Umesh Chandra

I managed to talk to Sarthak (again)

2011-11-14T23:53:00.000-08:00

Guess what?

Today while driving to office, I manage to talk to Sarthak Again, I talked to him om 30th Jan 2009. Sarthak is one of the best Radio Jockies in Delhi. He is a Radio Jockey on Hit 95 Radio FM

I played "Nine Second Nail Biter" with him and this time he asked an abbreviation. He asked full form of PUC, I was nervous and not able to give answer, he was kind enough and given me another abbreviation MMS, this time I was able to (although I said Multimedia Messages correct one it Multimedia Messaging services) but he considered it right.

Then he given me polite applause with Oriental Gong.

Getting polite applause from RJ like Sarthak was a big thing for me specially on the start of the day.

Eveything is a business process!

2011-11-08T00:28:00.000-08:00

Successful businesses are those who have figured out how to strategically and consistently control the process of change in their company. Most businesses don't ever think about the process of change itself: if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Business managers have to understand how change takes place within their business, which means taking stock of three things: where are we now, where do we want to go, and how are we going to get there. Nebulosity in any of these three areas will lead to "failure".

It's like an archer shooting at a target. First, You have to know where you stand. How far away from the target are you? Is the wind blowing and how hard? Are there any obstacles in the way? Are you even pointed in the direction of the target?

Second, there is the target itself. How big is the target? Where on the target do we want to hit?

Third, what are we pointing at the target? Is this a short recurve bow picked up from some local Cub Scouts or is this a heavy compound bow with sights? Are we shooting balanced flight arrows or broadtips? How many shots do we get at the target? Are we using an armguard? Have we even taken any archery lessons or practiced?

There are a lot of elements to successful business process change. Many managers get lucky because they get easy shots. The harder shots, however, are rarely made with luck, but are a process of careful planning and execution at an unmoving target.

Tool-leading processes vs. process-leading tools

2011-10-20T00:13:00.000-07:00

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? This question has haunted ancient philosophers for centuries, and as of now, there is no concrete solution.

When it comes to dealing with processes and tools, a similar quandary exists. Processes and tools go hand in hand, so the question again is which one comes first?

Interlocking of processes and tools

First, let me lay out the items that I’ll deal with in the course of this piece.

A process is defined as a set of coordinated activities performed to obtain a targeted output. For example, to clean a car, the first step is to rinse it, wipe the body, and finally dry it. So, these three coordinated activities are basically achieving a single goal — a clean car.

A tool is an instrument that is developed to carry out a particular function — like a drill for drilling a hole. In the clean car example above, I could use a tool like a water pump to help me rinse the car with a flick of a button.

But what if I use a tool like a pressure washer? This tool has the potential to modify the existing process of car cleaning.

The burning question is do you define the process and then hunt for a tool or obtain a tool with capabilities and develop processes around it?

Let’s consider both cases.

Tools first

Technology is ever evolving, and with tools resulting from technology, one can argue that tools must lead the way for the activities we perform.

Let’s say that a company called ABC finds a particular tool useful, and although the tool doesn’t serve their intended purpose one hundred percent, it’s somewhat helpful and could come in handy when implemented full force. So the company goes ahead and procures the tool and then modifies the processes to meet the tool’s needs.

The company changes some expected outputs to suit the tool’s needs. The output starts to appear, just as they envisioned with the revised process.

Process first

A process is developed, without the aid of technology but with analytical reasoning and a good understanding of the objective it’s trying to achieve.

XYZ, a competitor of ABC, is made aware of ABC’s new tool acquisition. XYZ sits back, examines their processes, and maps it with the new tool. They don’t like the possible adaptation.

They back their processes and shop around for a tool that will also back their process. They come up with a tool that doesn’t have state-of-the-art technology. The developer is willing to customize it to their needs. The two parties agree, the customized tool is procured, and the output starts to pour in.

Compare the two approaches

ABC believed in technology, but tweaked their processes to suit the tool on hand. XYZ, on the other hand, trusted their process and sought after a tool that could do what they wanted it to do.

ABC compromised their process for technology. XYZ stuck with their process and instead compromised the tool’s original configuration to suit the process.

Which is a better approach?

Remember what I said earlier: Processes are a set of coordinated activities that will achieve the goal you want to achieve. A tool is a means through which certain functions are carried out.

What counts is the end result, and the process’s existence depends on the output it delivers. If it’s a home run, it’s all well and good, if it doesn’t matter what tools were employed. But compromising a process, in the sense that the basic output could be altered, is a scary prospect.

XYZ backed their processes and got the tool configured to their needs. They got the best out of both worlds. On the other hand, ABC had to do away with certain process configurations to fit the new master –the tool. XYZ’s approach is the right way to go about integrating process and technology.

Tools are meant to complement the process by enabling the process activities to be performed as per the design, and never the other way around.

But tools are important

I can’t think of designing a process without understanding the capabilities of tools. I’m very much a tools person. But the tools listen to my design, and I don’t succumb to their way of working.

It’s important that while designing a process, you have a good awareness of what kinds of tools and
capabilities are available in the market. That gives you a good starting point. Design the process keeping the objective in mind, but optimize the activities with the available tools.

Tools are undoubtedly vital; a process developer must exploit every aspect of the available tool and perhaps stretch it to imagination — and have it customized to complement the developed process.

How does a process consultant do it?

I have worked independently and with teams of process consultants in developing several processes for ISO 20K, ISO 27K1, and PCI DSS. So I can give you a fairly good idea of how a process consultant sews processes and tools together.

There are specific objectives that a process must achieve. The inputs, budgets, and other service-level requirements are in our possession before we start defining a process. Apart from this, we are aware of what the tool world has to offer.

The inputs are known and so are the expected outputs. Filling in the blanks with process activities is all that we do. Let me illustrate this with an example.

If you want to bake a veggie pizza, you know the ingredients you probably want — like a pizza base, sauce, cheese, olives, and tomatoes — and you know what this pizza looks and tastes like. The steps you take to prepare the pizza are like the individual process activities. The activities you do in order to make a pizza are coordinated — you pre-heat the oven, apply the sauce on the base, apply the cheese followed by vegetables, and then add more cheese. Then you put this in the oven for ten minutes to complete what you had on your mind. The output is just as you expected, and the oven served as a tool that enabled the process activities to be effective.

Summary

A process must always be the boss and lead the tool to its expectations

Courtesy: Techrepublic

Arundhati Roy is a liar!

2011-08-23T23:15:00.000-07:00

There was an article in The Hindu today by Arundhati against the movement for Janlokpal, she’s eloquent as usual, and she misses the point, pretty much as usual. In this article I am trying to talk about the points she raised and hopefully when we are done we might have a broader perspective of this movement than what Arundhati has projected.

Arundhati’s most important gripe seems to be that the people in the movement are raising slogans like – (a) Vande Mataram (b) Bharat Mata ki jai (c) India is Anna, Anna is India (d) Jai Hindi. Would she prefer if they said (a) India Hai Hai (b) Indian govt murdabad (c) Jeeve-jeeve Pakistan, when they come out on the streets to demand that the Indian government creates a better system for our people?

She’s lying when she says that the slogans are the answer you get when you ask questions about Janlokpal. The team that’s running Janlokpal has made every attempt to talk to anyone who is concerned about it, and to alleviate all their doubts. For months there was a public referendum on the provisions of Janlokpal, very openly, and lots of provisions were rejected, modified, and adapted according to the inputs of the people. This is a fact, not what Arundhati is saying.

Even now Anna Hazare and his team has announced that they are open to any public debate on Janlokpal and they will answer all the questions that anyone might have on any issue. Yesterday Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan did just that on a popular television network. There are videos of the team members speaking on different aspects of Janlokpal and why we need them that have been online for months.
Arundhati, lie one caught.

Her second claim is that Janlokpal seeks an overthrow of the Indian state. Lying again. For almost an year now the Janlokpal team has been working with the government, with all the members who care, to frame a strong law against corruption. They’ve met the current government leaders, opposition leaders, chief ministers, individual MPs, talking to them, and telling them why the country needs a strong anti-corruption framework. Is that working to overthrow the state?

They sat on a very hostile government panel and tried everything they could to push their proposals forward in the way government wanted them to. After the government panel wasted the nation’s time and failed to include even one, repeat, even one important proposal of the Janlokpal bill, and instead sought to push their own Jokepal which would prosecute the victims instead of the perpetrators, they decided to sit on a dharna asking the government to make a strong bill.

Let me remind Arundhati that this was done in a perfectly legal and non-violent manner, and Anna is asking this administration to implement Janlokpal, not seeking a new government. Are you trying to tell the people of India that demanding a strong anti-corruption framework amounts to overthrowing the government? Let us hear that again more clearly.
Arundhati, lie two caught.

Next she proceeds to tell us that Anna Hazare is a ‘freshly minted saint,’ which should suggest that he has no right to speak against public injustice as apparently, only stale saints are allowed to crusade for India.
Wait a minute though, this freshly minted thing doesn’t sound true at all. Anna Hazare took voluntary retirement from the Army in 1978 and started his campaign to transform Ralegaon Siddhi. All through the next decade he worked hard for the villagers campaigning for things like liquor prohibition, grain banks for the poor, better milk production, creation of more schools (he sat on a fast for this), against untouchability and for collective marriages. In 1991 he started the Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan. What was Arundhati doing then? Oh wait, she hadn’t written her first book yet.

Anna Hazare has led many movements against corrupt officials and politicians. Powerful people. People who’ve maligned him, filed false cases against him, and even sent him to jail. He has borne the worst of what the powerful and the corrupt have to offer, unlike Arundhati whose only achievement seems to be making radical statements. It’s a shame that someone like her should call a fighter like Anna a ‘freshly minted saint’.
Arundhati, lie three caught

She is also giving a distorted version of the sequence of events that unfolded during Anna’s stay at the Tihar jail. She’s saying that Anna remained in Tihar as a ‘honored guest’. If you are looking for honored guests Arundhati look for Suresh Kalmadi, Kanimozhi, A Raja, Manu Sharma, or Vikas Yadav, maybe even Afzal Guru. Anna isn’t one of them.

Let me remind you that Anna Hazare was picked up from his residence by the Delhi Police. He hadn’t been on the streets murdering people with a gun the night earlier. He was at Rajghat where he sat for an hour in meditation.

The police sent Anna to Tihar in 7 days judicial custody. To prevent what? A non-violent protest against corruption in India. On 16th August nearly 15,000 people of New Delhi and Mumbai courted arrest. They went to JP Park, Azad Maidan, or whatever the venue was in their city, asking the police to arrest them. They did not burn buses, break glasses, or set fire to homes. I have a photograph of the special jail at Chhatrasal Stadium for you here.

The people brought to Chhatrasal Stadium after their arrest.

The government was counting on their belief that no one would come ahead for Anna, and that they would be able to dispose him the way they disposed Baba Ramdev. Unfortunately for them the people of India had had enough. Anna was made an ‘honored guest’ in your words because of all the people who were in the jail, and outside the jail for him.

Why didn’t Anna come out? Because he was asked to (a) go home, (b) leave town. When Anna Hazare asked whether he would be allowed to hold an unconditional protest the Delhi police refused. Anna said that if they release him he would lead the protest and they would have to arrest him again, so it’s better that he remain in jail until the government agrees to let him protest.

Usually when a protest is organized, the people who run the protest have enough time to make preparations. There has to be enough room, and proper arrangements to make sure that the thousands collected are managed properly and without harm. If Anna had gone to the protest before the arrangements were made it could have resulted in utter chaos that might have had serious repercussions for the people gathered. Do you realize that Arundhati?

She also said that Anna’s team whizzed in-and-out of prison and it is a privilege that no one else has. Anna’s team came out when the individuals chose to be released, and when Anna refused to budge Kiran Bedi and other team members were invited by the government to try and negotiate with Anna. How does that compare to Kalmadi having a nice tea-biscuit brunch with the Warden a few days ago? Or Manu Sharma being surreptitiously paroled? Did you hear about them at all?
Arundhati, lie four caught.

Her next claim is that MCD worked hard to prepare the grounds. Is that right? I will bet anybody that Arundhati didn’t go to the grounds to inspect the preparations, and she’s talking out of her head again. I went to the ground and saw the state it was in. Here is a photograph for you Arundhati. Do you see the MCD here? Or do you see young people who are rushing to clean the wet mud, trying desperately but in union, to make the place better than a pigsty so that the people could stand.

They dug a little canal to channel the water from the ground into the drains

She's mopping the carpet so that it may become fit to stand on

Even if they weren’t, and even if MCD had sent all their workers to prepare the grounds for Anna Hazare’s protest, would there still be a reason to complain? What MCD did there was its job. The Ramlila Ground is supposed to be maintained by the MCD for massive gatherings. When MCD doesn’t do its job and the grounds is water-logged and mosquito infested, it creates a serious health hazard for everyone who’s there. MCD prepares the grounds for all public protests too. It did the same for Sonia Gandhi’s rally just a few months ago. Arundhati, you want the MCD to not do its job because this protest is not organized by a political party?
Arundhati, lie five caught.

She’s upset that the Lokpal has wide-ranging powers of investigation, surveillance and prosecution, and then she uses her amazing writing skills to suggest that Lokpal will practically have everything except their ‘own prisons’. I am on the verge of losing my breakfast!

Arundhati, one would expect someone who questions the Indian legal system so openly to have better knowledge about it. The police has the powers of (a) investigation, (b) surveillance, and (c) prosecution. So does the CBI. How are Lokpal’s power different? The only thing that Anna is asking for is that the Lokpal be a specialized body against corruption and that it must not need to seek permission from anybody to prosecute a corrupt office holder. Our present system puts severe restrictions on the investigative bodies. That’s why a CBI under the prime minister could not file a charge-sheet against A Raja, but when the supreme court took over the investigations A Raja was brought to jail.

Arundhati, I know that you knowingly did not make the point that the powers of Lokpal are limited to investigation, collection of evidence and prosecution. The Lokpal can bring a case to the court, and the judge will then decide on the basis of the presented evidence whether the person is guilty. How is that radically dangerous?
Arundhati, lie six caught.

It’s really amazing to see how Arundhati Roy can go to ridiculous lengths to fill the reader’s mind with garbage against Janlokpal. If you didn’t know about her problems with the Indian government, you could easily imagine she has been paid by it to write the article. She’s actually suggesting that the hawkers who pay the beat constable to set up their stalls might have to pay the ‘lokpal representative’.

Lokpal representative? Now she can frame those words and hang them on the Red fort for all to see and it still wouldn’t become true. The Lokpal is not a policing body. They can’t go and collect ‘hafta’ from the hawker.

When land-owner’s land is grabbed illegally and a mall is built there, or when a poor person’s store is unjustly removed, or when the beat constables or MCD representatives, or other government agency officials unjustly seek bribes from the people, that is corruption. The Lokpal is built to take care of that.

According to the provisions of the Janlokpal Bill, a citizen can make a complaint against an office holder, and the lokpal will investigate the complaint. If it is found true action will be taken. Lokpal is not going to send beat lokpallers to collect hafta from the poor. That’s downright ridiculous and only a fancy imagination could have conceived it.
Arundhati, lie seven caught.

She also says that the choreography, and aggressive nationalism seems to be like that of anti-reservation. It’s a clear attempt to draw the dalits away from the fight against corruption. And how inappropriate an attempt it is! It is the deprived, the dalits, who have to the bear the worst of corruption. The rich and the influential are filled with upper caste people who can actually use the present system to their advantage because they have money power, influence, and contacts.

The dalits don’t have the same advantages, that’s why when all other things being equal, it is the dalit who stands to lose when they compete with the upper caste. All due to corruption!

Now coming to the choreography. What sort of vague word is that? ‘Choreography’, what are we supposed to understand from it? If she’s talking about the slogans, we’ve already dealt with that. What else could she be talking about?

The anti-reservation protest was fraught with street violence and self-immolations. The people who opposed reservations closed down schools, colleges and offices, burnt buses, had violent clashes with the law, and burnt themselves to death. That hasn’t happened in Anna’s movement. This movement is perfectly peaceful and organized. Even when people are on a march, they stop at the red lights and crossings to let the traffic pass before continuing. What the hell is Arundhati trying to imply with her ‘Choreography’ then?
Arundhati, lie eight caught.

The next bit is very cruel. She craftily tries to separate Irom Sharmila, Bastar, Jaitapur, from the fast and implies by extension that Anna Hazare does not oppose Posco, or the farmer deaths in Maharashtra, or any of the other myriad problems that our country is battling right now. This couldn’t be furthest from truth.
Unlike Arundhati, Anna Hazare has recognized that too many of the problems that our country is facing are a direct result of corruption. That’s why a Madhu Koda is able to earn thousands of crores in graft money directly depriving the adivasis. That’s why Yeduyarappa is able to give illegal miners a free hand. That’s why Bastar and Irom, and Niyamgiri exist. Because of corruption.

If our framework made the responsible people accountable, it would create a huge difference in all of these issues. Imagine a bastar free of poachers, miners and land grabbers, a maharashtra village where the government’s benefits schemes are truly implemented. Forget all the other instances, just imagine what Manrega can really do for the people if it is implemented honestly.

You’ve also claimed that Anna doesn’t care about the farmers in Maharashtra, or in other places, even though he has spent his entire demonstratively in fighting for the poor and deprived villagers and farmers. Maybe you didn’t hear about this because you were too busy hobnobbing with India haters.

Arundhati, I believe that fighting corruption is fighting on behalf of all the people you’ve named, and not against them. If you believe otherwise, give me your reasons.
Arundhati, lie nine caught.

The next slander if of course the ultimate weapon that anyone can hurl at Anna. That he supports Raj Thackarey or Narendra Modi’s alleged wrongdoings. This is a joke, specially in sight of the fact that many of the hardliners aligned with the BJP, the hindu-brigade, and Narendra Modi are up with cudgles against Anna Hazare. They’re making the claim that Anna Hazare is an agent of Congress, propped up by Congress to facilitate the crowning of Rahul Gandhi.

The communists have no love for Hazare, the right wingers have no love for Hazare, and the Congress has no love for Hazare. My God! He must be awesomely right!

Answering your gripe, Anna Hazare has said it publicly multiple times that he is against any oppressive actions targeted against any community and that he supports a system that gives equal rights to all citizens irrespective of their religion.

And if you think you were succeeding in your nefarious scheme to distance the muslims from the movement, you’ve failed. Muslims as a community have lent their support to Anna Hazare in a massive way. Many Imams and Maulavis have made public statements, and the Dar-ul-Uloom, which is the biggest body of Muslims in India has said that it is the duty of every Muslim and citizen of India to support Anna Hazare. If they are wrong, then you must know something that they don’t. Care to share?

You’ve also brought the ‘Youth for equality’ into this. So what if Anna’s movement is supported by the Youth for Equality? It is also supported by the All India Youth Federation. Let me show you a pic of AIYF activists who marched against corruption for Anna. Lest you’ve forgotten the AIYF is the youth wing of the Communist Party of India.

They supported Anna because they want a corruption free India

Do you realize that when it comes to this fight against corruption Anna does not choose who supports him. He gratefully accepts their support. Of course he doesn’t give them anything in return except a law that’s strongly against corruption.

That’s why the Gyan Das Akhara of Ayodhya, and Hashim Ansari, the famous anti-temple litigator have jointly expressed support for Anna Hazare. Do you have the courage to rise above your own pettiness?
Arundhati, lie ten caught.

You are also very misinformed, or maybe you choose to present wrong information to the people. You have said that ‘Kabir’ is an NGO run by Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia. Actually Arvind Kejriwal does not run Kabir. He is an executive member because Manish Sisodia is an old associate from Parivartan, but he does not manage it, or intervene in it. It is managed by Manish Sisodia. Arvind Kejriwal’s foundation is the PCRF. They have received no donation from Ford. Their balance sheets are available on their website for public inspection. Have a look at all the money this foundation has.

Arvind started this foundation with 14 lakhs, the money he got with his Magsaysay Award. He used it for public cause and to support RTI in India.

The PCRF maintains complete accounts for the present anti-corruption movement too. Details of all incoming donations are available on the website of India Against Corruption, and expenses are detailed too. You should have a look at that.

The amount Kabir has received as donation from Ford is $200,00 and not $400,000 as you claimed. This is verifyable form the website of the ford foundation (http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/search). You could have done well to note that this donation has nothing to do with the present movement, but you did not. I will do this for you here. This donation was made in 2011 to Kabir to promote the use of RTI in India, and not to support the India against corruption movement.
Arundhati, lie eleven caught.

Management ain’t magic, it’s learned

2011-07-20T00:33:00.000-07:00

This is targeted more toward IT leaders and upper management, but one of the gravest sins you can commit as a leader is expecting that management and leadership skills exist naturally in everyone and will instantly flourish once you assign a new manager a cadre of direct reports. Most would laugh if I suggested taking a competent writer, plopping them in front of the latest development environment, and expecting them to write clean and efficient code since they’ve demonstrated excellent keyboarding talent, yet corporate management does the equivalent daily. Without a second thought, a talented technician or project manager will be promoted to an IT leadership position, and then their managers watch in horror as they spectacularly fail. Like any other skill, management and leadership are learned talents, and expecting someone to thrive in a new role without training and development is ludicrous. Furthermore, this usually destroys two formerly effective positions by removing the technician from the role they excelled at, then not equipping them for success in their new role.

With careful planning and a focus on managing and running your career in an active and aggressive manner, you can excel in IT or any other field. Furthermore, approaching your career as a free agent opens up the entire world of employment, be it at a different company, in an entrepreneurial role, or in a position totally unrelated to technology. While it may be scary to embrace the fact that you wield so much power over your own career, the alternative of victimhood and long years spent being pushed by circumstance through your working life is far less palatable.

Courtesy: Techrepublic

Feeling a Culture Problem? Better fix it!

2011-07-13T04:05:00.000-07:00

We’ve all felt culture misalignment, micromanagement, or new ideas struggling to take hold. And sure, there are times when the solution is really to cut your losses and move on to a healthier environment.

But before you jump ship, here’s a bit of tough love:

Have you considered that you might be part of the problem?

If we’re being micromanaged, perhaps we’re the one that’s hindering *being* managed with our own communication style, attitude, or process and approach.

If there’s a culture dynamic that needs adjusting, maybe we can contribute toward the change by being willing to wade into the thick of it.

If we’re not getting the responses we want, maybe we need to think about how we’re communicating.

If we perceive systems and processes to be rigid, it may be that we need to be more adaptable.

If we seek leadership that inspires us to do more and better, we must be at least a little bit willing to be led.

If something isn’t going the way we need it to, it may be up to us to start and have the difficult conversations.

Change is a collective effort. If we wish it, we have to be willing to be part of it and never settle for good enough. We have to have the self awareness to at least ask the question about how we might be hindering it in our own individual way. Or we might need to be willing to change something else that can support the ultimate change we seek.

There are often solutions to seemingly impossible problems if we can individually take responsibility for part of the patience, perseverance, and creativity needed to develop them. And it can be incredibly rewarding when finally, after much effort and determination, you can feel the tiniest bit of progress on the path beneath your feet.

So, have a talk with yourself today. Figure out where you can make an impact. And get to it.

Courtesy: Amber Naslund

Why Fair Bosses Fall Behind

2011-07-11T07:15:00.000-07:00

In management, fairness is a virtue. Numerous academic studies have shown that the most effective leaders are generally those who give employees a voice, treat them with dignity and consistency, and base decisions on accurate and complete information.

But there’s a hidden cost to this behavior. It has been found that although fair managers earn respect, they’re seen as less powerful than other managers—less in control of resources, less able to reward and punish—and that may hurt their odds of attaining certain key, contentious leadership roles.

A research, which included lab studies and responses from hundreds of corporate decision makers and employees, began with the age-old question “Should leaders be loved or feared?” We went a step further, asking, “Can you have respect and power?” We found that it’s hard to gain both.

In 2001, when it came time for a new CEO, the two were among the top candidates. McKinnell was chosen. One analyst told Bloomberg, “[Hank] is the right guy for the job...he’s got a toughness about him.”
We heard this attitude expressed in a range of industries. Decisions about high-level promotions most often center on perceptions of power, not of fairness.

The same bias was exhibited by students in a laboratory setting. Each witnessed a “manager” telling an employee about a compensation decision. Manager A communicated the decision rudely, Manager B with respect. The students were then assigned to work in a group led by the manager they’d observed; afterward they rated their leader’s power. Rude Manager A consistently scored higher than respectful Manager B—even though there was no difference in how they’d treated the participants themselves. Simply having witnessed the rude and respectful behavior was enough to create the bias.

We’ve long wondered why managers don’t always behave fairly, because doing so would clearly benefit their organizations: Studies show that the success of change initiatives depends largely on fair implementation. Some research suggests an answer. Managers see respect and power as two mutually exclusive avenues to influence, and many choose the latter.

Although this appears to be the more rational choice, it’s not always the correct one—and it poses big risks for organizations. At Pfizer, a cohort of promising executives associated with Katen resigned after McKinnell took over. He himself was pushed into retirement by the board in 2006 because of the company’s disappointing performance. Shareholder outrage over his rich retirement package followed.

Companies can benefit from placing more value on fairness when assessing managerial performance. A early follow-up research suggests that managers whose style is based on respect can gain power. Their path upward may be difficult, but it’s one worth taking, for their company’s sake as well as their own.

Courtesy: Harvard Business Review

Piyush Pandey got Lifetime Acheivement award for 2010

2011-02-21T23:59:00.000-08:00

The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) honoured Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman and Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather South Asia, with the AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award 2010.

Nagesh Alai, Pesident, AAI was joined on the dais along with Colvyn Harris- Immediate Past President of AAAI and Lynn de Souza, Vice President, AAAI, during the houring ceremony of Pandey. While speaking about Pandey, Harris said, “Piyush was an easy and a unanimous decision. He has put India on the advertising world map; he is not only a leader with a vision but also a large-hearted man.”

While delivering his thanks giving speech, Pandey mentioned his colleagues and seniors in the advertising world like Mani Iyer, Ranjan Kapur, Pandit Vinod Sharma, Suresh Malik and Arun Firodia and also his parents and close family members. In his thanks giving speech he said that the advertising fraternity was more of a family for him. He further contended that, “I have believed in India, our culture and most of all Indian audiences appreciate a good advertisement.”

Speaking about Pandey, Gerson da Cunha said that, “He is a very humble man; see, even in his speech he just didn’t stop thanking others. This only speaks about his modesty and generosity the person holds.”

When asked to describe Pandey in one word, Sam Balsara, Chairman and Managing Director, Madison Communications, said, “Instinctive.”

Piyush Pandey became the national creative director of Ogilvy & Mather India in 1994 and was inducted to Ogilvy’s worldwide board in 2006. Shubha George, Chief Operating Officer, MEC said, “Pandey has a childlike curiosity and zest in whatever he does and this award truly justifies his work.”

Piyush Pandey has been associated with some renowned ad ideas like Kuch Khaas Hain Zindagi Mein for Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, Vodafone Zoo zoos, Chal Meri Luna etc.

I wanna be Piyush Pandey

Guidelines for Successful Communication With Clients!

2011-02-11T00:42:00.000-08:00

Most of us have been there: we’re working on a project for a client, we plan it, we set down a timeline with milestones and everyone is happy. We then complete our first task that requires feedback and wait for the response on the date mutually agreed, one that would keep the project on schedule… and then it happens. The response doesn’t come, or it does, and it in no way helps the project along. In fact, it actually makes you want to go and hibernate for a few months in a warm safe place and put the client into carbon freeze.

So what can you do to help avoid these Web project crimes? Hopefully, the following tips can save you some stress and ensure that you aren’t completely grey haired by your mid-twenties.

Regular Schedule and Budget Updates

It seems like an obvious one, and something many of us start out doing at the beginning of a Web project, but as the workload builds up and other projects on your plate are starting or ending, it can often fall by the wayside. This might not seem to be a problem in the short run, but it will become one the minute something doesn’t go according to plan.

From the very beginning it’s really important to remain disciplined and send your client a revised project schedule and updated budget every week. In this update you could highlight the following:

Completed tasks from the previous week.
Budget spent and budget remaining on each phase, e.g. design, functional specification etc.
Planned tasks for the following week and who is responsible, you or the client.
Any tasks that are slipping over schedule or over budget, and if so why. Also consider the potential impact on the project.

It may seem a little over the top to do this the week after the project starts, as very little has changed from the initial schedule; but as the project progresses and things inevitably slip, it’s in no way a surprise to the client and makes negotiating additional time or budget a lot less painful.

Buy Now, Don’t Pay Later

Too often I see people running web projects that don’t send weekly schedules and budget updates with it invariably ending up the same way — the project slipping in various places, small places, but building into significant schedule and budget problems over time. Then, after a few months, the client suddenly asks “Are we on track for go-live?” or “Are we on budget?”

This is when the smelly stuff hits the fan as the client, quite rightly, says “I assumed all was OK as you hadn’t mentioned anything before!” Not only do you have to fumble your way through an awkward phone call or meeting but you’ve put yourself in a weak position and damage has been done to your relationship with the client and their level of trust in you. Bad times, and all because you weren’t disciplined and clear from day one.

The Client is a Team Member

Constantly highlighting tasks that need attention by a certain date from a client, with the impact of non-action being clear, really helps keep the client focused on completing what they need to do in the short-term. At the same time, it helps you maintain the bigger picture view of the project — after all, clients inevitably have a business to run and so your job is to make things as simple for them as possible by essentially managing them and their project tasks as if they were a team member. Oddly enough, in my experience, most clients actually appreciate you managing them.

From the initial stage of the project, it is a good idea to make it clear to the clients that you see them as a team member of the project and expect cooperation and support during the entire project. This also means that you should expect to have a dedicated person in the client’s company who will be answering your questions, and who will be the only person answering your questions. This will help a lot during the whole process and will prevent problems and misunderstandings down the road.

Shifts In Schedule Aren’t Always Bad

Slipping project schedules are often associated with a project going wrong, but it doesn’t always have to be. Remember, an initial go-live date set out in an initial schedule isn’t always as important as the client has said it is. Sometimes other more important things pop up, and these things often need to be carefully examined, discussed, resolved and implemented — and often it just takes more time than expected.

If a project you’re running is in danger of missing milestone dates due to lack of timely client feedback, as long as you have constantly communicated impact of late feedback you can always approach the subject of a new go-live or milestone completion date with the client and see how it plays out. Argue that the quality of your work is very important to you and you wouldn’t want to compromise the quality of the project due to the communication problems. It’s a good idea to find time to review the work done, discuss the problems in communication and find solutions to improve the workflow in the next stage of the project.

The more important the deadline is to the client, the clearer your time requirements and feedback requirements should be in the initial stage of the project.

Help the Client Out, Be Pro-active

This is an important point: always be willing to help the client out with tasks that you shouldn’t necessarily be doing or are being paid to do. Common examples of this include microcopy, icons, print version of the website, small teaser images and lower level page banners.

A hard-nosed stubborn Web Project Manager will insist that all images and copy, including the little bits and pieces like thank you e-mail copy and success messages, are delivered by a date in order to remain on schedule, and when these aren’t delivered, then the project could well be delivered late and it’s all the fault of the client. Well, maybe it is, but do we actually have to wait for the client for every single bit of the project?

You use the Web every single day, you’re a Web professional, you know the project inside out and you’ve learn about the target audience from the meetings with clients. This knowledge enables you to assist the client when timelines are slipping by, getting these small things created for them if necessary.

Now of course in an ideal world all of these elements would be paid for and carefully crafted by designers, UI teams and copywriters, but this is just not the way it usually works in practice. Sometimes commercial reality for both your business and the client must take precedent and it’s time to roll your sleeves up.

cont..

Inspired by an article published in Smashing Magazine

5 Tips for managing risks!

2011-02-06T20:57:00.000-08:00

For most projects, it is less a question of “if” they’ll run into problems than a question of “when.” The success of the project is therefore, to a large degree, dependent on a team’s ability to manage the risks associated with that project. The following five tips will help you do just that.

1: Identify potential risks
The key to success in identifying potential risks to your project is to involve the right people. Everyone has a different perspective and interest in a project, and that unique view of the world can be used to uncover a robust collection of risks that you might not otherwise identify. Here are some of the roles to consider tapping into:

    * End users (from a variety of areas)
    * Management (different levels)
    * Developers (from all the affected system areas)
    * Quality assurance
    * Operations
    * Business/system analysts
    * System/data architects

2: Brainstorm
My favorite technique for uncovering risks is to have an open brainstorming session with all the interested parties involved. This is not for the faint of heart. The only way to do it effectively is to have a skilled facilitator running the session. Drill down into each suggested risk only as deep as needed to properly describe it and to determine whether it is valid for the scope of the project. Don’t take the time during this session to evaluate the significance of each risk.

3: Analyze
All risks are not created equal. Each risk should be evaluated for the likelihood it will happen, as well as for how big an impact it will have if realized. You can do this over multiple sessions with smaller groups. This will allow you rank the risks and determine which ones will be worth further time and energy to address.

4: Mitigate
You should come up with a strategy to prevent each risk from being realized or for compensating in the event it does occur (create a “plan B”). Ideally, you want to do this for every identified risk. But if time and resources are limited, use the results from your analysis (tip #3) to determine which risks should make the short list for mitigation.

5: Review and revisit
Once you’re “done,” you’re not done. Situations change over time. New risks arise, old ones disappear, and mitigations that seemed like a good idea at the time may need to be rethought. The risks that have been identified should be reviewed on a regular basis and updated accordingly. New perspectives on the project could have a profound effect on the risk profile of the project. Also, make sure that the mitigations that seemed like a good idea when you started the list are still viable and appropriate.

Risk management can be an involved undertaking, and there are already a number of best practices around to help guide the activity. The tips here are hardly a comprehensive review of the discipline, but they are great place to start for the beginner and an excellent reminder for the practitioner.

10 things good bosses do!

2010-11-22T23:17:00.000-08:00

Pay people what they’re worth, not what you can get away with

What you lose in expense you gain back several fold in performance.

Take the time to share your experiences and insights

Labels like mentor and coach are overused. Let’s be specific here. Employees learn from those generous enough to share their experiences and insights. They don’t need a best friend or a shoulder to cry on.

Tell it to employees straight, even when it’s bad news

To me, the single most important thing any boss can do is to man up and tell it to people straight. No BS, no sugarcoating, especially when it’s bad news or corrective feedback.

Manage up… effectively

Good bosses keep management off employee’s backs. Most people don’t get this, but the most important aspect of that is giving management what they need to do their jobs. That’s what keeps management away.

Take the heat and share the praise

It takes courage to take the heat and humility to share the praise. That comes naturally to great bosses; the rest of us have to pick it up as we go.

Delegate responsibility, not tasks

Every boss delegates, but the crappy ones think that means dumping tasks they hate on workers — i.e., s**t rolls downhill. Good bosses delegate responsibility and hold people accountable. That’s fulfilling and fosters professional growth.

Encourage employees to hone their natural abilities and challenge them to overcome their issues That’s called getting people to perform at their best.

Build team spirit

As we learned before, great groups outperform great individuals. And great leaders build great teams.

Treat employees the way they deserve to be treated

You always hear people say they deserve respect and to be treated as equals. Well, some may not want to hear this, but a) respect must be earned and b) most workers are not their boss’s equals.

Inspire your people

All the above motivate people, but few bosses have the ability to truly inspire their employees. How? By sharing their passion for the business. By knowing just what to say and do at just the right time to take the edge off or turn a tough situation around. Genuine anecdotes help a lot. So does a good sense of humor.

Courtesy: Jody Gilbert, TechRepublic

Challenges of post-recession time!

2010-09-15T23:53:00.000-07:00

"Instead of stable and long term career plan in my exsiting company, I rather prefer to change companies frequenty or try to get most out of my existing company" said Sourabh Malhotra, a senior .net developer working with one of the leading software developent firm in NCR. You must have faced similar kind of sentiments or statement from a lot of people in the Industry.

Couple of years back, people were opting for long term carrer plan with the companies. In any statble medium size software firm (40-70 people team), on an average 70% people were completing 3-4 years on an average in one company. They were quite happy with the kind of growth they were getting that period of time.

These day also they are getting similar kind of growth but they are not planning to stick to the same organization for long period. Alarming situation!!

WHY THE MINDSET CHANGED.

I think credit goes to the economic downturn (Recession). Most of the organizations have changed their working style and taken a lot of steps to face the challenges of recession. People somehow adjusted themselves according to the need of time (not whole-heatedly though).

Now the recession is over (hoefully), things are settling to normal. But all the people who went through this period, have developed a mindset which is resulting following things

People are changing job very frequently.
They are not at all thinking long term.
When it comes to growth they talk about "Money" only.
Ownership towards organization is going low day by day.

and following are are effects on the organizations

Key people are leaving
HR cost is going up
Due to low level of ownership, project suffers
Management is not able to make long term plans
Retaining key clients becoming difficult

But situation is not "Out of Control".

Companies will need to review and retool workforce and talent management strategies as the economy improves. Top performers feel the employment deal has changed. Well-planned workforce and talent management actions can help companies navigate the post-recession recovery without losing key talent.

Umesh Chandra

Leadership Vs. Micromanagement

2010-08-27T00:33:00.000-07:00

Some of the leaders believe that "Micromanagement" will help them to keep a good hold on their team. By doing this they feel that they are involved in the different activities and projects. Some of the leaders live in impression that their team will appreciate if they Micromanage things. But this is no where near to reality. Micromanages will never be able to create a long time trust or relationship with their teams.

Great leaders use this type of behavior very sparingly and only when absolutely needed. Less than successful leaders overindulge on a regular basis.

The prime reasons why they micromanage include:

The belief they are smarter than the other person/group
The belief team or "they" are not skilled enough to be successful
A general need for control over work which reflects on you
A desire for a specific outcome when multiple are possible
A lack of understanding or appreciation of the need to develop others
A lack of trust on team
They got a feeling that their team is not honest and hiding thing from them.
To demonstrate their involvement

The problems micromanaging creates:

Lower productivity for a leader since they spend less time working on their own tasks.
Lower productivity for the person or group being micromanaged - since they are dealing with them.
A long-term resentment that develops since almost no employee likes to be micromanaged.
Not able to establish long time trust with team.
The person or group will never get sense of accomplishment for any of their great work

How to avoid micromanaging:

Manage outcomes not process. This is one of the golden rules of leadership. Anytime you lead others you must define expectations - including meaningful goals, milestones and metrics. You only begin micromanaging a little when the outcomes you receive are not acceptable. Stated differently, don't much around in the process unless the process is clearly not creating the outcomes you need. You can stop in, offer support, try to help or provide resources - but don't micromanage.
Get good feedback. This applies to the tendency to micromanage and in general to one's leadership ability. Find one or two unbiased and honest resources and ask them to give you honest and candid feedback. Ask about how others perceive you on a spectrum ranging from "granting lots of autonomy" to "crazy micromanager" and actually listen to what they say.
Stay away from their cube! Many people took the MBWA ("management by walking around") mantra too seriously. When in doubt - don't go bother them, wait and evaluate the outcomes first! If you can't stand it, break the work up into meaningful milestones up front when planning and assigning work. This way you will receive updates or mini outcomes along the way without having to hover and harass. If the mini outcomes look problematic (not simply "different than how you would have done it," but actually problematic) then step into the process in an attempt to help - but don't micromanage!

Inspired by one of the articles of Leadership Guru Dr. Dewette.

Umesh

Getting formal "Project closure" from your clients in outsourcing world.

2010-08-11T03:13:00.000-07:00

I think this is the most common problem faced by any Project Manager. It's not easy to get a formal "Project Closure" from the clients (not always though).

In some of the projects, during all phases of project, everything will go smooth. You'll have all the praises and appreciation for that particular client but the moments you ask for formal project closure, you'll have series of emails from the client sharing his concern on the project.

Based on my experience if you experience following symptoms, be assured that this client is going to create problem during the project closure process

In Kick-off meeting, client says that I am thoroughly relying on you guys for the success of this project
He admits that he is not that much technical and don't expect too much inputs from him.
During requirement gathering phase he is hardly adding any value and approving everything without questioning your quality of SRS or FSD.
He is not insisting you to submit a proper project plan.
His response time is very slow.
He is postponing project update meetings frequently.
He is not concerned even if you are delaying the project.
During the project you come to know that, he has hired someone as new point of contact on that project.

All project managers, project leads have faced such clients in your career so far. I would like all of you to share your experience so that after that we can discuss on some of the solutions for handling such scenarios/clients.

Umesh Chandra

How to handle an "arrogant genius" in your team?

2010-07-21T01:02:00.000-07:00

Every manager has had to deal with a “difficult” employee at some point in his or her career. Obviously, every person is unique, and every employee needs and deserves unique treatment from the boss. However, there is one class of difficult employees that can truly damage an organization: the difficult genius.

When I say “difficult,” I’m talking about someone who can be considered toxic to the organization. He or she is negative, overly opinionated (just for the sake of being argumentative), stresses out the rest of the staff, and makes it difficult for the team as a whole to get their jobs done. Moreover, he or she opposes every project, effort, and idea by others on the team, no matter how good they might be.

What effect does this person have?
What kind of damage can the difficult genius do to the department? First, constant negativity against the other staff will ultimately have a detrimental effect on the whole department. People will simply give up and go work elsewhere, perhaps in an environment in which the demonstrated behavior is not tolerated. Make no bones about it; if you have a difficult, arrogant genius on your hands, the rest of the staff knows it and, rightly, has an expectation that you will fix it. If you don’t fix it, the situation could escalate to a point at which too much (bad) turnover starts to make people question your leadership abilities.

I say “bad” turnover, because there is good turnover, too. Bad turnover happens when good people leave because of negative environmental factors within your control. Good turnover happens when people are able to improve themselves through upward opportunities in other organizations or when someone who either has poor skills or a poor attitude leaves the company.

Second, people outside the department are likely to know about the problem as well and, again, will probably expect you to do something about the situation. When a negative entity is allowed to interact with people outside your department, that person becomes the face of your department for that interaction.

Let’s assume that you’re a capable manager who is generally respected in the organization and by the rest of the staff and that you do a good job. Obviously, there may be other reasons for the employee’s bad behavior and those absolutely need to be considered before further action is taken. After all, if the person’s attitude is due to something correctable, address the situation to fix the problem.

What do you do?
It all starts with making some choices:

What staff members do you want to preserve? Do you need to keep the difficult person around or can you afford to lose one or more of your other staff?
How badly do you need the services being rendered by the staff member in question? Can the work be handled by someone else?
Is the person replaceable? Frankly, if he’s not replaceable, you have a real problem on your hands that goes beyond his attitude.
Is the person salvageable? If so, is it worth your time? This may seem to be a cold question, but do you have the time to devote to a single member of the team in this way?

Answers to these questions will lead you to having to choose from a number of options:

Do nothing. If the person is so important to the organization that he needs to be left alone, you can leave him alone while understanding that this option will probably result in losing other staff members. This tactic rarely works well.
You can try talking one-on-one with the person and making her aware of how he/she is perceived by others on the staff or in the organization. This is likely to become a confrontational discussion as people with attitude problems probably already know that they have an attitude problem, even if they call it something else. That said, I’ve actually seen this work well when handled correctly.
You can take steps to modify the person’s workload so that they have less interaction with the staff, but this probably won’t work in the long run. Too many tasks are collaborative in nature and require more than one person. You’d probably be doing the organization a disservice and would allow the person additional opportunity to consolidate what responsibilities they do have in a way that could make it difficult to eventually transfer those responsibilities to someone else if necessary.
Eventually, when a serious attitude problem exists, it’s more than likely that you’ll need to fire the person for the sake of the rest of the team. Constant negativity is a cancer that will have a negative impact on your staff. Further, your staff will take note if you decide to ignore the problem and they will blame you if they have to leave over it. Find ways for the difficult person’s work to be handled while you look for a replacement, even if you have to do the work yourself. You’ll be in a stronger position for it later on.

For my own organization, I hire attitude first, skill second. This strategy has worked to tremendous success. Obviously, I don’t hire completely inexperienced people into high-skill positions, but when I and my full team interview people, we do look for a fit. We don’t look for “yes men” or people too much like us, but we do look for people who fit our culture and have appropriate skills to do the job, even if that means we need to provide some training. We have a variety of personalities on the team, and people get along extremely well. Moreover, our results with this team have been incredible, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that we don’t hire jerks into the organization.

You can teach skills, but teaching attitude is much harder.

published in Techrepublic

Umesh Chandra

What is Leadership?

2010-07-12T05:40:00.000-07:00

Unless your job title is Chief Executive Officer, you’re going to spend the bulk of your time in classic management functions (planning, assuring quality, allocating resources). That means for most of your day you aren’t/can’t be doing the “leadership” stuff (declaring visions, inspiring others, making critical decisions…) that management gurus incessantly preach.When you do the leadership stuff, you add value. You get leverage.

Yet you know you’re supposed to do leadership. But how do you integrate those more aspirational, fuzzier, and seemingly not time-bound, set of leadership activities into the pressure-cooker commonly referred to as your job?

A colleague of mine told: “You can’t put ‘do leadership at 2 o’clock’ on your daily schedule.”

Well, actually you can. And should.

Leadership is both a mindset and and a set of tasks. And those tasks are both highly definable and worth doing.

While everyone has their favorite definition, I’ve distilled the squishy, amorphous, all-too-mysterious concept of leadership to ten words:

Leadership is: Effecting desired results by positively affecting others’ actions.

By this simple construct, leadership is actionable, results-oriented, and about impacting other people. Think of leadership as a process: You affect measurable outcomes through affecting human inputs. And to do that, you must do things.

Think of it this way: When you are doing the tasks you normally think of as “your job” — the ones in your job description, the ones that have outputs that other people are waiting for, you’re meeting minimum requirements for employment. On the other hand, when you engage in leadership activities, you’re investing in performance quality (by affecting associate attitude), performance improvement (by affecting associate involvement), performance stability (by affecting associate commitment) and other tangibles by influencing intangibles. Think of leadership as
a process.

When you do the leadership stuff, you add value. You get leverage. The leverage comes in the effect your actions have on the regular, routine, expected outcomes produced by the associates in your work group or department. You affect the work they effect.

What you invest in leadership time — usually this means the time you spend one-on-one with your workgroup associates — you get back in their routine performance. There’s a ton of research on this. And if there were not, if the relationship between positive leadership activities and performance were not demonstrable, then smart business people would do well to fire just about everyone with “manager” in their title. Right? Just keep a few super-planners, and a few super-monitors — and let the business run!

The trick would be to put the savings from all those salaries into mostly automated systems that simply monitored the performance of individual contributors, compensating them based on the consequences of their performance.

Of course, some folks would need to run that system. And to get the best, most efficient output from that group, we really should have someone working to tweak those individuals’ performance…

Go ahead. Put leadership on your calendar — schedule some activities right now. For, say, 2 o’clock. Then be sure that the leadership tasks get done so you get the leverage they provide.

Umesh

Is your website accessible?

2010-06-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

Accessibility has made its way into the mainstream of web development. Development environments offer accessibility analysis built in and web utilities are available to test the accessibility of published pages, but there’s no substitute for human testing.

Web accessibility is a term that went from obscurity in 1995 to a common industry term today. Governments in many countries now stipulate the accessibility of websites, and many web authoring and analysis tools have been created with accessibility in mind.

Section 508 is an accessibility standard set down by the U.S. government with which all government websites and those of companies and agencies receiving government funding must comply. Although most private companies and organizations do not need to maintain this standard of accessibility, doing so can only increase a site’s exposure to users all over the world. In addition, an accessible website is often a more usable website, and not just for people with disabilities. In addition, the Worldwide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative released version 2.0 of its Web Content Accessibility Guidelines in December, 2008 together with a customizable quick reference with techniques for adhering to the guidelines. That’s a huge document that can be overwhelming, so this article lists tools and techniques you can use to check a site’s accessibility and create accessible Web 2.0 applications in less time than you might think.

The web accessibility landscape is changing almost as fast as the web itself. As companies downsize, technology changes and sites become more and more interactive, formerly useful accessibility tools disappear, lose relevance or are abandoned by their developers. However, in every area where the push to make websites accessible has lost momentum, it has also gained new allies who have created new accessibility checkers, integrated accessibility into authoring tools and educated the development community about accessibility.

On the web of 2010, one solution does not fit all. There’s no magical tool that will catch accessibility problems with any website and tell you how to fix them. Instead, developers interested in ensuring the accessibility of their sites need to take advantage of existing tools, follow specific procedures and, last but not least, either use assistive technology to test the site themselves or ask someone to do it for them.

This is not to say that creating an accessible website is a cumbersome, time-consuming task. If you start the project with accessibility in mind, it need not take any more time than any other component of the site. Usability best practices are similar to those for accessibility, so combining the two takes less time than you might think while opening your site to the greatest number of users possible.

Basic Site Accessibility

Accessibility checkers have been a part of the web since the first days of graphical browsers. When Netscape started to catch on in 1995, a tool called Bobby was developed that tested websites for accessibility using a number of criteria. That tool was largely hailed as the standard in accessibility checkers for 10 years. With its demise, a number of tools have appeared to take its place. One is FAE, or the Functional Accessibility Evaluator. This is a flexible tool that will generate a report detailing any accessibility problems on a single page up to an entire site. To check the accessibility of more than one page, you must register for a free account.

WAVE is a simple tool that can check a page, an uploaded file or a code snippet for accessibility. It also offers a Dreamweaver extension that adds its functionality to the Dreamweaver editor. Dreamweaver and several other editors also contain tools to analyze a site’s accessibility and allow you to quickly fix any errors.

SortSite, from PowerMapper software, checks sites for accessibility, plus usability and SEO practices. The trial version is limited to checking 10 pages of a given site.

These three checkers are good for tracking down simple accessibility problems: inadequate ALT text for images, incomplete or bad tab order, mismatched x_onMouseOver events, inaccessible scripting practices and so on. They do less well at detecting confusing alt text, organizational problems and, most critical of all, Web 2.0 accessibility. For that, we need to look elsewhere.

In addition to standard accessibility concerns, web developers would do well to remember to keep contrast levels high and links clearly differentiable. This not only increases accessibility for those who are color blind, but it also makes sites much more usable by people with slight visual impairment, which accounts for tens of millions of people around the world. GrayBit, converts your entire site to grayscale, allowing you to determine whether people unable to discern colors will be able to effectively use your site. VisCheck can check your site to determine its accessibility by people with three kinds of color blindness: deuteranope, protanope and tritanope. Lastly, the Luminosity Color Contrast Ratio Analyzer checks the contrast of your site against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Is your leadership team a Problem?

2010-06-04T01:20:00.000-07:00

Leadership team dysfunction occurs frequently. It’s almost everywhere.

The climate of an organization often starts in the leadership team’s meetings. If there’s a cordial and respectful tone in that environment, it will often carry through the day-to-day interactions. However, many such meetings do not have that tone. Consequently, they are rarely examples of how tight groups should work toward a common purpose.

Here are some common reasons why these meetings fail to achieve that:

Lack of common goals— If one’s compensation is tied entirely to his or her specific results, it’s less likely they’ll be very motivated to spend time on other departments’ issues. Like my new client, “winners” may come to believe they’re bulletproof and behave badly.

Favorite child(ren) -- Some people seem to get away with murder in these meetings. Others get busted for misdemeanors. While this may be human nature at play, there’s simply no place for favorites in a business setting. The leadership team’s focus should be results first and foremost. But the “favorites” can manipulate the direction of meetings while the boss unwittingly goes along with it. This angers and disappoints those who are trying to act more professionally. It erodes team feeling, creating one of “me versus them.”

Psychological disorders – Pathology exists everywhere. Corporations seem to attract more than their fair share, especially psychopaths and narcissists. These types care little about the common good. They are motivated first and foremost by their own status, rewards, and recognition; often seeing others’ failures as being good for their own progress. The boss needs to make it very clear what will and will not be tolerated, regardless of individual performance achievement. By the way, this should be the case outside of meetings as well.

No “5 Second Rule” -- Watching leadership teams in action, it’s often clear that many players are not even listening to the others. Some may give the appearance of paying attention, but often they’re just getting ready to make their own case. In this group dynamic I recommend the leader impose a rule that there must be at least five seconds before anyone can respond to another’s comments. Less friction and cooler heads result.

Consider banning the word “but.” Hassles are often created when one person starts his/her response with that word. On the other hand, starting a reply with the word “and” makes for building as opposed to tearing down.

Each meeting is a new adventure — Most leadership team meetings don’t adhere to basic common-sense rules such as have an agenda, allocate time for each topic and adhere to the allocation, don’t allow texting or interruptions by outsiders, document the actions to be taken for follow-up, have a note taker who distributes the minutes from the meeting within one day, rotate the chairperson each time. Without this practice, each meeting can take on a life of its own, directed by the dominant players.

Hard Rock Cafe : Desi one!

2010-04-19T03:03:00.001-07:00

Meetings are Toxic

2010-04-14T00:08:00.000-07:00

The worst interruptions of all are meetings. Here’s why:

They’re usually about words and abstract concepts, not real things.
They usually convey an abysmally small amount of information per minute.
They drift off- subject easier than a Chicago cabin a snowstorm.
They require thorough preparation that most people don’t have time for.
They frequently have agendas so vague that nobody is really sure of the goal.
They often include at least one moron who inevitably gets his turn to waste everyone’s time with nonsense.
Meetings procreate. One meeting leads to another meeting leads to another . . .

It’s also unfortunate that meetings are typically scheduled like TV shows. You set aside thirty minutes or an hour because that’s how scheduling software works (you’ll never see anyone schedule a seven- minute meeting with Outlook). Too bad. If it only takes seven minutes to accomplish a meeting’s goal, then that’s all the time you should spend. Don’t stretch seven into thirty.

When you think about it, the true cost of meetings is staggering. Let’s say you’re going to schedule a meeting that lasts one hour, and you invite ten people to attend. That’s actually a ten- hour meeting, not a one- hour meeting. You’re trading ten hours of productivity for one hour of meeting time. And it’s probably more like fifteen hours, because there are mental switching costs that come with stopping what you’re doing, going somewhere else to meet, and then resuming what you were doing beforehand.

Is it ever OK to trade ten or fifteen hours of productivity for one hour of meeting? Sometimes, maybe. But that’s a pretty hefty price to pay. Judged on a pure cost basis, meetings of this size quickly become liabilities, not assets. Think about the time you’re actually losing and ask yourself if it’s really worth it.

If you decide you absolutely must get together, try to make your meeting a productive one by sticking to these simple rules:

Set a timer. When it rings, meeting’s over. Period.
Invite as few people as possible.
Always have a clear agenda.
Begin with a specific problem.
Meet at the site of the problem instead of a conference room.
Point to real things and suggest real changes.
End with a solution and make someone responsible for implementing it.

Courtesy : Rework

Workaholism

2010-03-09T23:21:00.000-08:00

Our culture celebrates the idea of the workaholic. We hear about people burning the midnight oil. They pull all- nighters and sleep at the office. It’s considered a badge of honor to kill yourself over a project. No amount of work is too much work. Not only is this workaholism unnecessary, it’s stupid. Working more doesn’t mean you care more or get more done. It just means you work more. Workaholics wind up creating more problems than they solve. First off, working like that just isn’t sustainable over time. When the burnout crash comes— and it will— it’ll hit that much harder.

Workaholics miss the point, too. They try to fix problems by throwing sheer hours at them. They try to make up for intellectual laziness with brute force. This results in inelegant solutions. They even create crises. They don’t look for ways to be more efficient because they actually like working overtime. They enjoy feeling like heroes. They create problems (often unwittingly) just so they can get off on working more. Workaholics make the people who don’t stay late feel inadequate for “merely” working reasonable hours.

That leads to guilt and poor morale all around. Plus, it leads to an ass- in- seat mentality—people stay late out of obligation, even if they aren’t really being productive. If all you do is work, you’re unlikely to have sound judgments. Your values and decision making wind up skewed. You stop being able to decide what’s worth extra effort and what’s not. And you wind up just plain tired. No one makes sharp decisions when tired.

In the end, workaholics don’t actually accomplish more than non-workaholics. They may claim to be perfectionists, but that just means they’re wasting time fixating on inconsequential details instead of moving on to the next task. Workaholics aren’t heroes. They don’t save the day, they just use it up. The real hero is already home because she figured out a faster way to get things done.

Courtesy: 37 signals

Leadership Approach from Old Schools: Still effective

2010-03-04T21:30:00.001-08:00

Once a year, the U.S. President sets aside time to talk to the country’s stakeholders. He talks about the nation’s current situation, reasons behind it, and the outlook going forward.

Do you give your team the same benefit? If not, you’re missing a great opportunity to significantly improve things in your organization.

Since America’s first State of the Union Address, back in 1790, this event has occurred every year. It serves several purposes. Some are purely political and some are informational. It allows the head of state to help others — without the benefit of his perspective — to understand what has been going on and why. He will use it to share his vision of how things are going to change in the future. That’s important at all times but particularly so in a demanding period. And, because the President presents this information to the collective members of the House and Senate, together with the Judiciary, he uses the forum as an opportunity to try to enlist the support of others who may be otherwise inclined.

Compare this communication approach to methods and manners of most other organizations. How about your own organization or business: Do you give your team the same benefits? Many places use a similar approach, but too few are taking advantage of it.

In effective organizations, the team’s members at all levels, in all locations, know:

1. How we got here – They understand your perspective regarding the reasons behind what’s been going on. They get to hear the boss talk about things like the economy, the industry, and the company’s actions or problems. In many cases, they may have had misunderstandings or heard negative opinions that were unfounded. As human beings, and as members of a team, we appreciate being treated like adults and given a better understanding from someone who sees the situation from a perspective that’s different from our own.

2. What’s the outlook – The team benefits from hearing that the company, or you in particular, has a solid understanding of what’s going to change and how long you think it’s going to take. They hear about plans and actions to deal with the expected situation. This provides two key benefits: By providing information it encourages them to join the plan and encourage its success. Additionally, after hearing your assessment about where the company is going, new ideas — from a lot of brainpower — and actions from a lot of horsepower can be aroused. Even you may have overlooked something.

3. Helps overcome roadblocks – Many great programs arrive stillborn. That may have nothing to do with how good they are or the cost/benefit ratios. It may be entirely political, i.e., someone simply may not want to see it succeed and those people will do whatever can be done to ensure the new program fails. This is an often-overlooked benefit for having this kind of meeting: when the leader goes directly to those people, he increases the prospects of having support from all sides. Or at least reducing the chances of being broadsided.

Now think about your company, your department, and your direct team:

Does everyone really know how things are going? The big picture, the reasons, the nitty gritty — all of it. If not, you have a great opportunity to make immediate improvement.

Regardless of the size of an organization, be it a three-person team or an immense bureaucracy like the government, this approach will improve results. If your organization is spread far and wide, it even works better. Put it into place now.

Your state of the nation (or state of the company, state of the department, state of the store, etc.) should address the three key topics each time. It should update on results from plans discussed at the last meeting. It should be as short as possible while leaving an opportunity for comments and suggestions. The comments and suggestions aspect is very important. You may hear ideas in this open forum that otherwise may not get to you.

I suggest these meetings be done monthly. There are twelve months in a year. Twelve opportunities to make meaningful corrections or additions to any plan. All of which increases the likelihood of your success.

The best companies I know about use this approach. Not enough do. It works. Give it a try. And let me know what happens.

What to do when a client wants you to copy other designs ?

2010-02-12T01:54:00.000-08:00

In the graphic and web design industry, we like to think of ourselves as “creatives” who constantly keep the creative juices flowing and come up with original, well-thought out ideas. So why is it that even the best of graphic and web designers are approached by a client now and then who says something like:

“I really like the look of this design. Can you just copy it?”

There has been a lot of controversy over the notion that “great designers steal”. Cameron Moll, web guru, speaker, and author wrote an article clear back in 2003 titled “Good Designers Copy, Great Designers Steal“. In it, he adapted Picasso’s statement that Great Artists Steal to modern web and graphic designers. The point of the article is that copying others’ work is a great way to create top-notch material especially for those who are just starting out in design.

Is it okay to copy?

Is it every appropriate to copy the design of another? Yes. Why do I say this? Because, frankly, as designers we are constantly mimicking what we see in the world around us. We peruse the internet searching for “inspiration” and, as we collect this information, our brain remembers the elements we like and those we dislike. The more time we spend with certain styles of design, the more our design starts to imitate it. Is that a good thing?

Of course it is.

The wonderful thing about the online design community is the wonderful ability we have to share ideas quickly and feed off of each others’ creativity. A few opportunities in which I would say copying another design is appropriate are as follows:

When you are trying to master a new technique
Nothing will help you learn a new technique better than really digging deep into how the original designer achieved the effect. By dissecting the design and recreating it yourself, you perfect the process. It’s much like taking apart a vacuum cleaner or toaster oven. The further you get inside, the more you understand the basic principles that govern its success.

When the author intends for you to borrow or copy
There are countless online resources that provide designers with tutorials, code snippets, downloadable source files, free stock photography, and more. In these situations, this material is there for your gain–so really try to take advantage of it as much as possible.

But is it okay to steal?

Let’s face it. Stealing is wrong. Never in the history of the world has it been inherently right to steal. Using another person’s work and claiming direct ownership of it is not ethical and is usually illegal. So what do we do when a client approaches us with the request to “make it look exactly like this”?

The solution

I discussed this same issue early on in my design career with a Guru of Graphic Design. The advice he gave me has stuck with me to this day and has helped me out of some pretty tight situations. He gave me a simple procedure to follow when approached with a request to copy someone else’s design.

FIRST, Commend your client for putting forth the effort in deciding what kind of design they are looking for and what style they like.

SECOND, Explain to your client the laws of copyright and the problems associated with plagiarism.

THIRD, Kindly help your client understand that while you cannot explicitly steal certain elements of the design itself such as actual shapes in logos or images from the internet (without purchase a rights managements), you would be happy to identify the elements and principles of design that you can use to get the same effect.

FOURTH, and this is the most important, sit down with your client and talk with them about why they like the design. Talk less about physical traits and more about principles and emotions. Do they like the color pallet? Do they like the arrangement of elements? Maybe it’s the typography or photography. Possibly they like the amount of white space or the textures. List all the reasons your client likes the design they present to you.

FIFTH, after the meeting, sum up all the points you have made about the design. Their likes, their dislikes, and how you intend to achieve a similar effect without copying the design directly.

SIXTH, After designing the piece according to the specifications at the meeting, review the design with your client and point out the elements that you previously discussed. More than likely, they will love the new design because they now have something just as appealing and beautiful but that belongs completely to them.

A real Project manager need "Think Time"

2010-01-12T22:23:00.000-08:00

I recently attended a project management seminar in which one of the speakers noted that a project manager must be systematic and innovative. The systematic part is a no-brainer; in order to be successful at managing a project, a project manager must understand what step goes before another step. A systematic approach by its nature is linear; it may be multiple paths performed simultaneously, but each individual path is still linear. But the innovative part may not come as naturally to many project managers.

The act of innovating is defined as “the introduction of new things or methods.” In IT, we know that there is always a better way; the same can be said for how we manage a project. There are aspects of a company’s culture, personalities of key stakeholders, constraints, and limitations that call for a project manager to innovate.

For instance, you should view the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) standards as important guidelines but not as exact rules on how to manage every detail of the project. Also, you should constantly challenge yourself to come up with a new, more efficient way of doing something. Innovative project managers take “think time” to look at the challenge from multiple angles and truly challenge how they have always done things.

I’ve seen project managers automatically re-use what went well during the last project (I’ve even done this myself); it makes life simple because the outcome is pretty predictable. But over time, you might find yourself going with a solution because you’re familiar with it and not necessarily because it’s the best one for the job.

The challenge for project managers is twofold:

Whenever you get that squishy feeling that occurs when facing a new challenge, and you’re tempted to take one of your “comfortable” tools out of the toolbox, stop and take some time to think and innovate. Instead, come up with the best tool for the job.
When faced with a familiar challenge that you have the perfect tools to address, stop, take some think time, and look at the challenge from different angles. Now that you have used this tool successfully for so long, is there a way you can improve it, upgrade it, or replace it with the younger, sleeker model?

Think time takes discipline. I don’t know any successful project manager who isn’t driving projects at 100 mph with their hair on fire. Taking think time when time is at a premium has the best results; this think time is akin to the planning phase of a project. When the stakeholder wants to take action immediately, a wise project manager will understand that the more time spent in the planning phase leads to more successful project outcomes.

Desi innovation!

2010-01-12T08:02:00.000-08:00

Awesome engagement practice for their audience

A message to Garcia: an interesting read

2010-01-08T03:22:00.000-08:00

"A Message To Garcia"
by Elbert Hubbard 1899

In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion.

When war broke out between Spain and the United States it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain vastness of Cuba - no one knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly. What to do!

Some one said to the President, "There's a fellow by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if anybody can."

Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How "the fellow by the name of Rowan" took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia - are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail. The point that I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, "Where is he at?"

By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing - "Carry a message to Garcia!"

General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias. No man who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well-nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man - the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it.

Slipshod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, and half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook or threat he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, and sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant.

You, reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your office - six clerks are within call. Summon any one and make this request: "Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio." Will the clerk quietly say, "Yes, sir," and go do the task?

On your life, he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions: Who was he? Which encyclopedia? Where is the encyclopedia? Was I hired for that? Don't you mean Bismarck? What's the matter with Charlie doing it? Is he dead? Is there any hurry? Sha'n't I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself? What do you want to know for?

And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find Garcia - and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average, I will not.

Now, if you are wise, you will not bother to explain to your "assistant" that Correggio is indexed under the C's, not in the K's, but you will smile very sweetly and say, "Never mind," and go look it up yourself. And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift -these are the things that put pure Socialism so far into the future.

If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit oftheir effort is for all?

A first-mate with knotted club seems necessary; and the dread of getting "the bounce" Saturday night holds many a worker to his place. Advertise for a stenographer, and nine out of ten who apply can neither spell nor punctuate - and do not think it necessary to.

Can such a one write a letter to Garcia?

"You see that bookkeeper," said the foreman to me in a large factory. "Yes, what about him?" "Well he's a fine accountant, but if I'd send him up town on an errand, he might accomplish the errand all right, and on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street would forget what he had been sent for." Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia?

"We have recently been hearing much maudlin sympathy expressed for the downtrodden denizens of the sweat-shop" and the "homeless wanderer searching for honest employment", "and with it all often go many hard words for the men in power".

Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne'er-do-wells to do intelligent work; and his long, patient striving after "help" that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned.

In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process going on. The employer is constantly sending away "help" that have shown their incapacity to further the interests of the business, and others are being taken on. No matter how good times are, this sorting continues: only, if times are hard and work is scarce, the sorting is done finer - but out and forever out the incompetent and unworthy go. It is the survival of the fittest. Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best - those who can carry a message to Garcia.

I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to any one else, because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppressing, or intending to oppress, him. He cannot give orders; and he will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be, "Take it yourself!"

Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his threadbare coat. No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular firebrand of discontent. He is impervious to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled Number Nine boot.

Of course I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple; but in our pitying, let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise, whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line dowdy indifference, slipshod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry and homeless.

Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds - the man who, against great odds, has directed the efforts of others, and having succeeded, finds there's nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes. I have carried a dinner pail and worked for day's wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides. There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; and all employers are not rapacious and high-handed, any more than all poor men are virtuous. My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the "boss" is away, as well as when he is at home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly takes the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets "laid off" nor has to go on a strike for higher wages.

Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals.

Anything such a man asks shall be granted. He is wanted in every city, town and village - in every office, shop, store and factory. The world cries out for such: he is needed and needed badly - the man who can "Carry a Message to Garcia."

So who will send a letter to Garcia?

Oxymoron

2009-12-30T21:34:00.000-08:00

An oxymoron is usually defined as a phrase in which two words of contradictory meaning are brought together:-

1) Clearly misunderstood

2) Exact Estimate

3) Small Crowd

4) Act Naturally

5) Found Missing

6) Fully Empty

7) Pretty ugly

8) Seriously funny

9) Only choice

10) Original copies

And the best one...

11) Happily Married

Why people leave

2009-12-04T22:26:00.000-08:00

Most HR practitioners and leaders of organizations would instinctively say that people leave because of the following reasons:

There are better opportunities elsewhere.
It is difficult to work here.
Never did fit in.
Poor management.

In a recent study of 1,100 employees, it was noted that 40% to 45% of the workforce is "at risk" of leaving for another job when the economy turns around. The other news determined in this study is that one third of employees are unhappy at work. Of this discontented group, 28% are actively looking for a new job or planning to leave.

What are their concerns? The top 5 in order were:

1. Workload.
2. Insufficient support by management.
3. Concerns about the future.
4. Lack of challenge.
5. Insufficient recognition.

While surveys provide us with a variety of challenging areas, some of which are controllable and others not, management can tend to the items within their control.

Why do people stay?
By taking proactive actions to improve job satisfaction, a supervisor or a manager can help reduce turnover and retain key staff.

Provide recognition. Never underestimate the importance of good, old-fashioned day-to-day feedback. Employees welcome the "pat on the back" for a job well done because the time taken for personal feedback is disappearing from many organizations. Regular performance reviews are essential communication tools to keep your staff informed and focused. People who are uncertain about where they stand with their current employer are receptive to the lure of another organization. Giving feedback, in a constructive manner, creates respect for the employment relationship.

Measure job satisfaction. To understand an individual's general attitude toward his or her job, positive or negative, is vital in understanding the relationship to employee productivity, absenteeism, and turnover rates. The most common assessment tool in measurement is an employee survey, or through observation.

What defines job satisfaction?

In a nutshell, important factors conducive to job satisfaction include mentally challenging work, equitable rewards, supportive working conditions, and supportive colleagues. Commitment to and involvement with the organization and the actual job are also factors.

Mentally challenging work: Are there opportunities to use skills and abilities with variety of task, some freedom and constant feedback? Jobs with too little challenge are deemed boring, frustrating and can produce feelings of failure.
Equitable rewards: Employees want to work in a system that is perceived as just and fair. Are your promotion and pay systems policies meeting their requirements? While not everyone seeks a paycheque as the sole reward, the key is linking pay to satisfaction, which does not mean the salary paid but the perception of fairness. If these policies are perceived as just and fair there is likely to be greater job satisfaction.
Supportive working conditions: The working environment is very important in terms of safety, health and wellness. Physical comfort, location heating, noise and professionalism are all-important contributors. Ensuring that your environment is complying with all legislation and listening to employee complaints is important here.
Supportive colleagues: For many employees the opportunity for social interaction, with friendly coworkers and supervisors adds greatly to the dimension of job satisfaction. The supervisor's role is a major determinant of satisfaction because of the direct impact this role plays with the employee. Whether there is praise, good listening skills, positive role modelling or a fair attitude, the supervisor will affect the satisfaction level.
Job Involvement: Employees with a high level of involvement strongly identify with and care about the kind of work they do. The person here identifies closely with their job title and the perceived value of their individual performance and contribution to the organization.
Commitment: Some employees identify strongly with the employing organization. Perhaps it is the mission or vision or value system of the organization. However an interesting development can occur: while the employee may be dissatisfied with his or her particular job, the employee may view this as a "temporary" condition due to high satisfaction with the organization as a whole and remain loyal. But when dissatisfaction spreads to the organization itself, the employee is more likely to resign.

Web 2.0 Enables Cos to Improve Customer Loyalty

2009-11-27T23:43:00.000-08:00

The term "Web 2.0" is associated with web applications which facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web through web-based communities, social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, forums, mashups and folksonomies etc. A Web 2.0 site allows its users to interact with other users or to change website content, in contrast to non-interactive websites where users are limited to the passive viewing of information that is provided to them.

Web 2.0 websites typically include features like keyword search, links to other related information, authoring, Tags-Categorization, Extensions-Software and Signals- use of syndication technology such as RSS to notify users of content changes.

The most commonly used Web 2.0 tools include Blogger, Wordpress, Myspace, Youtube, Metacafe, Del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Orkut.

How does a business benefit from Web 2.0?

Owing to its multi-faceted features, Web 2.0 technologies offer many benefits to businesses, irrespective of their industry type. Some of these benefits include:

Greater ability to share ideas
Improved access to knowledge experts
Increased speed of access to knowledge
Reduced costs of communications, travel, training and operations
Decreased time to market for products
Improved employee satisfaction
Ability to gain access to expertise outside company walls more quickly
Increased customer loyalty, brand recognition and awareness

What are the trends of Web 2.0 adoption in India?

The rapidly growing internet usage across India, and the fact that young Indians are actively blogging and using social media sites, is driving the adoption of the Web 2.0 technologies. Some of the examples of Web 2.0 usage in India include:

Social networking phenomenon: Indians have taken to social networking in a big way. Orkut, Facebook, etc. are some of the sites which are being used actively by Indians.
Blogging phenomenon: Although in nascent stage in India, many youngsters, professionals, entrepreneurs and even companies are looking at Blogging as a source of revenue.
Media-sharing phenomenon: Sharing pictures/videos on blogs and social networks is gaining popularity in India.
Engaging with customers: Many Indian companies have turned to Web 2.0 to reach their customers, including through engaging their customers in social networking sites, corporate blogs, Twitter profiles, etc.

Which sectors need to urgently adopt Web 2.0? Why?

The advent of Web 2.0 does offer significant opportunities for companies to improve customer loyalty, increase operational efficiencies, increase product success and time-to-market. Some of the industry sectors that need to adopt Web 2.0 include Media, Banking, Retail, Online e-Commerce Portals, Education and Telco.

These are some of the industry verticals whose success to a great extent depends on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Technology is enabling businesses to increase their touch points with customers, and those companies who are ahead in the adoption will increasingly reap the benefits.

Some of the areas companies can effectively leverage Web 2.0 include:

Sales and Marketing: Web 2.0 provides opportunities for optimizing overall marketing spend and customizing content based on demography and geography of customers, thereby providing new sales and branding avenues for companies
Product Development: Web 2.0 can be used to shorten the product development time and innovation cycles, leading to increased predictability of product successes and campaigns
Customer Service: Web 2.0 help companies to build interactivity in their customer service operations, thereby enhancing customer experience and building loyalty.

Few examples where businesses have adopted and benefited from Web 2.0.

Globally, companies are implementing Web 2.0 technologies to enhance their competitive advantage and online presence. Some of the organizations which have effectively leveraged Web 2.0 include:

A leading watch maker: The watch maker uses Web 2.0 to connect with its customers. Blogs, RSS Feeds, Videos, etc are some of the social media tools which the watch manufacturer is using build awareness on its products and build its brand.
Politics: In the recent Indian elections, held in April 2009, politicians wooed first-time voters and reached out to the country's tech-savvy citizens through social media sites.
Automobile Manufacturer: A leading automobile manufacturer had also launched contests in social networking sites to know the preference of colours for their new car. They are using social media as a survey tool.

17 Key Differences Between Social Media and Traditional Marketing

2009-11-19T00:34:00.000-08:00

1. One way vs two way conversations

Even on such a large scale, there is a conversation happening, it takes a long time for multinational marketers to pick up on trends and comment on them, and the success rate is by no means 100%. This is irregardless of how much money they spend on an ad. Sometimes, they just miss. This is partly because of the scale of the audience and partly because they too are learning that with the internet, the market is changing much more rapidly than it used to. In order to get an ad that hits, marketers are finding themselves getting deeper and deeper into conversations with the consumer.

At the SME level, businesses have the distinct advantage of having a smaller group that can be addressed in a more granular fashion, thus addressing questions and concerns that are specific to the products usage and materials. Large companies trying to shift millions of units a year have pretty much painted themselves into the corner of projecting image over product or service merit.

Social media enables these conversations to take place and the content of these dialogs can be measured and analyzed in order to provide fast and effective responses. People are gradually picking up on the fact that they no longer have to sit back and have their wants and needs dictated to them. Social media marketing starts out by asking the questions, ‘What are you doing?’ ‘What do you want?’ ‘What is your opinion?’. This is a major shift and it immediately gives advantage to smaller businesses that have already been differentiating themselves based on the level of personalization that they can provide. Even if you are not directly involved in a particular conversation, there is a lot to be be gained by seeing what others think and how they themselves are interpreting the changes around them.

Because we are still in the very beginnings of this era, we are all now uniquely positioned to capitalize on this awakening among shoppers to the new kind of power they have when looking for products or services. In the game of establishing trust and authority every business whether large or small, is on a level playing field. Because of this, we now all have a unique chance to strengthen brands and develop more compelling products/services without the expensive and often secretive practices of large multinationals.

2. Real or near real time response

Social networks today are evolving to respond to user input and environmental input instantaneously. This is enhanced by mobile technologies’ addition of richer interfaces. What this means for businesses is that they can track tastes and requirements as they occur. It is a greater degree of precision in marketing data that can lead to more accurate assesments of consumer sentiment along with more reliable predictions as to what consumers will or will not adopt.

3. Authenticity in consumer data

Rather than having to rely on samples of data from a source that is estimated to be authentic, we now have the real time input from people providing not only their first impressions, but also their opinion on a product several months into use. We have all been solicited with customer surveys and have all usually closed that popup window. Today, that information can be found in forums. Not only this, but the information is much more heartfelt. It does not come in the form of a multiple choice survey but in the form of a handwritten message from one user to another (or a potential user). This is a degree of honesty and forthrightness that is difficult to acheive with traditional marketing surveys. It is spontaneous and sincere.

4. A spectrum of relationships

Traditional marketing focuses most on company to user and user to company. Today we have:

company->customer
customer->company
customer<->customer
current customer->potential customer
potential customer -> current customer
accessory customer -> current customer
retailer -> current customer
There are many others, and all of these relationships are broadcastable to tens of thousands or even millions.

5. Interactive media

Sure, this is a 90’s buzzword, but like many of the concepts from that era, it is now being realized. YouTube and other video sharing sites are a great source of commentary. Many times it is more insightful than the video itself. In addition, ads are now placed in video and it won’t be long before those ads behave more like flash games or navigation systems. The marketing value of this is that it allows the potential customer to become more engaged with the brand identity because he is spending more time in it’s space. He or she learns more about the culture associated with the brand and has more time to visualize ownership of the product. All of these things operate at a deeper level of cognition than the traditional sit and watch approach. It is direct involvement.

6. Self produced media

Obviously, we can all broadcast ourselves now, but what is more interesting is that large companies are relying on the handheld lo-fi aesthetic to show authenticity. What this means for the SME is that for your very limited budget, you are getting the same video quality as the big guys. It is a nice twist of irony that merits immediate leveraging. What’s also important about this idea of self produced video is the inclusion and instruction element. People who make videos on their own are likely to respond to comments and they are passionate about the content of the video, not just the shifting of product. This element is becoming a driving force and it’s key ingredient is the value of the content, not it’s cost prohibitive style.

7. A focus on content

As mentioned above, valuable content (The kind that creates value) is much more available today. Many times, it takes a bit of effort to get to, but it is nonetheless attainable at far less than a premium cost. Because of this, people are now more expectant of this kind of information and are now expecting it of larger companies as well. They have become used to transparency and sales approaches that appeal to critical thinking as well as stylistic reasons. For large organizations, this transition can be much more difficult than it will be for a small business that has been struggling for an opportunity to explain, logically the benefits of his or her service.

8. Equalization amongst authorities

Authorities can no longer simply be proclaimed by loud booming voice on one of 10 channels. Claims are easily confirmed via elctronic resources and during this investigation, they are exposed to other options. The question then becomes who to trust? This is when relationship building with a consumer becomes important and again, where an SME has the advantage of a more granular dialog. This in turn means

9. A nearer proximity to authority

Name your area of interest, and there is very likely a blog, Twitter account or forum moderated by someone who a)Knows more about you on that topic and b) is very willing to discuss it with you. This puts you into direct contact with any number of authorities. Being this close to people with first hand expertise on a given topic will rapidly educate the market to a point that is inconvenient to very large organizations, who only want you educated up to the point that you desire what they are selling.

10. The ability to establish real trust

Because of the proximity of the potential customer and client to the source of the product, real trust can develop. This comes about from fewer scripted emails, more timely response and a higher chance of getting a question answered correctly the first time.

11. Constant adaptation and growth

Big boats take longer to turn around. As an SME, your advantage is agility. Software tools and even manufacturing costs are dropping dramatically making the biggest challenge one of adapting to customer requirements in a more customizable way.

12. Diverse distribution channels

Traditional media has been print,TV and radio. Today there is microblogging, Social networks of myriad flavors, video sharing, forums and chat. All of them have various protocols and audiences. Because of the diversification, it will be difficult to master them all, but much easier to dominate the one that serves your niche the best.

13. Low cost

To say that the cost of exposure to a wide audience has dropped dramatically is a gross understatement. The fact is that we all now have the capacity to reach a unique audience that is receptive to your proposition and very targeted. Doing so takes a great deal of work and effort, but this is the trade of for the low cost. At the end of the day most small businesses are happy to make this transition.

14. Low barrier to entry, higher barrier to success

Yes, everyone can start up a blog and host it for $3.95 a month, but that is just the first stage of the beginning. It is wonderful to be able to enter the playing field at all, but there is a lot of game still to play. The good news is that we are not even one minute into the match yet.

15. Tons of gaps

Traditional media has certainly been of a more monolithic and dictatorial nature. Because of this, options were limited to a lowest common denominator type of product development and marketing. With that wall coming down, there are massive gaps of unfulfilled needs emerging. They are all much smaller markets than the one hungry for a Big Mac, but they are certainly large enough to provide ample opportunity for someone who is passionate about what they do.

16. Smaller competitors have many advantages

Smaller competitors can speak to customers in the same ways that customers speak to their friends and family. This lack of a need to adjust one’s mindset before calling customer service will become a huge asset for smaller companies.

17. The emergence of the passionate supplier

Giant monolithic organizations tend to lose their passion for a product as they grow larger. This is because they eventually approach a size that makes it difficult to address exceptional cases or very specific need. Small businesses are adept at this and it is their bread and butter. As the sit and listen marketing approach fades away, consumers will beginning to expect a more direct relationship with knowledgeable people.

Steps taken during project closure

2009-11-04T21:41:00.000-08:00

Depending on the size of your organization, you may treat project management as a casual practice or you may have an involved PMO. In either case, you probably go through the typical inception, elaboration, and construction phases of a project. But when it comes to the end of a project, many project managers come up just short of the finish line. Failure to handle the final steps can add confusion to an initiative and may lead to customer dissatisfaction, unhappy staff, and a project dragging on longer than necessary.

Here are a few things you should be thinking about when you get to the end of your next project. Some of these items are purely administrative, but many of them will help get you one step closer to ensuring that your project is successful.

#1: Finalize testing

Testing can be a drain on people, and many of us don’t like to do it — especially when it takes a few rounds. I have seen complex projects that were four to six months long have a day or two scheduled for testing. Not scheduling an adequate amount of testing usually ends up with problems occurring during the first few weeks of an implementation. Don’t take a shortcut here and minimize the importance of testing; otherwise, you’ll take on the additional risk of having a painful rollout.

#2: Finalize training

Users? Who cares about users? Well, many projects are done for their benefit, so make sure you have all your testing materials completed and delivered. Failure to do so will most likely manifest itself in the form of angry phone calls from irate users in the middle of the night.

#3: Validate deliverables

You’ve checked all your boxes and cleaned out your inbox, and you really think you’re done. But what does your customer think? Schedule time with customers to review all the deliverables and ensure they have been met. In some cases, there may be a few outstanding issues still unresolved when you get to your scheduled end date. Early on in your project, you should have made an agreement that determines how this will affect your end date if this situation occurs.

#4: Get project signoff

After you’ve agreed that all the deliverables have been met, request a formal signoff on the project documentation. Doing so helps ensure that everybody is in agreement on the state of the project. Since this signoff usually signals the formal end of the project, be careful not to make your customers feel pressured into signing. If they do this without understanding what it means, you will likely end up with an unsatisfied customer if an issue arises at a later date.

#5: Release the team

Now that the project is done, where is your team going? Depending on the organization, they may be sent back to a development pool or into the business. Or maybe they need to go drum up some work for themselves within the company. No matter what it is, make sure you spend time with them and set a clear end date for when you no longer need their services. Also don’t forget that you probably need to complete any performance review documents that need to be added to their file.

#6: Analyze actual vs. planned

Resources. Did you really get away with only one developer/tester for 10 weeks or did you need to scramble and get more people? What about the amount of time you scheduled for your business partners? Understanding how well you hit these targets will help you better allocate resources for your next project and set more realistic expectations when it comes to a project’s duration.

Budget. How much was the project going to cost? Did you come in on budget, under budget, over budget? Sitting down to understand the answers to these basic questions should give you some insight into a critical area of any project.

#7: Archive documentation

During any project, we seem to create huge amounts of documentation. It can range from scope documents and project plans to contracts and meeting minutes. Whatever it is, when you are done you should have someplace to keep it based on the retention policy of your company. You’ll be glad you did when your phone rings two years from now and somebody asks you to explain the rationale behind a choice you made during the course of the project.

#8: Ensure contract closure

It’s not unusual for a project to have its own budget. You also may have contracts for hardware, software, or professional services. When you’re done, make sure that you verify that all the terms of your contracts have been met, request final invoices from vendors and submit them to AP, and close out any associated financial accounts, if necessary.

#9: Conduct a postmortem meeting

What types of risks did you identify and mitigate? What went really well that you want to ensure you do again next time? Have a meeting with all the project stakeholders and relevant participants to provide them with a forum to express any lessons learned.

#10: Perform a self assessment

So it’s finally over. After all the hard work has been completed, you’ve made sure that all the i’s have been dotted and all the t’s crossed. Now what do you do? It’s important to get some feedback on your performance from the people you interacted with during the project. If you have the opportunity to send out a 360-degree feedback survey to as many individuals as possible, I would recommend it. It will help you assess how you’re progressing and will give you some great direction in deciding which personal growth opportunities you should focus on.

This list won’t be the same for everybody and will depend on your organization and how it implements projects. But if you can do them, it will always make the transition to the next project smoother.

Client servicing is the KEY to success.

2009-10-29T22:28:00.000-07:00

"Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game, client service wins the game." Lately, I have been thinking about aspects that differentiate one vendor from another. While expertise, experience, affordability, and ease of communication featured high on the list, client servicing made a distinct appearance.

Effective client servicing is very often what differentiates the winner from the plodders, in today's highly competitive business landscape. Exemplary client service practices can give your product/service the extra impetus it needs to outshine rival product/service. And since finding new clients is much more expensive than retaining existing ones, the need for superior client servicing gets amplified. Also, a lost customer would mean lost revenue and an unhappy customer can damage your reputation.

With so much at stake, I don't believe any organization would not want to service their clients well. In view of this, I would like to share some quintessential aspects of effective client servicing.

Honesty is the best policy

Honesty and sincerity go a long way with clients. Do not pretend that you have answers to every problem they have, if you don't. Admitting a weakness in your knowledge or process is better than outright lies. The genuineness of your concern to formulate an effective solution to your client requirements will win you their loyalty and long term partnership.

Foresee you clients' needs

Your business plan should be built around understanding and anticipating your clients' needs and aspirations. Make sure you offerings are in sync with your clients' expectations and delivers on those expectations satisfactorily. A mismatch would lead to unpleasant experience.

Listen to your clients

Effective listening entails truly making an effort to absorb and comprehend what is being said and acknowledge that understanding. Learning to listen is a key skill that will serve you well in all aspects of your business. Attend to even the smallest details. Try putting yourself in the client's shoe and endeavor to understand their point of view.

Resolve conflicts in time

Don't allow issues to remain unaddressed and mould and fester. Prompt and timely resolution holds the key to good client servicing. Don't shy away from tendering an apology even if you are not necessarily in the wrong. Intervention by a senior member to placate an important client and seek effective solution can be effective at times.

Communicate and follow-up periodically

Your client service initiative should not stop with completion of sales process. The endeavor should be to maintain a free flow of information between you and your clients. The communication should be designed to educate clients about your product/service and organization. Newsletters, interactive forums, and other forms of social media are effective tools to communicate key messages.

Seek to build long lasting relationship

It is imperative to build long lasting relationship with your clients and not just perfecting a singular non-repetitive client. Building an effective relationship involves being responsive to client requests. Every effort should be made to accommodate client requests or to explain options that are available. A client, who feels appreciated, cared for and understood is less likely to leave in pursuit of better service and/or price. Effective relationship can compensate for poor performance, but it cannot be used or rather abused to justify low grade performance.

In short, superior client servicing is critical to your survival in the market place. It should be the cornerstone of your business and will help you retain a loyal client base.

Interview with Ingo Ramin of ‘247 media studios’

2009-09-25T04:15:00.000-07:00

― What is your typical day like?

A: In order of appearance:

- Waking up (oh, really?)
- Having coffee
- Going for a walk with my four dogs
- Having coffee
- Walking to the office (with at least 3 dogs)
- Starting the computers and thinking about buying a mac
- Having some more coffee
- Checking emails
- Checking twitter
- Double checking emails
- Back to twitter
- Creating 3 stunning layouts and 2 amazing websites
- Writing emails
- Checking if twitter is still online
- Writing invoices
- Paying invoices
- Noticing that too much coffee can harm your health
- Leaving the office with 2 dogs
- Going back to the office to get the other missing dog
- Going home to my wife and son
- Going for a run
- Playing Xbox or PStriple (gamertag and ID: wonderwaffe)
- Falling asleep (right after checking twitter and my mails for sure)

― Have you been to Japan?

A: No. Now that was easy to answer.

BUT I WOULD LOVE TO. Really, this is one of my biggest dreams to visit Japan one day and spend all of my non existing money in Akihabara (major shopping area for electronic, computer & anime)…if i could only fight my fear of flying.

― What do you think of the design community in Japan?

A: I have a huge respect for Japanese designers and I have never seen more beautiful art when it comes to web design.

― I’m especially impressed by your interactive flash web designs. Where do you get your fun & creative ideas from?

A: Most of my ideas come from video games and mother nature. hm?…Ok, forget about that mother nature thing, I was only trying to be political correct: IT’S ONLY VIDEO GAMES. I own nearly every console ever made and while I save the world and kick some alien butts or become the greatest rally driver in the world, I really feel how I fuel up my inspiration tanks with ideas and images provided by those small digital worlds. While I write these lines, I have to say that some ideas are coming from mother nature as well…

― We see that you have international clients from Japan, America, Europe. Could you tell us what are some of the important points in taking your company further into international markets?

A: Especially the German market is a bit afraid of anything beside the “normal” corporate website. Coming up with something like our teddies in space webbernet, might have scared the **** out of some decision makers. But we love to think a bit outside of the box, therefore especially America was a huge playground for us (bigger, badder, bolder). Due to my love for video games, I was able to reach one of my favorite video game company SQUARE ENIX in Japan and now I’m waiting for some love letters from Capcom, Konami, Namco, Clover (we luv you)…!

― What are your 5 favorite sites online?

A: Oh, that’s easy. Mine, mine, mine, and my own.
Nah, just kiddin’ ;-) My all time favorite site is still the original ‘Ray of Light’ by Yasuto Suga (ok, it’s not online anymore , but i have it backup on my server).

For the rest in no particular order:
- Leo Burnett
- E616 Extreme
- Litfuse Design
- And for sure the one and only daily time waster: 247 media studios @ twitter

― What are the tools you couldn’t live without?

A: Photoshop is definitely the most important and powerful tool for me, followed by flash (even if I’m a bit in war with AS3), zBrush (the greatest invention since sliced bread), Cinema 4D (because it’s the only 3D program even an 50 yr old like me can handle) and Adobe Audition for all those little whoosh and sizzle sounds. So far it’s the normal designers toolbox, but beside that, some of those nasty little tools and apps in my iPhone are so much fun that I could hardly think of to live without them.

― How do you typically start a new project?

A: After a long briefing via mail, skype or phone (like mentioned before, most of my clients are from overseas), I try to get myself into the right mood for the project (for example: playing through Final Fantasy I – XI when I have to design the Final Fantasy XII website, or listening to Glenn Miller if there is a retro project coming up).

Then it’s up for some sketches using old school pen and paper. Next are some rough drafts to check if I’m on the same track with my client. If i have a ‘go’ here, I switch to the back-end programming (form follows function…at least I try to do so sometimes).

If the technical part is done and approved, I go back to finalize the design, showing the webbernet to the client, listening to him saying: ‘oh, we luv it. it’s perfect…just a few minor changes’. Spending the next 2 weeks to go for those few minor changes, thinking about charging more next time and ending up with a happy client and a tired designer.

What kind of leader you are?

2009-09-22T22:58:00.000-07:00

If you recently interviewed for a management position, you were probably asked the question: What kind of a leader are you? I am not entirely sure what kind of an answer is desired; perhaps, something along the lines of: “I practice consultative leadership, but I make my own decisions, so the buck always stops with me.” Or, perhaps, “I lead through delegation, by my empowering people to make decisions and endorsing them.”

The interviewer might have nodded appreciatively and mumbled, “Good,” and you might have gotten the job, but is there a right answer? Is there one particular model of leadership style that everyone should aspire to adopt? I will attempt to answer this question here.

A leadership style is all about the manner in which a leader makes a decision. Think Al Dunlap and the adjective autocratic will come to mind (more precisely, tyrannical, in Chainsaw Al’s case). Dwight Eisenhower, on the other hand, was known for his participative decision making. A great deal of books are dedicated to biographies of successful leaders and even more, to telling the reader how to become as successful by copying what the exemplar has done in the past.

In fact, no single kind of the leadership decision making is appropriate for every situation. A platoon commander does not gather his men for an offsite retreat in the heat of battle. Nor does a CEO decide on a divestiture or an acquisition in the first five minutes of a phone conversation on the subject.

There are only five approaches to decisions available to you.

1. Authoritative I: You make the decision on your own, using the information available to you.

2. Authoritative II: You obtain necessary information from your subordinates and make a decision on your own. You may or may not share the objective of your decision. They merely provide information you deem necessary for you to have.

3. Consultative: You share the objective (a problem, an opportunity, etc.) of your decision with subordinates and solicit both information and suggestions. Then, you make the decision.

4. Group: You share the objective with a group of subordinates, discuss and analyze it as a group, and arrive to a mutually agreeable solution.

5. Endorsement: You share the objective and delegate decision making to the group of subordinates. Once they reach the decision, you endorse it.

To choose the right approach, you need to consider the following five parameters:
1. Information available: You may or may not have the information necessary for prudent decision making. Quality of decisions generally improves as input information becomes more complete.

2. Time available: Authoritative decision making requires far less time than other types. If an expeditious action is required, it may be impossible to engage the group or even consult with the key staff.

3. Development priorities: If you consistently exclude your staff from decision making, there are no learning opportunities for them to develop their decision making skills. This also often means that there won’t be any opportunity for you to grow out of this role.

4. Need for engagement: Authoritative decisions meet compliance (at best) among employees. The much more powerful state is the one of engagement, where those who execute the decision have “bought into” it wholeheartedly. This is when people’s productivity and the quality of work go through the roof. You are likely to get it when you involve your subordinates in making the decision.

5. Risk: There are two considerations included in this one parameter. First, the more isolated the decision maker is, the higher is the likelihood that some critical piece of information will be missed (most commonly, the case of “you don’t know what you don’t know”). Second — and this is a bit Machiavellian — a suboptimal decision made with a clearly demonstrated effort to seek information from subject matter experts and develop consensus can be much easier excused than the same decision made on one’s own.

Trending of these parameters across the five decision making styles is illustrated by the graph below. There may very well be other parameters that you may find necessary to add.

Figure A

So, what is the best answer to the question on your leadership style? The right answer is this: “Leadership is situational. The best leaders understand the five approaches available to them and choose them as they seem appropriate. Let me tell you how I do it…”

I hope that you put these concepts into practice. What do you think of these categories?

Significance of 62nd Independence Day

2009-08-14T05:36:00.000-07:00

What is the significance of 62nd Independence Day for these kids?

Are you a absentminded by nature?

2009-08-10T23:34:00.000-07:00

I’m absentminded by nature. It’s not that my brain is deteriorating — it’s just always thinking about something else. I’m not alone — this tendency is so prevalent among us geeks that the character of the absentminded professor has become almost archetypal. Absentmindedness affects us geeks more than the general population for at least two reasons:

Hyperfocus: When we’re thinking about a problem, we tune out everything else. This trance-like state often accompanies us when we leave our desks to perform other mundane activities; we can’t concentrate on those activities while we’re hyperfocused on something else, so we rely on unconscious habits. When those habits become disrupted because somebody moved the toothpaste to a new drawer (even if it was six months ago), then we’re comically (in everyone else’s eyes) confused until we can shift our focus to the utterly unnecessary problem at hand and locate said toothbrush.

Filtering: We have so many mental tasks to perform every day that we often ignore issues that seem unworthy of our attention. It might be something that we consider trivial, or that we have mentally stamped “handled.” Other people can get pretty angry over their inability to distinguish between these two reasons for our filtering. When I don’t remember what time my wife is leaving to take our child to the doctor, she may think that I don’t care about his condition; I do, but since that task has been delegated to her, I don’t let its details consume my precious CPU cycles.

While it’s often inconvenient for our loved ones and even sometimes for ourselves, absentmindedness has its benefits. Besides enabling us to concentrate deeply on technical problems, it also keeps us from overloading our brains with mundane details. For instance, I didn’t see the gorilla in the video, did you? Now that I’ve pointed it out, you won’t miss it again — but it’s also a lot harder to concentrate on counting the passes now.
Get focused by asking “big picture” questions

IT consulting is not all about solving technical problems — people and business issues frequently require our attention. Lots of gorillas cross our field of vision, and if we don’t notice them and give them a banana, they’re likely to get vicious. We need to respond quickly to our clients and to new opportunities and vulnerabilities, and we need to be sensitive to people’s feelings (which control their business decisions more than they realize).

To be successful as a consultant requires a hybrid between the hyperfocus of the geek and the “big picture” thinking of the business owner. It may not be possible to do both at the same time, so I advise setting aside some time each day to ask yourself a few “big picture” questions:

What’s important to each of my clients right now?
How is my business plan working out?
I missing any opportunities?
S about to bite me in the you-know-what?
What else am I forgetting?

Stay organized with SOPs, apps, and software

The “big picture” questions could easily consume all of your time, so again, you need to lean on habitual behavior to enable your “zone” periods. Besides setting aside time for the global view, a number of other standard operating procedures (SOPs) can help you stay organized with less thought required. Here are three SOPs that have been helpful to me:

Put reminders on a calendar, and give the reminder enough lead time but not too much (so you don’t forget it again after the reminder).
Keep a task list with everything you need to remember to do.
Every day, make a daily task list. This not only forces you to review your overall task list, but it also tells you what you need to focus on today.

Who Finds Twitter More Effective, Advertisers or Consumers?

2009-08-03T23:24:00.000-07:00

Though Twitter is currently a media darling, only 8% of advertisers and consumers think it is a “very effective” promotion tool, according to June 2009 data from LinkedIn Research Network and Harris Interactive.

The research, which included surveys of US advertisers and Internet users, found that while 83% of advertisers were familiar with Twitter, only 31% of Web users were.

Naturally, younger respondents were more familiar with the microblogging site. Only 11% of 18-to-39-year-old advertisers did not know enough about Twitter to have an opinion on its value, compared with 20% of advertisers ages 40 to 49 and 21% of those 50 and older.

Among Internet users, 55% of 18-to-34-year-olds said they were not familiar enough to have an opinion, compared with 80% of those 55 and older.

In terms of Twitter’s effectiveness for promoting products and ideas, both advertisers and consumers were tepid.

In addition to the 8% of advertisers who said Twitter was very effective for promotion, 50% said it was somewhat effective. More than three in 10 (34%) said it was not very effective and 8% felt it was not effective at all.

TIPS for Effective Project Management

2009-07-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

The right mix of planning, monitoring, and controlling can make the difference in completing a project on time, on budget, and with high quality results. These guidelines will help all project managers to plan the work and work the plan.

Given the high rate of project failures, you might think that companies would be happy to just have their project finish with some degree of success. That’s not the case. Despite the odds, organizations expect projects to be completed faster, cheaper, and better. The only way that these objectives can be met is through the use of effective project management processes and techniques. This list outlines the major phases of managing a project and discusses key steps for each one.

PLANNING

1: Plan the work by utilizing a project definition document

There is a tendency for IT infrastructure projects to shortchange the planning process, with an emphasis on jumping right in and beginning the work. This is a mistake. The time spent properly planning the project will result in reduced cost and duration and increased quality over the life of the project. The project definition is the primary deliverable from the planning process and describes all aspects of the project at a high level. Once approved by the customer and relevant stakeholders, it becomes the basis for the work to be performed. For example, in planning an Exchange migration, the project definition should include the following:

Project overview: Why is the Exchange migration taking place? What are the business drivers? What are the business benefits?
Objectives: What will be accomplished by the migration? What do you hope to achieve?
Scope: What features of Exchange will be implemented? Which departments will be converted?

What is specifically out of scope?

Assumptions and risks: What events are you taking for granted (assumptions), and what events are you concerned about? Will the right hardware and infrastructure be in place? Do you have enough storage and network capacity?
Approach: How will the migration project unfold and proceed?
Organization: Show the significant roles on the project. Identifying the project manager is easy, but who is the sponsor? It might be the CIO for a project like this. Who is on the project team? Are any of the stakeholders represented?
Signature page: Ask the sponsor and key stakeholders to approve this document, signifying that they agree on what is planned.
Initial effort, cost, and duration estimates: These should start as best-guess estimates and then be revised, if necessary, when the workplan is completed.

PROJECT WORKPLAN

2: Create a planning horizon

After the project definition has been prepared, the workplan can be created. The workplan provides the step-by-step instructions for constructing project deliverables and managing the project. You should use a prior workplan from a similar project as a model, if one exists. If not, build one the old-fashioned way by utilizing a work-breakdown structure and network diagram.

Create a detailed workplan, including assigning resources and estimating the work as far out as you feel comfortable. This is your planning horizon. Past the planning horizon, lay out the project at a higher level, reflecting the increased level of uncertainty. The planning horizon will move forward as the project progresses. High-level activities that were initially vague need to be defined in more detail as their timeframe gets closer.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES

3: Define project management procedures up front

The project management procedures outline the resources that will be used to manage the project. This will include sections on how the team will manage issues, scope change, risk, quality, communication, and so on. It is important to be able to manage the project rigorously and proactively and to ensure that the project team and all stakeholders have a common understanding of how the project will be managed. If common procedures have already been established for your organization, utilize them on your project.

4: Manage the workplan and monitor the schedule and budget

Once the project has been planned sufficiently, execution of the work can begin. In theory, since you already have agreement on your project definition and since your workplan and project management procedures are in place, the only challenge is to execute your plans and processes correctly. Of course, no project ever proceeds entirely as it was estimated and planned. The challenge is having the rigor and discipline needed to apply your project management skills correctly and proactively.

Review the workplan on a regular basis to determine how you are progressing in terms of schedule and budget. If your project is small, this may need to be weekly. For larger projects, the frequency might be every two weeks.
Identify activities that have been completed during the previous time period and update the workplan to show they are finished. Determine whether there are any other activities that should be completed but have not been. After the workplan has been updated, determine whether the project will be completed within the original effort, cost, and duration. If not, determine the critical path and look for ways to accelerate these activities to get you back on track.
Monitor the budget. Look at the amount of money your project has actually consumed and determine whether your actual spending is more than originally estimated based on the work that has been completed. If so, be proactive. Either work with the team to determine how the remaining work will be completed to hit your original budget or else raise a risk that you may exceed your allocated budget.

5: Look for warning signs

Look for signs that the project may be in trouble. These could include the following:

A small variance in schedule or budget starts to get bigger, especially early in the project. There is a tendency to think you can make it up, but this is a warning. If the tendencies are not corrected quickly, the impact will be unrecoverable.
You discover that activities you think have already been completed are still being worked on. For example, users whom you think have been migrated to a new platform are still not.
You need to rely on unscheduled overtime to hit the deadlines, especially early in the project.
Team morale starts to decline.
Deliverable quality or service quality starts to deteriorate. For instance, users start to complain that their converted e-mail folders are not working correctly.
Quality-control steps, testing activities, and project management time starts to be cut back from the original schedule. A big project, such as an Exchange migration, can affect everyone in your organization. Don’t cut back on the activities that ensure the work is done correctly.

If these situations occur, raise visibility through risk management, and put together a plan to proactively ensure that the project stays on track. If you cannot successfully manage through the problems, raise an issue.

MANAGING SCOPE

6: Ensure that the sponsor approves scope-change requests

After the basics of managing the schedule, managing scope is the most important activity required to control a project. Many project failures are not caused by problems with estimating or team skill sets but by the project team working on major and minor deliverables that were not part of the original project definition or business requirements. Even if you have good scope-management procedures in place, there are still two major areas of scope-change management that must be understood to be successful: understanding who the customer is and scope creep.

In general, the project sponsor is the person funding the project. For infrastructure projects like an Exchange migration, the sponsor might be the CIO or CFO. Although there is usually just one sponsor, a big project can have many stakeholders, or people who are impacted by the project. Requests for scope changes will most often come from stakeholders — many of whom may be managers in their own right. One manager might want chat services for his or her area. Another might want an exception to the size limits you have placed on mailboxes. It doesn’t matter how important a change is to a stakeholder, they can’t make scope-change decisions, and they can’t give your team the approval to make the change. In proper scope-change management, the sponsor (or a designate) must give the approval, since they are the only ones who can add funding to cover the changes and know if the project impact is acceptable.

7: Guard against scope creep

Most project managers know to invoke scope-change management procedures if they are asked to add a major new function or a major new deliverable to their project. However, sometimes the project manager doesn’t recognize the small scope changes that get added over time. Scope creep is a term used to define a series of small scope changes that are made to the project without scope-change management procedures being used. With scope creep, a series of small changes — none of which appear to affect the project individually — can accumulate and have a significant overall impact on the project. Many projects fail because of scope creep, and the project manager needs to be diligent in guarding against it.

MANAGING RISK

8: Identify risks up front

When the planning work is occurring, the project team should identify all known risks. For each risk, they should also determine the probability that the risk event will occur and the potential impact on the project. Those events identified as high-risk should have specific plans put into place to mitigate them so they do not, in fact, occur. Medium risks should be evaluated to see whether they need to be proactively managed. (Low-level risks may be identified as assumptions. That is, there is potential risk involved, but you are “assuming” that the positive outcome is much more probable.) Some risks are inherent in a complex project that affects every person in the company. Other risks may include not having the right level of expertise, unfamiliarity with the technology, and problems integrating smoothly with existing products or equipment.

9: Continue to assess potential risks throughout the project

Once the project begins, periodically perform an updated risk assessment to determine whether other risks have surfaced that need to be managed.

10: Resolve issues as quickly as possible

Issues are big problems. For instance, in an Exchange migration, the Exchange servers you ordered aren’t ready and configured on time. Or perhaps the Windows forest isn’t set up correctly and needs to be redesigned. The project manager should manage open issues diligently to ensure that they are being resolved. If there is no urgency to resolve the issue or if the issue has been active for some time, it may not really be an issue. It may be a potential problem (risk), or it may be an action item that needs to be resolved at some later point. Real issues, by their nature, must be resolved with a sense of urgency.

solar eclipse images

2009-07-22T23:46:00.000-07:00

What makes you a Great Boss (Leader)

2009-07-16T22:19:00.000-07:00

Despite the negative environment, many organizations and companies are still enjoying great successes. Couple of idea that you can use to build a more successful organization.

Depending on the news you hear, it may seem like this economy is still going downhill, or perhaps the bottom has finally been reached. But either way, there’s no doubt that more organizations are going to fail before we’re truly moving continually forward again.

However, while many organizations struggle, there are still great success stories out there. Leaders who see opportunities where others see roadblocks generally lead those operations. Not coincidently, their teams are usually both more positive and more productive then competitors.’

Become a small picture kind of boss - While it’s critical that you help everyone understand the overall goals and objectives of the organization; don’t forget that the best leaders will also bring those goals down to the smallest details of individual jobs. Learn to help everyone, at every level, understand how his or her specific contribution can make the whole organization more successful.

Improve the preparation for hiring new players - Most organizations do really crappy interviewing. Many who interview potential new hires admit to not being well prepared. They say they figured someone else in the process would have done much better. Now more than ever, it’s important that anyone joining your organization is well screened and the best fit for the opening. HR studies show that 60% of new hires fail in the first 12 months.

Develop your memory - Do you know name of each of your team members? The best leaders remember names, job roles, hobbies, partner’s names, and more. Watching them go through a series of meetings, it can be amazing just how good their memories are. And it pays off - people work harder for those who care enough to remember personal things about them.

Learn these words: “I made a mistake” - And then say them as required. When you are confident enough to admit your screw-ups, it’s a great signal to team members that you are real and that you get it. This encourages them to be just as honest, reducing the fudging and BS so prevalent in many organizations. This makes it less likely that you’ll get one of those surprises that cause people to reach for purple pills in the top left hand drawer.

Track how you spend your time - The finest managers spend their time where the best payoff is likely to come. However, many leaders, despite their best intentions, spend too much of their time on problems or dealing with problem people. To see how you’re doing, I suggest that you regularly take out your calendar and review how much of your time you spent with what and who. If you see a pattern in your behavior - like too much time dealing with the whiny guy who always has troubles in his department and not with the positive individual who always delivers on her commitments - make some changes to your time management.

Don’t demi-task - Do you listen 100 percent of the time or are you usually mentally engaged in several things at once? Top dogs know that nobody can multitask effectively over the long haul. They’ve figured out how to focus with laser-like precision. And their team members come to know that their boss is really hot and can’t be bluffed. This makes the team better at being clear and precise in their communications to you. Saves both time and energy for everyone.

Celebrate success - Whining doesn’t create change. Managing by berating is counterproductive. Even in downtimes, you can probably find something that’s doing well - cite it during your meetings or in emails. And name the responsible individuals. What you choose to focus on gets the most attention from others on your team. When you celebrate the little wins, you encourage more of the same behavior from others. And soon, you’ll have bigger things to celebrate.

Ways to improve productivity of team.

2009-06-23T22:37:00.000-07:00

Keeping team members motivated and performing at the top of their game is especially difficult right now.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, or that the job just keeps getting harder, it’s particularly important to keep in mind how some of your team members may be feeling through all the bad news. If they’re worried about their own job, paying bills, or the fate of a loved one, it’s unlikely they are doing their best work. That reduced effectiveness could, ironically, create a worse situation for them if it results in fewer jobs or reduced pay.

It’s to the benefit of all concerned that you help them to keep working at full steam. Here are a few “best practices” we’ve seen used successfully by strong leaders across a wide swath of industry and organizations. If you or your team could use some new approaches, I suggest you add some of these to your own management toolbox:

Lead by example - You send messages to your team members with every action and statement. If you’re seen to be giving extra, it will inspire and energize others to do the same. The same holds true for the opposite by the way: showing fear or frustration will only fuel similar results within the team.

Focus on communicating objectives rather than defining roles - With fewer human resources, now’s the time to re-assess your key deliverables. Which of them make an immediate impact, and what can be punted to a time later? Engage as many of the team as possible on the most important goals; even if that move takes them outside their old job definitions.

Sense of urgency - Keep goals, both individual and team, front and center to ensure focus. Broadcast and talk about results and achievements. Especially if you’ve had to reduce headcount, you want each individual performing at optimal levels. Note I say “optimal” and not “maximum”. The former is good management practice, the latter results in burnout and negativity.

Celebrate individual contributions - Performers hearing only about the “team’s performance” can actually demotivate and cause them to slow down to the “norm”. Find opportunity to Appreciate Individual too.

Provide guidelines to reduce uncertainty - Trusting your team to do the right thing is well and good; but in uncertain times even your best team members can make improper decisions. Help them with frequent reviews of goals, new or successful past approaches, and preferred outcomes during regular team meetings.

Recognize that your emotions affect outcomes - Remaining visibly cool in difficult periods or demanding environments serves to help your team maintain their balance and performance. People are de-motivated by constantly cranky or negative bosses. If you have a disappointment, or a major goal was missed, it’s fine and appropriate to say so; but don’t make it personal.

Being a leader is more than being a manager. It requires empathy, attitude, and skill. The effort is worth it.

Allow Your Own Inner Light to Guide You

2009-06-10T21:55:00.001-07:00

There comes a time when you must stand alone.
You must feel confident enough within yourself to follow your own dreams.
You must be willing to make sacrifices.
You must be capable of changing and rearranging your priorities so that your final goal can be achieved.
Sometimes, familiarity and comfort need to be challenged.
There are times when you must take a few extra chances and create your own realities.
Be strong enough to at least try to make your life better.
Be confident enough that you won't settle for a compromise just to get by.
Appreciate yourself by allowing yourself the opportunities to grow, develop, and find your true sense of purpose in this life.
Don't stand in someone else's shadow when it's your sunlight that should lead the way.

Active Listening – Overview and Concept

2009-06-10T01:00:00.000-07:00

Active Listening consists of a set of communication techniques that were originally developed by psychotherapists as a way of getting their clients to feel safe and open up. This involved establishing rapport and trust by demonstrating care and a genuine desire to listen. Since its original development for psychotherapy, Active Listening has also been used for a wide variety of professions that rely on interpersonal communication. These professions include educators, law enforcement (particularly hostage negotiators), customer service, salespeople, and business professionals.

Active listening focuses on what a person is communicating to you. It includes techniques to ensure that you understand what you are being told, encourage further disclosure, and demonstrate that you are listening closely. When people communicate with one another, they not only communicate content but also emotions. It is the emotions behind the content that tell us the most about a person’s message. This can be extremely valuable in research by allowing the researcher to tap into the emotional component of a user’s experience with a product.

One way to grasp a better understanding of active listening is to understand the difference between active listening and passive listening. Passive listening is how most people learn to listen to one another and can result in missing a lot of content compared to Active Listening. It simply consists of sitting back and letting a person talk without taking any action at all. Think of it like listening to a keynote talk at a conference. It does not include interacting with the speaker or engaging in any way. It is a one-way form of communication. Anyone with experience speaking in front of a subdued crowd understands how uncomfortable it can be without any kind of engagement or feedback. This is how a research participant feels when you don’t engage him or her with Active Listening skills.

By contrast, Active Listening is, by definition, active. It includes engaging the speaker, asking questions, paraphrasing, emotional discovery and a variety of other actions taken by the listener in order to get more information from the speaker and build a relationship. As an active listener, your job is to engage in communication that will shape the behavior of the speaker to continue to disclose. An observer might describe it as a discussion in which two people are mutually interacting; however, when you are listening actively, the information will tend to flow in one direction, from the user to you. The information that flows to you will be the user experience. When appropriate, we’ll provide examples of an active listening exchange between a participant and a researcher to show how each technique should be used.

Active Listening – Specific Techniques

The specific techniques listed below are the communication actions that compose Active Listening. For each technique, the article will provide a description of the technique, why the technique is important, and how the technique can be most effectively used.

Eye Contact

Eye contact is looking the other person in the eye when he or she is speaking. It indicates that you are paying attention and listening to the person. The most effective way to use eye contact is to look at a person but do not stare. Occasionally make eye breaks, preferably looking down rather than away. Looking down gives the impression that you are thinking about what the person said. Looking away gives the impression that you are paying attention to something else.

Attentive Body Language

Attentive body language includes gestures and postures that indicate that you are interested in what you are hearing. This will make the person feel like you are listening to what they are saying and that you find them interesting. You can use Attentive body language by making gestures of understanding like nodding as well as postures that indicate interest such as slightly leaning forward or tilting your head.

Vocal Style

Vocal style is how a person uses speech rate, volume, and tone to indicate interest. Vocal style communicates to the other person your interest in what he or she is saying. Make the most of vocal style by making variations to speech rate, volume and tone to emphasize areas that are important or interesting in the conversation. An example would be speaking slower when asking about a topic that is very important.

Verbal Following

Verbal Following is responding to what the other person is talking about rather than abruptly changing the topic; it comes into play when you need to transition between topics for one reason or another. Verbal following shows that you are interested in what is being discussed even though you are changing the topic. In order to use verbal following always make a comment about what the other person was saying before you change the topic. This technique requires good judgment because some of the most valuable data can be gathered when you allow the participant to control the discussion.

Participant: It would be great if this device could sync with my PC also.

Researcher (Verbal Following): That’s a great idea. I’ll make sure to pass that on to the designers. Now if you saw this device in the stores, what would you expect the price to be?

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is when a person summarizes what the other person said. Paraphrasing demonstrates that you are listening, builds rapport and creates empathy by showing that you understand what the other person said. It can also ensure that information gathered is accurate. The most effective way to use paraphrasing is to listen to the other person and then summarize what the person said and ask them if what you heard was correct. Examples might be “Are you telling me…?”, or “So what you are saying is…?”

Participant: I’m not really sure, if it’s like it is now, probably about $50, but if it could sync with my PC, I’d be willing to pay $75, maybe a bit more.

Researcher (Paraphrasing): So the ability to sync with your PC will dramatically increase the value?

Reflecting

Reflecting is when a person repeats back the last word of a phrase. Reflecting demonstrates that you are listening and paying attention. It is a simple way of gathering more information without asking for it. The most effective way to use reflecting is to repeat back the last word of a phrase then let the person elaborate on it.

Participant: Actually, I was really confused by this button.

Researcher (Reflecting): This button?

Participant: Yeah, it took me a while to figure out that it was a button. I thought it was just a label.

Silence

Silence is when you strategically don’t say anything. Many people use silence when they are about to say something important or just said something important. Many people feel uncomfortable when there is silence in a conversation and if you wait, the other person may say something that he or she would otherwise not disclose. Just be careful not to overuse silence because it will make the person feel uncomfortable. Also make sure you wait to use it until after you’ve already established some rapport with the person.

Minimal Encouragers

Minimal encouragers are words or sounds that are used to express interest. Minimal encouragers are important because it encourages the person to continue speaking and shows that you are interested and paying attention. When minimal encouragers are used properly, the person will not feel interrupted while he or she is speaking. Use minimal encouragers by making responses like, “oh,” “yeah,” or “uh-huh” during the natural pauses in the person’s speech. These pauses tend to happen at the end of sentences.

Participant: I can totally see myself using this all the time, especially when I’m travelling.

Researcher (Minimal Encourager): Yeah?

Participant: Yeah, when you’re sitting in an airport for a while you have to keep yourself busy.

Researcher (Minimal Encourager): Uh huh

Participant: And the fact that you can switch between functions so quickly really makes me want to keep using it.

Emotional Discovery

Emotional discovery is an effective way to talk to a person about his or her emotional experience. Emotional discovery is important because it shows that you are listening, care and understand what he or she is feeling. Use emotional discovery to respond to the emotions heard in a person’s voice, rather than the content. Tell the person how he or she seems or sounds, rather than how he or she is feeling. An example might be a statement like “you seem to be uncomfortable,” rather than “I know you’re uncomfortable.”

Researcher (Emotional Discovery): You seem a little frustrated.

Participant: I just can’t figure out how to do this, honestly, if I was at home I would have given up already.

Empathy

Empathy is indicating that you understand or identify with the emotions of the other person. Empathy shows the person that you care and that you understand what they’re feeling. Empathy is one of the most effective tools for building rapport. The most effective way to use empathy is to make statements that indicate that you have experienced the emotion or statements that recognize the difficulty of the situation. Avoid making statements that show pity such as “I feel sorry for you”

Researcher (Empathy): We all know what it’s like trying to work with an interface that isn’t quite right.

Participant: I just feel like if you changed these couple things over here, then it would be almost perfect.

Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions are questions that cannot be answered with a “yes” or “no.” These kinds of questions encourage the person to elaborate on their answers. Open-ended questions are useful in gathering large amounts of information from the person with only a single question. It will also allow the person to express him or herself more completely and provide you with a greater understanding of the person. Use open-ended questions by asking questions that begin with “what,” “why,” or “could.” Examples may include “What did you do?” “Why did you do that?” or “Could you tell me more about that?”

Researcher (Open-Ended Question): How can you see yourself using this device?

Participant: Well, I’d definitely use it while I’m travelling, it’s great that it can keep me entertained and yet have so many other practical functions. I’d probably use it during my commute every day, although that would be a lot easier if it had some kind of docking station in my car. I’d probably even use it when I’m at home.

Close-Ended Questions

Close-ended questions are questions that can only be answered with a “yes” or a “no” response. Close-ended questions will generate concrete responses or force the person to acknowledge facts that they have avoided or unclearly addressed. Use close-ended questions to get a person to summarize or bottom-line and elaborate response, but be careful not to overuse them as they can make a person feel constrained and frustrated.

Researcher (Close-Ended Question): So you can see yourself using this regularly?

Participant: Yes.

As of right now, you know the techniques that compose Active Listening, but there is still another step to take in order to be able to use them effectively. Active Listening techniques should occur naturally, not as conscious actions that result from drawing from a knowledge base. You shouldn’t have to think about what you are going to say next.

Is it really important to motivate your people?

2009-05-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

How do I motivate my staff? That question seems to baffle most business leaders. Motivating people seems to be more elusive than almost any other aspect of management. For that reason there are countless articles and classes devoted to it.

But, in reality, the strongest business leaders don't motivate their employees.

That's right, as a business leader, your job is not to motivate. That may sound blasphemous to you. After all, the leadership paradigm that evolved in the late 20th century tirelessly promoted the belief that motivating the workforce was essential to great leadership.

Humans come naturally to hard work and sacrifice; these traits are essential to the survival of our species. Evolution has hardwired us with the desire to do quality work. You may view motivating employees to be a critical aspect of your job, but have you ever had an employee express the need to be motivated? Do you need a boss to motivate you to do your job? Unless you're a very unusual person, your answer to both questions is no. You can be certain that most employees feel the same.

If an employee is truly unmotivated, it's probably time to take him off the payroll. Meanwhile, the critical issue isn't how to motivate but, rather, how to keep people from becoming demotivated. And the strongest business leaders understand this distinction.

An employee typically begins a new job excited to be part of the team and pleased to be making a living. Those who promote the need to motivate would certainly agree with that, but they also seem to believe that something must change over time, making it necessary to "remotivate." This, however, should be unnecessary. Our species' fundamental desire to do quality work does not change.

The common problem facing employees at all levels is not their own motivation. It is work environments that demotivate.

When work environments consistently fail to provide the direction, resources and respect employees require, their innate desire to achieve is suppressed or redirected. They experience frustration and a kind of learned helplessness.

They become motivated to retain their jobs rather than to perform them in a way that delivers optimal value to the organisation. This is a common and predictable problem. Once employees escape such a discouraging work environment, their motivation to deliver optimal value for their organization reemerges -- sometimes as they go over to a competitor.

Most leaders would agree that identifying what motivates all the diverse members of a staff is complicated and confusing. Motivating a group is even harder than motivating an individual. When you lead a team, there's an entirely different dynamic. What you do for one employee can easily demotivate others.

I know of a large company that has an employee recognition program that involves publishing a list each year of employees who have been promoted to vice president. Only a few senior executives know the criteria for inclusion on the coveted list.

The dozen employees with new VP job titles are, of course, pleased. But hundreds of others who feel they should have been recognised are displeased. They don't know why they were overlooked and why colleagues they may believe are of less value to the company were recognised. So the program benefits only a few and provokes uncertainty, frustration and a perception of disrespect in many.

That's a powerful and lasting demotivator. The intention is admirable--recognising outstanding employees--but the program, at least the way it is executed, does more harm than good. The company should get rid of it and its demotivating effect on the workplace.

When leaders decide to address demotivation, they quickly see that, unlike with motivation, it's essentially the same for every employee. You can be certain, for example, that everyone on your staff wants the following from you and always will: (1) clear direction, (2) the resources to perform as required and (3) never to be treated disrespectfully.

A work environment structured to provide those three things is also exactly what shareholders want and expect. Deliver them, and you will be on your way to leadership greatness. Fail to do so, and you may be an adequate leader but you'll never be a great one.

There are, in sum, two key steps to staying on top of motivation and demotivation.

First, hire and keep on your team only people who are motivated to do their jobs well. As Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, says, "Get the right people on the bus."

Second, understand that if they become demotivated, it is because of the environment in which they work. Strong and courageous leaders recognise that such an environment is their own failure. Understanding that can prevent you from misdirecting resources into unnecessary efforts to motivate staff.

We need a new leadership paradigm for the 21st century, with leaders taking a more realistic and enlightened view of the people who work for them. We need to create and maintain work environments that protect employees from the de-motivation that has become endemic in modern business.

Three major role of a Project Manager

2009-05-08T22:56:00.000-07:00

I’ve been providing services to corporate clients as an IT project manager and consultant to more than 300 clients. Some projects were very huge and some of them were tiny. Something I learned from these varied experiences is that, whether providing IT services as an insider or an outsider, every IT initiative is an engagement. Every IT effort requires that the service provider play three distinct roles: project manager, technical manager, and relationship manager. While many independent project managers and consultants attempt to play all three roles, they do so at the risk to themselves, the project, and the relationship.
Requirements of a successful IT engagement

Every engagement, inside or out, must have: a clear business meaning, a defined success criteria, a technical plan, and a project plan, as well as sponsorship and stakeholder participation. Whether you’re engaged as an outside project manager to manage the development of a huge application, small corporate website or a simple flash game, these requirements are constant. These unchanging elements of a successful IT engagement require project managers to think carefully about how many hats they try to wear and to separate their roles into different, often conflicting, responsibilities.

On tiny projects, such as re-skinning an outdated web site, it may make sense from a financial and an efficiency standpoint for the project manager (if he’s got the technical chops) to assume all three roles. Once projects get any bigger, my view is that it’s good practice to have three individuals in the roles of project manager, technical manger, and relationship manager.

Three elements to manage

I often tell my colleagues that every engagement requires the superior management of three elements: the process, the content, and the relationship. Here are more details about each element:

Managing the process is the project manager’s role. He must ensure that a clear scope has been written, a meaningful estimate has been derived, and a complete project plan has been developed, along with all the other process elements required by her chosen methodology.
Managing the content includes all the technical decisions: the technical specifications, the materials list, and the integration of all these components.
Managing the relationship requires that the needs, expectations, emotions, and politics that are an inevitable part of every human endeavor be successfully managed so that the perception of the end product matches the client’s vision.

I am sure that every working project manager has a horror story to tell about an engagement that circled the drain, or outright failed, because at least one of these elements was mismanaged.

Three roles of management
So why do I believe so strongly that it’s a mistake for the project manager to try and take on all three roles (except in the smallest engagements)? First, it’s a skills and temperament issue. My experience is that project managers who excel in the process elements — following their chosen methodology and focusing on the details of time, scope, and function — often haven’t developed their technical and relationship skills to the same degree. The never-ending debate in the project management community over whether project managers must be technical proves that this is still perceived as an issue. There are exceptions, but developing strong project manager skills, getting certifications, and keeping those certifications current is challenge enough without also trying to stay ahead of the surging wave of technology developments. More important than the skills and temperament issue is the simple fact that trying to play all of these roles is an irreconcilable conflict of interest.

I must sat that project management is not a popularity contest; the project manager’s role is often to play the “bad cop.” The project manager needs to be the one to tell the client that the inside IT team is not pulling their weight, that the bug list is growing instead of shrinking, or that their genius developer is not such a genius after all. While it’s important for project managers to use diplomacy when delivering these messages, they must ensure that the client gets the message.

The technical manager must take ownership of the entire technical design, which is a daunting task, especially as projects grow in complexity. He doesn’t need (and is often unprepared) to deal with the process and relationship issues that arise from his recommendations. The necessary actions of the project manager and the technical manager can lead to strained relationships if not handled with subtlety.

This is where the relationship manager comes in. In a contractor relationship, this manager is often the salesperson who introduces the contracting organization to the client and must keep that relationship on an even keel in order to get the current engagement delivered and to mine for additional projects in the account. In this case, the relationship manager has a financial incentive to closely manage the relationship. Yet, even in inside IT initiatives, someone needs to ensure that the client and the stakeholders are satisfied, are getting the results they expect, and are willing to trust the IT delivery team to do future projects.

There are practical issues to this separation of roles. For instance, not every engagement can afford to have three team members doing these duties, and not every engagement is complex enough to require them.

A different look at recession...

2009-04-27T04:27:00.000-07:00

Money has no memory. Experience has. You will never know what the total cost of your education was, but for a lifetime you will recall and relive the memories of schools and colleges. Few years from now, you will forget the amount you paid to settle the hospitalization bill, but will ever cherish having saved your mother's life or the life you get to live with the just born. You won't remember the cost of your honeymoon, but to the last breath remember the experiences of the bliss of togetherness. Money has no memory.. Experience has.

Good times and bad times, times of prosperity and times of poverty, times when the future looked so secure and times when you didn't know from where the tomorrow will come… life has been in one way or the other a roller-coaster ride for everyone. Beyond all that abundance and beyond all that deprivation, what remains is the memory of experiences. Sometimes the wallet was full… sometimes even the pocket was empty. There was enough and you still had reasons to frown. There wasn't enough and you still had reasons to smile. Today, you can look back with tears of gratitude for all the times you had laughed together, and also look back with a smile at all the times you cried alone. All in all, life filled you with experiences to create a history of your own self, and you alone can remember them all.

The first time you balanced yourself on your cycle without support…
The first time she said 'yes' and it was two years since you proposed…
The first cry… the first steps… the first word… the first kiss… all of your child…
The first gift you bought for your parents and the first gift your daughter gave you…
The first award… the first public appreciation… the first stage performance…
And the list is endless… Experiences, with timeless memory…

No denying that anything that's material cost money, but the fact remains the cost of the experience will be forgotten, but the experience never.

So, what if it's economic recession? Let it be, but let there not be a recession to the quality of your life. You can still take your parents, if not on a pilgrimage, at least to the local temple. You can still play with your children, if not on an international holiday, at least in the local park. It doesn't cost money to lie down or to take a loved one onto your lap. Nice time to train the employees, create leadership availability and be ready for the wonderful times when they arrive. Hey! Aspects like your health, knowledge development and spiritual growth are not economy dependent.

Time will pass… economy will revive… currency will soon be in current… and in all this, we don't want look back and realize we did nothing but stayed in gloom. Recession can make you lose out on money. Let it not make you lose out on experiences… If you are not happy with what you have, no matter how much more you have, you will still not be happy.

Make a statement with the way you live your life: How I feel has nothing to do with how much I have.

10 Ways to Cut Costs During a Recession

2009-04-14T00:46:00.000-07:00

There is no doubt about it, a recession is a difficult time for everyone, and it can be tough to find ways to scrape buy. However, there are many ways that individuals can cut back during a recession to make ends meet. By cutting back on a few non-essential expenses, or renegotiating the terms of some of your bills, you can save yourself hundreds if not thousands of dollars during this financially troubling time.

1) Stop Buying Bottled Water

Bottled water is an extravagance, but not a necessity. If you are hurting for money during a recession, then consider eliminating bottled water from your home. Instead, look into purchasing an inexpensive water filter for your kitchen faucet that will make your tap water taste just as good.

2) Walk or Take the Bus

Walking or taking the bus whenever you can, could save you hundreds of dollars in gas a year. If you live close to the store or your office, consider getting some exercise instead of burning gas. If you have to drive to work, the store, or your children's school, try to set up a carpool with others who need to go as well.

3) Utilize Coupons and Store Discounts

Most people do not use coupons on a regular basis. However, you can shave 50% or more off of your weekly food bill, by learning how to use coupons and store discounts to your advantage. There are many forums online dedicated to the use of coupons, where you can learn the in's and out's, of becoming a coupon pro.

4) Eat Out Less

The costs of eating out are rising, and it is becoming more of a luxury than a weekly treat. Skip a trip or two to the restaurant, and splurge on a slightly more expensive meal that you can make from home. The food will taste just as good, but will not be marked up to restaurant prices.

5) Buy Clothing From Outlet Stores

There are outlet stores available for almost every name brand of clothing that exists, and many of the outlet stores even have websites for convenient shopping at home. These outlet stores have the same name brand clothing of the regular stores, but without the high price tag. Locate an outlet store and shop there instead, to save even more money during a recession.

6) Read Newspapers and Magazines Online

Magazine and newspaper subscriptions can be pricey, but if you investigate, many of those same publications have online websites. On these websites all or part of a newspaper or magazine can usually be viewed for free, or at a fraction of the cost of home delivery.

7) Renegotiate With Creditors or Lenders

Many consumers have no idea that you are able to negotiate with lenders and creditors. During a recession, the bargaining usually works to your favor, as companies would rather have someone pay less then not at all. Call your credit card companies, car and mortgage loan institutions, and any other creditors you may have, and ask them for a lower percentage rate, or a settlement amount for current debts.

8) Do it Yourself

From laundry to car repair, there are many services that you may currently outsource, that could be done by yourself to save money. For instance, instead of paying a company to paint the inside of your home, you could buy the necessary materials and do it yourself. Skipping that $5 drive thru car wash, and detailing your own car, could add up to big savings in a year's time too.

9) Go For Cheap Entertainment

Even during a recession, it is possible to have fun and still save money. Look into dollar movie locations near you, or ask if a movie theater has special rates for movies on a Saturday morning. Often theaters offer specials, and even free concessions on certain days and times.

Museums and state parks are usually free or cost only a few dollars, and can provide your family with hours of fun on each visit. Take advantage of free community events, and your family can have a good time while supporting the community.

10) Switch Your Insurance

Call your car, home, and life insurance companies, and try to negotiate a lower policy price. This works especially well if your rate has recently gone up during a renewal. Get free quotes from other insurance companies, and if they offer you a lower rate for the same benefits, switch your insurance to save hundreds.

A recession doesn't have to be a devastating time. If you do your research, and make wise financial decisions, then you can come through a recession unscathed. Cutting costs on just a few expenses can help keep money in your pocket when you need it most.

What is recession?

2009-04-03T01:03:00.000-07:00

This Story is about a man who once upon a time was selling Hotdogs by the roadside.

He was illiterate, so he never read newspapers. He was hard of hearing, so he never listened to the radio. His eyes were weak, so he never watched television. But enthusiastically, he sold lots of hotdogs. He was smart enough to offer some attractive schemes to increase his sales.

His sales and profit went up. He ordered more a more raw material and buns and use to sale more. He recruited few more supporting staff to serve more customers. He started offering home deliveries. Eventually he got himself a bigger and better stove. As his business was growing, the son, who had recently graduated from College, joined his father.

Then something strange happened.

The son asked, "Dad, aren't you aware of the great recession that is coming our way?"

The father replied, "No, but tell me about it." The son said, "The international situation is terrible. The domestic situation is even worse. We should be prepared for the coming bad times."

The man thought that since his son had been to college, read the papers, listened to the radio and watched TV. He ought to know and his advice should not be taken lightly.

So the next day onwards, the father cut down the his raw material order and buns, took down the colorful signboard, removed all the special schemes he was offering to the customers and was no longer as enthusiastic. He reduced his staff strength by giving layoffs. Very soon, fewer and fewer people bothered to stop at his hotdog stand. And his sales started coming down rapidly, same is the profit.

The father said to his son, "Son, you were right".

"We are in the middle of a recession and crisis. I am glad you warned me ahead of time."

Moral of The Story: It's all in your MIND! And we actually FUEL this recession much more than we think we do!!!!!!!!!! !!

What can we take away from this story??

1. How many times we confuse intelligence with good judgment?

2. Choose your advisors carefully but use your own judgment.

3. A person or an organization will survive forever, if they have the 5 Cs:

* Character
* Commitment
* Conviction
* Courtesy
* Courage

The tragedy today is that there are many walking encyclopedias that are living failures. The More practical and appropriate views on this economic recession is:

"This is the time to reunite together for any small or a big organization, this is the time to motivate and retain people which are the biggest asset, this is the time to show more commitments to the customers, this is the time show values of our company to the world, and this is the time to stand by our Nation".

Home of Future

2009-03-31T02:59:00.000-07:00

What to do when your client doesn't pay?

2009-03-30T00:54:00.000-07:00

Your never noticed that echo in your mailbox until a client’s check doesn’t arrive when it’s due, but you shrug it off and figure they must have just missed the mail. The next day you ask the carrier if it’s possible something was missed, and you look around on the ground to see if the envelope might have been dropped. You call your client, but they don’t answer, so you leave a message and follow it up with an e-mail. The sun sets and rises again without bringing any response. Like the grounds in your coffee mug, the bitter realization slowly settles in your mind that your client doesn’t intend to pay you any time soon, if at all.

What can you do? The answer depends heavily on what you’ve already done, or failed to do.

First, you should cease any further work for this client until payment is received, and tell them so. But that may not have enough bite, especially if you’ve just completed a project or if there’s any doubt about the value of your contributions. If you have a strong contract, you could get your lawyer to send a letter and threaten to sue. If you only have a verbal agreement, you may still be able to take legal action but that should be a last resort. Even if you’re successful, you haven’t really won. That’s like defining a good landing as any one you can walk away from.

What you want instead is for your client to pay you on their own volition, continue to be your client, and pay you on time in the future. Here are some things you can do to make that happen.

Start with a helpful attitude. Treat the nonpayment or late payment as a problem that must be solved together. It may have just been an oversight, so don’t jump the gun. But if it turns out that the client has a systemic issue with timely payment, then you may need to make some changes to help the client live up to their end of the agreement.
Offer a discount for early payment. With this strategy, your client can save money if they pay you very promptly — say, within 10 days after invoicing. But you must not give any ground on this. If the check arrives on day 11, it’s “no discount for you!” no matter what the excuse. Otherwise, they’ll gradually stretch you out until they’re taking the new discount on the old terms.
Change your terms to require payment in advance. The client buys so many hours at a time, and you let them know when they’re getting low. This doesn’t have to be presented as a punishment, either. You can offer the client a discount for paying in advance — and in this economy, many companies prick up their ears when they hear “discount.” I recently followed this advice to good effect with a client who had a history of late payment. My only mistake was not requiring a minimum purchase — now they’re constantly running out of hours, and I have to stop working until they send me more money. Once you establish this policy, the one thing you never want to do is to perform work before the money arrives.
A penalty for late payment. This is a common suggestion, but personally, I don’t like this one very much. First, it never seemed to work — the client treated the penalty as a reasonable interest rate on a loan I never meant to give them. Second, the penalty legitimized the late payment, which therefore became even later. Third, punishing your client can’t improve your relationship.

It’s possible that your client is voting with their checkbook on the quality of your work. That’s not a very effective or ethical approach to a performance review, but I’ve seen it happen. In that case, you need to do two things immediately:

Make it absolutely clear that you expect and desire open communication about any dissatisfaction with your work and that violating the terms of your contract is not an acceptable form of communication.
Fix the problem — provided that they’ll let you fix it and that they’ll pay you on schedule thereafter. Clearly define what the problem is and what will constitute a resolution.

This brings us to the single most important thing you can do to insure timely payment: provide great value for your fee. Your client should have a good reason for wanting to keep you happy, so they don’t risk losing your services by withholding or delaying payment. I won’t pretend that your contributions will automatically be recognized — some people and organizations just don’t get it. But if you consistently create a superior value proposition, you will eventually attract more appreciative clients. Then you can afford to kiss the deadbeats goodbye.

Job hunting: Put a new spin on 'old'

2009-03-27T04:43:00.000-07:00

The only thing more depressing than being laid off is being laid off when you’re an “older” worker. It is one of the more unfortunate aspects of our culture – and especially in the IT world — that age can be a detriment in how you’re perceived by potential employers.

The unspoken assumption, even from people who think they are enlightened, is that older workers are set in their ways and have a static knowledge set. Of course, this is bunk. But the fact remains that the onus falls on the older worker to dispel this belief.

So how do you convey your years of experience as a good thing? What can you do to present your age in a way that elevates your personal brand instead of being a detriment? Here are a few tips that might help.

First, you might have cut your teeth in IT by repairing IBM Selectrics, but you don’t have to mention that in your resume. List only experience that would be relevant to the job you’re seeking. This is good advice for any job seeker, but more so with the older ones.

It’s tempting to use the word “seasoned” when describing yourself in a cover letter, but that attribute is only appealing if you’re a hamburger. A better word to use is “accomplished,” backed up with specific examples of projects you’ve participated in, the more recent the better. “Accomplished” implies that you actively participated in endeavors and didn’t just sit back while experiences were “sprinkled” on you. (Can’t let go of an analogy, can I?)

One definite advantage of being an older worker is that you have concrete examples of projects you’re worked on. Be sure to qualify your involvement in terms of goals met and money saved.

Make sure you’re current with new technology. Some old stand-by skills, like COBOL, will still be relevant. But it’s important that you show you’re up on new technolgies that you may have resisted before, like social networks and mobile technology.

It’s good to put forth the appearance of eagerness. You may have been around for a while, but no one wants a jaded, world-weary person working for them. Show that you’re open to learning and that the desire to explore new things doesn’t stop in your twenties.

Effectiveness of Micro-Deliverables

2009-02-25T22:05:00.001-08:00

Too often failing projects surprise us. Have you ever had a project that seemed to be going along just fine, and then, when the delivery deadline drew near, suddenly, everyone’s two months late? It leads you to wonder, “How could I have missed that this project was two months late?” “What planet was I on where this project appeared to be on time?”

Given that approximately three quarters of all technical projects fail to meet their schedule, budget or feature set goals, you’d think we would be better at spotting groups that are “off the rails.” The reality is that determining when a project is in trouble is not an easy thing, and problems that seem obvious in hindsight are murky at the time that they occur.

Monitoring project progress is an important part of a leader’s role. Knowing when and how to intervene in failing projects is critical to the overall health of any technology organization. Whether the intervention is to cancel a hopeless effort, or to correct team skill or resource imbalances, managers need to spot difficulties early in order to prevent issues from becoming disasters.

Of course, projects don’t really slip two months in one day. They fall behind a little every day, and the slippage accumulates until we notice it. So the question is how can you notice the problems and fix them when they’re mole hills rather than mountains?

Most project methodologies call for monitoring task progress, budget tracking, and hours observations to check on the health of a project. Unfortunately, I find that these are inadequate to gauge real progress. Estimating task completion is notoriously subjective. The last 10% always seems to take 80% of the time. Counting hours expended has nothing to do with real progress. Effort rarely equals results. Although knowing how much of your budget has been spent is important, any positive correlation between the percentage of budget expended and percentage of project completed is generally coincidental.

The best method that I’ve found is to use what I call micro-deliverables. Most projects are planned with series of tasks that lead to major deliverables, the documents, deployments, or code that the tasks create. But these deliverables are usually the result of many people’s work over a period of weeks or even months.

Micro-deliverables are much smaller, individual efforts. When you plan for micro-deliverables, each person on a project has responsibility for some physical product every few days. Then you can gauge the health of the project by checking whether the micro-deliverables are done or not. You don’t have to wait for months until a big deadline looms to check the health of a project.

When planning for and using micro-deliverables, there are a few simple rules to follow:

1. Never let anyone go longer than a week without owing a micro-deliverable.

Any time a person goes longer than a week without a deliverable, they go into a black hole of unknown progress. You can’t really gauge how they are doing, and you are more likely to be surprised.

2. Micro-deliverables are either done or not done.

When measuring progress, there are only two states for micro-deliverables. They are either 100% complete, or they are 0% complete. Progress is marked only by final approval of the item. Otherwise, you get into the subjective world of guessing how close to done things are, which is inevitably inaccurate.

3. Progress is not measured in effort, but in micro-deliverables.

The only meaningful measure of progress is whether micro-deliverables are done on time or not. If they are coming in late, the project is late. If they’re on time, the project’s on time.

4. A micro-deliverable is the responsibility of only one person.

If the deliverable is owned by more than one person, it becomes a problem to figure out where the real difficulties lie.

Using these simple rules, you can begin to identify project problems quickly and accurately avoiding the surprises that are otherwise all too common.

"Panties and Perverts"

2009-02-11T01:54:00.000-08:00

Two Indias are pulling in different directions

Both the zealot and the sex symbol claim to be the defining face of a new India. Pramod Muthalik, Sri Ram Sene chief says that he represents a tidal wave of public revulsion against western culture. In sharp contrast, bare midriffs and cleavages stare down from every hoarding as if to declare proudly that it is they who represent the aspirations of every young Indian. A Facebook group, `A Consortium of Pub-Going Loose and Forward Women' (a group to which your columnist also belongs) is now planning to send "pink chaddis" to Pramod Muthalik in protest. No one doubts that the Sene's actions are loathesome and unacceptable, but sending pink underwear to perverts is pretty undignified too.

In fact, therein lies the dilemma of most educated Indians today. Most of us are scandalized by the Sri Ram Sene's actions, horrified at being told that "love" is foreign to India. We would like to remind the Sene that the love stories of Shakuntala and Dushyant or of Roopmati and Baz Bahadur show that some of the greatest love stories of all times were made in India and in our country love has always been a socially revolutionary force destroying taboos of caste, class and religion. St Valentine is only a newly arrived upstart in our centuries old experiments with romance. Also, where does one draw the line at the "western" influences on India? Does the Sene know that the potato and even cottage cheese from which mithai is made, were, among other foodstuffs, "foreigners" to India, being introduced here by Portuguese traders? The custodians of "hindu sanskriti' are not just absurd, they don't know their history.

Yet the dilemma is that groups like the Sri Ram Sene force the thoughtful Indian to defend things he may see as a fundamental right, but does not necessarily want to defend. However much we may hate the Sene, upholding the commercially-driven Valentine's Day as a supreme cultural resource, or seeing the pub as the shining symbol of our social "freedom" may not be forward movement for India. If young people are choosing urban lifestyles that are desi imitations of Sex And The City, this is hardly a matter of celebration. In fact, today, fears about "westernization" are so deep that with the exception of UR Ananathamurthy, few of Karnataka's galaxy of public intellectuals have come to the defence of the young women drinking at the Amnesia Lounge in Mangalore on 24th January.

Politically, there is even a consensus on the moral failings of "pub culture, " with even the BJP's ideological opposites, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and health minister Ambumani Ramadoss expressing energetic disapproval of pubs. When union minister Renuka Chowdhury urged that there should be a "pub bharo" campaign against the Sene, several of her own Karnataka Congress leaders protested that drinking was against their norms. Already, in Karnataka, the "rootless cosmopolitamism' of the IT industry has been the focus of much cultural criticism. Two years ago when the national anthem was played and not sung at an Infosys function, Kannadiga intellectuals said that software tycoons embodied a certain type of English-speaking cosmopolitanism that was far removed from the realities of India. At the recent IPL auctions, the stark exhibition of glamour and wealth in an economy where 5 lakh workers have just lost their jobs, was an unabashed spectacle of rootless elitism.

History shows us the dangers inherent in an elite pleasure island floating in a sea of deprivation. The Iranian revolution of 1979 was a political movement against the repressive Shah, but it was also was a massive conservative-religious backlash against an elite perceived to be too rich and too westernized. Khomeini's class war soon became a cultural war. Today groups like the Sene have no mass support but the fact that militant traditionalism is now the calling card of thuggish youth shows a dangerous fusion of cultural as well as class hatred. This is a class war expressed through culture.

Which is why India's globalised westernized elite, or those who are its most visible face, are under attack in many parts of India. They are being attacked by those who have a grievance not just against modern women but against the new economy. The Sri Ram Sene, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, the Kannada Rakshana Vedike or other myriad 'religious' or 'cultural'groups are all targeting "secular" plays, fashion shows, the Information Techonology and Bio Technology sectors or migrant workers. Every aspect of public life that is characterized by freedom and affluence is under threat and a potential target of violence. The chasm between the two Indias-the India of the pubs and the India of the Sri ram Sene is growing wider by the day and as economic transformation produces more social unrest, the emerging elite might face many more such attacks.

Which is why the battle for freedom and the battle for progress must be a sensible and a rational one; it can't be a trivial battle where we fling coloured underwear at maniacs. We must learn from the Nehruvians of the 40s and 50s who were incredibly westernised, but deeply rooted; many of whom were rich but lived modest tasteful lives. They drank, they smoked and they romanced, yet they were discreet and embodied a tradition of Indian elitism that was rooted in both excellence as well as tradition. C. Rajagopalachari was considered a scholar in three languages-Sanskrit, Tamil and English. Rukmini Devi Arundale may have been deeply influenced by the Theosophical Movement but dedicated her life to reviving Indian dance and music by founding the Kalakshetra academy. Sarojini Naidu's favourite poet was Shelley but she took pride in the fact that she could speak Urdu, Telegu and Bengali. However westernized their minds, India's nationalist elite could not be accused of living in a cocoon of extravagant privilege or having their pleasure spots guarded by armed commandos.

Maybe India's young instead of trying to be like characters from Sex In The City, should try to emulate Sarojini Naidu and Jawaharlal Nehru. While the ghastly cultural hoodlums must be dealt with sternly by the law and handed out exemplary and speedy punishment, the lifestyle norms we choose, especially in public places, must be attuned somewhat at least to our surroundings. If we persist in trying to create a mindlessly imitative mythical Las Vegas, we will not be able to defeat the Sri Ram Sene, however many pink panties we may throw at them.

I manage to talk to Sarthak

2009-01-30T05:20:00.000-08:00

Guess what?

Yesterday while driving to office, I manage to talk to Sarthak. Sarthak is one of best Radio Jockies in Delhi. He is a Radio Jockey on Hit 95 Radio FM

I played "Nine Second Nail Biter" with him and he asked me a question related to Geography. No big words but I always felt that I am good in Geography and I proved it right yesgterday.

He asked me capital of Denmark and in no time I given him the write answer and that was Copenhagen.

Then he given me polite applause with Oriental Gong and in couple of days I'll be getting a Nescafe gift hamper from Hit 95 radio FM.

Goes without saying "I am feeling proud and delighted" after talking and wining the contest.

We got a new T-Shirt

2009-01-22T01:31:00.001-08:00

As a part of our Branding initiatives, all the members of ISHIR Digital got a new cool T-Shirts.

There was a photo session also after wearing t-shirts.

Here is my photo...

2009-01-22T01:21:00.000-08:00

Here come my new Avatar.

Credit goes to Kshiraj Telang. Kshiraj is one of best illustrators and animators I have encountered with in my life.

Way to go Kshiraj.

This is what I am going through these days....

2009-01-15T04:50:00.000-08:00

Conversations going in Satyam Cafeteria……

2009-01-14T06:04:00.000-08:00

One of my friend has shared this incident yesterday with me. I would like to share this with you guys coz I found it very inspiring and motivating for all those IT guys who are going through tough time.

This incident is a conversation between a Satyam guy and another guy from some other company.

Conversation from the mouth of that Satyamites only...

I am deputed at client location and came across a very interesting conversation in cafeteria yesterday. One of my co-worker, also deputed with the same client through some lesser known two room company, mustered to ask me sarcastically in front of entire team, "So, Satyam is gone! What are you guys planning to do now?" In normal circumstances, I have a habit to not to reply to lose talks, but in front of entire team.... I thought I need to fix this guy's thought process. I asked him, as my military training has imbibed in me the habit to fight till last breadth, "Who says Satyam is gone when I am very much alive here and committed to create value on behalf of my company?". He shot back, "Hello Mr., your chairman has resigned, you guys are facing financial turbulence and you still have a face to say that Satyam is not gone!"

At this juncture, I thought of replying to this guy in his own language. I asked him, "Tell me, what will you do and where will you go if our country India was not there?" He was not prepared for this level of thought and asked back, "What a stupid question, How can India be gone, it is a country?" I asked him back, "Country! What makes a country? Land? Economy? Our Prime Minister? Our President? Our Geography? Or the PEOPLE? If our PM resigns, will you say India is gone? If our economy faces a slowdown, will you say India is gone? But yes, if the people of a country are lost for any reason, we will say that country has no meaning. Who cares of vast land of Antarctica today which has just one permanent resident, Father Georgy? Which country does it belongs to? Why does not it has any government? Why does not it has any economy? Or, how many countries were there when humans used to hunt for food in pre-historic times? Countries, Wealth, Infrastructures and booming economies are nothing but creations of efforts of PEOPLE, and they do not have any existance on their own. And the final blow was, "When one man can create Satyam as an organization of 53,000 people, why not 53,000 committed people can rebuild one SATYAM?"

By now, I saw my point was well placed and he stood up and shook hands with me and murmured, "Yaar, when I used to hear from my roommate who work in Satyam that EVERY SATYAMITE IS A LEADER, I used to laugh it off.

Now, I know why! "

In the LINE OF FIRE

2009-01-08T02:25:00.000-08:00

Vivek Pradhan was not a happy man. Even the plush comfort of the air-conditioned compartment of the Shatabdi express could not cool his frayed nerves. He was the Project Manager and still not entitled to air travel. It was not the prestige he sought; he had tried to reason with the admin person, it was the savings in time. As PM, he had so many things to do. He opened his case and took out the laptop, determined to put the time to some good use.

"Are you from the software industry sir," the man beside him was staring appreciatively at the laptop. Vivek glanced briefly and mumbled in affirmation, handling the laptop now with exaggerated care and importance as if it were an expensive car.

"You people have brought so much advancement to the country sir. Today everything is getting computerized."

"Thanks," smiled Vivek, turning around to give the man a look.

He always found it difficult to resist appreciation. The man was young and stocky like a sportsman. He looked simple and strangely out of place in that little lap of luxury like a small town boy in a prep school. He probably was a railway sportsman making the most of his free traveling pass.

"You people always amaze me," the man continued, "You sit in an office and write something on a computer and it does so many big things outside."

Vivek smiled deprecatingly. Naivety demanded reasoning not anger. "It is not as simple as that my friend. It is not just a question of w riting a few lines. There is a lot of process that goes behind it." For a moment, he was tempted to explain the entire Software Development Lifecycle but restrained himself to a single statement. "It is complex, very complex."

"It has to be. No wonder you people are so highly paid," came the reply.

This was not turning out as Vivek had thought. A hint of belligerence came into his so far affable, persuasive tone.

"Everyone just sees the money. No one sees the amount of hard work we have to put in. Indians have such a narrow concept of hard work. Just because we sit in an air-conditioned office does not mean our brows do not sweat. You exercise the muscle; we exercise the mind and believe me that is no less taxing."

He had the man where he wanted him and it was time to drive home the point.

"Let me give you an example. Take this train. The entire railway reservation system is computerized. You can book a train ticket between any two stations from any of the hundreds of computerized booking centers across the country. Thousands of transactions accessing a single database, at a time concurrency; data integrity, locking, data security. Do you understand the complexity in designing and coding such a system?"

The man was stuck with amazement, like a child at a planetarium. This was something big and beyond his imagination. "You design and code such things."

"I used to," Vivek paused for effect, "But now I am the Project Manager,"

"Oh!" sighed the man, as if the storm had passed over, "so your life is easy now."

It was like being told the fire was better than the frying pan. The man had to be given a feel of the heat.

"Oh come on, does life ever get easy as you go up the ladder. Responsibility only brings mor e work. Design and coding! That is the easier part. Now I do not do it, but I am responsible for it and believe me, that is far more stressful. My job is to get the work done in time and with the highest quality. To tell you about the pressures, there is the customer

at one end always changing his requirements, the user wanting something else and your boss always expecting you to have finished it yesterday."

Vivek paused in his diatribe, his belligerence fading with self-realization . What he had said, was not merely the outburst of a wronged man, it was the truth. And one need not get angry while defending the truth.

"My friend," he concluded triumphantly, "you don't know what it is to be in the line of fire."

The man sat back in his chair, his eyes closed as if in realization. When he spoke after sometime, it was with a calm certainty that surprised Vivek.

"I know sir, I know what it is to be in the line of fire," He was staring blan kly as if no passenger, no train existed, just a vast expanse of time.

"There were 30 of us when we were ordered to capture Point 4875 in the cover of the night. The enemy was firing from the top. There was no knowing where the next bullet was going to come from and for whom. In the morning when we finally hoisted the tricolour at the top only 4 of us were alive."

"You are a..."

"I am Subedar Sushant from the 13 J&K Rifles on duty at Peak 4875 in Kargi l. They tell me I have completed my term and can opt for a land assignment. But tell me sir, can one give up duty just because it makes life easier. On the dawn of that capture, one of my colleagues lay injured in the snow, open to enemy fire while we were hiding behind a bunker.

It was my job to go and fetch that soldier to safety."

"But my captain refused me permission and went ahead himself. He said that the first pledge he had taken as a Gentleman Cadet was to put the safety and welfare of the nation foremost followed by the safety and welfare of the men he commanded."

"His own personal safety came last, always and every time. He was killed as he shielded that soldier into the bunker. Every morning now, as I stand guard I can see him taking all those bullets, which were actually meant for me. I know sir, I know what it is to be in the line of fire."

Vivek looked at him in disbelief not sure of his reply. Abruptly he switched off the laptop. It seemed trivial, even insulting to edit a word document in the presence of a man for whom valor and duty was a daily part of life; a valor and sense of duty which he had so far attributed only to epical heroes.

The train slowed down as it pulled into the station and Subedar Sushant picked up his bags to alight.

"It was nice meeting you sir."

Vivek fumbled with the handshake. This hand had climbed mountains, pressed the trigger, and hoisted the tricolor. Suddenly as if by impulse, he stood at attention and his right hand went up in an impromptu salute. It was the least he felt he could do for the country.

PS: The incident he narrates during the capture of Peak 4875 is a true-life incident during the Kargi l war. Capt. Batr a sacrificed his life while trying to save one of the men he commanded, as victory was within sight. For this and his various other acts of bravery he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra the nation's highest military award.

Live humbly, there are great people around us, let us learn! Winners are too busy to be sad, too positive to be doubtful, too optimistic to be fearful and too determined to be defeated!

Open Source – Star of the downturn

2008-12-25T04:12:00.001-08:00

As the global economy takes a down turn, all tech industries are bearing the brunt of the situation, IT being one of the hardest hit. Innovative cost cutting techniques seem to be the mantra for getting around the situation. There are confirmed reports of IT budgets in a number of industries in the US and UK, being nearly halved. Unfortunately, unlike the previous recession that lasted eight months, this slowdown is expected to go on for much longer and surviving in this market is likely to become tougher for IT service providers.

In the face of this economic melt down, while blue chip companies (clients), outsourcing agencies and end users are looking for cost effective methods to complete their on going web projects, their expectations in terms of quality, delivery time and support remain unchanged. This poses a great challenge for service providers to meet their client’s needs at a lower cost.

In such a scenario, Open Source is emerging as the best tool for effective marketing for the clients and the vendors. This shift to open source solutions is supported by both internal and external forces of the software industry.

Open Source is now in a phase where people have seen and used it and become more familiar and comfortable with it. Good projects and good code have come out of open-source efforts. The value of collaborative power of multiple users that goes into these efforts is being appreciated more and more. Open source is no longer some radical idea but a trend and a method of software development that has produced good work and sometimes has surpassed its commercial alternative in terms of quality and robustness of the code.

The obvious reasons why open source is becoming more acceptable to corporate IT departments and outsourcing agencies are:

Cost: Open Source software available under the GPL license is free. In some cases, you may donate for the distribution. The cost of the distribution is generally nothing in comparison to the cost of many enterprise level commercial offerings. In addition, the developers of many of the open source solutions offer support contracts that are suitable to all levels of business or organization.

Software Source Code: When you purchase a license to use most commercial software, you are dependent on the software developer to add features or customize the software for the needs of your business or organization. You do not have access to the source code in most of the cases. With open source software, you are free to modify the software and customize it in order to suit your requirement.

Scalability and Robustness: a large community of highly skilled software developers has been involved in development of open source solutions, such as Linux, Perl, and Apache. As you can see from our examples, open source software is used across a full spectrum of web sites. Open source UNIX based operating systems such as Linux are extremely robust and efficient as they are suitable for both small and large organizations.

Large Support Community: a large community of developers that communicate through on-line discussion groups supports many open source offerings. This allows common problems to be easily solved and bugs to be quickly exposed and fixed eventually.

Security and Protection of Proprietary Data: There is a myth that open source software is more vulnerable to attack than proprietary solutions. Actually, the opposite is often true. Because the source code is exposed, it is often easier for a security minded software community to close security holes or breeches.

In sum, when most of the organizations and agencies don’t have adequate fund for their software and web application requirements, Open Source has come to the forefront as an affordable and effective platform for clients and service providers.

Impact of global meltdown in economy

2008-12-20T04:31:00.000-08:00

Nelson (name changed) wanted to outsource some of his development work. A typical outsourcing process starts with bidding, where companies from different cheaper countries including India would bid for projects. He asks one of his manager (An Indian abroad), to take a look at the different bids and choose the cheapest one. After looking at the bids, our Desi manager goes speechless!

The bids received from Indian companies are almost equal to hiring a team abroad and getting the work done! getting the similar work done from countries like Brazil and Mexico is so cheap that they are quite comparable to an amount a typical Indian would spend during casual shopping or when they go out for a party with friends!

The reasons for this are quite simple.

Rupee appreciation (although negated in last couple of months) against the dollar plus Increasing salaries. The services companies are forced to bid higher and higher, in order to maintain margins or at least prevent lay offs, not to mention the hiring process has slowed down to the core.

There are confirmed reports that IT budgets in a number of industries in the US and UK, have been nearly halved. A number of Indians in the US have been sent back, after project cancellations, lay-offs etc. Recent survey from Reuters has also proved the recession that we all are going to witness. The report also says that unlike the previous one, which lasted for just 8 months, this one is expected to last longer.

On one hand, even though some services companies are happy for the fact that they have managed to increase their H1B pool, this recession may literally suppress all this happiness straight!

Amit a typical software engineer in a services company in India is happily welcoming this recession. Even though, this might appear strange, he has some strong points behind. He says, just like US Houses price drop, we are likely to see a price drop here as well. (How in the world an IT guy will be able to pay back huge home loans if his job has no future!). Prices of other commodities are also likely to come down, most of them partly inflated because of IT (Auto fares?).

It will be interesting to see what strategies our services companies adopt to overcome recession and also stay profitable at the same time. Let us wait and watch.

What is your opinion?

Give your feedback on websites and make money in no time

2008-12-18T03:11:00.000-08:00

Application Penetration & Security Testing

2008-12-17T01:00:00.000-08:00

Application Penetration & Security Testing

An Internet security audit, performed by experienced security professionals. A key feature of the service, and one which cannot be covered by relying solely on automated testing, is application testing.

The service is designed to rigorously push the defences of Internet networks and applications. It is suitable for commissioning, third party assurance, post-attack analysis, audit and regulatory purposes where independence and quality of service are important requirements.

A final written report provides an analysis of any security or service problems discovered together with proposed solutions, links to detailed advisories and recommendations for improving the security of the service under test.

Areas Covered by Web Application Testing

Configuration errors
Application loopholes in server code or scripts
Advice on data that could have been exposed due to past errors
Testing for known vulnerabilities
Reducing the risk and enticement to attack
Advice on fixes and future security plans

Customers who have had tests performed by Netcraft include: Aegon, Capita, Lloyd's of London, Northern Rock and Group 4 Securicor.

Typical Issues Discovered in an Application Test

Cross-site scripting
SQL injection
Server misconfigurations
Form/hidden field manipulation
Command injection
Cookie poisoning
Well-known platform vulnerabilities
Insecure use of cryptography

Back doors and debug options
Errors triggering sensitive information leak
Broken ACLs/Weak passwords
Weak session management
Buffer overflows
Forceful browsing
CGI-BIN manipulation
Risk reduction to zero day exploits

What Makes PHP 5 Special?

2008-11-26T02:43:00.000-08:00

PHP 5, released in July 2004, marks the maturing of PHP. The addition or fine-tuning of numerous object-oriented features brings you a better language in which to build sophisticated Web-based applications.
By default, PHP 5 passes objects by reference. To provide by-value functionality, PHP has a clone function for making a copy of an object if you need it. Passing by reference, though, is just passing a pointer around, which is more efficient than having to duplicate memory structures. This new version of PHP expands object-oriented support, such as providing the INSTANCEOF

keyword as well as better constructors and destructors, which were absent in previous versions. It also adds private and protected variables. Private variables are available to the object itself within member functions, while protected variables are available within object itself in member functions, and member functions of subclasses of the object, but are not available from code outside the class.

PHP 5 also introduces other common OOP features such as abstract classes, which allow you to build prototype classes; the FINAL keyword, which prevents subclassing of a member function; and the CONSTANT keyword, which defines a member variable that-surprise, surprise-is permanent. You'll also find new, sophisticated exception handling with the TRY, CATCH, and THROW syntax. An error during the execution of your program means throwing an exception; for instance, you can use TRY when you do a division to protect against divide by 0. Your CATCH section can display a message saying, "You just tried to divide by zero inside routine X, and this shouldn't happen."

PHP now also supports function overloading, not to be confused with default values. With default values, PHP will use the default if you don't specify a variable. Function overloading allows developers to create several different implementations of the same function, with different input variables. The beauty of this capability is that the engine will figure out which function you mean to use at runtime, depending on the type of variables with which you call it.

PHP 5 clearly has a lot to offer. If you're one of many who have been clamoring for better object-oriented features, you'll be happy with Version 5. And if you've hit a wall in the past with application complexity and PHP functionality, many of the new object-oriented features in PHP 5 are meant for you.

But isn't avoiding bloat what PHP is all about? If I have lots of object-oriented code, isn't it going to mean greater memory usage and, ultimately, slower code?

Yes and no. Bloat is really about loading code that doesn't get used, whether it is libraries of your own making or part of PHP. This also goes for loading unnecessary data or making calculations that aren't necessary. In each case, you, as a programmer, have control.

Here's one example of how you can avoid this issue. Say you're using the XXX class of PHP, but only in very particular situations. Instead of putting the REQUIRE statement right up at the top (which leads to cleaner, more readable code), you can put it immediately preceding the object. Given various conditionals that may never execute, that REQUIRE won't get hit in many cases and therefore those classes won't load. Problem solved.

What About MONO?

2008-11-26T02:41:00.000-08:00

MONO an open-source project that brings the .NET server technology to non-Microsoft platforms such as Linux, HP-UX, Solaris, and Mac OS X. .NET is more than just a Web application development framework, and this project aims to provide that framework as open source. Although Microsoft is starting to embrace its shared source model, in which some development partners can get source code, it will be quite expensive and retain many limitations of closed source. The open source model still guarantees that there are no restrictions and encourages customizing and redistribution.

MONO is worthwhile in itself as a development platform. There is some chance that Microsoft will change the specification or make undocumented changes, although it has shown some interest in other implementations of .NET. Again, however, there is no true support from Microsoft.

In the ASP.NET realm, we're really talking more about mod_mono, the Apache module that implements MONO for Web services. Like the MONO project itself, this project is still under development and is not a completed implementation of the ASP.NET framework. Because MONO is still under development and relies on many libraries that don't fully implement the Win32 platform, it's safer to think of MONO as a third option for Web development, after PHP and ASP.NET, but one that has a lot in common with ASP.NET. As such, it provides much of the functionality and framework of .NET, including a C# compiler, but is not a Microsoft-supported development environment. You're dependent on the community for developing the code (and indirectly Novell, which is supporting the project). In that way, it has a lot in common with PHP for Web development, because you can choose Apache for your Web server, build mod_mono as a module just like PHP, and sidestep all the licensing issues related to traditional ASP.NET development on Windows servers.

Secret of effective feedback

2008-10-31T06:53:00.000-07:00

So many managers feel that providing constructive feedback—or at least feedback they hope will be perceived as constructive— is one of their biggest challenges. All too often they avoid giving it, because they know it’s going to be awkward and could possibly make matters worse.

The Effects of Ineffective Feedback

When a manager attempts to give constructive feedback, but does it ineffectively, the employee may:

* Feel misunderstood— and therefore hurt and resentful
* Feel put down and disrespected
* Believe that all the good things he does aren’t noticed or appreciated
* Conclude the boss doesn’t know what he’s talking about
* Not understand exactly what is expected of him and so may continue to make the same mistakes
* Lose his motivation and become less likely to go the extra mile when necessary

How to Avoid Giving Ineffective Feedback

The ability to give truly valuable feedback depends not only upon knowing what to do but also what NOT to do.

DO NOT:

1. Sugarcoat Negative Feedback. When you’re overly concerned about triggering a negative response, it’s natural to try to sugarcoat negative feedback. The result? The employee doesn’t really understand what you’re trying to say or the seriousness of the situation.

2. Back Down If The Employee Becomes Upset. While taking a time-out might be the best response when a person truly becomes unglued, revising your assessment downward or deciding “it’s not worth it” are never appropriate responses.

3. Avoid The Conversation Until You’ve “Had It Up To Here.” When you wait until you are in a frustrated, take-no-prisoners state, not much good is going to come out of the conversation. The employee will likely feel attacked and will become defensive.

4. Use An Overly Formal Or Forceful Opening. Managers often do this as a way to let the person know they mean business and/or to reduce the odds that the employee will “fight back.” While a formal, all-business demeanor is appropriate for very serious matters, it’s not necessary in many situations. Most people appreciate a more low-key approach that communicates, “We’re two adults here” instead of a “You are about to be scolded by the principal” tone that tends to trigger defensiveness.

5. “Control The Airwaves.” Some managers present a monologue instead of encouraging a dialogue, believing this approach will prevent the employee from disagreeing or making excuses. In reality, the manager will trigger resentment and resistance in the employee.

6. State What You’re Unhappy About Without Offering A Clear Picture Of What You Want. This approach doesn’t let the employee know what he needs to do to succeed.

7. Present An Action Plan Without First Getting Agreement About The Problem. A plan is meaningless unless the person understands what the issue is, what needs to be changed and why.

8. Give Positive Feedback Without Specifics. (e.g. “You’re awesome!”; “You do such a great job!”). This is especially counterproductive for people with personality styles that value data, precision, and detail. These people also tend to dislike flamboyant or emotional language. When they hear undefined and unspecified praise, they question the praise giver’s sincerity and knowledge about what they’re praising.

9. Mistake Valid Reasons For Excuses. Some bosses are so worried about being taken advantage of that they’re unable to recognize valid reasons and extenuating circumstances. To them, everything other than a “You’re right, boss” agreement seems like an excuse. When employees feel that their legitimate points are seen as excuses, they shut out the accuser and become resentful.

10. Wait For Annual Performance Review Time To Give Feedback. This is a great way to spark confused “What are you talking about?” resentment-packed conversations. To be effective, feedback must be ongoing, addressing problems as they arise.

11. Use Vague Judgments Without Specific Examples. Concepts like “more of a team player,” “more service oriented,” and “more professional” mean nothing. Labels without examples leave people feeling helpless about making changes because they don’t know what specifically you’re unhappy about or what you want.

12. Deliver A Long Preamble Before Giving The Negative Feedback. This just builds suspense for what they know is coming: the negative feedback. (“I really appreciate what a team player you are and I really love your attention to detail and I think you’re doing a great job with …. BUT…”).

13. Use Blunt, Provocative, Or Shaming Language To Make A Point. There is no reason to resort to language like: “I would think that would be a no-brainer…”; “That train has left the station, so let’s move on, huh?” and so forth.

14. Pretend To Agree And Then Disagree. “I can see why you feel that way, but…” There’s a difference between honestly acknowledging the other person’s viewpoint and just pretending to agree as a way to soften them up for your opposing point of view. You can acknowledge that you understand their perspective even if you don’t agree with it.

15. Wing It. Few things spark resentment or diminished respect for the critic than the feeling that one is being judged before the critic has thought through the possible angles and has gotten all the facts.

16. Tell Someone What’s Going On Inside His Head. You’re a manager, not a psychiatrist. If you have a good relationship with the employee, its fine to ask him/her if your guess about what’s going on is accurate; just don’t imply you know what’s going on inside his/her head—that’s presumptuous.

17. Use A “One Size Fits All” Approach To Praise. Our natural tendency is to praise people the way we like to be praised, but that only works for people who are like us. What works for some personality types doesn’t work for others.

18. Give Feedback Only When There Is A Problem. Gallup’s research reveals that 65% of employees say they did not receive any recognition in the previous year. Since positive feedback is a huge motivator, neglecting to give it is a huge mistake. If the only time you give feedback is to say something negative, your employees will automatically respond defensively the moment you try to give them feedback—not the ideal condition for a constructive conversation.

19. Use Sarcasm To Make A Point. Some humor—used judiciously—can lighten the tone and help diminish the sense of power differential that causes so much awkwardness when a boss gives a subordinate corrective feedback. That’s very different from using sarcasm or “just joking” comments to make a point, that is, “Oh, are you on the 8:23 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift now?”

Now…How About Some Constructive Feedback for You?

If you’re serious about improving your feedback skills, give this article to your team members. Ask them to check off any “Don’ts” that you’ve made regarding providing feedback. It could be an eye opener.

By following up and asking for feedback about your performance, you:

* Get a reality check
* Show your employees you really do care about them
* Let your employees know that their input is important to you
* Show you’re humble enough to hear feedback
* Increase the odds that people will accept your feedback
* Create a more engaged and motivated team

A new skill needed for Project Managers

2008-10-22T23:41:00.000-07:00

There are confirmed reports that IT budgets in a number of industries in the US and UK, have been nearly halved. A number of Indians in the US have been sent back, after project cancellations, lay-offs etc. Recent survey from Reuters has also proved the recession that we all are going to witness. The report also says that unlike the previous one, which lasted for just 8 months, this one is expected to last longer.

Global recession is possibly hitting every industry and possibly every human sole on this planet but the IT industry is the biggest victim of this crisis. Due to this recession, most of the organizations are applying innovative ways to cut their costs. Reducing man power (lay-offs) is one the ways to cut your cost (Although I don't agree with this).

Till now Project managers were using their people management skills to retain good resources in their team but these days they have a different kind of challenge. Now they need a skill, using which they can ask their people to leave without creating a strong impact on the people who are left with them.

Yesterday was one of the toughest and saddest day of my entire career as a project manager. I was asked to sack 5 people from my team. I was clueless that how I'll handle this situation. In these 5-6 people, couple of them had been working for last 5-6 years with me. You can imagine that how tough it was be for me.

I was always thought that I have skills for managing people but honestly speaking. But none of my skills helped me to tackle this situation, I don't how I did it and what will be the impact of this on rest of the people.

Since this recession is going to be their for a while in the IT industry and most of the project mangers will have to go through similar situation.

Don't you guys think that it is the right time to introduce a new skill for project managers so that they can handle such situations.