Rrrrrrrr

There’s more to making money than income alone - you need to be bringing in money cost-effectively. One of the easier ways of doing this involves the use of business performance management software.

Obviously, everyone is aware that getting the most out of your business requires knowing in what areas your staff work at their best, and knowing how to adjust your routines to match that. While this knowledge is highly useful, it’s not that effortless to obtain. Defining and tracking development through employee evaluation alone can turn into a huge task. The first step is to bring employee performance management systems into play. This allows you to track the work of each staff member. If this was done with traditional methods, you’ll have to assess all of that information by hand just to define objectives, goals, and measure further progress.

Employing performance management software you’ll find that this analysis is done for you and you need only scrutinize the different metrics to determine what the right targets for this staff member would be. It also renders charting the staff member’s advancement much simpler. Thus you eliminate a major time commitment and probably also find yourself with more useful information as an added bonus. Should you choose to it’s possible instead to carry out your own assessment, merely employing the software to generate and update a full record to use as a basis. Performance appraisal software doesn’t just work for staff. Both clients and suppliers can be studied using the appropriate software programs, giving you access to still more performance management tools. With suppliers in particular you can demonstrate their weak points like slow delivery times, bad damage records, etc. When it comes to clients performance management software can help there telling you just who your best seller is, their loss percentage and similar fallout, and serving as a reminder of outstanding payments. Then, you can customize your ordering and stock handling to boost your income while cutting outgoings. This information will allow you to determine a priority demographic. With this in mind advertising becomes more effective and quicker to plan. You can study your sources to minimize costs and watch your market to make more money using performance management software. In addition it smoothes out the employee performance review and helps set definitive goals for your workers significantly. All things considered, it’s clear that the potential of this system is endless and depends entirely on your own creativity and ability to use the information put at your disposal…

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Fork lift trucks are now attendant in any innovative mill, warehouse or warehousing facility. The labour saving powers of the fork lift are without equivalence. All The Same, such great ability and flexibility comes with a downside, they can be really life-threatening if utilised by haphazard and ill-trained users. Consequently it’s all-important, in fact even a statutory demand, that every last one your employees who may employ one are provided full forklift safety education. A training course of instruction with forklifts will cover all fields of forklift process including topics such as risk awareness, accurate payload techniques, speed, stableness, correct placing, everyday safety checks and outside hazards like other employees. Even users who think themselves to be practised may need to undergo refresher coaching to allow them to be covered by the current safety statute law. Keeping Up a healthy operational environs is the duty of all commercial enterprise owner and manager, without exceedingly advanced working procedures this can be unworkable to reach. We have each learned of tragedy stories where a badly used fork lift has resulted in a trail of damage and harm (including deaths), make a point that your workplace does not contribute to this number by assuring all your fork lift operators are decently coached. Always see to it that your safety coaching is supplied by licenced tutors who are covered by municipal criteria (with the right insurance policy and qualifications) and that all classes are likewise sanctioned by the correct municipal organisations.

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It’s thought in numerous businesses that, by giving each staff member training in safety in the workplace, they have all the knowledge necessary to cope with a disaster. The truth is that, irrespective your industry, staff must have more than basic education in safety regulations and risk assessment. Equipping employees, selecting the right supervisior and supporting frequent safety exercises are all essential factors. Someone in a supervisory capacity has a bigger purpose to carry out than simply general management. A supervisor needs to show enthusiasm and also consider training important. As well as observing any relevant legislation, the supervisor must furthermore make certain that every employee performs to the best of their abilty. Naturally it isn’t easy to do all this at once. In-depth business knowledge is vital in a supervisory position in addition to an in-depth comprehension of the safety regulations, risk assessment, and emergency assistance techniques.

It’s just not sufficient to only send your staff to a health and safety course. To successfully spot a risk to their safety they require to put their training into practise. Employees have to know how to deal with safety risks and also knowing what to do if anything unforeseen happens. Only when these processes become a habit are employees properly protected. Education is in reality not sufficient without safety gear. When they discover they are missing items that is essential, or discover that equipment is not working correctly when they really need them, then all the safety training they have already taken will have been essentially of no benefit at all.

It’s a good idea to check on a regular basis to make certain you possess all the necessary apparatus and to check it is working properly too. If you have a fault with your supplies, ensure that it is rectified quickly and return it to the appropriate place.

Your workforce must have good health & safety instruction, but they require decent gear, regular practises, and a supervisor who can motivate your staff. When you put this advice into practice you will find health and safety legislation will become established in your business culture rather than an inconvenience for everyone to remember constantly.

To learn more, we suggest you review our awesome #1 source for safety consultants hints.

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There is more involved in making money than income alone - it’s important to be bringing in money as effectively as possible for what you may have to spend to do it. One concept often omitted, however, is high quality performance appraisal software.

Business optimization needs comprehension of the abilities and weak areas of its employees; in what areas is their best work done? How can your system adjust to take advantage of their strengths and hide their weaknesses? This is the burning question. While this knowledge is important, it isn’t really effortless to obtain.

Simply tracking employee evaluation and determining development in their performance rapidly becomes a significant amount of work. First, you set up employee evaluation reviews to assess and track the work performed by each employee. If you’re employing conventional approaches, the next move is to manually assess the vast amount of raw information you have gathered simply to be able to follow future progress and set goals. With performance management software, you can just study the different analyses to identify what these objectives should be and subsequently follow the employee’s advancement. Providing as it does more useful information for a smaller investment of time, this can be a cost saving measure before putting these findings to use. Should you choose to it’s possible instead to perform your own analysis, simply using the software to generate and keep up a record to work from. And helping to make your employees more efficient is merely one improvement that can be made using performance appraisal software. It can also be worth studying suppliers and clients to be better able to pace your ordering and conserve money. You’ll have a data analysis that can show which suppliers provide products with the best quality, for the best prices as well as distinguish those with high rates of damage or slow delivery times. As for affiliates, clients, and retailers, it’s possible to pin down who who is your best seller of any given product or service if there are payment issues, which client experiences the worst loss percentage, and the solutions to other questions. With this information at hand you are able to adjust your ordering and selling habits to increase profits and reduce costs. With this data you can identify your best target audience. With this in mind advertising becomes more effective and quicker to plan. You can track your sources in order to minimize costs and stay abreast of your market so that you can make more money using performance management software. In addition it streamlines the employee performance review and helps set precisely outlined targets for your employees decidedly. All in all, what can be achieved using this software is almost unbelievable.

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Numerous human resource managers think that, by giving each employee some training in occupational health & safety, they now have all the knowledge they need to cope with a disaster. Realistically however, employees require more than a basic education in health & safety regulatory affairs. You must supply your employees with appropriate supervision, not to mention provide the right safety gear and give them the chance to practice. Each team needs a great supervisor to oversee the work area, yet this person must also perform a still greater purpose. Whomever you select as the supervisor must understand the importance of health & safety training and be able to get everybody excited. In addition to checking conformity with health & safety legislation, the task of a supervisor also includes maintaining employee efficiency. Of course it isn’t easy to do all this at once. The supervisor needs to have an in-depth understanding of the industry best practice and production not to mention a very high standard of comprehension of up-to-date regulations regarding safety, risk assessment and emergency assistance techniques. It simply is not adequate to supply your employees with health & safety education. Your employees need to have practical experience of risk assessment and the identification of hazards. They also need insights into the steps necessary to remedy the situation not to mention how to cope if something goes wrong. Only when these processes become second nature are staff properly protected. Good safety equipment is equally as vital to the your staff’s well-being as any training. If they don’t have gear that is necessary, or even learn that supplies are broken only after something has happened, then all the education available isn’t going to help them.

Regularly scheduled maintenance of your apparatus is fundamental. If you find something isn’t in perfect order, make sure it is repaired or serviced as quickly as possible.

Health & safety instruction is essential for the health of your staff, but they need the correct gear, the opportunity to practise, and an experienced supervisor who can get staff to be enthusiastic about being healthy at work. Only then will abiding by all the safety regulations be ingrained in your business culture instead of something for the workforce to remember constantly.

Please inspect this prime resource for occupational safety facts!

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An organized enterprise does not exist in a vacuum. Rather, it is dependent on its external environment. It is a part of larger systems such as the industry it belongs to, the economic system and society. Thus, the enterprise receives inputs, transforms them and exports the outputs to the environment. Clearly, an open-system model that includes interactions between the enterprise and its external environment describes any business or organization.

The inputs from the external environment may include people, capital and managerial skills, as well as technical knowledge and skills. In addition, various groups of people will make demands on the enterprise. For example, employees want higher pay, more benefits and job security. On the other hand, consumers demand safe and reliable products at reasonable prices. Suppliers want assurance that their products will be bought. Stockholders not only want a high return on their investment but also security for their money.

It is the task of managers to transform the inputs, in an effective and efficient manner, into outputs. Of course, the transformation process can be viewed from different perspectives. Thus, one can focus on such diverse enterprise functions as finance, production, personnel and marketing.

Communication is essential to all phases of the managerial process for two reasons. First, it integrates the managerial functions. For example, the objectives set in planning are communicated so that the appropriate organization structure can be devised. The second purpose of the communication system is to link the enterprise with its external environment, where many of the claimants are. For example, one should never forget that the customer, who is the reason for the existence of virtually all businesses, is outside a company. It is through the communication system that the needs of the customer are identified, and this knowledge enables the firm to provide products and services at a profit.

Business Process Management provides detailed information on Business Process Management, Business Process Management Software, Business Process Management Systems, Business Process Management Solutions and more. Business Process Management is affiliated with Corporate Performance Management Solutions.

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“The first impulse of people is to believe.” Dr. Harlan Tarbell

The magician, stands center stage as various assistants enter and exit. Usually a
piece of exotic apparatus is introduced. The story line calls for the magician to don
a hood. He does so, as do his assistants. The magician grabs the leading lady by the
arm and places her, usually bound, into the apparatus and locks it shut. The
assistants make a great show of tying ropes around the box. Once the box is
thoroughly tied, the dancers strut around the stage. They turn the apparatus side-
to-side and end-to-end as the magician walks around the box. When the box stops
turning, the dancers prance around it. At an appropriately suspenseful moment, the
box is opened. Surprise! It’s empty. The magician takes his hood off. Surprise. It’s
the assistant. But where’s the magician? At this moment, the magician appears, to
the breathless amazement of the audience, at the back of the theater and run down
the center isle of the theater. He runs to the stage and receives a well deserved
round of applause.

Magicians and trainers: two artists with more in common than you might think. This
month and next I will explore the similarities between these two art forms and
identify the lessons magicians offer trainers as we focus on hocus pocus.

The First Illusion
We don’t know when the first human magic was performed any more than we know
who the first trainer was. We can however assume that the first “miracle worker” was
viewed with awe and wonder. In ancient times, conjurers were highly regarded as
communicators to gods, predictors of the future and advisors to kings. As humanity
grew to understand science, magic became a less relevant source of miracles. It
became instead what it should have been all along, an entertainment art form. Harry
Houdini delivered the death knell for magicians as miracle workers. After Houdini’s
mother died, Houdini attended séance after séance in a forlorn attempt to contact
her. Unfortunately for the mediums, their tambourine shakings, bell ringings, table
liftings and ghostly writings did not fool Houdini. He felt betrayed and conducted a
single-handed crusade that destroyed the mediums and completed the transition
from magician-as-miracle-worker to magician-as-entertainer.

Although trainers were never regarded as communicators to gods, they were once
upon a time regarded as miracle workers. All a manager had to do was send a
problematic employee to training and the trainer would work learning miracles. That
perception is long gone, along with the dot.com bubble. In today’s tighter times,
traditional training is often viewed as the equivalent of the medium with the ability
to do little more than rattle tambourines.

Magic and training both suffer what the psychologists call cognitive disconnect. We
are suspicious of magicians. The very word “illusion,” originally Latin, means “to
make fun of, and most people don’t like to play the fool. And yet magic’s lure
remains. We may have lost our belief in the divinity of magicians, but not the desire
to believe. We watch a fake, and knowing its fakeness, still fall for the illusion.

Magicians have responded to this disconnect by downplaying the trick. Granted,
magic is performed through trickery, but audiences rarely leave a magical
entertainment bragging about how well they were tricked. The trickery is a tool, not
an end in itself. People do not want to be tricked; they want to be entertained. And
yet, in order to entertain, the magician must manipulate.

In a similar vein, adults often enter the training environment full of suspicion.
Admitting the need to learn implies admitting a lack of completeness, in a strange
room, in front of strangers, to an instructor who can exert control over the trainee’s
fate. The trainer, like the magician, must present his or her art form to an often
suspicious audience who deep down inside want to learn. Like the magician, the
trainer must manipulate to teach.

Manipulation

When people watch magicians perform, they see the manipulation of cards, billiard
balls, silk handkerchiefs, and other paraphernalia. With trainers, they see the
manipulation of logistics, electronic media and classroom materials. There is a level
of manipulation that neither audience sees: the performer’s manipulation of the
audience. Consider the magician. The extraordinary effort that the magician puts
into directing the audience’s attention is hidden from view. The audience sees
magic: the magician sees deception. Likewise, the best trainer takes constant care
to hide the class mechanics from view so that the trainees can focus on learning.
The trainee sees illumination: the trainer sees controlled sequences. The trainer
must influence the trainee’s mind in order for learning to occur.
Both magician and trainer must use two fundamental principals to manipulate the
audience: direction and suggestion. The story that opened this article made
extensive use of both principals. Let’s look at that story again. Only this time, we
will examine the illusion from the magician’s point of view.

Hocus Pocus Refocused.

The magician, stands center stage as various assistants enter and exit.

The first time a spectator sees an assistant enter, they notice. They may even notice
the second entrance. But soon, the comings and goings become routine, and no
longer warrant attention. They become invisible. The magician directs attention
away from these entrances, suggesting their lack of importance.

Usually a piece of exotic apparatus is introduced.

The box is not the focus of this illusion, the upcoming switch is. By directing
attention towards the box, the magician directs the spectator’s attention away from
the various personnel on stage. The magician suggests the box is important. This
false focus makes the switch a total surprise.

The story line calls for the magician to don a hood. He does so, as do his assistants.

No magician wants to wear a hood. It’s hot, sweaty and unattractive. The nature of
this illusion is a switch, and a switch cannot occur if the magician is easy to spot on
stage. The magician dons a hood so that the switch can occur, but audience
knowledge of that purpose would telegraph the illusion. A story line that suggests a
logical explanation is invented for the hood.

The magician grabs the leading lady by the arm and places her, usually bound, into
the apparatus and locks it shut. The assistants make a great show of tying ropes
around the box.

The ropes are inconsequential as a barrier to escape, but important as a directing
tool. They play no role in the illusion, except to suggest that escape is impossible.
In addition, the rope by-play allows the leading lady time to escape her bonds, take
off her outer layer of clothes to reveal an assistant’s costume and hood, and slip out
a trap door in the back of the box. As the last of the ropes are tied, the leading lady,
now dressed as an assistant, exits stage left with the other assistants, who are by
now not important enough to watch, as the hooded magician directs attention to
him by walking towards the audience.

Once the box is thoroughly tied, the dancers strut around the stage. They turn the
apparatus side-to-side and end-to-end as the magician walks around the box.

With all the whirling, twirling, circling, and strutting, it is had for the spectator to
remain focused on the critical details. There is just too much stimuli directed at
them. At this point, while the spectators are in stimuli overload, the magician boldly
walks toward the wings.

When the box stops turning, the dancers prance around it.

The alluring dancers direct attention away from the magician, who, having reached
the wings, exits stage left. At that precise moment, the dancers execute their most
provocative dance step. Almost immediately, the leading lady enters from the exact
area where the magician exited, and by manner of walk and attitude, suggests that
she is the magician.

At an appropriately suspenseful moment, the box is opened. Surprise. It’s empty.
The magician takes his hood off. Surprise. It’s the assistant.

The suggestion is that the switch occurred at that instant. Of course, the switch is
minutes old, but, because the magician purposely directed their attention away from
the critical events, the spectators completely missed it. They now begin focusing on
possible solutions for the switch, but it is too late. The trail has already gone cold.
Besides which, their attention is about to be directed away from the puzzle with an
even more enticing stimulus.

But where’s the magician? At this moment, the magician appears, to the breathless
amazement of the audience, at the back of the theater and run down the center isle
of the theater. He runs to the stage and receives a well deserved round of applause.

To the spectator, the switch is made all the more miraculous by the appearance of
the magician at the back of the theater. The unstated suggestion is that the
magician has just now magically appeared at the back of the theater. A closer look
would reveal his fast breathing. For, he has just run all the way around the theater.
But the magician isn’t the only one gasping for air. The audience has been left
breathless.

What seemed like a true miracle was accomplished through direction and
suggestion. We will overview each of these fundamental principals in turn, and
examine the ways they relate to the learning environment.

Direction

To create magic, magicians must bend the laws of nature. Or rather they must seem
to bend the laws of nature. Control isn’t necessary; the appearance of control is
enough. That appearance of control comes from directing the audience’s attention
away from items that would destroy the illusion, and towards those that reinforce it.
Direction can take many forms but is invariably a physical action: a nod, a gesture, a
change in posture, or a verbal statement.

To foster learning, trainers must also control the environment. Bulgarian
psychotherapist Dr. Giorgi Lozanov, the father of Accelerated Learning theory,
believed that adult suspicions about the classroom block learning. He viewed joyful
direction on the part of the instructor, one in which the instructor positively directs
the trainees toward the learning goal and away from negative behaviors, as critical
to learning.

And old training saying suggests trainers should “tell them what you’re going to tell
them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them.” Magicians tell the audience
what the magician wants them to see, tells them what they should be seeing, and
then tells them what they just saw. Where trainers direct attention towards positive
learning outcomes, magicians misdirect attention away from truth.

A simple example is the magician’s statement, “Nothing up my sleeve.” This is an
intentional ploy. Calling attention to the obvious preempts future “It was up his
sleeve” comments. It also gives the audience something irrelevant to think about,
thus pulling their attention away from the bulge in the magician’s pocket, or in the
case of the switch, away from the critical events of the illusion.

Attention was directed towards the box, and away from the assistants. The hoods
were explained in the story. Because no extra attention was paid to them, they
seemed unimportant. The attention placed on the tightness of the ropes implied
importance when there is none, and stalled for time while the assistant changed
clothes and slipped through the trap door. The alluring dance steps directed
attention away from the switch. The appearance of the magician at the back of the
theater directed attention away from the true secret of the illusion. All these events
were planned to control what the audience saw. Without this direction, the illusion
could not have happened.

In a similar fashion, every stimulus in the learning environment sends a message
about the value of the training. The savvy trainer orchestrates all those stimuli so as
to direct attention towards the learning goal.

Suggestion
The second of our two fundamentals is suggestion. Where direction is often a
physical, via gestures, posture, and verbal statements, suggestion is the art of
implication. Dariel Fitzee Explained suggestion as “… A subtle but positive act of
putting something into the mind of the spectator.”

This definition parallels Giorgi Lozanov’s comments about Suggestopedia. Lozanov’s
defined suggestion as:

“A constant communicative factor which chiefly through paraconscious mental
activity can create conditions for tapping the functional reserve capacities.”
Lozanov believed that adults bring personal learning barriers into the classroom
with them, and that facilitators should create an aura of joyfulness and then use that
aura to suggest positive learning outcomes.

In the Hocus Pocus switch example, the magician employed several suggestions:
• The comings and goings of the assistants were not important
• The box was a major focus of the illusion
• Hoods needed to be worn because of the story
• Ropes make escape from the box impossible
• The hooded assistant was the magician
• The switch occurred in an instant
• The magician magically appeared at the back of the theater
Each of these suggestions was false, but was accepted as true by the audience.

In the learning environment, the trainer offers several suggestions that aid learning:
• The subject to be learned is critical to job success or personal or professional
well-being
• The time spent together will be well spent
• The subject is not too difficult to learn
• Anyone who applies themselves can learn the material
• The class will be an enjoyable experience

These suggestions can be critical to classroom success. Suggestion calms the
anxious right hemisphere, creating positive emotion. The end result is a more
attentive brain. Regardless of the field, be it magic, vocal performance, or
instruction, the goal and the technique for reaching that goal is the same. Subtle,
positive, focused suggestion that creates an atmosphere of trust.

Acceptance of Manipulation

Finally, we come to the trust required for acceptance of direction and suggestion.
For, if the audience believes that the magician or trainer does not have their own
benefit at heart, direction and suggestion are doomed to fail. The audience
subconsciously condones and willingly accepts the manipulation as long as two
factors remain in place:
• The manipulation must be clearly for the audience’s benefit
• The audience must not be reminded of the manipulation

The manipulation must be clearly for the audience’s benefit

Magicians place great emphasis on communicating benevolence to the audience.
They suggest supernatural powers but with their tongues firmly planted in their
cheeks. They present their illusions as harmless concoctions for the audiences’
enjoyment. And the audience, knowing the intent is pleasurable emotion, allow
themselves to be fooled.

Trainers also communicate benevolence. Trainees who mistrust the trainer will not
engage in the learning. Trainees allow themselves to be controlled as long as they
trust the trainer. The moment they suspect the trainer is more concerned with his or
her ego then with their benefit, the level of trust plunges.
The instructor must additionally focus the learners on the subject at hand, keep the
focus on the subject throughout the learning process, and create an environment in
which the learners amaze themselves with what they have learned. Instruction is
manipulation for the learner’s benefit.

The audience must not be reminded of the manipulation

A willingness to be manipulated is not the same as a conscious awareness of that
manipulation. Audiences and trainees will only accept manipulation if they are not
consciously aware of it.

In order to manipulate the audience without calling attention to that manipulation,
suggestion must be employed. The audience’s reluctance to be tricked, and the
learner’s reluctance to be coerced, dictates the need for suggestion. Both Fitzee and
Lozanov felt that dictates would be doomed to failure. Fitzee stated:

“It is utterly impossible to force the spectator’s reason or judgment directly. The
spectator must believe he has made his own decision [original emphasis]. This
makes it necessary for the magician to use inducement rather than persuasion.”

If you reread that quote with the classroom in mind, you can easily see the parallel:

“It is utterly impossible to force a class to participate directly. The trainee must
believe he has made his own decision to learn. This makes it necessary for the
trainer to use inducement rather than persuasion.”

With these comparisons between magicians and trainers in mind, we will next turn
our attention to the placement of magic in the learning environment. Next month’s
article, Hocus Pocus Focus Part 2 will focus on four applications of magic in the
learning environment.

To Be Continued in Hocus Pocus Part 2

Visit Lenn on line at www.offbeattraining.com
lennmillbower@offbeattraining.com

Lenn Millbower, BM, MA, the Learnertainment® Trainer is an expert in applying
show biz techniques to learning. He is the author of the ASTD Info-Line, Music as a
Training Tool, focused on the practical application of music to learning; Show Biz
Training, the definitive book on the application of entertainment industry
techniques to training; Cartoons for Trainers, a popular collection of 75 cartoons for
learning; Game Show Themes for Trainers, a best-selling CD of original learning
game music; and Training with a Beat: The Teaching Power of Music, the foremost
book on the application of music to learning. Lenn is an in-demand speaker, with
successful presentations at ASTD 1999-2005 and SHRM 2006; a creative and
dynamic instructional designer and facilitator formally with the Disney University
and Disney Institute; an accomplished arranger-composer skilled in the
psychological application of music to learning; a popular comedian, magician and
musician; and the president of Offbeat Training®, infusing entertainment-based
techniques into learning to keep ‘em awake!

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Do your project team members show confusion about who is
responsible for what aspects of the job? Do their conversations
and meetings usually end in heated personal attacks? Or do
individual members ever exhibit an “every person for themselves”
attitude and refuse to help their teammates? If you answered
“yes” to any of these questions, then you’re not alone.
Sometimes, a team simply doesn’t “gel.”

Every experienced project manager has certainly experienced
challenges in getting their teams to behave like…well, teams.
But with organization and guidance you can help your project
teams accomplish more and eliminate many of the setbacks and
challenges that make teamwork so difficult. Consider the
following five strategies for unifying and organizing your
teams:

1. Establish a Project Organization with Clearly Defined Roles

Project organization must go beyond a hierarchy chart. Each
person needs to know what function they play on the team, how
they fit into the other functions, and what happens if they
don’t do their job.

Depending on your industry or functional discipline, you may
employ standard or customary roles on your project. Start with
these standard roles that are typical for your type of projects.
But if the particular project need warrants a special role that
is outside the standard, then create a special role. And if the
project doesn’t need a particular standard role, then eliminate
it. This may sound easy enough, but many project managers
hesitate to deviate from standard roles. At the end of the day,
however, results are what matter the most, not how well a team
adhered to the standard project role structure.

If the project is unique or the environment doesn’t have
standard or customary project roles, take a more pragmatic
approach to role definition. Identify three to six aspects of
the project that are most important or that pose the most risk.
Create roles that encompass the concern or risk areas. Then
ensure that all major roles are defined correctly by
crosschecking the roles with the work that needs to be done.

This type of project organization addresses concerns or areas of
risk head-on by defining a role with a singular point of
accountability to manage the areas of your project that are most
likely to fail. By doing this, you’ll sleep better knowing that
the most crucial areas are covered.

2. Eliminate Finger Pointing and Public Fights

Every team project will likely involve lively discussions.
Often, these discussions lead you one step closer to project
completion. But when they get out of control, these discussions
lead to finger pointing and fighting. Be deliberate in letting
these discussions take place and in letting team members
question each other, but put a few rules in place to maintain a
level of civility.

Allow team members to challenge and stretch, but when a decision
is made everyone must stand behind it as a team. What happens in
the room stays in the room; outside of the room the team remains
unified. This means no gossiping or badmouthing a team member to
outsiders. Also, wrong decisions must be accepted as a team. In
other words, no finger pointing allowed. And finally, don’t
allow problems to become personal. Focus on problems, not on
people.

Inevitably some rules will be broken. However, you should still
strive to get some ground rules in place to avoid team strife
whenever possible.

3. Develop a “Rallying Cry” to Focus the Team

You can look at any major successful campaign and see the
messages that embody them. Consider these classic examples:
“Where’s the beef?” “Got milk?” and “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz.”
All these unifying messages can be associated with a product.
Similarly, when driving a project it helps the team to embody
some kind of rallying cry or mantra.

Your team’s message should incorporate aspects of the project.
For example, say your team needs to be cautious not to
over-design a solution to keep costs down. In this case, you
might start using a “good enough” rallying cry during the design
phase to serve as a continual reminder not to overdo the
solution. Aside from helping to keep the project within bounds,
the rallying cry will also help unify the team.

4. Hold Team Members Accountable for Delivery

With team projects, each role needs to clearly understand what
they need to do, when they need to have it done, and how their
work fits into the big picture. Everyone needs to realize that
the team isn’t only accountable to the project manager, but they
are also accountable to each other. After all, if one person
fails, the whole team fails. Therefore, each individual team
member must know what everyone else is doing.

Each role should be aware of what is happening in other roles
to ensure that they know if and how they fit in to those aspects
of the project. Each role should also realize that if they fail
to meet a deadline or don’t perform their job adequately, they
are letting down the team as a whole, not just the project
manager. Meeting or missing deadlines and deliverables are a
team issue and should be exposed to the entire team. The point
here is accountability. Each member needs to feel accountable
for his or her work and needs to experience the joy of success
as well as the discomfort of failure.

5. Celebrate Victories as a Team

Driving through a project is tough work, and people can easily
get discouraged when the team faces roadblocks or setbacks.
Therefore, celebration of key milestones is important to keep
morale up and momentum going. These celebrations don’t have to
be extravagant; they can be as simple as ordering a pizza or
bringing in a cake. Anything that allows the team members to let
their hair down and take a bit of a breather will suffice.
However, too much celebration can lessen the impact of the
success and may actually annoy the team members. So celebrate,
but do it in moderation.

Teamwork in the Future

A well-structured project team means each team member
understands their role in making the project successful. Each
project team member knows what they need to contribute to the
project, when they have to perform, what other project team
members are doing on the project, and what it takes to be
successful. Just as important, each of the team members helps
each other to ensure overall project success. When you use these
five strategies to unify and organize your teams, you can
overcome the common teamwork challenges and make all your future
projects more successful.

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How many times have you remarked to someone that there are not enough hours in the day? The sad truth is, not matter how much you wish it, it is unlikely that you can get more than 24 hours in each day. So, the trick to time management is really how you get the most out of the hours you have. One way to do that is to become an exceptional planner of your day. It is not very difficult - just takes some basic knowledge and a lot of discipline. As a coach, I can help you with both, but the knowledge is what I’ll cover right now.

Set aside time to plan

This is really the first step. You have to make planning a habit, and do the task religiously. I set aside an hour on Sunday mornings to plan my week. In order for me to make sure that the week goes according to plan, I have to have “a plan” to start with. In the beginning, it may take you longer than an hour, but once you’ve done the planning for a while, you’ll get more efficient at it. You will also feel much more focused when you have identified what you want to accomplish for the week.

Schedule at least one week at a time

Some people only plan one day at a time, but I think that you need to be more forward looking than that. So, I suggest you focus on at least one week at a time, but also review what may be coming up in the next month while you are considering what to prioritize for the next week. The more proactive you are about your life, the less often you will find yourself having to react to unforeseen situations.

Identify your “big rocks” for your week

If you don’t know what I mean, you have to read Stephen Covey. He made a masterful illustration using a bucket, some sand, and several rocks of various sizes. He explained that the sand represents all the busy work that we have to do, like answering the phone, reading email, filing away papers, etc. The rocks represent all the important things that we have to do, such as setting goals for the year, launching a new project, creating a vision for your team, etc. The bucket represents all the time we have for all the demands of our lives.

What happens with most of us is that we fill up our buckets with the sand first, and then we can only put a few rocks on top, and there’s no more room for the rest. What he suggested is that we put all our rocks into the bucket first, and then fill in all the available spaces with the sand. And miraculously, everything fits in our container!

This is the philosophy you need to employ when you schedule your week. Identify all your big rocks, and block out the time to handle these first. Then worry about the sand afterwards. We have to make sure that we handle the important stuff first, and not let the busy work consume our days.

Think 24/7

I am not suggesting that you plan to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But I am suggesting that you account for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in your schedule. If you neglect to consider Saturdays and Sundays because those are your “days off”, you may find on Sunday night that you have not handled any of the household chores that you needed to get done. Or if you are planning on having a dinner party on Saturday night next week, you had better block off some time Friday or Saturday to straighten out the house, or go to the market.

Plan personal and play time

Don’t think that a schedule is only for work, this is a plan for your life. So, make sure that you block off time for exercise, or “date night” with your spouse, or cheerleader time for your kids’ games in your schedule. Remember that the goal is to have time to handle everything that’s important to us, not just things that are important concerning work. If you want Friday to be a mental health day, block that off. You don’t need to put in any more details than that. But you know that if you don’t plan for it, it won’t happen.

Leave some contingency time in your schedule

You know better than to expect that your days all go exactly as planned. Just when you are about to really focus on that important analysis you needed to do, your boss calls you into a meeting where your expertise is desperately needed, and your schedule is shot. So, don’t cram every hour of your day with activities. Leave some contingency time for you to catch up when the unexpected happens.

Discipline, discipline, discipline

Once you have your days scheduled, you need to exercise discipline and stick to what you planned. Do everything you can to eliminate distractions and really focus on what you have to do. You will be amazed how much more productive you can be. So, close that email program, turn the phone ringer off and let voicemail handle the calls, close your office door for an hour of so. Then when it is time for you to handle email, and phone calls, and drop-in visitors, give all your focus to those activities then.

© 2004 Inez O. Ng

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Do you need some structure and accountability to propel you forward? Personal Coach Inez Ng has worked with professionals and entrepreneurs to transform their aspirations into reality. While focusing on specific areas, her coaching positively impacts all areas of her clients’ lives. Learn more about coaching with Inez at http://www.RealizationsUnltd.com

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