Archive for September 2011

Want to become an effective leader? Study MBWA



Picture a boss in a lavish office with sumptuous leather furniture and wood-paneled walls. He's sitting behind a huge desk full of important work that needs his attention. He's far too busy to be concerned with anything outside his office walls: there's enough happening within!

This type of boss can be intimidating and unapproachable. Yet, this is a common scenario in many organizations.
What type of boss would you like to be? Do you want to be remote and bask in your own importance? Or do you want to know what's happening out there "in the trenches"?
As a boss, you can be admired for your wisdom, knowledge and expertise without being distant and disconnected.
If you build a wall around yourself, your team may not gain from your experience, and this can undermine problem solving and decision making. Being connected can be a major factor for success: The more connected you are, the better you can understand what motivates members of your team, analyze what's really going on, and find solutions that meet the needs of your people and your company.

Introducing MBWA..

To get connected and stay connected, you need to walk around and talk to your team, work alongside them, ask questions, and be there to help when needed. This practice has been called Management By Wandering Around (or Management By Walking About) – MBWA for short.
William Hewlett and David Packard, founders of Hewlett Packard (HP), famously used this approach in their company. Tom Peters, in his wildly successful 1982 book "In Search of Excellence," included lessons learned from HP and other companies that used a similar style – and the term MBWA immediately became popular.

What MBWA Can Achieve

Since then, Management By Wandering Around has never really gone out of fashion. If you use MBWA, you can increase the following:
  • Approachability – When your staff sees you as a person and not just a boss, they'll be more likely to tell you what's going on. You'll get the chance to learn about issues before they become problems.
  • Trust – As your team gets to know you better, they'll trust you more. You'll be naturally inclined to share more information, and that will break down barriers to communication.
  • Business knowledge – Getting out and learning what's happening on a daily basis can give you a better understanding of the functions and processes around you.
  • Accountability – When you interact daily with your team, agreements you make with each other are much more likely to be completed. Everyone is more motivated to follow through, because you're seeing each other on a regular basis.
  • Morale – People often feel better about their jobs and their organization when they have opportunities to be heard. MBWA makes those opportunities available.
  • Productivity – Many creative ideas come from casual exchanges. MBWA promotes casual discussions, so people will more likely feel free to come to you with their ideas.
Despite its obvious benefits, use of MBWA has been hit-and-miss. To be successful, it takes more than simply strolling through your office, warehouse, or production facility. MBWA isn't a "walk in the park": It's a determined and genuine effort to understand your staff, what they do, and what you can do to make their work more effective.
Don't just do MBWA because you feel it's an obligation – this probably won't work very well. You have to truly want to get to know your staff and operations, and you have to commit to following up concerns and seeking continuous improvement.

How to Implement MBWA

These "wandering around" tips can help you get started:
  • Relax – People will sense your genuineness and casualness, and they'll respond accordingly. Stiff, formal conversation will probably lead to equally rigid responses.
  • Listen and observe more than you talk – Use active listening with your staff. When people feel you're hearing them, you'll probably seem more sincere. Read some pointers on active listening.
  • Ask for feedback and ideas – Let everyone know that you want ideas to make things better. As the boss, people may think that your opinions and ideas are "right." So hold back from saying what you think – the goal is to see what others have to say.
  • Wander around equally – Don't spend more time in one department or section than another. And don't always talk to the same people, or to people with certain ranks. You want to be approachable to everyone, regardless of job title or position.
  • Use the time for spontaneous recognition – If you see something good, compliment the person. This is a perfect way to show your gratitude.
  • Hold meetings "out and about" – Instead of having all your meetings in the boardroom or your office, meet with people in their work areas and "on their turf." This can put them more at ease. Communicate your expectations and needs so that everyone knows what you value.
  • Don't use this time to judge or critique – This can make people nervous when you're around. If you see something that concerns you, talk to the person later, in private.
  • Answer questions openly and honestly – If you don't know an answer, find out and then follow up. If you can't share something, say so. Telling half-truths can break down trust.
  • Communicate – Share company goals, philosophy, values, and vision. Your "walk-arounds" are opportunities to mutually share information that helps everyone understand and do their jobs better.
  • Chat – Effective organizations aren't all about work, work, work. Build relationships. Learn the names of your staff's kids. Find out what they love to do or where they're going on vacation. Joke, laugh, and have fun. You may be surprised at how great it feels to relate on a personal level with the people in your office.
  • Don't overdo it – Don't leave people feeling that you're always looking over their shoulders! Wander around often enough to get a good feel for what's going on, but not so often that your presence feels like a mundane distraction.

Apply This to Your LifeWhen was the last time you walked around your office or department? Why did you walk around? Were you looking for things that people were doing poorly or doing well? Were you using it as an opportunity to criticize or learn?
How can you use Management By Wandering Around to help you achieve your leadership goals? Ask yourself the following:
  • Where do you usually hold your meetings? If you use your office or your boardroom, do you think your staff finds that intimidating?
  • Do you know the first and last names of all your team members? This is a must. Better yet, you should learn the names of their spouses and kids.
  • Do you know more about a small group of your staff vs. all staff, or more about one department vs. others? Why have you been focusing your attention on just those people? Do you think the rest of the staff sees this as favoritism?
  • Do colleagues come to you with ideas? Think about the creativity and innovation you could tap into if they did.

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When to say 'YES' or 'NO'?



The word "negotiation" conjures up images of high-pressure situations, where people have a lot to lose if they get things wrong.

In fact, you probably negotiate several times each day. You do it at home and at work for all sorts of things, from deciding what to make for dinner, to settling on terms for a job promotion. Because of this, you are a negotiator, even if you don't think of yourself as one!
But how well do you negotiate? Do you know how to recognize situations where negotiating is appropriate? And do you understand the elements of an effective negotiation?
In this article, we'll discuss some of the fundamentals of negotiating successfully, so that you can meet your needs without causing conflict when you do have to say "no".

Negotiating Basics

Negotiation is simply the act of reaching agreement as to how you'll move forwards. It's the process of communicating back and forth, and finally having all parties agree to a solution.
There are many ways to arrive at this agreement. Some people view negotiation as a game they have to win. They use "hard" negotiation tactics, and this often leaves one party very satisfied and the other side with no choice but to agree. The problem with this approach is that the relationship between the two parties is often permanently damaged. The person asking for something may receive it, but the second person probably feels taken advantage of and, perhaps, angry and resentful. If it wasn't really a willing "yes," the second person is unlikely to complete the work quickly, or with a positive attitude.
The opposite approach is to accommodate. This is when one party yields his or her position and original goal, simply agreeing to what the other person wants. This "soft" tactic is often the result of wanting to keep relationships friendly. The end result, however, is that this person doesn't get what's needed, and he or she loses control to the other person.
Negotiations that aim for mutually satisfying outcomes are often best. These are sometimes called collaborative, integrative, or principled negotiations. The techniques used to conduct these help negotiators find a solution that shows high concern for the needs of both sides. The result is a win-win solution: rather than one side giving up a "position," the focus is on finding a new position where everyone is happy and is satisfied.
In the book "Getting to Yes," based on the work of the Harvard Negotiation Project, authors Roger Fisher and William Ury outline four parameters for principled negotiation:
  1. Separate the people from the problem.
  2. Focus on interests, not positions.
  3. Generate a variety of possibilities before making a decision.
  4. Define objective standards as the criteria for making the decision.
If you use these elements as the basis of your negotiation, you'll be more able to find creative solutions to the problems you're trying to solve.

Assertiveness and Negotiation

To use the principles of principled negotiation, you must be assertive. Forget the idea that negotiation means giving something up. Instead, this new process frees you to get what you need.
So, when your boss asks you to be on another committee, and you don't really have the time, you don't have to say "yes" or "no." Instead, approach the situation as an opportunity to negotiate.
Does the new committee offer career development opportunities that fit with your long-term objectives? If yes, perhaps you can give up another assignment in exchange, or maybe you can negotiate hiring an assistant so that you can reduce your workload. This might even be the time to renegotiate your job description and redefine your roles and responsibilities within the organization!
Whatever the situation, if you view negotiation as a collaboration, you say "yes" to the other person by respecting his or her needs - at the same time that you give yourself the opportunity to say "no" to the task itself.

When to Say "No" to the Task

Not all requests should be negotiated. Sometimes when your boss asks you to do something, you need to say "no".
Here are some key questions to ask before saying "no" to a task:
  • Do I have time to do it? 
    • Where in the Urgent/Important Matrix does this request fit?
  • Am I the right person for the task? 
    • Is someone else best suited to the job?
  • Does this request fit with my goals and objectives?
    • Create an Action/Priority Matrix to determine fit.
If your answer to any of these questions is "no," then you may be best off saying "no". (There's more on how to do this below!)
On the other hand, it's usually unprofessional to say "no" to a task just because you don't want to do it, you don't understand how to do it, it will take a long time, or it's messy and complex.

How to Say "Yes" to the Person but "No" to the Task


If your answer to the task request is "no," then figure out how to say "yes" to the person at the same time. To do this, make sure that you explain your justification, so that it's clear that you're only saying "no" to this particular task - and possibly only on this occasion. If the other person understands why you've said "no", they are less likely to be left with the impression that you're simply being unhelpful. However, you may also have to be firm about how you say "no".
As we've discussed, saying "yes to the person and no to the task" may also mean negotiating different arrangements to accommodate the request in a different way.
To say "yes" to the person, first answer three main questions:
  • What does this person really need?
    • Find areas of flexibility.
    • Determine priorities.
  • How else can this person's need be met?
    • Find a different frame of reference or approach to the problem.
    • Look for time and resource alternatives.
  • How can I support this person to have the need met?
    • Define the larger goal.
    • Look for common interests and needs.
High levels of trust and good communication are essential to this process. Although there's no guarantee that trust will lead to a good solution, mistrust will almost certainly harm collaboration. People who don't trust each other tend to be defensive, and this often leads people to look for ‘hidden agendas' or withhold information.
When people trust each other, they're more likely to communicate their needs accurately. When they share information about what they want, what they need, and why they need it, this can lead people to cooperate to look for a joint solution. And when you work in an environment of respect and trust, it's much easier to reach agreement without compromising your needs in the process.

Examples

Saying "yes" to the person but "no" to the task generally involves a conversation, rather than just a one-sentence response. However, here are some examples of how you can do so in simple situations.
"I'm sorry, I can't do that analysis this week. Can I do it for you next Tuesday after month end is complete?"
"I'm sorry, I can't take on doing this analysis on a regular basis because Alex wants me to prioritize development work. But I know Jane is working on developing her Excel skills. Would you like me to show her how to extract the data so she can take this on?"
"I could do that analysis, but I wondered what information you actually want from it. If it's the conversion rate from the advertising campaign, would one of the measures in the report that Marketing send rou

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Strategy and Environment

This post would discuss about how strategy of a company is affected by environment using example of Lehman Brothers. Lehman Brothers was a global financial service firm. Before bankruptcy in 2008, it was the largest investment firm in the USA (Aikman, 2010). Negligence of external factors is the reason behind the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.

External factors

Decline in the price of real state developed mortgage crisis in the USA. It is one of the reasons that are affected Lehman brothers, which was not predicted by the bank in advance. Due to mortgage crisis, interest rates were increased by Lehman Brothers on housing loans. This situation created difficulties for borrowers to repay the loan to the bank. Lehman Brother had not maintained healthy relationship with other banks due to the over- confidence of its CEO. Slowdown of USA economy and market share, terrorist attack, decrease in labor market, low government support, Higher Credit rates and borrowing costs etc. are the key external factors that were not properly anticipated and planned by Lehman Brothers (Richelson & Richelson, 2011).

Impact of external factors on Lehman Brothers

High credit rates and borrowing cost led to huge loss of the bank, because borrowers were enabled to repay the loan to the bank (Davies, 2010). Lack of healthy relations with other banks resulted into poor support to Lehman brothers that affected the business practices of the bank during the economic downturn. Apart from this, terrorist attack in the USA also negatively influenced the operations and market share of the bank. Due to economic slowdown of USA economy, five major independent brokers of Wall Street disappeared that further negatively affected the trading system of the bank. So, it also increased the loss of the bank. Low government support during the critical situation was another factor that affected financial policies of the bank.

Deal with external environment

To deal with the environment, bank could have developed effective risk and crisis management strategies and strong financial policies for attracting the shareholders. To deal with external environment, Lehman Brothers could have reduced interest rates on housing loan. In that condition, borrowers could have easily repaid the loan to the bank. Bank could have developed harmony in relations with others banks to reduce the adverse impact of the environment. Bank could have dealt with crisis by giving some relaxation to the borrower in repayment of the loan (Posner, 2010). Additionally, bank could have developed some contingency plans and forecasting strategies to estimate the crisis and take preventive actions to deal with external environment.

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References
Aikman, J. S. (2010). When Prime Brokers Fail: The Unheeded Risk to Hedge Funds, Banks, and the Financial Industry. USA: John Wiley and Sons.
Davies, H. (2010).The financial crisis: who is to blame?.Britain: Polity
Posner, R. A. (2010). The crisis of capitalist democracy. USA: Harvard University Press
Richelson, H. & Richelson, S. (2011). Bonds: The Unbeaten Path to Secure Investment Growth. Canada: Bloomberg Press.

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How to take control over your dream?



There is a lot of research being done in dream control, particularly in the areas of lucid dreaming and dream incubation. Lucid dreaming is a learned skill and occurs when you are dreaming, you realize you are dreaming and you are able to then control what happens in your dream -- all while you're still asleep.

Being able to control your dreams would be a very cool thing to be able to do, but it is a difficult skill that usually takes special training. It is estimated that fewer than 100,000 people in the United States have the ability to have lucid dreams.
Although lucid dreaming is mentioned throughout history, it was not until 1959 at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University that an effective technique for inducing lucid dreams was developed, and true research into the phenomenon began taking place. In 1989, Paul Tholey, a German dream researcher who had been involved in the research at that university, wrote a paper about a technique he was studying to induce lucid dreams. It was called the reflection technique, and it involved asking yourself throughout the day if you were awake or dreaming. More research has indicated the need to practice recognizing odd occurrences, ordream signs, that would be a sign that "this is a dream" rather than reality.
Stephen LaBerge of Stanford University, founder of The Lucidity Institute, Lynne Levitan and other current dream researchers have studied lucid dreaming techniques extensively. They refer to a technique similar to Tholey's reflection method that they call "reality testing." This technique and one called MILD (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams) have been among the most successful techniques for lucid dreaming.
The MILD technique involves similar reminders to the reality testing method but focuses those reminders at night rather than throughout the day and night. MILD begins with telling yourself when you go to bed that you'll remember your dreams. You then focus your attention on recognizing when you are dreaming and remembering that it is a dream. Then, you focus on reentering a recent dream and looking for clues that it is indeed a dream. You imagine what you would like to do within that dream. For example, you may want to fly, so you imagine yourself flying within that dream. You repeat these last two steps (recognizing when you're dreaming and reentering a dream) until you go to sleep. Using this technique, Dr. LaBerge has been able to have lucid dreams at will. Because this type of technique takes such mental training, however, LaBerge is now doing research using external stimuli to induce lucid dreams.
While lucid dreaming may just seem like a cool way to enter fantasy land, it also has several applications outside of recreation. According to LaBerge, for instance, lucid dreaming can help in personal development, enhancing self-confidence, overcoming nightmares, improving mental (and perhaps physical) health and facilitating creative problem solving. LaBerge also states on the Lucidity Web site:
"Lucid dreaming could provide the handicapped and other disadvantaged people with the nearest thing to fulfilling their impossible dreams: paralytics could walk again in their dreams, to say nothing of dancing and flying, and even experience emotionally satisfying erotic fantasies. Such sensorimotor practice could conceivably facilitate recovery from stroke."
Finally, lucid dreaming can function as a "world simulator." Just as a flight simulator allows people to learn to fly in a safe environment, lucid dreaming could allow people to learn to live in any imaginable world; to experience and better choose among various possible futures.


Dream Incubation

Dream incubation is learning to plant a seed for a specific dream topic to occur. For example, you might go to bed repeating to yourself that you'll dream about a presentation you have coming up or a vacation you just took. Those who believe in problem solving through dreams use this technique to direct their dreams to the specific topic.
While somewhat similar to lucid dreaming in that problems can be solved, dream incubation is simply focusing attention on a specific issue when going to sleep. Several studies have shown this method to be successful over a period of time. For example, in a study at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Diedre Barrett had her students focus on a problem before going to sleep and found that it was certainly possible to come up with novel solutions in dreams that are both personally satisfying and reasonable to an outside observer. In her studies, two-thirds of participants had dreams that addressed their chosen problem, while one-third actually came up with solutions in their dreams.

My suggestion: Undergo a deep research on lucid dreaming and dream incubation, to study various theories and take control over your dream

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All you want to know about 'Cloud Computing'



Everybody is sure that cloud computing is key to the future of IT, but people often seem unsure quite what it is. In fact, it's an umbrella term for a number of different trends, all involving the internet and its potential to simplify the way we use computers and extend their capabilities.

The "cloud" is the internet, and the term is fitting – it's large, out there somewhere, and fuzzy at the edges. Cloud computing is about putting more of your material out there and less on PCs or servers that a business runs for itself.
You can do this in many ways, but with every vendor claiming to do cloud computing in some form it has become confusing. It is worth understanding terms such as SaaS (software-as-a- service) and PaaS (platform-as a-service) so as to evaluate vendor claims. There are radical differences between the various forms of cloud computing, and they do not all offer the same benefits.
Below and in the accompanying glossary we attempt to answer common questions and explain baffling terms about this new area of computing.
Q: What's the point of cloud computing?
Reasons vary, but often include the desire to outsource the maintenance burden of servers and applications; the need to scale systems up or down on demand; the benefit of being able to access your data from anywhere with an internet connection; and the ability to replace occasional heavy expenditure on IT with regular and predictable operational expenditure.
Q: What is utility computing?
The idea that businesses should not be spending effort and money on installing and maintaining complex hardware and applications, when a specialist can supply those same services on a pay-as- you-go basis. Businesses do not generally generate their own power – utilities are bought when needed. In the same way, the argument runs, essential IT services can be managed better externally.
Q: What is software-as-a-service (SaaS)?
Pre-baked services that you access simply by navigating there in a web browser. Google Mail and Google Docs are examples of this kind of cloud computing.
Q: What is platform-as-a-service (PaaS)?
A set of lower-level services such as an operating system or computer language interpreter or web server offered by a cloud provider, on which developers can build custom applications. Microsoft Windows Azure and Google App Engine are examples of PaaS.
Q: What is infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)? 
Provision of servers or virtual servers that organisations use on a pay-as- you-go basis. Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is an example of IaaS. In practice, cloud suppliers often provide additional services alongside IaaS offerings, so the boundary between IaaS and PaaS is ill-defined.
Q: What is a rich internet application (RIA)?
Modern web browsers have fast script engines and rich graphics and plug-ins, such as Adobe Flash, to extend their capabilities. A rich internet application has applications running in the browser that have rich graphics and the kind of sophisticated user interface that at one time would only have been possible in a locally installed desktop application. The term was made popular by Adobe for applications using its Flash plug-in, but it is also sometimes used to describe advanced HTML applications.
Q: What is multi-tenancy?
Cloud-hosted applications where multiple customers share a single application, even though they only have access to their own data. Salesforce.com is an example. Multi- tenancy is the most cost-effective form of cloud computing, since the software itself is shared.
Q: What is the difference between public, private and hybrid clouds? 
Some organisations, especially larger ones, want the benefits of cloud computing but without the risks inherent in trusting their data to a third party. They can achieve this by creating a cloud-like infrastructure in their own data centre. This is called a private cloud. The public cloud refers to providers such as Amazon, Google and salesforce.com, whose shared services are available to all. A hybrid approach uses both public and private services.
Q: What is virtualisation?
Emulating computer hardware in software, so that one or more emulated computers can run simultaneously on a single physical computer. This is a boon for cloud computing: service providers can use hardware efficiently by running many virtual servers on each machine in a data centre. Sometimes virtual machines can be moved between company premises and cloud providers.
Q: Is cloud computing green?
Cloud computing goes some way towards solving a problem called under- utilisation, where servers run constantly with little computing load, wasting money and power. Service providers use virtualisation and other techniques to make full use of their hardware. The downside is that these datacentres are power-hungry, and we are using more of them as demand grows. The hope is that a new generation of more efficient super computers will make cloud computing a truly green option.
Q: What is Amazon's cloud computing platform like? 
At first glance it seems odd that an online retailer has become a major cloud computing provider. The rationale is that Amazon took techniques for massive scaling learned from its e-commerce experience and applied them to a service offered to others at commodity prices. Services include the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for virtual servers running Linux or Windows, and the Simple Storage Service (S3) for storing files in the cloud. Other services include database and payment services. It is a developer platform, not one with applications ready to run.
Q: What is Google's cloud computing platform like? 
It includes email; online documents – spreadsheet, word processor, and presentation graphics – stored on the cloud and edited in the browser; mapping services; payments; and a platform for custom applications written in one of two programming languages: Python or Java.
Q: What is Microsoft's cloud computing platform like? 
Microsoft makes most of its money from traditional desktop software, Windows and Office. Nevertheless, it has developed its own cloud platform, including free consumer services such as email, blogging and online file storage under the Windows Live brand. The platform also includes hosted versions of its business servers such as Exchange for email and SharePoint for collaboration under the BPOS (Business Productivity Online Standard Suite), and a platform for custom applications, called Windows Azure, which also offers online file storage and database services. In addition, Microsoft offers software to organisations building their own cloud platforms.
Q: What is the salesforce.com cloud computing platform like? 
The core of the platform is a multi- tenanted application for customer relationship management (CRM). It has extended this with a platform for custom applications called Force.com, which uses its own unique programming language called Apex. Most recently it has added integration with social media such as Twitter and Facebook, and the ability to run enterprise applications in Java thanks to a partnership with VMware, a specialist in virtualisation.
Q: What are the risks?
Cloud computing has real benefits, but there are also reasons for caution. Risks include loss of service if your provider has downtime or goes out of business, regulatory problems when personal data is stored internationally, security concerns when users lose control of how their data is protected, one-sided service agreements that give users little redress in the event of a calamity, and lock-in dependency on proprietary cloud applications.

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