezine Editors / Site Owners / Webmasters / everyone** Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site as long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed above. You can use other articles similarly from http://www.be-your-own-business-expert.com/Articles.html

Michael Harrison is an author, publisher and business consultant specialising in helping business owners and individuals to realise and release the full potential of their situation. He has helped many people to improve their business situations and advised and supported individuals to embark on new directions in their careers.

Good Idea Generation A Process

2008-12-24T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Kal Bishop

It seems incongruous that good idea generation can be a process or that a process may lead to insight. However, if you examine the behaviour of people who regularly generate good ideas such as creatives in advertising - you will find that common patterns of behaviour do emerge and it is possible to make insight more likely.

Below are just some elements of the good idea generation process:

a) Creativity is often triggered by the need to solve a problem. People who generate good ideas tend to clearly identify the problem through a tangible process. They will look at a problem from various perspectives, create multiple definitions of it and ask many others to contribute to the precise nature and basic qualities of the problem as they see it.

b) Problems require intense investigation. People who generate good ideas intensely investigate the problem using various knowledge bases and information sources. This allows frame breaking, reduces path dependency and parochialism and allows the intellectual cross-pollination that gets people thinking in new directions.

c) Forced productivity. People who come up with good ideas force themselves to produce ideas without evaluating those ideas. They will separate creative from critical thinking and simply bash out ideas using a variety of techniques. Common methods involve linking to diverse objects and concepts, vertical and lateral thinking techniques. They will regularly maximise the size and quality of their idea pool. This patterns the mind into seeking answers and triggers cognitive activity at multiple levels.

d) Seek stimuli. People who think of good ideas seek out stimuli from novel, diverse and numerous sources. The range of stimuli is infinite and this tends to suit people who have or benefit from a life long interest and curiosity in many subjects.

e) Constant conscious thought. People who generate good ideas constantly think about the problem at all times. Often they describe themselves as incapable of thinking of anything else, no matter what distractions may be present. Hence the common occurrence of descriptions such as "obsessed," "single-minded," "preoccupied," "compulsive," "consumed," "captivated," "infatuated," "absorbed", "immersed," "possessed," "hooked" and so forth.

f) Engagement in rest and unrelated activities. People who generate good ideas will allow for rest and engagement in unrelated activities, which allows unconscious processes to take over. It is at this point that insight is common. Having progressed past the previous stages numerous times, the solution presents itself when engaging in something completely unrelated.

g) Incubation. Following intense cognitive activity, it may be that the problem is set aside. A solution may present itself at any point thereafter.

The above process can be learned, controlled and the effective use of it is just as much a matter of practice as any tool. It explains why some people are more able to regularly generate a large number of diverse and novel ideas. Two relevant footnotes should be applied:

a) It is compelling that the more complex the problem, the longer the process.

b) Further, the closer the idea is to the origin of the S-curve (a measurement of impediments), the greater the number of intermediary issues requiring resolution before a solution can be obtained.

These and other topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased at http://www.managing-creativity.com

Kal Bishop, MBA.

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as the author's name, web address and link to MBA dissertation is retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller.

Tactical Competence To Boost Your Business

2008-12-23T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Wesley Ford

When a young man or woman joins the military, they are making a commitment to serve their country. When an employee is hired onto your staff, they should be making a commitment to serve the good of the company.

However there's one glaring difference between the business world and the military. When you join the Army, Air Force, Navy, or Marines, they make sure that they first strip you of bad habits and negative character traits that you possess before they train you to be a winner in the greatest military on Earth.

In the business world, you hire someone on as is and you often cross your fingers and hope they possess the skills you need them to have. There's a level of boundaries you must adhere to you can't yell at your new-hire to get a move on like a drill sergeant can.

But there are ways you can employ tactics to get your new-hires or existing employees to fall in line and act in the same manner a highly trained soldier would with the skills and respect necessary to give 110% toward the success of the business.

Depending on what industry you're in, you may be dealing with heavy bouts of competition. Like a soldier in the trenches, you have to have a team of workers surrounding you to help fend off the attacks and secure a win in the world of business.

Let's go into the ways you can employ tactics to retrain your staff and create an army of highly skilled, competent individuals willing to show full commitment to your company and help you reach the ultimate level of success.

The military isn't like a civilian career. If a soldier doesn't like his duty, he doesn't have the option to up and leave and find another job. Still, they take their commitment very seriously, which is what you want in a devoted employee.

The branches of the military have the right to discriminate for age and gender in some instances, if you have bad credit, if you have more than two dependents under the age of 18 or if you're a single parent, and based on your educational experience.

With many of these situations, you'd be breaking the law if you denied employment to a civilian in your company on these factors. Therefore, it's vital that you know how to hire anyone and turn them into a champion "soldier" for your business success.

There are five steps you can use to instill the kind of characteristics that separate the employees of a company that gets by from a company that soars to greatness. They will work in any industry with any number of people.

Character Development
Increase Skillsets
Training Principles
Practice Competence
Reward System

The key is to consistently work each of the five steps. Ensure your organization has the human resource processes in place to guarantee your organizations success. Join the Successful Forces!.

Wesley Ford is the Nation's LDRSHIP Expert! His primary mission is professionally developing leaders using The Soldier's Method. His more than 17 years of experience allows him to speak to and train organizations globally on tactical and strategic issues. Join the Successful Forces by visiting http://www.wesleyford.com.

Morale Boosters Feed The Troops First

2008-12-22T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Marcia Zidle

When economic conditions turn tough or when the heavy work load seems never-ending, leaders tend to forget the "basics"building commitment beyond the paycheck. It's the small things everyday that can bring down morale and it's the small things everyday that can raise performance. A holiday party or picnic once or twice a year probably won't do it. Rather, it's a leader's sincere recognition that employees are assets to be valued, not tools to be used up and discarded. Here are quick ways too boost morale.

Don't let respect slip under the radar screen.
If you treat your employees with respect you will earn their respect. For example, if you pay attention to and take care of your front-line people, they will in turn pay attention to and take care of the customer. Start with daily greetings. Remember their birthdays or other important dates. Take an interest in their interests. Say thank you for a job well done.

Take them serious.
There's incredible brainpower all around you, so why not put it to work? You hired your employees because you thought they could make a valuable contribution. Ask for their suggestions to problems. Include them in decisions that affect their work. Give them enough authority that goes with their responsibility.

Work for your people.
Listen and act quickly on their questions. Clear the way so they can do their jobs well. Once people see their leader as acting for them, or on their behalf, they develop a personal loyalty that energizes their performance.

Walk the talk.
Here are 5 tips from employees to leaders on how NOT to walk the talk of employee motivation. Are they talking about YOU?

Make promises but don't deliver. Only give excuses.
Be nice to me only when you want something extra from me.
Let me find out through the gossip mill if you don't like my work.
Scream at me when things go wrong and ignore me when things go well.
If it's really a 'rush job', interrupt me every 10 minutes to inquire how it's going.

Forecasting Support Costs

2008-12-21T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Luc Richard

Did you know that maintenance accounts for 50% to 80% of the overall product cost? Well, it does! And while most project managers are fairly good at sizing new product features, many are terrible at estimating the effort required to support a product once it becomes generally available. As a result, maintenance projects are inadequately staffed, companies can't respond to customer requests in a timely manner, and products never reach payback.

This article presents a methodology to help you guesstimate and therefore plan for the maintenance phase of generally available products. But first, let's define a few terms that are important to the comprehension of this article.

Maintenance

Maintenance is defined as the effort associated with fixing defects in a software system after general availability (GA). In other words, how many person-months will it take your organization to fix bugs discovered by your customers in the field?

Maintenance can be subdivided in three sub-categories.

Corrective maintenance involves fixing bugs that are discovered in the system after it becomes generally available. An example of a corrective maintenance activity is a developer fixing a Java method that causes a compilation error.

Adaptive maintenance involves changing the system to work in a different environment such as a different network topology, platform, or operating system. An example of an adaptive maintenance activity is a developer fixing a Java method that works on BEA WebLogic but not on IBM Websphere.

Perfective maintenance involves changes that allow the software to meet the same requirements but in a more acceptable manner. For example, the designer might change some code simply to make the system more efficient or easier to maintain.

Enhancements

Enhancements, also known as change requests, are defined as the effort associated with adding new capability to a software system, or modifying a software system to meet newly defined non-functional requirements.

Imagine an application that requires the user to authenticate using a username and password. Pretty standard stuff, right? Maybe, but some customers might want to add a third credential to the password mechanism such as a domain. Others might want the username to adhere to an email address pattern. Finally, others might want the application to remember the user's credentials over sessions, thereby authenticating the user automatically.

Support

Support is defined as the sum of the maintenance and enhancements efforts performed after the product is GA. In other words, support includes all the activities that go on after a product is declared generally available.

Methodology

Early in my career, I realized that simple rule of thumbs could be applied to estimating the support cost of certain projects. For example, the annual cost of supporting a static Web site after it goes live is more or less equivalent to the cost of developing it. In other words, if developing a static Web site costs $10,000, you can expect to spend $10,000 per year maintaining it.

Understanding such rules is very practical. Unfortunately, few of them are transferable. In other words, the same rule would not apply to an e-commerce enabled dynamic Web site distributed across 3 tiers.

Various models have been developed over the years to predict maintenance costs based on defect-density (e.g. Raleigh Curve, Weibull Analysis), KLOC and KDSI, and development efforts. Unfortunately, these models are not without any shortcomings either. Many of them are either highly inaccurate or too complex to bother learning them. As a matter of fact, some are so complex that you need to purchase an application worth thousands of dollars and enter 100+ parameters in order to have it compute the effort required to maintain your product.

After having studied over a dozen forecasting models, there is one methodology that I highly recommend to any beginner or seasoned project manager.

Boehm's Model

Boehm's model is widely accepted in the industry as a valid model for predicting maintenance costs. It's relatively simple to understand, and more importantly, it allows you to refine your forecast thanks to cost multipliers, which will be explained later in this article.

Boehm's formula is the following:

AME = ACT X SDT, where

AME is the annual maintenance effort measured in person months

ACT is the annual change traffic, which represents a fraction of a software product's source instructions that undergo change during a typical year through addition or modification

SDT is the software development time in person months

Say a software project required 100 person-months of development effort and it was estimated that 15% of the code would be modified in a typical year. The basic annual maintenance effort estimate (AME) is therefore:

AME = 0.15 x 100 = 15 person-months

In other words, you should plan to spend 15 person-months of effort per year to maintain this specific software project.

The basic annual maintenance cost estimate may be refined by judging the importance of each factor that affects the cost and selecting the appropriate cost multiplier. The basic maintenance cost is then multiplied by each cost multiplier to give the revised maintenance cost estimate.

Say in the previous system the factors having most effect on maintenance costs were Product Complexity (CPLX), which was very high, and the availability of support staff with application experience (AEXP), which was very low.

If CPLX = 1.30 and AEXP = 1.29, then:

AEM = 15 x 1.30 x 1.29 = 25.2 person-months

Forecasting Enhancements

The revised maintenance cost does include the impact of the cost multipliers but does not include product enhancements, also known as change requests.

The bad news is that forecasting enhancements is extremely difficult because it requires you to know ahead of time what additional capabilities your future customers will request. The good news is that you can charge your customers for any enhancements they require. As a result, a good organization does not consider enhancements to represent a cost but rather a source of incremental revenue.

Conclusion

When forecasting the cost of maintaining a product that is generally available, follow this advice:

Learn and use this (simplified) version of Boehm's Model to forecast maintenance costs.
Track your SDT.
Measure your ACT.
Define cost multipliers to refine your forecast.

Furthermore, make sure you have a professional services team to implement change requests required by your customers, but do not treat them as costs since they are in fact a source of revenue.

Luc Richard holds an MBA with a major in high technology. For the past 10 years, he's been managing the development of software applications. He is the founder of The Project Mangler (http://www.projectmangler.com), an online resource that publishes free articles, stories, and other ready-to-use tools to help developers, team leaders and managers deliver software projects on time, according to specs, and within budget.

Time Tracking Software

2008-12-20T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Ross Bainbridge

Time tracking means keeping a detailed account of each action and deed performed in a particular period of time. Time tracking and management have become very important in today's fast-paced world. Time tracking as a program is finding applications in all fields, especially business and industry. This is because it eases other related functions like payroll processing, employee productivity, revenue management, invoicing, database management and project management. Time tracking has a proven record of increasing the productivity of organizations significantly.

Time tracking software has special applications that can be used on a computer. These have various features, like keeping detailed notes about each activity; organizing tasks, meetings, contacts and even inventory; generating reports; client management; creating invoices; and more. Other features include translation into many languages, easy-to-learn tutorials, e-mail management, customized options etc. There are sophisticated time-tracking programs available today. This software is very easy to install and use, and can be used on any kind of environment. It can also be custom designed to suit all kinds of requirements. Some time tracking software also does other functions like invoicing, billing, expenses tracking, project management and other applications. Time tracking software is especially beneficial for attorneys, writers, programmers, self-employed professionals, consultants, sales reps, contractors, artists and other professionals who do not work as per scheduled timings.

Some time tracking software is offered as freeware, while others have to be purchased. A standard time tracking software package costs around $100 for a single user and $1,200 for a 10-user program. However, prices vary significantly, depending on the program. TimeWhiz, Timesheet, Titrax, Hours, Seconds Count, AllTime, PicoTrack, Standard Time, Doing, SDS Time, Track-it Light, Proj Clock Pro Time, TraxTime, and TimeMate are some of the popular time tracking software programs available today. Most of this software works on Windows, Linux and Mac platforms. These can be used online as well as offline. This software is available over the internet and can be downloaded onto the system very easily.

Time Tracking provides detailed information on Time Tracking, Time Tracking Software, Time Tracking Programs, Employee Time Tracking and more. Time Tracking is affiliated with Time And Attendance System.

Guide To Business And Professionals

2008-12-19T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Mansi Aggarwal

Business and professionals share an everlasting liaison. Just as a skilled potter produces a perfect pot, efficient professionals lead to a successful business. The qualities of professionals are different from those of ordinary men and women. For instance

· Business professionals are idols of discipline. They work in a well-organized manner and adhere to business ethics. They do not compromise either on their principles or on their goals.

· Business professionals do as well as demand hard and quality work. They are not a bunch of sluggish people who lack proficiency. They put their heart and soul in their job and seek excellent output.

· The best part about professionals is that they run a business and do not let the business run them. This reflects their incredible controlling power and potency to curb situations in a desired manner.

· These people are professionals not just in their deeds but also in their thoughts. They are mentally strong people who dare to take risks with an optimistic outlook. These business experts exhibit incredible self-confidence and courage to handle all the ups and downs in their work. They have the ability to take decisions and stand for their words against everyone and anyone.

· Highly proficient professionals not just complete their task with perfection but they also make others work in the desired manner. They have the ability to bring out and exploit the unrecognized talent of people. The professional people are blessed with excellent leadership qualities. They know how to guide people and enjoy an amiable teamwork.

· Along with these qualified entrepreneurs are quite prudent and understanding in nature. They never overlook the problems of their employees, or colleagues, instead endeavor to help them out in the best possible way. Also they are good teachers. In case their juniors do not perform well, rather than chewing them out they are ready to teach and modify the mistakes.

· Business experts are quite responsible individuals. They understand their duties well and want everybody else also to do the same. Since the onus of running a business lies on shoulders of these expert people they never blame anyone else if things go wrong. For if they hold themselves responsible for success in business they are also liable for the failures.

· Since a business grows with the aid of positive relationships and contacts, the qualified people believe in maintaining good relationships even with their opponents.

· These people love to take challenges. But they never compete with their own company members. This proves their dedication towards the success of organization and their team spirit.

· The last but not the least that can be said about business professionals is about their quality of being punctual and tolerate stress. These connoisseurs stick to all the deadlines, work under tremendous pressure but never get dissuaded by it.

Mansi aggarwal writes about business and professionals. Learn more at http://www.businessandprofessionals.com.

Infrastructure Enabler Of A Higher Productivity 2

2008-12-18T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Hans Bool

We know infrastructure from such basic things as gas, water and electricity. They have always been there and they are so basic that you do not know what to do when it is not there. A day without electricity during a hot summer can give a real problem. Internet is also part of infrastructural support. One important characteristic of infrastructure is that it serves a group of people in the same way. It comes with a standard. The water you tap from your home is of the same quality as the water you will find in a restaurant. But the level of an infrastructure could vary from one supplier to the other and according to the service level you have contracted it.

Internet is again a good example. The penetration of internet is very high in most countries, but the quality if the connection shows also a high variety; from a simple modem connections to a high-speed broadband connection. Without digging in to theoretical foundations we can easily see that a high-speed connection will increase our productivity -- if all other aspects are left the same; you have to wait less and you are able to access more functionality (video, news) etc. that was otherwise out of your scope.

For the content part, internet has also increased our productivity. We are able to reserve online, we can lookup a roadmap, we can exercise an online assessment without leaving your desk, and the main search function served for general inquiries that you need for your work. Internet also brought new productivity issues -- people that are surfing for fun without a real purpose but this is something you can handle at the organizational level.

The point is that internet the infrastructure has changed our lives, only by providing support. All those extra functions are possible because of the "availability" of the service.

Just try one day at the office without Internet and see what work you can do. Experience the impact on your productivity level. Internet is an enabler of a higher productivity, but at the same moment, when the service fails, your business is also more vulnerable. It serves everyone and it may hurt the whole organization.

And this is only internet. Infrastructure is more than only internet. How about other infrastructural supplies? Office-ware for example.

Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White a traditional management consulting company that offers online management tools. Have a look at some of our free management tools

Effective Meetings Why Most Meetings Are A Waste Of Time

2008-12-17T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by P. Quinn

Whether your company holds one meeting a week or dozens of meetings a day it is essential that this time is used efficiently and effectively. Most meetings are less effective than they could be not because they are poorly managed, but because meeting managers spend all of their time focusing on the one or two hours when people will be gathered around the conference table or video screen. Smart meeting managers know that it is the actions you take during the three days immediately before the meeting which are much more important than the meeting itself.

When Your Meeting Starts
The key to making your meeting successful begins long before the scheduled start-time of your meeting. Just as any athlete knows the importance of stretching before exercising, top-level meeting managers know that how you spend your time the week prior to a meeting is as important as or more important than the meeting time itself.

Common signs that a manager has spent too much time focusing on the meeting itself and not enough time focusing on the activity leading up to the meeting include people coming to your meetings unprepared, a few people suggesting many of the ideas, and a consistent pattern of rushing through the items at the bottom of your agenda.

Roger Burns, a 30-year veteran of high-level meetings describes it like this, "Often times the first 20 or 30 minutes of our meetings would be spent with people flipping through the documents I had sent them over a week ago. They had not prepared and had no idea what questions I was going to ask in the next few minutes."

If you are like many, these symptoms show up more often than not. So what is a meeting manager to do? How can you avoid these common pitfalls? The answer is simple, but it begins a full week before the meeting is scheduled to start.

The Three P's of Successful Meetings: Preparation, Participation, Prioritization
Although a successful meeting requires a skilled facilitator, that is only part of the puzzle. Equally important is the activity that has occurred prior to the meeting.

The First P: Preparation
Effective use of your meeting time relies on all parties being prepared to participate. This means that each person in attendance has already read the meeting materials prior to the meeting taking place. In addition to this, the meeting participants should be given the questions that are going to be discussed prior to the meeting.

Historically, most meetings begin with the chairperson asking a question to those in attendance. As an example if you were holding a strategic planning meeting, a good question might be, "What do you think are the strengths of our organization?" At this point the discussion moves around the table with each person having two minutes to process the questions, come up with a smart-sounding solution, and express the solution coherently to the group.

The problem with this method is that most good ideas do not come in those two minutes. Good ideas come as you are driving to work, as you are falling asleep, as you are in the shower the very times you are probably not with your co-workers in a meeting. (Unless you are routinely holding your meetings in the company locker room!) Giving the questions you are going to ask to each meeting participant prior to the meeting is essential to getting the best ideas out of your participants. It also gives them a reason to read the materials you have distributed prior to the meeting.

The best time to distribute the materials and questions is three to seven days prior to your meeting. This gives participants a chance to think about the issues and questions, but not long enough to forget their good ideas and why they liked them. The payback here is fast and obvious. You will get more accomplished in less time saving your organization money and allowing you to get your ideas implemented faster.

The Second P: Participation
Getting the best ideas from your best people is essential for your meeting to be successful. The other half of this equation is to get a broad base of participation so there is ownership in the solution rather than resentment.

If these two elements are so important to successful meetings, why is it so rare that they happen simultaneously? The first reason it rarely happens is because your best idea people are often your busiest people. More times than not these high-value people who are like popcorn machines full of ideas are already scheduled for other meetings when you choose your meeting times. Although it is sometimes possible to reschedule your meeting to meet their availability, it is impossible to adjust every time and for every need.

The second reason you rarely get your best idea people to participate and have a wide base of ownership at the same time has to do with the dynamic within meetings. Each person within your organization is wired differently and for every person who is comfortable expressing and advocating for ideas in a meeting there are others who do not have this gift. For those who are good at verbal maneuvering, gaining support at a meeting is like a sport. For those who feel less comfortable in this environment advocating a position can feel like torture. Clearly a venue is needed to allow everyone a chance to participate in the solution in a way that is non-threatening, democratic and builds ownership directly into the process.

Do not underestimate the value of this increased participation. Ideas, initiatives and even directives that are viewed as having a broad base of support are implemented faster and with a higher level of quality. In addition to this, you do get better ideas when more people participate especially when the people participating are those closest to the action not those incubated in their executive offices. All of this helps you innovated faster than the competition, get to market quicker with your ideas, and win the battle of consistent quality.

The Third P: Prioritization
In a perfect world we would have unlimited time in each day to get everything done. Unfortunately we live on the clock each and every day. Too often our meetings are crammed full of agenda items placed there in the order they showed up on our desk or the order we jotted them down on a yellow sticky note while on the phone, with no level of importance or urgency.

The best meeting managers understand that all items on an agenda do not deserve equal weight, and they prioritize the issues starting with the most urgent. This allows your best minutes to be dedicated to your most important items.

Unfortunately the priorities of the leader are not always the priorities of the team. There are many times when the rank and file have a burning issue that has completely slipped past the management. Effective meeting leaders have a system in place to identify and address just such issues.

The benefit of having such a system in place is increased productivity in your most vital areas. By focusing everyone's attention on the issues which are most important to your success you will quickly see a decrease in non-value added activity and increased profitability for your efforts.

A New Set of Tools
Now that we have switched our focus from the one hour meeting around to the full week leading up to a meeting a whole new set of tools needs to be added to your toolbox.

There are a multitude of tools already present and accounted for to help you with the actual meeting: from flip charts to electronic white boards, from video-conferencing to the latest collaboration software allowing a group of people edit a document from locations around the world, companies have kept up-to-date with a variety of e-meeting solutions.

One tool new to this market sector is ehuddle. Ehuddle is an internet-based tool used by companies pre-meeting and post-meeting to increase the effectiveness of meetings. Initiated by a simple email to meeting participants, ehuddle let's everyone who is invited to the meeting see the questions that are going to be asked, brainstorm possible answers, and evaluate a list of possible solutions. All of this activity happens in the days leading up to the meeting ensuring that participants are prepared for the meeting having already thought about the important issues and evaluated each other's possible solutions.

Ehuddle utilizes a proprietary online format that is anonymous and democratic. This not only allows members of your committee who could not make the meeting to give input, it also creates an environment where no one is afraid to suggest ideas. Ownership is built into the process because everyone has had a hand in evaluating each solution.

Smart meeting managers are even using tools like ehuddle to set a portion of the agenda. By letting rank and file members of any group to brainstorm and rank issues that are important to them, the agenda automatically reflects the needs of the organization.

The return on investment for tools like ehuddle is quickly realized. Managers recognize the money lost in non-optimized meetings, low levels of participation, and distracted activity. Couple this with the increased productivity, quicker issue identification and resolution, and faster time-to-market the tool brings and you will quickly see that this is money well spent.

Utilizing this full set of tools prior to a meeting allows the leader to walk into the conference room or video-conference confident that the groundwork has been laid for a successful meeting.

About the author
Pat Quinn is an author, presenter, consultant helping companies maximize the effectiveness of their meetings. Each year Mr. Quinn speaks to thousands of leaders around the country.

ehuddle.com

Employee Recognition Are You Creating A Monster

2008-12-16T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Donna Cutting

Recently, I was asked the following question: "How do I set up a recognition program for employees without having them coming to expect the rewards?"

This is a great question, especially if you are setting up a centralized and structured program of recognition for your employees. If you set up a precedent that when an employee achieves such and such, then he or she receives a tangible reward, other staff members may expect the same reward for the same result. Then your recognition program actually becomes an incentive program. This may not be a bad thing, if the incentives are creating the desired results in your business. However, it can become expensive.

Furthermore, if you give all employees the same reward, at the same time of the year, it will become an expected treat. An example of this might be the holiday turkey or a holiday bonus.

To truly be effective, employee appreciation must be more than a special event or an incentive program. It must be part of the culture. You can acknowledge the efforts of your staff members without "creating a monster" whereby they expect a tangible treats just for showing up and doing a great job. (Other than their paychecks of course!)

For the record, it is my opinion that all people who do a great job at work have the right to expect appreciation and acknowledgement from their bosses and their co-workers. While employees must be held to the standard of the company, they also have the right to be treated with understanding and respect.

Yes, your employees should expect to work for someone who cares enough to create a company culture where they are valued as human beings and recognized for the contribution they make to the workplace. This can involve both tangible and intangible rewards.

The best way to make employees feel appreciated, without setting up the expectation of constant tangible rewards, is to start at the grass roots level.

Although it is important that the corporate office and human resources set the stage for a caring workplace, the most meaningful recognition comes from a person's own supervisor. Here are a few steps to setting up a successful recognition program.

TRAIN YOUR SUPERVISORS in employee relation and recognition techniques. I can't say it enough!! A corporate incentive and rewards program will not make a dent if your staff members don't feel respected by their own boss. Too often a person is promoted to supervisory status because they excel in their own job. However, their supervisory skills are sorely lacking. To keep morale up and employee turnover down, you must have supervisors who know how to treat their team members well and show their gratitude for a job well done. This step is too often skipped, and it's why many centralized recognition programs don't work!

WALK THE FLOOR and start to look for reasons to thank your employees. Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager, said it best when he reminded us to "Catch Them Doing Something Right!" When you do "catch" them, sometimes a simple thank you is all that is needed. A "way to go!" or a "you're just terrific!" can go a long way. Will your staff members come to expect that you're a boss who cherishes his/her employees? Probably! What's wrong with that?

Sometimes, you'll find that more tangible rewards are deserved. If you notice someone has gone above and beyond, you may want to send a note to their family, give them a gift certificate or day off. You may want to empower the supervisors under your leadership to do the same for their team members. Yes, you can do this without creating the anticipation of a steady stream of tangible rewards.

SURPRISE THEM! Dawn Winder was the name of my boss when I worked for Parkview Retirement Home in Clearwater, FL. (Actually, although she's no longer my boss, her name is still Dawn Winder!) She was absolutely one of my favorite bosses. In fact, she inspired loyalty in every one of the staff members that work for her directly. We would do just about anything for her, because she was fun, understanding and acknowledge us when we did a great job. We would often pitch in to help other departments, or stay longer hours for special events, without too much griping. We did this, not because of any tangible rewards, but because we knew our contribution was valued. However, occasionally, Dawn would surprise us with thank you gifts such as a certificate to a favorite restaurant or store. The key words are occasionally and surprise! We did NOT look for gifts of appreciation, because they came to us spontaneously, individually and unexpectedly. When you give tangible rewards on an individual and spur-of-the-moment basis, you are more likely to inspire loyalty than greed.

BE SPECIFIC! When you give a reward for a job well done, be specific about why you are sending the gift. What did the person do to merit a reward? The words "You handled that customer complaint with poise and respect" are much more meaningful than simply "Great Job." Perhaps you want to give a simple thank you for every day good work, and something more tangible when someone truly goes above and beyond. Be sure that the behavior being recognized merits the size of the reward given. My colleague, Dave Timmons of Six String Leadership puts it this way. "As a former senior manager, I always reserved the right to reward specific, non-recurring behaviors that were clearly "over and beyond". I never worried about creating a monster although I hoped for one." BE SPECIFIC with your tangible rewards! A gift card to your employee's favorite store says a lot more than a generic token from the recognition closet. Can you give to one employee and not another? Yes and No. Although sometimes it's appropriate to recognize the entire team, it's also important to acknowledge the work of an individual. The key is to acknowledge EACH individual for their SPECIFIC contributions at different times.

BE SINCERE! Don't have a recognition program just because it's the "thing to do!" Truly look for the good things your employees are doing right. Try to catch each of them individually! Be sincerely thankful. If you design a recognition program without heart behind it, you will NOT produce the desired results of a positive workplace with high morale and low turnover. If you can't find something in EACH of your employees to be grateful for, than perhaps you need to take a look at your hiring process. Either you aren't looking closely enough, or you have the wrong employees in the wrong positions.

ENCOURAGE PEER TO PEER RECOGNITION! Give your team members a vehicle to appreciate their co-workers. Perhaps you could give them space in the employee newsletter or bulletin board for warm fuzzies, or support the formation of a staff spirit team. Regardless of what it is, encouraging gratitude among co-workers will give your staff members reasons to look for what is RIGHT in your workplace.

Finally, ask yourself the following question.

Would you rather have employees that expect to come to work and be disrespected, undervalued and unnoticed or would you rather they expect to be appreciated, acknowledged and championed??

If the recognition your employees receive has heart behind it, the "monster" you create may be happier, more productive and less likely to leave! The choice is yours.

©2005, Donna Cutting, St. Petersburg, FL. You may reproduce this article in it's entirety in your publication if you include the byline at the end, including the web address and telephone number. If you would like a photo to accompany the article, email us at rachel@donnacutting.com. We would appreciate a copy of the issue in which the article appears. Please send a copy to ShowStopping Solutions, PO Box 76461, St. Petersburg, FL 33734.

Donna Cutting is a speaker, author and consultant who helps leaders create places where employees get Standing Ovations and customers receive a Celebrity Experience. She can be reached at 727-525-5818 or via her website at http://www.donnacutting.com/

Companies and Associations across the United States enjoy her presentations filled with immediately applicable ACTION steps delivered in a FUN, upbeat and interactive style. She is otherwise known as Gal Morale!

Business Innovation The Value Of Work Processes

2008-12-15T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Kal Bishop

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.

the Value of Work Processes

One of the most valuable tools for maximising idea generation is the use of work processes. Work processes align activity with the goal and produce far more output than randomness or simply "do your best." Some examples include:

a) Incremental goals. These produce much more output than would be produced otherwise. Two pages a day produces a words-on-paper first draft screenplay in two months. Consider this against the fact that innumerable people have half finished screenplays waiting for attention under their beds.

b) Project Timelines. Project timelines allow individuals to gauge the whole goal, gauge the incremental requirements leading to the goal, appraise the effort and competencies that will be needed and set themselves up psychologically for the coming task. They are akin to business plans. Efficiency and output are increased when a business plan is followed, as opposed to using it merely as a means to raise finance.

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

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

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

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

Medical Billing Fb0 Record Fields 27 Through 35

2008-12-14T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Michael Russell

In this final installment of medical billing of electronic claims, using NSF 3.01 specifications, we're going to cover the last fields of the FB0 record. Before we do that though, there is something that should be pointed out not only about the FB0 record but about all line item detail records, which include FA0, FB0, FB1 and FB2 records.

Many people in the industry feel that the amount of information transmitted in regard to line item detail is overkill. The majority of professionals who work in the field of medical billing feel that the item description, item number and price is all that should need be transmitted in addition to the patient the drug, item or procedure is being billed for. There are pros and cons to this argument that we're going to touch on briefly.

The pros are obvious enough. With a decrease in the amount of information that is transmitted, the cost of medical billing will go down. While many people think that doctors are mostly responsible for rising medical costs, as well as the drug manufacturers who charge insane amounts of money for one pill, the truth is, medical billing costs are greatly responsible for the overall increase in medical costs in general. The red tape involved with processing most claims doesn't help to reduce costs any. And let's be honest, the billing companies and the companies that provide billing services and software want to get their piece of the pie too. So the more information that needs to be transmitted, the more money they can charge for the service. By reducing the amount of information that needs to be sent, you not only reduce costs but you also get rid of a lot of the red tape.

The cons are not quite as obvious because most people don't realize what sending all this information does. For one thing, it helps cut down on medical fraud, which is a growing problem in this country. By requiring more information to be transmitted, it makes it more difficult for a biller to commit fraud, as well as the patient. Those who think that there aren't claims filed that aren't legit are living in a world that doesn't exist. Medical fraud is one of the worst problems in the United States and gets worse every year. The other problem with cutting down on the amount of information that needs to be sent is that it will ultimately put people out of work. This does nothing but add to the unemployment problem, which is already bad enough.

Like it or not, this overkill of information is here to say. With that, let's wrap up our review of the FB0 record.

FB0 fields 27 - 32, positions 182 - 313, is the purchase service company info, which includes their name, address and phone. This information needs to be provided so that the payer can verify with the company that the purchase actually happened. Again, this goes back to the fraud problem. Most people would have this info eliminated.

FB0 field 33, positions 314 - 316, is the drug number of days supplied. This is the number of days that the drug that was prescribed for. This must match the number of units per day to the total number of units prescribed.

FB0 field 34, position 317, is the payment indicator type and is not supported.

FB0 field 35, positions 318 - 320, is filler national and must be left blank.

This finally concludes our review of the FB0 record. In our next installment of medical billing, we will begin our review of the FB1 record.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Medical Billing

Making Powerful Requests That Launch People Into Action

2008-12-13T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Joe Rubino

Do you ever wonder why people do not simply do the things that you want them to do? Well, instead of waiting for things to happen, decide to take responsibility for making them happen. The way to do this is often as simple as making an appropriate request.

Requests are the engine that drives action. To the extent that you become proficient in making requests that people understand to be in their best interests, they will comply with your wishes and honor your requests. To the extent that your requests come across as self-serving and in only your own best interests, you will likely meet with opposition and avoidance. The best way to access your power through impacting others is by making requests that move people into action. By moving the action forward, you are able to take an insight you have into what would support you, someone or some situation and make a request that has the person move into accomplishing something they may not have in the absence of your request. In our culture, people generally operate out of the mistaken notion that information is the source for action. Information alone produces no results without the ability to act upon the knowledge you have and move the situation forward. Making a request is a conversation that does just that and produces action. So, if requests cause us to move people and situations powerfully forward, why don't we typically make them routinely to bring about a result? The answer lies in the following areas.

1-We are often fearful of having our requests declined. With the mere possibility of getting turned down, we will retreat and hide under a rock. A good example to demonstrate this is asking someone out for a date. You might really want to date that special person but that little voice on your shoulder reminding you that they just might turn you down can cause paralysis. If you are more committed to getting the date than you are to protecting yourself from potential rejection, you'll pop the question. If the reverse is true, you might never know if the answer would have been ...YES!

2-We are more committed to looking good (or not looking bad) than to making a difference by making a powerful request. Again, when your focus is on yourself, you trade your ability to impact others for protection and comfort. Look to contribute to someone else instead or focus on something worthwhile, something larger than yourself or your all-too-often petty concerns and you will not be so concerned about how you are looking!

3-We are not clear about what requests to make and what needs to happen in a particular situation in order to bring about a result. Our lack of clarity results in paralysis.

4-We are not skilled at making requests in such a way that they can be heard and acted upon by others. When the requests we make are not seen by others to be in their best interests, they may fall on deaf ears.

One way to get our requests heard and acted upon is to combine our request with a promise. I request that you do (whatever) and if you do, I promise to do (this)...in return. Having the requests you make be accepted and acted upon will be a function of how effective you are in creating a listening for what you have to say. Another way to create a listening for your requests to be heard is by speaking your commitment to the person or situation so that the reason for making the request can be understood and appreciated. Example- Out of my commitment to support you to be as powerful as you can be, I request that you practice making at least three requests every day whenever you see an opportunity to influence a situation.

To make your requests more effective, make sure that you are clear as to what must be done to satisfy the request and the time period by when your request is to be carried out. Example- I request that you hire a personal development coach by the first day of next month.

Always remember that whenever a request is made, the person to whom it is made has four options: 1- to accept the request, 2- to decline the request, 3- to commit to respond to the request by either accepting it or declining it by some later date or 4- to counteroffer the request with a possibility that works better for you.

When, on the receiving end of a request, you find yourself needing to decline a request that has been made of you, it is important to leave the person making the request whole. And, when possible, look to see if there is a counter offer you can make to the benefit of all involved. Your ability to first recognize what may be missing in a given situation to bring about an intended result and then powerfully make the appropriate request will result in the world becoming a more obliging place that responds to satisfy all your needs.

Exercise For Making Powerful Requests

Look for at least three opportunities every day in which you can make a request to move the action forward in order to accelerate your business growth. Make your requests powerfully by creating a listening for them to be heard. Always include a "by when" with each request you make. Practice making requests with your prospects, your upline and downline and with your family and friends in some area that will move your business in the right direction.

Dr. Joe Rubino is an internationally acclaimed trainer, author and success coach. He is the author of 10 best selling books available in 19 languages and 48 countries. For more information on Dr. Rubino's coaching programs, books, tapes, CDs and courses, visit http://www.CenterForPersonalReinvention.com, e-mail to: drjrubino@email.com.

Malcolm Baldrige Values And Concepts Part 10 Focus On Results And Creating Value

2008-12-12T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by LM Foong

In this issue, I will share my experience acquired from the conglomerate and its operating companies. For the purpose of this article, I will articulate the Focus on Results and Creating Value which is one of the Eleven Values and Concepts in Malcolm Baldrige Criteria (Source: http//www.nist.gov/quality). As before, I will use case studies to show how some of the companies implement them.

To recap, below are the Eleven Core Values and Concepts of Baldrige Criteria:-

I will deal with the one of the Value in bold letters in this article as below:-

Articulated Focus on Results and Creating Value

An organization's performance expectations need to focus on key business and operational results. These results should be used to create and balance value for your key stakeholders: -

Customers
employees
stockholders
suppliers and partners
the public and community

By creating value for your key stakeholders, your organization builds loyalty and contributes to growing the economy. To meet the sometimes conflicting and changing aims that balancing value implies organizational strategy should explicitly include key stakeholder requirements.

This will help ensure that plans and actions meet different stakeholders' needs and to avoid adverse impacts on any stakeholders. The use of a balanced of lead and lag indicators offers an effective means to communicate short- and longer-term priorities, monitoring of actual performance, and provide a clear basis for improving results.

Case Study on Focus on Results and Creating Value

It was a very strong focus on creating results in all the companies I worked with. Although there is some differing of stakeholders needs, it seldom put enough emphasis on other stakeholders except for the stockholders, customers, employees, partners and community. Incidentally the lists are ranked based on its priorities.

Stockholders needs are traditional very strong in the philosophy of these companies. It is not the case where leaders of these companies does not appreciate the needs of other stakeholder, it is a case where they cannot meet all these needs consistently hence the ranking of priorities. Unfortunately, the priorities became a norm after some times of non fulfillment.

Companies still very much chase after the finance number at best the market sakes numbers. Not many chase after productivity numbers hence the operations.

Opportunity for Improvement

Based on Dr. Kaplan's balanced Scorecard concept, the financial results are the consequence of the focus given to the customer, the operation excel into satisfying these customers, the competency of the human resource that perform these operations etc.

If this balanced scorecard concept is fully appreciated, leaders should realign the business into meeting the stakeholders need i.e. Financial aspect by way of gear up the human resource capabilities and process capabilities to satisfy the customers such that they remain with the companies. Consequently, financial result should be the expected outcome.

In summary, having understood the Focus on Results and Creating Value in Values and Concepts of Malcolm Baldrige, it should be taken as a strategic issue rather than operational. Most companies have in placed a Marketing Strategy, some would have Operational Strategy, would you want to consider having HR Strategy too? Leaders might benchmark their CEO of Baldrige Winners on their TQM successes in this value. My next article will articulate the next Core Values and Concepts in System Perspective

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Free to reprint or re-publish: All rights reserved. You are free to reprint or re-publish this article as long as you include my resource box at the end of this article. And ensure that the URL in the resource box remained intact and it is linked to the author's website.

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About the Author: LM Foong

The author is a trained Assessor in Baldrige style of assessment. He facilitates Baldrige style Assessment workshops and post assessment improvement. He publishes TQM articles, ebooks, case studies, trainer manual and presentation slides. Please visit my Web Site for Baldrige Criteria 2001 and other TQM related matters

Getting Closer To Your Customers

2008-12-11T08:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Peter Wright

The increasing complexity and breakneck pace of running any organization has had the effect of pushing executives, managers and staff farther away from the clients that use your services. Ask yourself honestly: how many days can go by without ever thinking about your clients? We can balance the need to effectively manage our operations, without losing sight of our clients. Clients can't be top-of-mind all the time, but there are actions you can take to keep them at the forefront.

Put Your Executives in the Trenches
Implement a mandatory program for all senior executives to be exposed to clients, and their issues, several times a year. Depending on your business, executives can spend half a day listening in to real live customers at your call centre, working the cash register, or pairing up with a case manager. The benefits are endless, and executives will see your organization in a new light.

Turn Your Employees Into Customers
Remove any obstacles that prevent employees from using your products or services. Then go farther and take real steps to encourage your employees to become customers. For employees at all levels of your organization, you can't get any closer to your customers than becoming one.

Watch and Learn
Objectively observe your clients using your services. This isn't about surveys and focus groups. This is real observation and investigation to gain an intimate knowledge of what problems clients are trying to solve, or tasks they are trying to accomplish. Begin to understand that, and product development, and segmentation will take on new meaning. These are only a few ideas that might be included in a comprehensive client intimacy initiative. What would you do to get closer to your clients?

During years of developing business plans with North America's largest companies, Peter Wright has created many tools, models, and practices that are highly applicable to the strategic planning process used by medium and large organizations. Peter has recently started a website devoted entirely to the strategic planning process at http://www.planningprocessstrategic.com.